The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-03 00:00:00

TITHE AFFRAY AT RATHCORMAC.

The Cork Reporter, in reply to some observations of the
Cork Constitution, justifying the conduct of those by whom the
deaths were caused at Rathcormac, publishes the following

OPINION OF MR. O'CONNELL.

" The case is of the utmost importance as relates to the
question of the legal nature of the homicide perpetrated at
Gurtroe.

" The statement is made in so candid (as it appears to me)
a form, that I give the opinion in the confidence of its not be-
ing exaggerated against the magistrates or the armed force.
" I am, upon their statement, distinctly of opinion that the
homicide did, in point of law, amount to murder, and that if
the facts of the statement should, upon a trial of the parties
charged, be proved, it will be the duty of the judge to state,
that those facts constitute a case of wilful murder.

" My reasons are these—the small road-way leading to the
Widow Ryan's house, called in the statement a bohreen, ap-
pears to be a private way, abutting at her house, and leading,
I presume, as its other abuttal, to and on some public high-
way. She would, therefore, have a right to keep a gate or
fence across that highway, and no person coming to distrain
could have any right to force open or to remove any gate or
fence she put on it. The act, therefore, of forcing the gate
or fence, whatever it was, in that private way, in order to get
at corn or other property, to distrain, was a trespass ; the
Magistrates who ordered such forcing, and the armed force
which engaged therein, were trespassers ; and, on the other
hand, it was quite lawful for the Widow Ryan, with her ser-
vants and assistants, to resist that trespass ; so, on the other
hand, these trespassers having resisted some of those who re-
sisted their trespass, are, in point of law, upon these facts,
guilty, in my distinct opinion, of murder, and punishable
as such.

" The next reason is this--her HAGGARD, according to this
statement, was enclosed—now, no enclosure can either be
brohen.open or thrown down ; neither can any door be forced
open for the purpose of making a distress. The armed force,
therefore, appears on this statement to be guilty of a double
trespass—first, in forcing the gate or fence of the private way,
in order to break into the enclosed HAGGARD ; and, secondly,
in breaking into, or attempting to break into that enclosure to
distrain. They are thus doubly trespassers ; and, of course,
the Widow Ryan, and her servants and assistants, had a right
to resist them. The trespassers having in that struggle killed
several, it follows, in my opinion, beyond any doubt, upon
this statement, that such killing amounted, in point of law, to
murder.

" This opinion in part depends on the fact that the bohreen
was a private way, not repaired by presentment, and leading
to the house of the Widow Ryan, for her purposes, and those
of other persons having houses near her's. If the fact be so,
the legal consequences necessarily follow that the killing was
murder. If, however, the fact be, that the bohreen was a
public highway for all the King's subjects, still it would only
take one reason for considering the killing murder out of the
case ; but it would leave in full force the other, and in itself
a decisive, reason for calling the killing murder—namely, that
the haggard was an inclosure, and that the distrainers attempted
and intended to break in, and that it was in order to commit,
or in committing, such trespass that the killing took place.
" If, therefore, the defence be such as is stated, the case is
clear, and a frightful murder, in point of law and of fact, has
been committed.

" The reading of the Riot Act in such a case cannot make
any difference. Magistrates intent upon committing a trespass,
cannot avail themselves of the Riot Act in aid of their own
trespass, or to punish the legal resistance to such trespass;
and certainly no quantity of resistance can, in such a case as
this, be deemed excessive, when a large force were in aid of
the trespassers, armed with the most deadly weapons, and the
persons resisting such trespass were only armed with sticks
arid wattles.

" For references the agents will look to the law as fully sta-
ted in note (H) to Thomas' edit. of Coke. Litt., at page 260
of the 3d vol. ; and also see page 10 of the same vol., quoting
from Coke. Litt. 161, a., where you fill find—" that the land-
lord cannot break open gates, or break down enclosures, to
make a distress—but if he do, the law goes the length of deem-
ing it an actual disseisin." The law is therefore quite clear,
and the defence, as stated, namely, being resisted in forcing
the private way, or resisted in forcing the inclosed haggard, is
not available, and, in point of law a horrid scene of murder
has been committed.

DANIEL O'CONNELL.
" Merrion-square, Dec. 27, 1834."

LATE SANGUINARY TITHE AFFRAY AT RATH-
CORMAc.—On Monday (the seventh day of this inquest) no
additional evidence of importance was brought forward. The
inquest was still further adjourned.
ORIENTAL MEMOIRS.—WC are requested to state
that this work, from the pen of James Forbes, Esq., the pub-
lication of which, from unavoidable circumstances, has been so
long delayed, will appear on Thursday next. It comprises a
narrative of seventeen years' residence in India, and is edited
by the author's daughter, the Countess de Montalembert.
* A quarto volume of illustrations, consisting of Seventy-
one Views and Subjects of Natural History (many of them
beautifully coloured), may likewise be baci of the publisher,
Mr. Bentley, New Burlington-street.

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