The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-01 00:00:00

rtiE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 1, 1844.

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THE IRISH STATE TRIALS.
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
CHRONlCLE.—Yesterday the Lord Chancellor, after a
rather prolonged consultation with Sir James Graham, com-
municated to the judges who had assembled, we believe, to
arrange the Circuits, that it would be necessary to postpone
them, as their Lordships' assistance would be required in the
hearing of the writ of error, in the case of the Queen against
O'Connell and others. The,argument will be heard with the
least possible delay. It will be seen from our report of the
proceedings in the Irish Court of Queen's Bench, that, in re-
fusing the application of Mr. Moore, that the sentence should
not be carried into effect uutil after the writ. of error was
heard, the judges intimated their regret that they had no
power to comply with their application. They all expressed
their sense of the very great hardship to which the traversers
would be subjected, should they be found to have a good case
in the writ of error, and yet have undergone a portion of the
punishment. Mr. Justice Burton, in delivering his opinion,
said, "He felt a considerable degree of anxiety about the
case. He concurred in opinion with the Learned Chief-
Justice, that the motion could not be granted ; but he
thought something might be done with equal justice to all
parties. It would be a source of great uneasiness to his
mind if the Court sentenced parties to imprisonment—that
the punishment was inflicted—and that afterwards it would
be found that such sentence was illegal and improper."
Although the account brought by our express stated that
Mr. O'Connell was in the custody of the Sheriff, yet we can-
not believe that the Crown will insist upon their right to
send him to gaol pending a writ of error. This would be the
climax of their revengeful injustice.
HERALD.—The curtain has at length dropped upon the
long and tedious drama of the Irish State Trials. On Thurs-
day the conspirators, hunted through all their shifts and
doubli ads, received the judgment of the Court : Mr. O'Connell
to be imprisoned fur. twelve months, to pay a fine of 2,0001.,
and to give security in 10,000/. to keep the peace for seven
years; the six remaining traversers to be each imprisoned
for nine months, each to pay a fine of 501. and to give
security in 2,0001. to keep the peace. The delivering of the
judgment caused some shouting, in which a few Roman Ca-
tholic members of the junior bar disgracefully distinguished
themselves ; but the scene has been, we are assured, prodi-
giously exaggerated, in order to produce an effect in this
country. The majority of the reporters in Dublin are, in
fact, Repealers, by whatever journals they may be em-
ployed; because, without a supposed bias to the party of the
seditious, they could hardly have access to the Association
meetings, the great scene of their labours. As part of the
contrivance to cheat and alarm the Parliament with -a false
notion of his power, O'Connell was penning a long
pacific address to the Irish people at the very mo-
ment when the Romanist barristers were rehearsing
the scene which the Repealer reporters were to mag-
nifY, in order to excite, if not the reality, the semblance
at least of that disaffection from which the old in-
cendiary was pretending to dissuade. To pass by all these
paltry frauds, however, let us congratulate our fellow-sub-
jects that the law has been at length honourably vindicated
—that the insolent defiers of the authority of the law have
been exposed in their weakness and their falsehood—and
that, for the first time in her history, Ireland has seen the
Royal authority asserted by the ordinary constitutional
means. As to the penalties imposed upon the convicted con-
spirators, they are, in all the instances, light compared with
the practice in similar cases, but with respect to Mr. O'Con-
nell ridiculously light, in respect to his crimes; nevertheless,
the judgments are, in our estimate, heavy enough ; so dis-
proportionately heavy as to six of the parties, compared
with the great offender, that one could almost wish those
six more lightly punished, if only to mark the difference
between them and their chief. Surely, if the misled son,
the enthusiast Mr. Duffy, poor Mr. Steele, or the other
three, deserve each nine months of imprisonment, nine
years . were too little for the veteran incendiary who
deceived them, and millions beside them, with his pre-
tended knowledge of law, and his unceasing falsehood spoken
II
and written. It is very true that many considerations justify
a shorter imprisonment of Mr. O'Connell than his crimes
would seem to warrant. The man is old—a year more or
less, which to a young man seems little, is to an old man an
important section of his life. Again, he is ruined as a public
man. Could lie be let loose to-morrow without creating a
suspicion that lie owed his freedom to the fears of the Go-
vernment, he might be let loose under proper recognisances
without the least danger of mischief. In the third place,
even he has reason to complain, if not of the cheat of the
Whigs who petted and feted him while pursuing the course
that has consigned him to a dungeon, at least of the cheats
of Fortune, who has deprived him of the protection of his
Whig accomplices and servants. Looking to the whole
matter, we own that we should not wish a day added to his
imprisonment, or a shilling to his fine—and with respect to
the others, we certainly shall not grieve if the Crown find a
pretext for a little relaxing their sentence. But in the hands
of the Irish Attorney-General, a man as gentle in his nature
as he is energetical and firm, they are perfectly safe.
