The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-12 00:00:00

TUE SADLEIR FRAUDS.

Mr. NAPIER rose to put a question to the Attor-
ney-General for Ireland a-, to the obligations imposed
upon a Privy Councillor in Ireland by force of the oath
administered on his appointment, which be was induced
to do in consequence of the remarks made on a previous
occasion by the learned Attorney-General for Ireland,
in imputing to the Master of the Rolls in Ireland that
be had acted contrary to his oath as a Progy Coun-
cillor in Ireland, in permitting the escape of
James Sadleir. The hon. and learned gentleman then
entered, at great length, into what had been done in
Ireland with reference to the gigantic frauds of the
Sadleirs, and the great ability that had been displayed
by the Master of the Rolls in unravelling their frauds,
and proceeded to defend the learned judge from the un-
just imputations he said that had been cast upon him
by the learned Attorney-General, and which were with-
out the slightest foundation. He called upon that
learned gentleman to say what part of the oath the
learned judge had violated with reference to the escape
of J tines Sadleir. The subject required investigation
—the country demanded it, and he was determined
it should take place. (Hear. hear.)
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL for IRELAND com-
plained of the conduct of the bon. member in bringing on
this question by piecemeal, and of his calling on him to
answer for acts committed before he (the Attorney-Ge-
neral) came into office. He bad within half an hour
received a telegraphic communication from Ireland
stating that the court of justice had been deseciated by
the proceedings adopted there. He could not act on
that, but he had instituted inquiries, and from what he
could learn from the message the proceedings were so
extraordinary that it would be the duty of the
Government to call for an explanation in the
usual and proper manner. He denied that lie
bad made any charges against the Master of the
Rolls in his judicial character, or that of a Privy
Councillor. All he had said was, that if James Sadleir
had escaped it was in consequence of the alarm excited
by the statements of the Master of the Rolls, whose
conduct was irregular. He (the Attorney-General for
Treland) was prepared to state in his character as lawyer
that if there was any sustainable charge against the par-
ties it could only be based upon that remarkable letter of
John Sadleir's, which did not come to light until the 13th
of June. Well then, Master Murphy—of whom it might
be said, without any disparagement to the Master of the
Rolls, that he was an able and distinguished lawyer—de-
cided that there had been no fraud ; and on the case be-
ing carried before the Master of the Rolls, that learned
gentleman observed, not that the Government, but the
parties before him, would involve themselves in the re-
sponsibility of conniving at a conspiracy, if they shrunk
from the duty of bringing the case under the notice of the
law officers of the Crown, with a view to a Crown prose-
cution if it was thought necessary. Observe, it was not
the Government but the parties before him whom the
Master of the Rolls said would be guilty of a dereliction

of duty. He was explaining the law, and he told them the
situation in which they were placed, but be tbat as it might,
if the Government bad been guilty of a dereliction of duty,
or had connived at the escape of a criminal, he, as the
really responsible party, should be the last man to shrink
from meeting the charge. On the 6th of June he acci-
_ _

dentally sawi the judgment of the Master of the Rails in
the Freeman's Journal, which bad been sent to him in

connection with another matter, in which the corpora-
tion of Dublin was concerned; and' a question was

shortly afterwards put to him on the subjeei by the hon.
member for Dundalk. Some time afterwards the hon.
and learned member for Enniskillen interpellated him
upon it, and then the hon. member for Mayo, which eli-
cited that observation from him that had led to all this
discussion. By this latter question it was intended to im-
pute to the Government a connivance in the escape of
Mr. James Sadleir, but he met the imputation by stating
that the Government had done all in their power to put
the law in force, and if the supposed criminal had left the
country to evade justice, he must have done so inconse-
. . . _

finenceofthe remarks which had fallen from the Master

of the Rolls. He further stated that he thought the
observations of the learned judge were irregular, and
tbat the proper come for him to have pursued
would either have been to make an order directing
that the evidence should be laid before the law officers

