The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-22 00:00:00

cs Inning ritit4

£OIDON, MONDAT, JANUARY 22, 1844.

We give the following summary of the pro-
ceedings which took place in the Court of
Queen's Bench, Dublin, on Friday and Saturday.
The examination of Mr. Ross was resumed
on Friday morning. It was confined to read-
ing), according to the direction of the Solicitor-
General, copious extracts from his notes, of speeches
made at the meetings he attended at Clifden, Donny-
brook, and the Corn Exchange.
The Court rose for a short time, in the middle
of the day, after which the examination in chief
Wag continued, and did not conclude till half-
past three o'clock. his cross-examination was ex-
pected with considerable anxiety, as it was rumoured
it would be a very severe one. When Mr. HENN
rose for the purpose there was a general bustle
through the Court, as if the interest of the proceed-
ings had suddenly revived. The first questions of the
traversers' counsel were directed to ascertaining the
state of the witness's circumstances at a former period.
It was elicited that he had been insolvent, and that
he received for attending the different meetings in
Ireland 350/., with 50/. separate for the meeting at
D
onnybrook. Il~a said he was not awaro, when sent

over, of the nature of the services that would be re-
quired of him, and that he regretted having ever un-

taken them. When asked by the Counsel whether
he would have undertaken them for fifty thousand
pounds, he said he would not have undertaken them
for a very large sum. The witness seemed much ex-
hausted by the long examination, and the Court rose
at the usual hour.
At the sitting of the Court on Saturday, the
Crown called as a witness Mr. JACKSON, the Irish
correspondent of the Morning Herald. He proved
the payment of different sums of money at the meet-
ings of the Association. He read from his notes, or,
rather, memoranda, the dates of the several meetings,
the names of the traversers present, and extracts from
speeches made by them. On his cross-examination,
the testimony of this witness was completely broken
down. He admitted that his notes were some-
times made by himself, and sometimes taken
from the reporters sitting beside him, as he
admitted that he did not pretend to be a pro-
fessed reporter. The general impression produced
by his evidence was, that his communications to the

journal which he represents in Dublin—his " corres-
pondence"—consisted of whatever he could vamp up at
second hand, and, however it might suit the columns
of the Herald sometime past, it could not be admitted
as evidence in a Court of Justice.
The next witness examined was JOHN BROWN,
printer, of Nassau-street. He proved the printing of
all the documents issued by the Association—the in-
structions to the repeal wardens—the address to the
subjects of the British Crown—the arbitration no-
tices—the members' card, drawn up by Mr. O'CAL-
LAGHAN, author of the " Green Book" (of which card
the witness gave a description)—and the plan for the
renewed action of the Irish Parliament.

This witness, who is a member of the Associa-
tion, also proved the printing of several documents
and pamphlets, which the traversers look upon: as
favourable to their case.

1:p to the present stage of the proceedings the evi-
dence has done little or nothing to support the case
of the Government.

If any doubt existed, that the Irish law officers of the
Crown, had been guilty of the grossest negligence in the con-
duct of the important prosecution which now occupies the
public attention, the examination of Mr. BOND HUGHES must
have dispelled that doubt, and proved them not only guilty of
negligence, but of acts worthy of severe punishment.
With the evidence given by Mr. HUGHES as to matters af-
fecting the traversers, we shall not meddle ; that evidence was
given honestly and truthfully. But the conduct of the offi-
cers of the Crown has nothing to do with that evidence, and
is fair matter for comment. It appears that Mr. Huciies
arrived in: Dublin, for the first time in his life,
about ten -o'clock at night, with a letter for the Irish
ATTORNEY-GENERA L ; that he went to the house of Mr.
SMITH, and, not finding him at home, was sent to Mr.
BREW STER, the real director of these trials. That he was or-
dered to go to Mullaghmast, and at four o'clock the following
morning set off for that place, distant about 38 miles, unaccom-
panied by any one but his own assistant reporter. He made
no secret of the capacity in which he came, and took his notes
as a Government reporter. He subsequently attended other
meetings, and, being totally unacquainted with the parties
who were present, was obliged to rely upon casual
information as to the names of persons. At two of
those meetings, a gentleman was pointed out to him
as Mr. BARRETT. When the duty devolved upon Mr.
HUGHES, of making an affidavit as to what he had heard, and
whom he had seen, at the meetings, he swore to the presence
of Mr. BAR RETT, and upon informations granted on the affi-
davit so sworn, Mr. BARRETT and others had to put in bail.
When the affidavit came to be acted upon, it was found that the
Christian name of one of the defendants was wrongly given,
and the error was rectified. At the time of rectifying that
error, Mr. Hucires saw the real Mr. BARRETT, and he at
once told the Crown Solicitor, and his chief clerk, that he
had been misled, and that the person pointed out in his affi-
davit, was some other person, and not Mr. BAnaevr. But the
Crown Solicitor declined to rectify the affidavit, and held Mr.
BARRETT to bail, for matters which he, the Crown Solicitor,
knew to be falsely alleged against him.
Now, was there ever such mad, such reckless conduct pur-
sued, so cruel to Mr. HUGHES, so unjust to Mr. BARRETT,
and so totally opposed to honour and common honesty ? Mr.
HUGHES, a stranger to Ireland, within six hours after
his arrival, in the dead of night, sent to a " monster
meeting" almost alone, and then attending other as-
semblies, without guide and without instruction as to
the very identity of the leading characters ! That he made
only one mistake is the wonder. The Irish officials, in their
anxiety to get hold of Mr. BARRETT, appear to have mistaken
their man ; they hoped that the mistake would pass unnoticed,
and that Mr. HUGHES would not expose the truth—they did
not calculate upon its coming to the ears of the public. They
forgot the respect due to a man of character and a gentle-
man. Mr. HUGHES has vindicated his claim to both those
designations.
Let it not be forgotten that Mr. BREWSTER, the legal
adviser of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Mr KEMMIS,
the Crown Solicitor, are the persona concerned in this part of
the affair.

