The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LON 1, ON, FIIIOA Y El' ENING, MAY 3, 1867.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, May 2.
The seventh day of the trial of Burke and Doran
for high treason closed with their conviction, and
with the sentence of death pronounced against
them. The court opened yesterday morning at 10
o'clock. The two prisoners were placed at the bar,
and the Lord Chief Justice Whiteside commenced
his charge to the jury. It lasted more than five
hours, its gnat length being caused by the fact that
he read nearly the whole of the evidence given in
the case. Referring to the approvers, his lordship
said he knew nothing more lamentable than the ex-
hibition afforded them on the table by the witness
Keogh—a tailor, receiving good wages, who spent
the Sabbath night in sharpening pikes and drilling,
for the purpose of overthrowing the Government of
the country. The Chief Justice believed that no
more mischievous man appeared in the conspiracy
than the witness Massy ; he seemed to possess no
moral principle whatever, because he deliberately
stated twice that be entered into the conspiracy with
all his heart.

At 20 minutes to 3 o'clock the jury retired to
consider their verdict. They came into court twice
to ask questions on some parts of the evidence.
about the charge
g the death of the
s
Queen—a crime which they thought the prisoners
Someagai n stof the t hperimsofneel felt
oaf de
compass
ffimcpua
881 t
had no intention of committing. When the
jury
retired Mr. Justice Fitzgerald and Baron Deasy
resumed their places on the bench, and Captain
M'Afferty was put forward and arraigned for high
treason. Mr. Butt asked for a postponement, that
a communication might be made to the American
Minister, as the prisoner is a natural•born citizen
of the United States. But as he was charged
with offences committed in this country, and as
all foreigners living under the protection of our
laws are bound to obey them, and must abide the
consequences, like other people, the Court would
not grant the postponement. The panel was again
called over, and after a great deal of challeng-
ing on the part of the prisoner's counsel, a jury
was sworn. A painful scene was now witnessed.
The court was greatly crowded, and one of the
jury-boxes was filled with ladies, who had been
brought by their friends, barristers, grand jurors,
&c., to witness the proceedings—to see the Chief
Justice, perhaps, put on the black cap, and pro-
nounce sentence of death, and to hear the prisoners
make their speeches. But Mr. Ormsby, the sub-
sheriff, wade his appearance among them, and inti-
mated that they must make way for the second jury.
Imploring looks and earnest remonstrances told
how unwelcome was the visit, and how cruel the
demand was felt to be ; but the sheriff was inexor-
able, and the ladies had to depart, like Irish tenants
evicted, with no alternative but emigration. The
Attorney-General had proceeded some way in his
address to the jury in the c Ise of M'Afferty when,
amid the most eager and breathless attention, the
first jury came in with their verdict.
There were some moments of painful suspense
while the jurors answered to their names, till, the
Clerk of the Crown pronounced the fatal word
" Guilty."
" Clerk of the Crown—You say that Thomas
Burke, otherwise Thomas F. Burke, and Patrick
Doran are guilty on the first, second, third, and
fourth counts of the indictment. You also add—
' Although compelled, in the discharge of our duty,
to find a verdict of guilty against both prisoners,
we wish to recommend Patrick Doran to the favour-
able consideration of the Court, inasmuch as it does
not appear from the evidence that he was either so
long or so actively engaged as the other prisoner in
promoting the object of the treasonable conspiracy.'"
The three judges then retired for a few minutes.
During their absence solemn silence reigned in the
court. When they returned, Mr. Smartt said :
" Thomas F. Burke and Patrick Doran, you were

heretofore at this Special Commission indicted for
the; crime of high treason, and arraigned on that
charge, and on that arraignment you put yourself
on God and your country, and that country has
found you guilty. What have you to say why sen-
tence of death and execution should not be pro-
nounced upon you according to law ?"

