The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING TAPERS OF THIS DAT.
TIMES.—The trial at Clonmel has concluded in a
verdict of Guilty, accompanied with a most emphatic
recommendation to mercy. Everybody will feel that
both justice and mercy are satisfied by this return.
Of Mr. O'Brieu's actual guilt there could be no
serious doubt, though the splendid ability with which
his defence has been conducted did just suggest the
apprehension of a verdict, which we are sure would
have been most injurious to the prospects of Ireland.
"For many reasons," we are ready to join in the
prayer of the jury, as, indeed, we have long before
expressed in anticipation of this result. Mr. Smith
O'Brien, with some qualities that crave our compas-
sion, cannot be considered an entirely accountable
person. His enthusiasm scarcely allows him to be
conscious of his own intentions. In other words, he
hardly knows what he wants or what he means. On
a former occasion he excited the ridicule of the
nation, and even of his brother Repealers, by a piece
of childish obstinacy, without either meaning or
point. His present vagary has been of a more serious
character, but they who identify the martyr of the
coal-hole with the hero of Ballingarry will desire
for him nothing more than an entire and
final withdrawal from the excitement of political life.
All the pleas of the defence have gone to prove that
Mr. O'Brien is not capable of a real intention, and
that words and deeds which are usually held con-
clusive as to the existence of a settled determination,
in his particular case, and considering his character,
mean nothing at all except the image of some project
flickering before the mind. Mr. O'Brien had posi-
tively announced a rebellion beforehand, and invited
the people to arms with that design. How is this
met ? He had only done so for effect. It was a
mere demonstration to bring out the spirit and
strength of his party. Again, whatever exceptions
may be made to Dobbin's evidence, and even if it be
rejected altogether, it is not disputed that Mr.
O'Brien and his confederates discussed in Dublin last
summer the time, the occasion, the manner, the
armament of a projected insurrection. This how-
ever, which in a strong minded man would have im-
plied an intention, in a dilatory, vacillating, and theo-
retical character, might mean nothing more than a
dreamy anticipation of possible results. Again, Mr.
O'Brien went a tour of agitation with several plain-
spoken confederates ; he delivered himself very
strongly as to the necessity of a revolt, and also
stood by while his companions went into the pike
and rifle part of the business. All this, it is
assumed, was only an emphatic way of talking, and
did not imply a serious design. By and by Mr.
O'Brien appears on the last closing scene, surrounded
by a considerable number of men, more or less armed.
He invites them to resist the police and the troops.
These untoward appearances are easily disposed of.
As Mr. O'Brien never had any serious intention of
rebellion, much less has he now.:He is only standing
on the defensive. Before long Mr. O'Brien is found
peremptorily demanding bread for his men, and carts
and horses for the construction of barricades. The
bread he pays for, and takes very meekly a point
blank denial to his other demands. This proves that
either his resolution or his influence was not very
strong. He barricades the highway against
her Majesty's troops, but lets them through
when he had ascertained that he was not
himself the object of their march. This
incident, which looks so Parisian, is pleaded
in his favour as positively proving the ab-
sence of revolutionary designs. He writes to a min-
ing company telling them he is attempting a revolu-
tion. He did not mean what he said. He had no
such intention, though he declared that he had, and
acted as if he had. His words were a falsehood, and
his army a hoax. He meant just nothing at all by
either the one or the other. Finally, he and his
army see a body of policemen approaching. They
spontaneously attack the police, pursue them to a
house, and besiege them till beaten off. It is nothing
but self-preservation. Mr. O'Brien never had in-
tended a collision with the police. He had announced
a collision, and now to all appearance was fulfilling
his promise, but the announcement was a flourish,
and the fulfilment was an accident. Mr. O'Brien
was the victim of a runaway tongue and of the
chapter of accidents. He spoke in excitement, and
acted by force of circumstances. He said he would
rebel, but did not mean it ; he did rebel, but it was
contrary to his wishes. He procures weapons—lays
them aside, pauses, relents—is pursued by the con-
sciousness of his own ill-intention—advances mecha-
nically to his fate—falls in with his enemy, wrangles
—provokes—wounds— and in self-preservation is
obliged to complete the crime with a weapon, of
which he could, indeed, hardly say himself whether
he had it about him for the purpose or not. If all
vacillations, reserves, inconsistencies, and follies were
to be admitted in apology for crime, scarce a criminal
would be punished, and weakness would rescue its
twin brother wickedness from its doom. It is enough
for the purposes of truth and justice that the criminal
act should be: found to agree with the declared or
otherwise evident intentions of the doer. Where the
design has developed itself in preparations, and those
preparations have been actually used for the end—
where the tragedy is consistent throughout, and one
thread of intention connects the whole, that is all the
insight into the mental history of a criminal act that
any earthly tribunal can expect to obtain. The
struggles, the hesitations, and the self-deceptions of
the inward man are beyond human scrutiny.