Next comes the conduct of the Government, with regard
to their second witness, Mr. Ross. We had hoped that the
days were gone by, when the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, should seek out implements to act the part
of spies and informers. We did not think that, in the year
18-13, a Secretary of State would dare to employ means
which brought so much disgrace upon former Govern-
ments, and rendered the acts of the Administration ob-
jects of suspicion. But we now find that it was reserved
for the renegade Whig, holding the powers of the Home De-
partment, to resort to a practice of bygone days, and seek
instruments, such as those used when PITT or CASTLEREAGH
ruled the destinies of England, to turn the reporter into the
spy—to degrade the character of the Ministry and of the
public press ; the one by finding, and the other in lending a
willing instrument, for espionage, and the betrayal of faith.
No doubt that Sir JAMES GRAHAM may attempt to justify
this conduct, by the emergency of the case, by the urgency
of the matter, and the difficulty of acquiring information.
But surely, nothing can justify the lavishing of the public
money upon an agent of Sir JAMES GRAHAM, who had
for years endeavoured to resuscitate that interest in Cum-
berland which the renegade's conduct had destroyed ;
and who, holding the character of a reporter for the press,
was all the time in the pay of Government. Nothing can
justify, the conduct of the Government, nothing can justify the
conduct of their agent ; and this affair will be a
beacon, not a precedent. And as to Mr. JACKSON, the
third witness, another Government Reporter ! ! ! em-
ployed on the Morning Herald, who had deposed to the accuracy
of his notes! taken by himself at the moment, let the following
questions and answers, speak for him :
" Mr. FITZGIBRON—WiII you now, Sir, take on yourself to
swear, on your solemn oath, that you did not copy these slips of
paper from the morning paper of the next day, and then send
them off as your own report?—To the best of my recollection
—I cannot say. I might have copied them either from the
paper, or a notetaker's slips.
" On your solemn oath will you venture to swear you did not
take all these papers from the newspapers, or from another note-
taker's slips ?

" Judge PERRIN—Come, Sir, speak up, and let:us hear yeti,
as it will save a great deal of time to do so.
" Witness—For all I can tell, I might have copied them from
the newspaper or the note-taker's slips.
" Mr.:Finc IBBON— Can you tell from which you copied themP
—I cannot tell which " !! !
The conduct of the Government in these prosecutions, from
the Secretary of State downwards to the Crown Solicitor, as
exemplified in their conduct to their two chief witnesses, de-
serves every reprobation. Before these trials began, we put
our opinion upon record as follows The stream of justice
" ought to flow in chanrels free from taint or from suspicion.
" Crown solicitors ought net to have compelled witnesses to
" swear to facts which they found out to be incorrect.
" Attorney- Generals' creatures ought not to hare wormed
themselves, under false oolours, into quarters where
" they had no right to be admitted; and Secretary of
" States' implements ought not to have disgraced the character
" of the Press, by pretending public employment, when in
" reality in Ministerial pay." Time will show whether any, or
all, of these things, have been. If they have, the shame, the
disgrace, is on the heads of the abettors and of the contrivers,
and punishment must and will follow them.
We repeat that shame and disgrace is, and will be, on the
heads of every party concerned in the getting up of these pro-
secutions, and we do hope and insist that the attentions of
Parliament will be called to every circumstance connected
with them, at the very earliest opportunity.