POST.—This sentence we believe no man, who is not pre-
judiced by party feelings, will consider excessive. With
respect to the prisoners themselves it cannot be denied that
their punishment is a fit retribution for the course they have
so pertinaciously pursued. The effect of the sentence upon
the public mind is, however, the most important view to be
taken of it. It must convince the misguided people of Ire-
land that there is a power in the law stronger than that
which Mr. O'Connell has arrogated to himself during a long
series of years. It must show to the imitators and parasites
of the agitator that the passions of the ignorant are not to be
inflamed, the Constitution threatened, nor the public peace,
endangered with impunity. It must give assurance to the
loyal and well-disposed that the Government of the country,
though long suffering to an extent that furnished good ground
for apprehension. has not forgotten that it has its duties as well
as its rights. Before the Court had pronounced its sentence we
abstained from saying a word that could excite . any preju-
dice against the prisoners. Now, however, when their fate is
known, we may venture to call attention—as proof of the
animus of the principal conspirator—to his conduct after the
sentence was passed. This old man's reverence fur the law
was exhibited in his deliberate assertion to the judges that
justice had not been.done to him. Assuredly, if ever a man
had all the advantages which the forms of law can give, that
man is Mr. O'Connell; he was found guilty, after a trial of
unusual length, by a jury remarkable for its patient attention
to the evidence ; he was assisted by the highest legal talent ;
every technical objection urged on his behalf was discussed
without let or hindrance; and he now receives a sentence far
more lenient than it was in the power of the Court to inflict.
Yet he complains of injustice. If he could still mix in society
here, he would find the universal opinion to be, that he has
been too indulgently treated.
ADVERTISER.—The drama which has been so long per-
forming in Dublin has at length reached its close. The end
is appalling. Mr. O'Connell was sentenced on Thursday
afternoon to twelve months' imprisonment, a fine of 2,0001.,
and to find sureties to the extent of 10,000/. to keep the peace
for seven years ! The scene which took place in the Court of
Queen's Bench immediately before and subsequent to the
passing of the frightfully severe sentence on Mr. O'Connell
has never, we believe, had its parallel in any court of law.
In anticipation of the sentence which was in reserve for Mr.
O'Connell, the whole of the counsel in a crowded Court rose
and received him with a loud burst of applause the moment
he, presented himself. So unexpected and remarkable a
demonstration of the feelings of the bar, is said to have made,
as it could not fail to make, a deep impression on Mr. O'Con-
nell. When sentence was pronounced, he leaned over the
bar, and said, in a most significant and impressive
tone :—" I think it right to 'remind the Court, that in
consequence of some of the remarks which have been
made, I and all the other traversers have made solemn
affidavits, in which we deny that we entered into any
vile conspiracy ; and with great deference to the
Court, I am under the painful conviction that justice
has not been done to us." All present seemed to respond to
the truth of the observation, that justice had not been done
to Mr. O'Connell. That feeling is not limited to the Courts
of Dublin; it is not confined to Ireland. It pervades the
entire 'country from one extremity to the other. Twelve
months' imprisonment looks, we hesitate not to say, very like
the result of vindictiveness somewhere. A year's incarcera-
tion to a man of Mr. O'Connell's full habit of body, and at
his advanced age, is equal to three times the term in the
case of persons of hardy constitution, who have not passed
the prime of life. But apart from the personal view of the
question as affecting Mr. O'Connell, the country will be
astounded at the amount of sureties required for his after-
wards keeping the peace, and at the period for which he is
to be bound over to keep the peace. lAre have no right, and
certainly we have no disposition, to arraign the purity with
which justice is administered in the Courts of Dublin, or
anywhere else; but it were useless to disguise the fact, that
the universal impression in London is—and that impres-
sion will be universal throughout the kingdom—that a
political purpose is sought to be served by the pecuniary part
of the sentence. The enormous sum of 10,0004 as a secu-
rity that Mr. O'Connell will keep the peace ! And for the
period of seven years, too ! IVe question if any civilised
country, in modern times, could furnish an instance of an
equally severe sentence being passed on a political offender.