The prisoner Burke said
" My Lords,—lt is not my intention to occupy
much of your time in answer to the question why
the sentence of the Court should not be passed upon
me, but .1 may, with your permission, review a tittle
of the evidence that has been brought against me.
The first evidence that I would speak of is that of
Sub-Inspector Kelly, who had a conversation with
me in Clontnel, Tipperary, lie states that he
asked me this—How was my friend,
I m
d,or
awdheatanasblovuert
amnydsad,
friend,i Mr. Stephens,and that 6
He was the most idolised man that ever
brand
as bee
in,,
was or would be in America.' Here, standing on
the brink of
my grave,int,hle
bpndesen that e f th
the Al-
mightylefouasnt perjurydever-living Grod
that ever man gave utterance to.
No such conversation ever occurred. The name of
Stephens was not mentioned. I h l I. shall
pass from
that and then touch on the evidence of Brett. Ile
states that I assisted in distributing the bread to the
parties in the fort, and that I staid with him in the
waggon or cart. This is also false. I was not in
the field at the time. I was not there when the
bread was being distributed. I came in afterwards.
Both of these assertions have been made, and sub-
mit... Jed to the men in whose hands my life rested, as
evidence made on oath by these men, made solely
and purely for the purpose of giving my body to an
untimely grave. There are many points, my lords,
that have been sworn to here to prove
my compli-
city in a great many acts that it has been alleged I
took part in. It is not my desire now to give utter-
ance to one word, fully conscious of my honour as
a man, which has never been impugned—fully
con-
scious that I can go into my grave with a name and
character unsullied. I can only say that parties
were attracted by a desire either for their aggran-
disement or to save their paltry miserable souls,
and they have pandered to the appetites—if 1
might so speak—of justice, and my life shall
pay the furfeit. Fully convinced and satisfied
with the righteousness of my every act in con-
nexion with this the late revolutionary movement
in Ireland, I have nothing to recall—nothing that
I would undo—nothing that I feel that the
blush of shame should mantle my brow, for my con-
duet and career, both here as a private person, as a
citizen, and in America, if you like, as a soldier.
Even in this, my I feel
hour of trial,the conscious-
ness of having lived an honest man, and I will die
proudly, believing that if I have given my little ail
to give freedom or li
berty_to the land of my birth,
I have done only that
which every Irishman and
every man whose soul throbs with the feeling of
liberty should do.
•
My lords, I should scarcely—l
feel I should not
mention the name of Massy,—l
feel I should not
that traitor, whoa •
Pollute my lips with the name of
e illegitimacy has been proven
here—a man whose name is not known, and who I
deny
Confederate
tbelraantke everarm,y ... Him I shall let rest. 1
wore the star of a colonel in
th
shall pass him by, wishing him,
poet, 'May the grass • from
deny him shelter, in the words of the
wither his feet, the wood
grave, the sun his light, and Heaven his God.' Let
the earth a home, the ashes a
Massy remember that from this day forth he carries
with him, as my able and eloquent counsel, Mr.
Dowse has stated, a serpent that will gnaw his con-
science ; he will carry it about with him in his
breast, a
living hell, from which he can never be
separated. I,
my lords, have no desire for the name
of a martyr. I ask not the death of a martyr ; but
if it is the will of that Almighty and Omnipotent
God that devotion for the land skill be tested on
the scaffold, I atn
the rights of willing there to die in defence of
man to free government—the rights of
an oppressed people to throw off the yoke of thral-
dom. I am an Irishman by birth, an American by
adoption, b,T, nature a lover of freedom, and au enemy
to that Power that holds my native land in the bonds
of tyranny. It has been so often admitted that the
oppressed have the right to throw off the yoke of op-
pression, even by
English statesmen, that I deem it
unnecessary to advert to that fact in a British court
of justice. Ireland's children are not, never were, and
never willbe submissive or willing slaves, and solong
as England's flag covers one inch of soil just so long
will they,believing it to bea Divine right—solong will
they conspire, imagine, And devise wow to htirl

