The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-25 00:00:00

itypn3l4

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1844.

The examination of witnesses in the Irish State
trials was resumed on Tuesday at 10 o'clock.
They were all members of the constabulary force—
either officers or privates. Their testimony went
to prove the utterance of certain phrases and
expressions, to which the law-officers of the Crown
attached importance, by the traversers and others
who spoke at the several: "monster meetings?'
the meetings to, ' :which
the evidence applied
were those held . LOugford, Mallow Tulla-
uore, Baltinglass, Clontibret, and Tara. The po lice-
:len founded their testimony upon notes which they
took of whatever appeared to them to be inflamma-
tory language, used by the speakers. On their
-xiiss-examination it very frequently came out that
those " recording angelS" in black.belts were not the
most accurate note-takers in the reporting- world.
Their notes appearedtO be rather free translations of
the speeches of the Ilepealers. In one instance a por- '
Mon of a speech which was delivered at Baltinglass
CONNER, of" fixity of tenure" notoriety,
whey-it:tn av be in the recollection of the public, was
lapOlcclAome time ago, from the Repeal Association,
lor,pe s' gin a motion of an unjust and illegal mt-
-e to the tenure of land--a portion of his
• of those armed reporters swore was deli-
-771-:1/ O'CONIVELL. The Court rose at half-

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atsigloutr. •
Judge BURTON still continues indisposed, and does

not take his seat ; his absence is much regretted, as
he is respected by all parties.
One of our Dublin correspondents makes the fol-
lowing remarks on the proceedings

" The trial progresses, marked with its usual cha-
racteristics of bitterness and asperity on th part of
the Crown lawyer. Indeed, with this exception,
counsel on both sides, and the judges themselves, are
well enough disposed to relax into a smile when occasion
offers. During the very amusing cross-examination
of one of the police-constables, by Messrs. HATCH=
and WmTEsIDE, the ATTORNEY-GENERAL was the
only person whose countenance was unvisited by a
smile. One saw by him that it had no business there.
I do not believe the trials will continue so long as
was at first supposed. It is rumoured that the Crown
will close on Wednesday. The traversers' counsel will
occupy four days in addressing the jury. The examina-
tion of witnesses for the defence, the reply of the SOLI-
CITOR-GENERAL, and the summing up of the Judge,
will occupy till about the end of the third week. It
is conjectured the jury will be very brief in perform-
ing their portion of the act. Of course this can be
only conjecture; but there are those who know
the men who say it is certain. lam very
much disposed to doubt it myself, judging,
of course, from the nature of the evidence. lam
certain the case would not stand a moment before
English judges, and an English jury."

Whether conviction or acquittal be the result of
the now pending trial, one thing is quite certain that
no Government ever stood in so strange a position,
in relation to the proceedings it has thought proper to
institute—to the mode in which it prepared to com-
mence them—to the manner in which it has carried
them on, before a jury chosen from a fraudulent list—
or to the effect now produced upon the public mind—
or to be produced hereafter, than the Government, par
excellence, which now rules Ireland. Not a man in
this country cares what verdict that jury may pro-
nounce, as to its influence upon the country ; the
sentiment is universal, that the decision of the jury
is prejudged, pre-determined, and that no evidence
for the prosecution, nor any testimony for the de-
fence, can alter the conclusion to which it is intended
to come. This is entirely owing to the conduct of
the Government, and no blame can attach to any
person, save the Officers of the Crown, for the crea-
tion of the present state of public feeling in relation
to this trial. The jury cannot he blamed for the po-
sition in which they are placed! it may prove a most
unfounded, a most calumnious, anticipation of their
own intentions—they may be as honest and inde-
pendent a jury as ever stepped into a jury-13.5 x, but
they are an unfairly selected and a concocted jury
for all that. The Government, again, has contrived
to place themselves in the character of persecutors, not
prosecutors, and the accused are looked upon as perse-
cuted, more than legally prosecuted. Can it be won-
dered at, that all Englishmen (saving always the hangers-
on of Government, and the ultra-Tories, who thirst
for the very blood of O'CoNNELt.), look with disgust
at the trial,
.and value the result not a rush ? Con-
viction will bring no disgraCe to the traversers, no
triumph to the Crown Officers, and law is bringing
itself into disgrace, because there is no connection
between it and justice.