People will say—whether rightly or not is not for us to de-
cide—that the object sought to be accomplished by exacting
these heavy sureties, and binding him over to keep the peace
for so protracted a period, is not only to crush the repeal agi-
tation, but to shut Mr. O'Connell's mouth for ever. But we
are afraid to trust ourselves in the expression of all that we
feel on this affair. The whole matter must be fully discussed
in Parliament, where a latitude of expression is allowed
which we journalists dare not employ. We shall be greatly
in error if Sir R. Peel do not, ere long, discover that this ter-
mination of the State prosecutions is the most untoward
affair that has yet happened to his Ministry. It will not
surprise us much should the event prove, that in instituting
these prosecutions, he constructed a wall against which to
dash his Government in pieces. In the meantime, if the
public peace in Ireland be preserved, when the appalling sen-
tence becomes generally known in that country, the Premier
will have Mr. O'Connell, not himself, to thank for it. .
TIMES—At last sentence is pronounced on Mr. O'Connell
and his friends, and in substance it is not probably very
much beside what the world expected. If there is any fault
to be found with the judgment, it is with the expediency of
a fine. It is a punishment, not of the arch-criminal, but of I

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
ARCHES' COURT, May 31.
THE OFFICE OF THE JUDGE PROMOTED BY TITCIIMARSII

AGAINST CHAP3IAN.
Sir H. JENNER Fusr gave sentence in this case, which was
argued in Hilary term last. It was a proceeding under the
Church Discipline Act, in which the office of the judge was
promoted against the Rev. W. Herbert Chapman, rector of
Basingbourn, in the county of Cambridge and diocese of Ely,
for refusing to read the burial service over the corpse of the
infant daughter of two parishioners, named Rundall, who
were of the class of Protestant Dissenters called Independents,
after due notice given to him for that purpose. The articles
charging the offence had been admitted, and a defensive alle-
gation was offered in reply thereto, the substance of which
was, that the baptism which the child had received at the
hands of a minister of the Independents, being in fact here-
tical and schismatic, was invalid and null ; consequently,
that the child was unbaptised, and as such was not entitled
to interment with the services of the Church, under the rubric
of the Church of England. The admission of this allegation
was opposed, and the decision of the Court as to its admissi-
bility has stood over (owing to the indisposition of the judge)
till this day. The Learned Judge observed, that the validity
of lay baptism had been determined in this Court and also by
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of
Mastin V. Escott ; but a distinction was taken between that
case and the present. In the former case nothing had tuned
on the question of heresy and schism, but only on the want
of holy orders in the person administering the rite :
whereas, in this case that question was distinctly raised, it
being averred that the baptism was heretical, the person who
administered the rite being an heretical person. But, although
there had been no absolute decision upon the point
tin v. Escott," the point not having been raised in that case,
and Courts not going beyond the questions before them, yet
a great part of the argument in that case turned upon the
question whether heretical or schismatical baptism was valid,
or not; and he had uo doubt that the same principle applied
to both cases, and that whether the baptism had been per-
formed by an heretical person or by a layman, though irregu-
lar, was valid, and did not require that the rite should be re
peated. Every one of the authorities stated that such bap-
tism was not to be repeated; it was therefore valid, and,
if so, the child could not be said to be unbaptised. The
only doubt he had was, whether he should not admit the
allegation in order to have the question more formally
argued, and that the party might carry the case by ap-
peal to a superior court. But there was a mode by which
he could effect this object; although he should reject the
allegation, he would, if required, give the party leave to
appeal. The Learned Judge then went more minutely
into the grounds of his decision, but (owing to his late