it from power, and erect in its stead the glorious
structure of self-government. Before I go any
further I have one important duty that I wish to
dispose of. To my learned, talented, and eloquent
counsel I offer them that poor gift, the thanks, the
sincere and heartfelt thanks, of an honest man. I
offer them, too, in the name of America, the thanks
of the Irish people. I know that I here—without
a friend, without a relative in fact, 3,000 miles away
from my family--I know that lam not forgotten
there. The great and generous Irish heart of
America to-day feels for, to-day sympthizes with,
and does not forget the man who is willing to tread
the scaffold—aye, defiantly, proudly conscious of no
wrong—in defence of American principle, in defence
of liberty. I now to Messrs. Butt, Dowse, and
O'Loghlen, and Mr. Curran and the other counsel,
and to my very able solicitor, Mr. Lawless, retur❑
to them, indivi.lually and collectively, my sincere
and heartfelt thanks. I shall now, my Lords, as no
doubt you will suggest to me the propriety of doing,
turn my attention to the world beyond the grave.
I shall now look only to that home where sorrows
arc at an end, where joy is eternal. I shall hope
and pray that freedom may yet dawn on this poor
down-trodden country. It is my hope, it is my
prayer, and the last words I shall utter will be a
prayer to God for forgiveness, and a prayer for
poor old Ireland. Now, my Lords, in relation to
the other person, Corydon, I will make a few re-
marks. Perhaps before Igo to Corydon I should
say this. Much has been spoken on this table of
Colonel Kelly, and of the meetings held at his
quarters or lodgings in London. I desire to state
that I never knew where Colonel Kelly's lodgings
were. I never knew where he lived in London until
I heard the informer Massy announce it on the
table. I never attended meetings at Colonel
Kelly's, and there are a hundred other statments
that have been made on oath before your Lordships
and to you, gentlemen of the jury, of which I
solemnly now declare as a man—that those state-
ments have been totally unfounded ; that they
have been false from beginning to end. In rela-
tion to the small paper that was introduced here, and
as brought against me as evidence, and as being
found on my parson, I desire to say that paper was
not taken on my person. I know no person whose
name is on that paper. O'Byrne, of Dublin, or
those other delegates that you heard of, I never
saw nor never met. That paper has been put in
there for some purpose. I can swear positively it
is not in my handwriting. I can also swear I never
saw it, and yet it is used in evidence against me.
Is this justice ? Is this right ? Is this manly ? I
am willing if I have transgressed the laws to suffer
the punishment, but I am opposed to this system of
trumping up a case to throw away the life of a
human being. True, I ask for no mercy. With
my present emaciated frame, my constitution some-
what shattered, it is better that my life should be
brought to an end than to drag out a miserable ex-
istence in the prison pens of Portland. Thus it is,
my Lord, I accept the verdict. Of course, my ac-
ceptance of it is unnecessary. I am satisfied with
it, and now I shall close. True it is there are
many feelings which agitate me at this moment.
In fact, these few disconnected remarks can give no
idea of what I desire to say to the Court. I have
ties to bind me to life and society as strong as any

man in this court. I have a family I love as much
as any man in this court, but I can remember the
blessing received from an aged mother's lips as I
left her for the last time. She said, speaking as the
Spartan mother did, Go, my boy; return either
with your shield or on it.' This consoles me. This
gives me heart. I submit to my doom, and I hope
that God will forgive me my past sins. I hope,
too, that inasmuch as He has for 700 years pre-
served Ireland, notwithstanding all the tyranny to
which she has been subjected, a separate and dis-
tinct nationality, lie will also assist her to retrieve
her fallen fortunes, and to arise in her beauty and
might, the sister of Columbia, the peer of any ra-
tion in the world."
The prisoner Doran said :

"My lord, I have not got much to say. I could
not follow in the same strain of eloquence that my
countryman here has expressed himself, but also
with him am consigned to an early grave—cut off
in the vigour of manhood, by falsehood sworn
there—false as God is true. in rel ttion to Sheri-

den, I may say that he sat there on that table, and
with a smile on his countenance he swore that I com-
manded the riflemen ; that, in other words, I acted
as an aide-de-canr! or subaltern officer under Lennon
—whoever Lennon is, for I don't know. He also
stated that I demanded the surrender of the barrack
at Glencullen in the name of the Irish Republic.
There are men convenient to Sheridan at present
who could give another account of that, but they
were not called on the table to prove. He (Sheridan)
is a man I never saw nor knew before. I forgive
them all now, as I hope God will forgive me. All
I have to say is that I return my heartfelt thanks to
the able and learned counsel who defended me, and
also to Mr. Lawless, my solicitor."
The Lord Chief Justice, in passing the sentence
of the Court on the prisoners, said
" Thomas Burke and Patrick Doran, after a pro-
tracted and careful investigation of your respective
cases by a jury whose patience was unwearied and
unbroken, you have been found guilty, and you are
called upon now to receive the last sentence of the
law for the highest crime known to the law—that of
high treason against the glen, your lawful Sove-
reign. You have had every advantage in the de-
fences which have been attempted on your behalf,
and your respective cases have received fall and close
investigation from the jury and the Court. A ver-
dict of guilty has been recorded against you, and
that verdict, we feel bound to say, was fully war-
ranted by the evidence. If this jury could have
conscientiously acquitted you, or either of you, I
have no doubt they woul I gladly have done so ; but
conscientious men, acting under the solemn obliga-
tion of an oath, could give no other verdict than
that which they have pronounced. Tile crime of
murder is justly reprobated, because it involves the
loss of at least one life, but yet the mischief may
be confined to the sufferer, his family, and friends.
But those who engage in high treason, who con-
spire to overthrow the Givernment of the country,
and to depose the Q teen in order to set up a
Republic, attack not an individual, but the whole
fabric of societyand all the established institutions of
the country. An attempt t, effect such an object
leads necessarily to bloodshed, civil war, and destruc-
tion of property and life upon a great scale. The
success of the design may be revolution, anarchy,
and ruin. You, Patrick Doran, seemed to have
engaged, unfortunately for yourself, in this insur-
rection not, as it seems to US, under the pressure of
distress, or from any other reason that we have been
able to discover than from a desire to promote a
conspiracy which is the worst which, perhaps, has
ever tormented or afflicted this country. You have
been unfortunately concerned in the attacks made
on the constables in this country in order to plun-
der their arms, the better to prosecute the purpose
of the conspiracy, and a few brave men, to escape
suffocation, have been obliged to surrender to what
was termed the Irish Republic.' Even a week's
SUCCCB3 of your desperate undertaking would cause
mischief to the whole country, including loss of life
which no man can estimate. The peaceful pursuits
of industry may have been forsaken by you for a
career in a conspiracy ending in open insurrection ;
and for this crime of levying war upon your Sove-
reign you are now liable to suffer. The jury have
handed in this paper ceder the supposition, I pre-
sume, that Judges in cases of High Treason have
power by law to change or alter the sentence which
the law has prescribed for this offence. It should