of the Crown, or, in his capacity of a privy councillor,
to have informed the Lord Lieutenant that a crime had
been committed, and pointed out the neeesiity fur fur-
ther investigation. (Hear.) Speaking from the bench,
the learned judge bad made use of observations so much
tinged with a political hue that they were calculated to
attract the attention, not only of the individual charged
with the fraud, but of the public at large ; and if James
Sadleir had not left the country before, could anything
be conceived more calculated to frighten him away ?
(Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Fitzgerald) stated what he had
said on the previous occasion as a vague inference,
but he had now private information, received within
the last two hours, which he believed would establish
beyond all controversy, that within a short time after
the remarkable language held by the Master of the
Rills Mr. Sadleir left the country, and had not since
returned. What, therefore, he (Mr. Fitzgerald) had
stated was the truth ; and if the right hon. gentleman
opposite would bring forward the matter in any tangible
shape he would undertake to prove it. (Cheers.) The
hon. and gallant member (Col. French) had on a pre-
vious night expressed an opinion that the language he
(Mr. Fitzgerald) used was disrespectful to the Master of
the Rolls ; and he (Mr. Fitzgerald) thought it right to
express his full concurrence in the eulogiurn which the
gallant gentleman passed upon the learned judge. But
a couple of days afterwards the Maeaer of the Rolls
made the following observations, which he read from a
written paper in his court. "He had observed from
the public joarnals that the Attorney-General for Ire-
land had thought fit to renew the attacks which he lied
previously made upon him. The Attorney General was
much mistaken if he supposed that he (the Master of the
Rolls) was about to rest quietly under such imputations.
He would not do any such thing, but, on the contrary,
would send forward by this night's post documents
which would tend to impeach the course that had been
adopted by the Attorney-General in this case." He
(Mr. Fitzgerald) presumed that that was the document
the right hon. gentleman he din his hand. The Master
of the Rolls proceeded to say, " He would also be pre-
pared on Friday to bring forward a charge against that
officer which was of a most serious nature, and strongly
calculated to affect his character and his office as Attor-
ney-General—a charge which he (the Master of the
Roll) was prepared to substantiate before a committee
of the House of Commons or any other tril t ial—a
charge the effects of which neither the sophistry nor the
mystification of the Attorney-General would avail him
in escaping from." (Loud cheers.) Would the right
heti. gentleman (Mr. Napier) after that venture to say
that the Master of the Rolls had not turned his court
into a political arena ? (Loud Ministerial cheers.) But
the matter did not rest there. He (Mr. Fitzgerald) had
just re,ceivad a telegraphic message, on which be could
not of course act, and which indeed was in part scarcely
intelligible to him ; but it the statements contained in it
were well founded—if it truly represented what had taken
place in the Rells Court that morning—then a grosser
outrage upon justice had seldom been enacted, as the
house would admit when he stated that the politicel
observations of the Master were responded to by loud
cheering from a crowded court. In consequence of that
message, he (Mr. Fitzgerald) communicated with the
Home Secretary ; and he entirely concurred with his
right hon. friend both in deprecating any premature dis-
cue-don, aed :n t 'inking that the matter ought to have
beau brought for -yard a, a substantive motion. The
right hon. gentleman might surely have treated him in
that high and honourable spirit which ought to cha-
racterise a person in dealing with a political opponent,
and might, after the appeal which had been made to
him, have stayed his hand. the right hon, gentleman
knew whether the paper io his possession was not a tran-
script of the personal charges which the Master of the
Rolls had made against him that morning. When he (Mr.
Fitzgerald) spoke of personal charges he did not of course
mean charges affecing his moral conduct—he hoped he
stood above that—but the right hon. gentleman knew
whether the telegraphic message was correct, in st sting
that the Master of the Rolls had charged him, as a
public officer, with a gross dereliction of duty, a id with
having connived at the escape of a criminal. He (Mr.
Fitzgerald) challenged the right hon .gentlemsn to rise
in his place and to make any charge personal, political,
or otherwise, against him. (Cheers.) Let the right hcn.
gentleman only put his charge in a shape which could be
met, or on which the house could torra a judgment, and
let him bring at tahraidt
hmeomsbeanut,idorboonguAitleorpidreapya,roardotno
the Rolls Court was available for
tamahlnieeyet thdpeiartye. e:evic(e(Cu'l ethinoeieirsi'n) The right hon. gentleman said that
of James :Sadleir ; but of what did
that evidence consist ? It comprised 150 affidavits,
which were upon the files of the court. They had been
made use of, but they did not become available till the
23th of June, when the Master delivered judgment.
It was the greatest mistake possible to suppose that the
frauds which had been perpetrated by James Sad-
lair could possitly be made the subject of a prosecution.
It was very lamentable, but such was the state of
the law, that a director might with impunity publish
a report, and misrepresent the balance. In the present
case, however, the remarkable letter which had been
discoycred would enable them to proceed against James