indisposition) in so low and indistinct a tone, that it was
with great difficulty we could hear many of his sentences,
The main principle was, that if, as had been admitted, bap-
tism by a layman was valid in itself, he could not understand
wherein consisted the difference as respected the validity of
the rite between baptism by a layman and by a heretic or
schismatic. Both were irregular. but both were valid, and,
in the words of the rubric, the person was " lawfully and
sufficiently baptised." It had been contended that there was
a deficiency in the rite, and that deficiency might have been
afterwards supplied, had the party lived and appeared before
the bishop for confirmation; but the want of confirmation
did not disqualify this infant, any more than one baptised by
a person in holy orders, from having the burial service read
over it. Some reliance had been placed upon the argument
that the excommunication ipso facto worked at once, with-
out sentence, a disqualification ; but the Learned Judge
showed, from authorities and upon principle, that such ex-
communication could not attach till there had been a decla-
ratory sentence ; and even then all civil disqualification and
incapacity v hatsoever had been taken away by statute. Upon
the whole, he was of opinion to reject the allegation, but he
should allow the case to stand until next court-day, for the
party to apply, if he thought fit, for leave to appeal.
TUE OFFICE OF THE JUDGE PROMOTED BY BURDER AGAINST
lIODGSON.

Sir H. JENNER FUST likewise gave judgment in this case,
which was a question as to the admission of the articles in a
case of office promoted by the secretary of the Bishop of
Salisbury against the Rev. Charles Henry Hodgson, chaplain
of the county gaol of Wilts, charged with unseemly fami-
liarities with a convict under sentence of transportation. He
held other ecclesiastical preferment, and the effect of this
proceeding was his suspension and deprivation. The objec-
tion to the admission of the articles was, that this Court had
not jurisdiction to inquire into the alleged offence, which was
cognizable at common law, nor to deprive before conviction.
The Learned Judge, however, held that the objection was
not founded ; that this Court was entitled to entertain such a
proceeding against a clerk for the purpose of suspension and
deprivation, and it did not appear from the articles that the
defendant was accused of any crime cognizable by the crimi-
nal law. The present proceeding was of a civil nature, not to
punish the party (though deprivation might entail a punish.
ment), but to remove a scandal, for it would be a lamentable
thing if those who were under the care of this Rev. Gentle-
man were compelled 4o receive Ake sacrament or spiritual
consolation at his hatids whilst theseleports were in circula-
tion. He should admit:; the articles, except one, which
pleaded the inquiry xis OR by
,the justices.
- •
MIDDLESE GENERAL SESSIONS.
(Before Mr. Sergeant and a Bench of Magistrates.)
THE WEST-END COitING-lIOUSES.—On Friday John Har-
low appealed againsVa.4nviction of J. H. Maltby, Esq , and
William Cauty and Znseph Evert, agiqnst the conviction of
John Hardwick, Esq., for keeping cothmon gaming-houses in
the parish of St. James, Westminster.
Mr. Bodkin, with Mr. Chambers, appeared for the prosecu-
tion ; and Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Wilkins for the defendants,
whose houses, it will be remembered, were entered by the
police a short time since, and a number of persons fined at the
Marlborough-street Police-court, in consequence of gaming
implements having been found therein.
Mr. BODKIN observed, upon the cases being called on, that
after the decision in the Court of Queen's Bench, that this
Court had no power to determine appeals except at Quarter-
sessions, the decision of the Bench would go for nought, for
want of jurisdiction.
Mr. CLARKSON intimated that he was quite prepared to
proceed, and should readily meet the Crown on the merits of
the cases, if his Learned Friend thought fit to let the judg-
ment prevail for the present session ; it was to him a matter
of perfect indifference, but as the defendants, with their wit-
nesses, had been brought there through an oversight on
the rt of the Clerk to the convicting Magistrate s, he
(Mr. C palarkson) thought the defendants ought to be paid
their costs.
