The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-09 00:00:00

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27i 6 71

THE TRIAL OF FENIAN PRISONERS

THE SPECIAL COMMISSION.
DUBLIN, Monday.
The Special Commission for the trial of the
Fenian prisoners was opened at eleven o'clock to-
day in the Court-house, Greek-street, by Chief
Justice Whiteside, Justice Fitzgerald, and Baron
Deasy.
The judges were attended by the Lord Mayor's
lacum tenens, and went to the court in state.
The court was crowded, but few besides the 600
special jurors and professional gentlemen and the
friends of the judges were admitted.
The passages and the hall were guarded by
policemen.
After the. Royal commission had been read, the
grand jury were called and sworn.
The Chief Justice in addressing them said :
" Gentlemen,—The commission you have just hoard
read, under the authority of which we open this
court, is large in its extent, and almost unlimited in
its terms. It includes within its language all treasons
felonies, and other serious crimes. In addition,
there is an authority conferred by it to deliver the
gaols of your county of the prisoners confined
therein. This latter authority is that usually exercised
by the judges who preside here periodically in rota-
tion, and my learned brethren would in their turn,
have naturally performed that duty at this period of
the year. But, gentlemen, in consequence of painful
events which have happened in your county, it has
been deemed advisable by her Majesty's Government
to add to the number of judges usually presiding under
the ordinary commission in this court. It is scarcely
two months since a criminal commission held its
sittings in your county—and yet your prisons are
crowded with persons accused—it is true of peculiar
crimes. The crimes to which I have adverted were
not those ordinarily perpetrated by revengeful or
wicked persons upon their fellowmen—crimes which
might be somewhat palliated if committed by indi-
viduals sunk in misery or hardened in despair. On
the contrary, these crimes were— it is no doubt an
alarming statement—committed by individuals not
reduced by want or driven by necessity, but by per-
sons who might be well termed conspirators against
the laws and constitution of their country. The
Habeas Corpus Act was, consequent on these law-
less proceedings, suspended. A great constitutional
safeguard—the preservative of civil freedom—has
been for a time set aside in order to save the State
from imminent peril. Notwithstanding the mea-
sures I have enumerated, the prisons of Dublin,
county and city, are crowded with persons charged
with having committed crimes against the State,
and no less than 200 prisoners are specified in the
calendar as amenable to justice. It is under these
grave circumstances we are ass2mbled here to-day.
Gentlemen, the present aspect of affairs may be con-
sidered by some to be depressing, and the retro-
spect gloomy, but good men never despair of their
country, and when we remember that justice was
done in the cases to which a general reference has
been made, and that the ordinary law of the land is
still felt to be sufficient to grapple with the evil, there
is reason to hope that it may, at least, be abated, if
not entirely eradicated from our social system.
Moreover, it should be recollected that if for years
past systematic efforts have been directed to poison
the minds of the young of our country with disaffec-
tion and disloyalty—if the very liberty which our free
constitution secures to every man has been perfidi-
ously turned against the constitution itself, it cannot
be expected that the seeds of mischief sown broadcast
through the land should not have produced bitter
fruits. Gentlemen, my especial duty on the present
occasion is to describe for your guidarce the nature
and character of the offences which will probably be
brought under your consideration, and to explain the
law applicable to such cases respectively. I refer,
not to offenders of whom as yet I know nothing, but
to offences ; Ido not enter into details, but only
offer a general exposition of the law. I have been
informed that it is highly probable bills which your
findings may turn into indictments for high treason
may be sent up to you by the Attorney-General on
behalf of her Majesty the Queen. But as the crime
of treason is the highest known to the law, and the
punishment dreadful, it becomes the more necessary
to understand in what it consists, how it has been
defined by the sages
it is to be established. (Flaying til the w, ae nx
lad
ab
iyn
ewd h
taht e profstao
tute passed in the reign of Kin°. Edward 111., with
respect to treason, the
ference between the offCenhci
esef Juicehigh sthroeawseedntahneddif
of-
treason felony.) The charge against the principal
persons to be tried is, or probably will be, not of in-
tending to levy war, but for having actually levied
war against the Queen. There is a terrible sim-
plicity in the charge of levying war against the
Queen. To the nature and proof of this specific
charge you must lend your attention, and if it really
took place, the evidence to prove the fact ought to
be simple and direct. Where the object has not
been perpetrated, combinations and conspiracies to
carry it into effect would or might properly be
proved ; but when the war has been levied, the in-
quiry is into the fact, and quo aninzo the fact was
done. You will hear the circumstances or overt
acts of this levying of war upon the Queen. The
overt acts are the matters to be considered by
you in finding the bills, and they are
the matters to which the accused must

address their defence. What, then, does the
law declare to be a levying of war upon the Queen ?
llis lordship quoted Forster, sec. 4, p. 211, and con-
tinued :—An assembly of men armed and arrayed in
a warlike manner with any treasonable purpose is a
levying of war, although no blow be struck and no
shot be fired. Of course if that be treason, which it
is, much more must a conflict between the Queen's
forces, military or civil, and insurgents be treason. It
is not necessary that the parties conducting such a

movementshould possess or exhibit the pomp or the
splendour of military array. A tumul tuo us multitude
armed with crowbars and pickaxes attacking the
Queen's forces might be guilty, and have been found

guilty, of levying war against the Queen. If, there-
fore, evidence should be submitted to you of such an
attack made upon the civil forces of the State—a

police barrack in your county—you have to inquire
diligently—did the attack spring from a sudden

squabble, a local quarrel, or was the movement
general and public in its object and design ?

The French Imperial screw yacht Prince Jerome,
which has been cruising for several days iu the Solent
with his Imperial Highness Prince Napoleon on
board, steamed through Spithead for the Channel on
her return to the coast of France on Saturday. On
arriving abreast of the works for the marine forts
on the Norman and Horse Shoals, the yacht was
hove to, and Prince Napoleon, embarking in the
yacht's steam cutter, made a long inspection of the
annular stonework which will form the foundations
of the iron superstructures, and the topmost con-
cluded portion of which now stands considerably
above high-water level. Models of these important
works are about to be forwarded to the Great Paris
Exhibition.