The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-25 00:00:00

IRELAND,

DUBLIN, THURSDAY MORNING.
GALWAY ELECTION INQUIRY.
The commissioners appointed by her Majesty's
warrant to inquire into the alleged existence of cor-
rupt practices at the elections for the town of Gal-
way will proceed to execute their functions on the
29th of the present month. The object and powers
of the commission are thus defined :
"The inquiry is instituted undir the act 15th and 16th
of Victoria, c. 57, and is the first instance in which that
enactment has been applied in Ireland. For the purpose
of enabling the commissioners effectually to carry on the
investigation, they have been invested by the Legislature
with v, ry ample powers to compel the attendance of wit-
nesses and to enforce the discovery of truth. They are
empowered to require the attendance of every person
whose evidence they may deem material, and by adopt-
ing the proceedings pointed out in the statute the penalty
of imprisonment under attachment can be inflicted on the
party absent. It is also to be observed that, as these
commissions are the result of a previous inquiry before a
Parliamentary committee, the names of all persons im-
plicated in any objectionable tran;actions are known, co
that nothing is really gained by a person absenting him-
self. On the contrary, it is the interest of any person im-
plicated to come forward as a witness, as the act enables
the commissioners to protect and indemnify the witness
from all legal consequences of his acts by giving the wit-
ness a certificate that he has made a true disclosure
touching all things on which he has been examined. The
9th section of the act (omitting formal terms) provides
that every person who has been engaged in any corrupt
practices at or connected with any election, and who is
examined as a witness and gives evidence toughing such
corrupt practices before the commissioners, and who
upon such examination makes a true discovery to
the best of his knowledge touching all things on
which he is so examined, shalt be freed from all penal
aetions, forfeitures, punishments, disabilities and inca-
pacities, and all criminal prosecutions, to which he may
have been or may become liable at the suit of her Ma-
jesty or any other person ; and no person shall be ex•
cused from answering any question put by such com-
missioners on the ground th.t the answer will tend to
criminate such person. It will thus be seen that a wit-
ness, however implicated, can by giving his evidence
candidly protect himself from all evil consequences ;
whereas if he is not examined, or, being examined,
shall not deserve and obtain from the commis-
sioners a certificate, he is left open to a prose-
cution for his acts, which will inevitably be directed
by the House of Commons onZthe coming in of the
report of the commissioners. The commissioners
can also adjourn as often and as long as they choose, and
can make special reports from time to time, and report
matters especially to the Queen and House of Commons ;
so that the result is, no witness by going away can evade
the commissioners, as if he is not there at one time they
can resume the inquiry at another. The witnesses will
be allowed for their time according to the Treasury scale.
The consequence of all these provisions has been that a
number of commissions issued in England have worked
most satisfactorily, and those who told the truth have
obtained their certificates of indemnity, while those who
either die not attend, or, having attended, gave their
evidence uncandidly, and so lost the protection of the
Commissioners' certificate, have been reported to the
House of Commons, and dealt with according as their
cases deserved."
The commissioners aro Mr. J. T. Ball, Q.C.,
and L L.D., moderate Conservative (and not Mr.
John Ball, the late Under-Secretary. as erroneously
stated) ; Mr. John Leahy, and Mr. P. F. White,
barristers and Liberals.
THE IRISH SEPOYS.

One or two of the provincial organs of the Sepoys
having been again this week championing the cause
of their Indian allies, the Belfast Mercury, a
Liberal Protestant journal, and by no means
hostile to the Roman Catholic body at large, comes
to the unwelcome conclusion that the vile senti-
ments of these writers are shared by a considerable
number of the Roman Catholic population. This,
however, is an overstrained charge. Sepoy demon-
ries may, and probably do, find favour in the eyes
of a few dozen of scamps in Dublin and Tipperary,
but beyond those narrow limits there is no sympa-
thy or affection. The days of Irish treason have
long died out, and another generation at least must
arise before the wicked follies of 1848 will be tole-
rated by any " considerable number of the Roman
Catholic population." The Mercury thus puts-the
question
" Oa what other supposition can we account for the
fact that they are put forward, week atter week, by a
large portion of the exclusively Roman Catholic journals.
The proprietors of those prints have too keen a sense of
their own pecuniary interests to adopt a course otherwise
than pleasing to the great bulk of their subscribers.
W bile, therefore, such meetings as that held in Carrick-on-
Suir, and such a repudiation of Sepoyism as the Freeman
so creditably manifests, prove that there exists among
the respectable Roman Catholics a true, loyal, and manly
feeling on the subject, it is utterly impossible to shut
our eyes to the fact that among the Roman Catholics of
Ireland as a body such a feeling is not shared. When
we find journals in various counties giving expression to
the most atrocious sentiments, and professing to do so
as the representatives of true Roman Catholic feeling,
how can we help believing them as long as they are per-
mitted to exist by those support they can alone rely ?
01 late years many things have occurred to bring Roman
Catholics into disodour. Affecting to be the warm ad-
vocates of civil and religious liberty, they have proved
themselves on several memorable occasions to be the
veriest slaves of the worst description of tyranny. They
howl after an unrighteous ascendancy in this coun-
try ; they desire to destroy all liberty that is incon-
sistent with their own aggressive policy, and they
make no secret of their ardent hope that Ireland
may revolt like India—that every man, woman, and
child not of their own creed and policy may be subjected
to the sane treatment that the sepoy barbarians inflicted
on our brethren in India. There can be no mistake now
upon this subject The evidence is too clear, too nnequ -
vocal, to permit a doubt. Is it not, then, full time for
such of the Roman Catholics as do not participate in the
vile policy expressed by such miscreants, to adopt some
F ffici en t means to disassociate themselves from those who
profess to represent their opinions truly—to reflect their
eelings faithfully ?"