The Learned CirAmmax made no order as to costs, and,
after some discussion, the cases were ordered to stand over
until the 12th of July.

,
his dupes. It cannot be for a moment supposed that Mr. SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY.
O'Connell *ill pay. the 2,0001. Whether by a special I managed the affairs of the Company.
- I and the Directors for the able manner in which they had
subscription or by an increased " rent," it will, of course be A meeting of the Proprietors of the above Company was held .
unanimously. . .
Mr..EDMONDS seconded the motion, which was carried
, on Thursday at the London-bridge terminus, for transacting
The CHAIRMAN returned thanks, and the meeting broke up.
levied by the priesthood on the peasantry. Plectuntur
Achivi-the repeaters will pay for it with an interest of cent- 1 the general business of the Company, and for the election of .
per cent. We prefer a penalty which is " not transferrable." ' two Directors, who retired by rotation.
\Vhatever is to be borne, let the person of the delinquent bear Mr. BAXENDALE was in the chair.
it; and if any allege the somewhat ignoble expediency of at The advertisement by which the meeting had been con-
tacking the Association through its purse, we answer that vened having been read,
those think more meanly than we do of the enthusiasm Mr. E. Cardwell, M.P., and Gen. Hodgson, the two retiring
of the Irish peasantry who believe that a delusion, ill- Directors, were unanimously re-elected.
grounded and unchristian, but too really national, A very full statement of accounts was then laid before
can be drawn out of them with their shillings and pence, or the Proprietors. It appeared from the " statement of -re-
Viet they can be starved into anything but a still more un- ceipts and expenditure to the Ist of April, 1844," that
mitigable animosity. So much for the sentence itself, which on the capital account the receipts to the Ist of October,
is an important reality. Some of its circumstances, how- 1843, were 3,274,646/. 4s. ; and for the half-year eluting Ist
ever, are rather absurd. High among these rank Mr. O'Con- April, 126,8221. Bs. 9d. ; making a total of 3,401,4681.135. 3d.
nell's proclamation and Mr. Justice Burton's tears. Mr. The expenditure to the Ist of October, 1843, was
O'Connell's game is clear enough, and has been so fur some 2,615,282/. 14s. 11d. ; and for the half-year ending the Ist
time. Clever manoeuvre,rs are apt to be fond of the profit- of April, 354,8531. 19s. 101 ; together 2,970,136/. 14s. 9d. ;
able position of mediator-they like to have it established that the funded investment to pay the Brighton Railway
that none but themselves can moderate their party-to per- Company was 326,1371. 2s. 3d. ; making a total of
suede the world that they alone stand between it and con- 3,296,273/ 17s. ; leaving a balance of 105,194/. 16s. 3d.
fusion-that they alone are responsible for no consequences- From the "statement of revenue-account for. ;the half-
that through their agency all concessions must he negotiated year ending 31st March, 1844," the expenditure was shown
-and that to their management (though chargeable with to be 52,745/. 15s. 7d., and the receipts 79,576/. 3s. ; giving
none of the punishable excesses of their party) is to be re- a balance of 26,8301. 7s. sd. on the half-year. The " state-
ferred the credit of any season or symptom of forbearance. Of went of receipts and expenditure, from .lit October, 1843,
this convenient position Mr. O'Connell, with an effron- to 31st March, 1844," on account of Folkestone harbour,
tery only surpaesed by the prince of mediators, our old showed the receipts to be 3,622/. 3s. Bd., and the 'expendi-
enemy, Akbar Khan, has shown himself very ambitious, Lure 1,3811.35. Bd., giving a balance thereforeof 2,2411. 2s. Id.