CHRONICLE.—The first of the " state trials" is
over, and William Smith O'Brien has been convicted
of high treason by a jury of his countrymen. As,
throughout the whole period which elapsed between
the arrest of the leaders in the Irish insurrection and
the commencement of their trials, we urged the in-
expediency of committing so important an affair to a
tribunal evidently unfitted for it, so we have much
pleasure in admitting that (except as regards the pri-
mary and fundamental error to which we have alluded),
the manner in which the proceedings have been hitherto
conducted is, so far as we have the means of judging,
creditable to the Government and to its officers. We
retain our opinion that it was not fair to subject the
gentlemen of Tipperary to the dangers and tempta-
tions inseparable from the anomalous position in
which they were placed, or to put the issue of
justice upon the hazard that not one out of the
twelve men taken by chance from the panel,
would, yielding to the influence of motives which
it is easy to conceive, shrink from the performance of
his duty; nor, as we have often said, do we see that
any moral weight whatever has been gained by the
adoption of a " constitutional" course. But having
determined upon their course of action, we must say
that the Government have shown neither indiscretion
nor timidity in their subsequent proceedings, and that
the case against Smith O'Brien has been conducted
with equal judgment, fairness, and moderation. The
speech of Mr. Whiteside, on the contrary, and the line
of cross-examination adopted by himself and his fel-
low-advocates, appear to us as untoward as they have
proved unsuccessful. The fact is, that the case against
the prisoner was too strong. There was absolutely
nothing worthy of real consideration to be said for
the prisoner, except with a view to extenuate his
crime ; and the only hope which his advocutes could
entertain was that of either confusiug the jury,
by diverting their attention from the real merits
of the ¶uestion submitted to them, or by acting upon
their feelings so as to pervert their judgment. The
whole of the evidence, for example, by which Mr.
Whiteside offered to show that Lord John Russell
ind his colleagues were prepared to carry the Reform
Bill by an armed insurrection, is no more a defence
of Smith O'Brien against a charge of treason, than
evidence of dishonesty on the part of any given public
man would be a good defence for a delinquent,
caught in the act of picking pockets; and so, again,
the fact that Mr. O'Brien had often, at different
times of his life, expressed to his friends his admira-
tion for the Constitution, and his dislike of anarchy
and civil war, possesses no more value, against the
irrefragable proof that he endeavoured to subvert the
Constitution and to levy civil war, than would attach
to the testimony that the aforesaid pickpocket had
often expressed a theoretical preference for honest
ways—if he could have afforded to live by them.
When Mr. O'Brien left Dublin for the last time be-
fore the insurrection, he had no intention whatever of
appealing to arms ; and it was only when he learned
that the Habeas Corpus Act had been suspended, and
that a warrant was issued for his arrest, that he saw,
for the first time, the hopelessness of playing out the
game which he had planned. That he was a gentle-
man, a man of honour, and a lover of his country, it
would be cruel affectation to deny ; but that the jury
who convicted him have been, in every sense of the
word, justified in treating him as a rebel and a
traitor, will be equally admitted by every just and
impartial observer throughout the civilised world.
The best thing that can be said for him is, that he was
the dupe and the tool of men far worse than himself,
that he is now their scapegoat, and that, if they had
been successful, he would, in all probability, have been
their first victim.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—A most awful Wound Cured
by Holloway's Ointment and Pills.—George Morris, a
mechanic, of Newport, was for months rendered totully
unable to work, or even move about the house, from
the effects of a dreadful abscess which had formed in his
thigh, and which had been repeatedly lanced, under the
advice of various surgeons; ultimately he was admitted
into the hospital, from whence after the best medical
skill had been tried, he was dismissed issed as incurable. Yet,
to the astonishment of all, this dreadful bad wound was
so.undly healed by the use of Holloway's Ointment and
lls, a supply of which was kindly presented to him by
by
the minister of his parish. Sold all druggists, and
at Professor Holloway's establishment, 244, Strand,
London.

BRISTOL SUGAR MARKET, OCT. 6.—The sales
since our last have been considerable, both for pan and
scale purposes, and prices may be quoted fully 6d. per
cwt. higher for all descriptions. The refined market is
also dear, with but few goods offering. Rum very dull.
—Bristol Mercury.