L:. known to you that we have no power. When
the Government think fit to prosecute for High
'Treason the Judges are divested of all discretion iu
apportioning the sentence. Therefore, notwith-
standing the respect we feel for the opinion of the
jury, the awful sentence of the law we cannot
change. All that is in our power we will do, and
that is to transmit the recommendation of the jury
to the Government of the country—to that Sove-
reign against whose authority, I am bound to say,
you rashly plunged into open insurrection. What
the effect of the representation of the jury may be it
is not for me to say. That depends upon the opinion
of the Executive Government, over which we have
no control i but I may say that I myself would not

be willing to interfere with the effect or force of that
recommendation which the jury have thought fit to
give. The sentence of the law must be pronounced
upon you, and as you yourself rightly observed you are
liable to be cut off in your youth for this crime. I
trust that your fate may operate as a warning to
all your companions and fellow-subjects, and that
your example may teach them that the law, though
it may be evaded and baffled for a time, is yet
strong enough to pursue and punish all attempts to
overthrow the Constitution by force of arms, and
that those who engage in treasonable conspiracies,
ending in open insurrection, may expect at one time
or other to expiate their crime by au ignominious
death. I have but to say that all we can do in re-
gard to you will be done ; but I warn you not to
calculate too heedlessly upon the effect of that re-
commendation. As for you, Thomas Burke, you.
appear to us to have been a ringleader in this
treasonable design from the beginning. Ex-
perienced, as it is proved, in military affairs, you
brought your knowledge and skill to the further-
ance of the conspiracy, in which (as I collect from
your observations) you seem to glory. You have
been active in Liverpool, London, America, and
Ireland in accomplishing your purpose, and, I may
say, that you have exhibited no hesitation and no
remorse. You have been the Head Centre in the
district of Manhattan. Your name is on the list
of officers who were to conduct the insurrection,
and the district of Tipperary was assigned to your
command ; and if I did not observe, as I might
have done, upon certain documents found in your
possession, it was because I did not wish to diminish
your chances of life. The sth of March was fixed
on for the outbreak, and in the proclamation of
your directors an appeal was made to the workmen
of England to assist in this insurrection. You
made complaint of the statements of Massy and
Corydon, but the description given of your conduct
and speeches by your associates leaves no doubt of
the existence of the conspiracy, and of your guilty
participation in this great evil of treason. The
documents found upon your person, especially
the Fenian oath, proved to have been in your pos-
session by the soldier, who I do not believe would
state a word that is untrue to injure you upon this
solemn occasion—these documents prove your com-
plicity in the entire project of insurrection, and
leave no doubt of your guilt. You have been en-
gaged in red-handed rebellion against the Queen,
and for these treasons your are intelligent enough
to know that you have forfeited your life. All the
indulgence that we hare in our power to grant we
do grant, and that is, to postpone the day as long
as we can for the awful penalty of the law which
your doomed to suffer, in order to afford to each of
you time for prayer and repentance, and for seek-
ing mercy from your Maker—from the Saviour
who is all-mighty to save. Nothing now remains
for me but to perform the sad duty imposed on me
by the law, and that duty is to pronounce the sen-
tence of the law. The sentence is (his lordship
here assumed the black cap) that you and each of
you shall be taken from the place where you now
stand to the place whence you came, and on Wed-
nesday, the 29th day of this month, you be taken
on a hurdle from that place to the place of execu-
tion, and that there you and each of you be hanged
by the neck until you be dead ; and that after-
wards the heAd of each of you shall be severed from
his body, and the body of each of you divided into
four quarters, and disposed of as her Majesty and
her advisers shall think fit ; and the Lord God
have mercy on your souls."
His Lordship was much affected during the deli-
very of the sentence.
The Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
Mr. Justice Keogh, and Mr. Justice George went to
Cork yesterday to preside at the Special Commis-
sion which is to open there in the county court-house
at 11 o'clock to-day. The county grand jury will
then be sworn and charged by Chief Justice
Monahan. The bills of indictment against the pri-
soners will be sent before them, and as soon as they
shall have been disposed of the usual ten-day notice
of trial will be served on such prisoners as true bills
shall have been found against. As
,the prisoners
confined in the city gaol are nearly all chargel with
offences committed in the county, it is not improbable
they will be dealt with ia the county tour t. As soon
.is the grand jury shall have disposed of the bills the
.Judges will adjourn to Limerick, where they will
open the commission for the city and county, swear-
ing in the grand jury and sending the bills before
them as in Cork. The bills having been dealt with
and notice of trial served on the prisoners, their
Lordships will return to Cork, and, the notice of
trial having expired, will probably commence the
trials on the 15th or 16th. There are 63 names on
the calendar of persons returned for trial at the
Cork Special Commission, but these include the
Macroom murder cases and a few others not directly
connected with the recent Fenia.o outbreak. It is
impossible to say at present how many will be tried
on the capital charge of high treason, but there
seems no doubt that the vast majority will be in-
dicted under the Whiteboy Act for appearing in
arms. A fourth of the whole number, perhaps,
may have to answer the more serious charge.