ever since the defiance which he hurled at the English Go- The following is the "profit and loss account for the half-
vernment has been met by a military occupation of his year ending 31st March, 1844 :"-Amount paid. for interest
country, a suppression of his seditious meetings, and api oe on loans to sth January, 18,6361. Os. 7d. ; dues chargeable
Y on tonnage of steam- vessels and passengers to and from
secution of himself and his co-ringleaders. But his anxiet
rather outruns his judgment. He is in too great a hurry to Boulogne, 1,7211. Os. 3d. ; balance, 19,223/. 10s., snaking a
be magnified. Mr. O'Connell is but a private gentleman, total of 39,5804 11s. Bd. On the creditor side-Balance
Member of a constitutional Parliament, and enjoying remark- from last half-year, 12,750/. 4s. 3d. ; ditto on traffic to 31st
able popularity with his countrymen, but not yet a Czar of March, 26,830/. 7s. sd. • together, 39,5801. 1 ls. Bd. By
Russia ; and, under such circumstances, number one may be balance brought down, 19,223/. 10s. 10d. ;. less interest on
too broadly obtruded on the world-nay, even on our own most loans due, but not paid, 18,000/., giving a remainder of
deVoted adherents. Now, we are unfeignedly glad that it 1,223/. 10s. 10d.
still suits Mr. O'COnnell's purpose to be pacific. We hail, The CHAIRMAN said, he felt it his duty to make a few ob-
as we are bound .to do, every .symptom of tranquil- servations to the Proprietors. Having obtained a Bill, in
lity, however transitory. But any increased confi- which a clause had been introduced to make a more equal
deuce or gratitude towards that gentleman we cannot pro- division of the year, so that they might not have one por-
fess; for we cannot feel it. And, therefore, when we read Lion of it with a large income and another portion with a much
that "the venerable Judge (Burton) was unable to proceed smaller income, the Directors had made an alteration in their
for a few. moments, evidently overcome by his emotions, accounts, closing the half-years on the 31st of January and
which affected him even to tears," we must own the most the 31st of July. The present half-year, therefore, closing as
absolute want of sympathy with his transport. It is wholly it did on the 31st of March, left the account in a much less
out of place-totally uncalled for by the severity of punish- satisfactory state than it would have been had it taken in
ment, the circumstances of the crime, or the character of the any portion of the travelling season of the year. He begged
pers on punished.
There
i
sa mean
insuch matters,
Judges
thoughnade
o f
neitherless melting
Judge to say that the intention of the Directors was to call the
stuff.
Proprietors together again immediately after closing 'their
Burton nor Chief Justice Pennefather have succeeded in hit- accounts on the 31st of July; and they might therefore cal-
ting it. We will frankly avow, that. if that mean is to be culete upon being convened together in the early part of
transgressed, we prefer the honest indiscretion of the Chief September. The Directors considered they would be able by
Justice to the perhaps not less honest timidity of his colleague. that time, whatever the prospects of the Company might ap-
It is scarcely charged that either have done more or less
pear to the Proprietors, to give a dividend-(Cheers)-and
than substantial justice to the culprit; and that being the he could only say that, however unsatisfactory the accounts
case, we prefer the zealous man who risks his own character, might appear to the meeting, they *ere to him and his bro.-
to the weak or apprehensive judge who saves it whole by teer• Directors extremely satisfactory. The Directors' had
coquetting with the criminal. come before the Proprietors, giving to them a most honest
result of the whole of the Company's transactions.-(Hear,
hear, and cheers.) He believed there was no one thing in
any account left in arreer.-(Hear.) In other railway com-
panies, he believed, a large portion of interest on borrowed
capital had very generally been charged on the capital ac-
count.-(Hear, hear.) In no one instance had the Directors
of the SoutheEastem Company charged any portion of in-
terest except to their traffic account-(Hear' hear)-and the
Shareholders would see that, to the 31st of March last, the
Directors had debited the traffic account with 18,000/., one
quarter's interest due on bonds. He thought this would
show them that the Directors were clearly not desirous of
making the best of their accounts; but that they were
anxious to give as fair a statement as possible.-(Hear, hear.)
The future prospects of their concern he had always consi-
dered to be extremely good. He had drawn out a compare-
tive statement of the passenger traffic in April and May of
last year; and also for those months in the present year, in
order to show the Shareholders the progress they weremaking
on the line.
The passenger traffic was, for-