We earnestly entreat attention to an announcement we have
copied from the Observer of yesterday, relative to the
opening of a new chapter in the history of Custom-house
Frauds. Assuming the facts to be as stated, it would appear
that a house in the same line of business as the notorious firm
of CArinv and Co., and nearly as extensive, received notice of
legal proceedings being instituted against them, for fraudu-
,
lent practices upon the re venue, of a nature nearly similar to those
which have so recently occupied the Courts of Law. The
ease was assigned for hearing in a few days; but, on Thursday
evening last, the delinquent firm shut up their premises, after
having clandestinely sold off all their goods, and collected as
many of their outstanding debts as they could.
We should like to be informed what was the sort of " notice"
which this firm received ? Was it in the first place given or
obtained " clandestinely" (after the manner of doing business
so prevalent, lately, in a certain department of the silk trade),
in order to afford the defendants,—" for a consideration'
few days' preliminary warning of the intentions of Government?
Or was any extent in aid sued out of the Exchequer, and officers
put in possession ? Was any personal service effected on the
P ' parties If so, was bail demanded and accepted,—and to what
extent ? Or did the Commissioners of Customs civilly
write, with their compliments, to the parties implicated,
begging to express their regret that from certain disclo-
sures which had lately come to the knowledge of
the Board, the Board had been under the unpleasant necessity
of directing legal process to be serTed upon the Messrs. ---, and

suggesting that, as the Court would be moved in this case on be-
half of the Crown, it would be well for the defendants to be pre-
pared with legal aid and counsel? Preposterous as the hypo-
thesis suggested by this last question may appear, we protest
that, abstractedly speaking, there is nothing improbable in it, ,
looking to the dawdling, fencing, irresolute, shilly-shally, pur-
blind conduct of the Board of Customs throughout the whole
history of wholesale plunder of the public revenue which has
been, for years past, realised by acts of chicanery and
fraud effected in that department of the public service
over which it preside, and •f which acts, it is the universal
feeling of the nation that it ought long since to have been
cognisant. We have already complained of the disposition
evidenced in the avowed acts of the Board to screen from
punishment those in responsible stations, between whose possible
innocence of collusion and the guilt of whose absolute neglect
of duty, the Commissioners in their Report appear to imagine
that Parliament will be disposed to overlook the main question
of resulting injury to the national income. In the present in-
stance it is believed that " not a farthing will be realised to the
Crown." Yet the delinquents are described to have been not
only a very extensive silk house, but large holders of landed and
house property, and to have realised, each of them, 12,000/.
per annum by their business ! They are understood to have
invested their realised booty in the French funds !
Any case of more monstrous criminality, to say nothing of
the effrontery which winds up their career by a fraudulent sale
of stock and appropriation of outstanding credits, we have never
heard of. Out of the transactions, which could have netted
24,000/. per annum of profit or income to the two partners,
how many thousands of pounds yearly must have been diverted,
by this one house alone, from the fiscal revenue of the country
by schemes of smuggling successfully maintained on so stu-
pendous a scale ?
But this is not all. On Saturday the City was startled by the
further announcement that a " Custom-house agent," whose
legitimate business profits were not less than 5,000/. per an-
num, " had absconded, in consequence of charges connected
with the Custom-house frauds." He had been for many
years engaged in clearing " silk goods at the Custom-house,
for the principal houses at the West-end of the town."
He had long " been suspected by the authorities ;" but
very lately, only, could any tangible evidence against
him be got at. He, too, probably, has gone to invest
his money—and his person—in the French capital ! What a
school for easy fortune-making does the Custom-house ma-
nagement seem to have provided for astute rogues —not in
grain, but—silk : for silk seems the fortunate staple of smug-
gling eaterprise now-a-days. The connexion, moreover, be-
tween the gross immorality and profligacy to which the more
magnificent marts of fashion and luxury at the West-end of
the town too fatally pander, with the daring fraud and con-
spiracy of these aspirants after illegitimate and monster profits,
appears to be as intimate as that between the material of the
staple in question and the official competency of the Commis-
sioners. The Custom-house agents and warehousemen must
be as smooth,—the Custom-house officers and tide-waiters as
pliable,—and beyond all question the Board of Customs quite " as
soft"—as silk !

Accounts from Madrid to the 14th had been received. The
new municipal law it would appear met with very little oppo-
sition either in the capital or the provinces, but in case of any
serious resistance, the Government had resolved to call in the
aid of the army. The Minister of War, had given orders to
the military authorities under his orders to place the
military force at the disposal of the Political Chiefs,
whenever required by those functionaries, to subdue
any and all attempts at resistance. The application
of NARvAEz to be allowed to resign the rank of Captain-
General, had been refused. Her 'MAJESTY would hear no ex-
cuse, so the retiring and blushing youth must wear the title
against his will. The returns of the city elections had not
been made up on the 14th, but no doubt remained that all the
new members would belong to the Opposition.
The Three per Cents. were done on the 13th at 26} for the
22d of February ; the Fives at 19i at 60 days.

