The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-13 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, June 12.
The Special Commission for Limerick was opened
yesterday by Chief Justice Monahan, Mr. Justice
Keogh, and Mr. Justice George, who had arrived on
the previous day by the mail train from Dublin. A
pilot engine had preceded the train, and armed
police were placed along the wholeline for their pro-
tection. The judges were received upon the platform
by A.
JldoehrnmwanhiQteu,i
:01 iuvnatny High Sheriff ; and , J.P., city High Sheriff ;
Mr
Alder-
man Tait, D.L., Mayor ; the civic officers in their
cocked hats and livery being in attendance. Their
lordships having entered their carriages, they pro-
ceeded to their lodgings in George's-street, escorted
by a troop of the 6th Carahineers and mounted con-
stabulary. An immense crowd assembled in the
vicinity of the station, but there was nothing to in-
dicate the state of public feeling. The Attorney-
General and the Solicitor-General arrived in the
same train with their lordships. A large number of
persons collected in the vicinity of the Court-house
cheered the prisoners as they were being conveyed
from the county gaol. The court, the internal ar-
rangements of which arc of the very worst possible
character, was densely crowded, several ladies being
accommodated in the sikle galleries. Mr. Brown, who
was wounded at Kiltnallock, was present in court.
The Deputy Clerk of the Crown called over the
names of the grand jury as follows :—Sir 1). V.
Roche, foreman ; Lord Adare, Hon. John Massy,
Sir W. H. Barrington, John Lowe, Stephen E. De
Vere, E. Croker, 1.1. White, Joseph Gubbins,
Henry Lyons, John Franks, John Boucher, Henry
Mannsell, John Howley, George Fosbeary, Jas. C.
Cooper, Dawson L. Westropp, W. G. Gubbins, John
Browne, Richard Ellis, Gerard Blennerbasset, Neil
M'Donald. Mr. Justice Keogh having communi-
cated with the Attorney-General, informed the
grand jury that bills for treason-felony would be
sent up, instead of those already before them for
high treason. They were substantially the same,
the only distinction being that they did not
require two witnesses to an overt act, or one to two
separate overt acts. Bills were then sent up, and
the Grand Jury retired. The City Court was ad-
journed to Friday, the Grand Jury to be in attend-
ance when summoned by the High Sheriff.
The following counsel appeared for the Crown:--
The Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, Mr.
Sergeant Barry, Sir Colman O'Loghlen, Mr. Long-
field, Q.C., Mr. De Moleyns, Hon. David Plunkett,
and Mr. Chatnney. For the prisoners :—Mr. Coffey,
Q.C., Mr. O'Loghlen, Mr. A. Cleary, and Mr.
Michael Joseph Barry.

At a quarter past one o'clock the Grand Jury re-
turned into court, having found true bills for trea-
son-felony against Patrick Walsh, Daniel Bradley,
Patrick R. Driver, Denis Hennessy, John Sheehan,
Maurice Fitzgibbon, Thomas Daly, Robert Cant-
low, Michael Noonan, Denis Connors, Michael
Riordan, and William O'Sullivan.

Mr. Coffey said he was instructed that it had
always been the custom in the county of Limerick
to arrange the panel alphabetically. That had not
been done in this instance, and he would therefore
put in a challenge to the array.
Mr. O'Loghlen said, on the part of the prisoner
Patrick Walshe, lie challenged the array of the 247
jurors whose names appeared on the panel; 130 were
Roman Catholics, and the remaining 117 Protest-
ants and other persuasions. In the arrangement of
these names, among the first 120 there were 104
Protestants and but 16 Roman Catholics. On this
ground he would hand in a challenge to the array.
The Court then adjourned for a short time to allow
the Attorney-General to consider the challenge.
Upon returning into court, the Attorney-General
said he would put in a plea that the panel was well,
equally, and impartially arrayed by the High Sheriff.
Issue having been taken by the counsel for the
defence, the following gentlemen were sworn as
triers :—Sir David Vandeleur Roche, Lord Adare,
and the Hon. John Massy.
Mr. Coffey then proceeded to address the triers
in support of the challenge.
John O'Donnell was sworn and examined by
Mr. O'Loghlen.—He stated that. he was a solicitor.
He had heard the list of jurors read out by the
Clerk of the Crown. He had a copy of it in his
hand, and could tell the religions persuasions of all
Mr. O'Loghlen—Could you tell the proportion of
the gentlemen on it.
Protestants and Roman Catholics in the first 120

names? •
The Attorney-General objected to the question.
The religion of the jurors was not the issue to be
tried ; it was whether the panel had been fairly and
impartially arrayed.
T
the first 130 names
there are 104 who are Protestants, the remainder
being Roman oiLordships
h continued—aolilioow e
l
odntehoe question to be put.
Eto the
whom
was
sick,
an-
other
hxea
on the Grand Jury, and another out of the
country.
Richard Furnell, examined by Mr. Coffey—He
w
ry. The prisoners were
a nd prepared the panel.
It was
was sra
for nd alphabetically.
)'ero
Patrick Walsbe, Daniel Bradley, and Patrick
Riordan were given in charge to a jury upon an in-
dictmentalleged to have been officers in command, under
Colonel Dunne, in the attack
sub-sheriff
arranged
e t
rel ss on-f
Upon the police-
station at Kilmallock, and to have been otherwise
actively engaged in promulgating the Fenian con-
spiracy. The Attorney-General stated the case,
after which the Court adjourned.
Lord Crofton and Sir John Benson sat in the
City Hall, yesterday, as arbitrators in the claim of
Mr. Tighe against the Waterworks Committee, for
£25,000, for damages sustained through the con-
struction of the Vartry reservoir, close to his pro-
perty .at -Rosanna- &feral civil engineers were
exiimined, and the general tendency of their evi-
dence was to the effect that the construction of the
reservoir was deficient in several important points,
' and that in case of any accident the claimant's pro-
perty would inevitably be swept away.
The Lords Justices have directed that the Town
Commissioners' Act shall be immediately carried
into effect in the township of New Kilmainham near
Dublin, and that nine commissioners be appointed.