Railway and other Companies.

LONDON AND NORTII-WESTERN.
The adjourned special general meeting of this
company was held yesterday at the Euston station,
but as the business for which it was convened was
not ready, the meeting was further adjourned until
Saturday, the 18th inst , at the same place, at noon
RIGA AND DLINABURG.
The traffic receipts on this company's line from
the Ist of January to the 31st of March amounted
to 220,633 roubles, or £29,417. The average re-
ceipts in the month of ',March were £294 per day,
against £223 per day iu March, 1866, showing an
increase of £7l per day.

.•••••...........

SMYRNA AND CASSABA.
The half-yearly meeting of this company yeas
held on Tuesday at the office, Old Jewry ; Mr.
Larking in the chair.

Mr. Cape, the secretary, read the report, which
stated that from the 7th of October, 1866, to the
14th of April last the weekly traffic receipts ave-
raged £1,167, and the receipts per mile per week
£l9 28. 6d., showing a weekly increase. The line
had been taken by the company on the Ist of
January last, and was under the management of
Mr. Price pending definitive arrangements with the
company. The commissioner of the Turkish Go-
vernment had signed the certificate for the payment
of the balance due to the company on 4c:count of the
guaranteed interest for the first year ending 31st of
December last. The stations, line, and rolling stock
were reported by the engineer to be in good order.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said the camel drivers were gradually find-
ing it impossible to compete with the railway, some
of them were bringing goods to the company's sta-
tions, and it was believed that the camel owners
would find it more profitable to bring the Produce
from the interior to the railway stations than to
carry it the whole way to Smyrna. The traffic was
improving, and as the profit of working increased
there would be so much less to be paid by the Go-
vernment to the company under the guarantee of
£40,000 a year. IR was glad to say that the
Turkish Government looked favourably on railway
undertakings for the development of traffic, and he
thought their undertaking, from what he knew of
the country through which th,lir line passed, was in
a fair way of arriving at the satisfactory state which
they had anticipated.
A conversation ensued, in the course of which it
was stated that £30,000 a year would pay the inte-
rest on debenture,&c., and leave £lO,OOO for dividend
on the ordinary capital. The 2 mount of the Govern-
ment certificate to the end of the year was £ll,OOO.
If the traffic on the line earned a net profit on the
working of £25,000 a year the Government would
have to pay the difference, only £15,000, under the
guarantee of £40,000 a year. The traffic receipts for
the three months ending March 31st last amounted
to £14,037, and the expenses to £8,315, leaving a
net balance of £5,722, or an average of £22,800 a
year for the first three months, which were not the
best for traffic. The total cost of the railway would
be about £BOO,OOO for the 61 miles of line. The
all preference
guarantee would enable them to pay

~.~

charges, and leave something more than 2 per cent.
for the ordinary capital. The country had suffered
from two bad seasons, and it was not likely they
would have another bad season for some time to
come. It was believed that an extension of about
30 miles would double the present traffic.
The report was adopted, and Mr. J. Ball, the re-
tiring auditor, was re-elected.

The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman and directors.