The French funds still continue to decline, owing, it is
said, to large sales made from day to day without any ap-
parent cause. On Thursday the Three per Cents. had fallen
nearly one per cent. within a few days. This was attributed
to a rumour that the KING was seriously indisposed, and it ap-
pears there was some ground for the report. On Tuesday his
MAJESTY had a bilious attack, but on Thursday had so far reco-
vered as to be able to receive company. Nearly ahundred persons
were received at the Tuileries in the evening. In alluding
to the KING'S illness, and the fall in the funds, the Siede says—
" The retrograde movement of public credit, in a period of
profound peace, and, as the Minister boasts, of public pros-
perity, was the object of various conjectures on the Paris
Bourse of Friday. The decline of the French funds on the
preceding day was attributed to the KING'S health; but it was
soon ascertained that this pretended indisposition was not of
any serious consequence. The true cause of the decline in
the French funds is the opinion entertained by capitalists tha
the Government will be compelled to resort to a fresh loan to-
wards the month of July. Another reason assigned on the
Bourse was the apprehension entertained that the Govern-
ment proposed to execute the great lines of railroads without
the intervention of any public Company." The illness of the
KING is the more probable cause. The Three per Cents.
on Thursday closed at 82f. 5c., while on Saturday, after was
ascertained that his MAJesiiv was quite well, they had risen
to 82f. 60c. The debate on the address in the Chamber of
Deputies continued on '1 hursday and Friday. On the latter
(lay it was confined to four Members of the Opposition, MM.
DE LASTEYRIE, GA lINIER PAGES, ,and Ducos, and M.
BILLAULT, who spoke last. He moved an amendment to sub-
stitute for the paragraph in which occurs the phrase " entente
cordiale," the following :—" In these two countries (Greece
and Spain) the natural friends of France, may the monarchy
and the liberties of the people derive new strength from their
being the more closely allied. The sincere friendship with
which your Majesty is allied to the Queen of ENGLAND, and
the accord that you announce to exist between your Govern-
ment and hers, confirm us in this hope."
In reference to Spain, M. BILLAULT said—" Could it be
supposed that England, in 18.2, would have so suddenly
changed her policy of ages with regard to Spain ? Since the
war of succession she had only sought to destroy the influence
of France in Spain : and should an English Ministry one day
resolve to renounce this line of policy, it would fall beneath the
weight of public animadversion. An Ambassador had been
sent to Spain—a man well known for his sympathy for that
country ; but an intrigue brought about lity English influence
had prevented his entering into diplomatic relations with
the Spanish Government. When the recent events in Spain
permitted France to renew her diplomatic relations with that
country, the same Ambassador should have been again sent
•
but he had been replaced by another; this was not all, the English
Ambassador at Madrid having appeared too favourable to
France, the English Cabinet had replaced him by Mr. Bur.wee,
who is known to profess the political principles of Lord PA, -
)LElLSTON—hostility to France. A concession had, in truth
been made by England to France, by consenting that the
Queen of SPAIN should marry a Neapolitan Prince ; but a
concession has also been made by France to England by an
equal participation of commercial advantages in Spain. The
difficulties, however, on that subject were well known."
M. GuzzoT, towards the close of the sitting said he in-
tended not only to apply to the Hon. Member, but to lay be.
fore the Chamber a statement of that part of the general
position of the affairs of the country. He should therefore
propose to adjourn the discussion to the next day. The debate
was accordingly adjourned.
BOURSE—PARIS, SATURDAY, JAN. 20.
First Highest Lowest Last
Price. Price. Price. Price.
French Five per Cents. 124 65... 124 85... 124 65 .. 124 85
Four per Cents 106 106 ... 106 ... 106
Threes B2 65... 82 65... 82 65.. 82 65
Bank of France.. 3280 -.3280 ...3270 ...3280
Laffitte Bank I,OOOL-1111 25 -1111 25...11 1 1 25_1111 25
5,000 E-5070 ...5075 ...5070 _5075
Belgian Bank ..... 698 75... 700 695 ... 695
Belgian Fives
1840 lo9k ... 109 k ... 109 ... 109
1842 llo* ... 110* ... 110 i ... 110}
Spanish Active . 3oi ... 30* ... 30i ... 30i
Passive ...... 5i ... ...
_5l ...

Old Deferred 12. ... 12. ... 12. ... 12
Portuguese Fives ..... 46 ... 46 ... 46 ... 46
Neapolitan
Roman losi ... 105 k .. 105 i ... 105 i