Such is the feeling as to the operation of the ver-
dict upon the 'public, abd it is' shown by the almost
indifference with which- the 'trial IS viewed, and
which has been on the increase, ever since the AT-
TORNEY-GENERAL closed his opening speech. The
evidence has hitherto disclosed nothing, and this
abortion of an Attorney-General's brain, of a Home
Secretary of State's labour, conceived in malice,
ushered into the world by trickery and espionage,
realises the very worst specimen of a State prosecu-
tion that even the annals of Toryism afford.

" Montes parturiunt, nascitur ridiculus mus."

But though the effect of a conviction or an ac-
quittal, be nothing on the public mind, for the sake
of justice, for the good of humanity, and for the
vindication of the institutions of our country, it is to
be hoped that the jury may show their total want of
participation in the feelings of those who have chosen
them to be the instruments of legal vengeance, not of
legal judgment and deliberation. It is to be hoped
that the jury will decide upon the evidence, and upon
that alone ; and we know nothing, save common
rumour, and general impression, to which the
indecent boasting of one Tory journal that
a conviction was certain ; of another, that
the place of O'CoNNELL's imprisonment was already
in preparation; and of a third that Carrickfergus was
to be the prison of Ireland's greatest patriot, to in-
duce us as yet to believe the contrary. Common
rumour is not noted for general truth, and in this
instance both rumour and Tory journalism may
prove to be only the expression of a wish, " the father
to the thought."

The meeting of Parliament on Thursday next, will
happen before this trial can by possibility have
ended, and it will be no extraordinary occurrence, if,
at the very moment that the traversers are standing
at the Dublin bar, charged with agitating for the
Repeal of the Union, the policy or impolicy of that
Repeal should be the subject of discussion in the
Houses of Parliament. If illegal in Ireland, is the
subject to be illegal in England ? If not to be named
there, is it to be proscribed here ? We do not think
that even Sir JAMES GRAHAM will dare to attempt
so to muzzle public opinion here. But time will
show ; and we hardly know any proposition too mon-
strous for an English Secretary of State, such as Sir
JAMES GRAHAM, to put forth, if, instead of POLLOCK
and FOLLETT, he had two such law-officers in Eng-
land as Mr. Attorney-General Smrrir, to attempt its
establishment.

We are glad to find that the attention of the public
has been challenged by a Morning Contemporary to
the valuable evidence delivered by his Grace the
Duke of WELLINGTON, before the Select Committee
of the House of Commons on " Shipwrecks," in the
month of July last. We specially adverted to his
Grace's answers, in an article which appeared in The
Sun, about two or three months since, on the First
Report of that Committee. But our observations
were then limited to the necessity for the establish-
ment of "harbours of refuge." On that point (one of
the main objects of the Committee's inquiries) the
Duke's opinions were distinct and decisive. He was
for the immediate construction of at least two such
harbours between the Downs and Portsmouth ; the
one, probably at Dungeness, the other at Dover; but
in answer to a question from Admiral Sir CHARLES

NAPIF.R, he allowed that it might be expedient to
establish one nearer Beachy Head, if the scientific
men, of whose opinions and advice the Committee
had the benefit, concurred in such recommendation.
his Grace's mention of Dungeness was founded on
his better knowledge of that locality, and its obvious
capabilities for such a purpose. But the Duke, in
several parts of his evidence on the same occasion,
fully admitted, and powerfully described, the pressing
want of forts and batteries on the coasts of the Chan-
nel, for the protection more especially of the mighty
trade of the port of London.
Nothing can be more clear than the mode in which
he demonstrates the liability r)f our commerce, coming
up Channel, to the depredations of any active mari-
time enemy, in the;;event of war,—but more espe-
cially with France. The Duke shows that the appli-
cation of steam to armed sailing vessels as a locomo-
tive power, added to the little draught of war steamers,
renders it impossible that in time of war fleets of 400
or 500 merchantmen can ever again venture to lie in the
Downs, at one time, awaiting convoy for example ;
whilst single vessels will no longer be able to creep
along the southern coast of Britain to the entrance of
the Thames, with impunity. We subjoin a few of the
more interesting passages of his Grace's depositien:—
" I should say that, considering the want ofprotec-

tion from the weather, and from military attacks, in the
Channel, the trade of the port of London will be in
a very precarious situation, and will be a very losing
one, in a variety of ways, in time of war, if some-
thing is not done beforehand—if some precautions are
not taken. Steam-power in moving ships has made
such progress at present, as that it must have a most
material effect in maritime warfare—l use the word
maritime warfare in contradistinction to naval warfare
—in all future times. If anybody will just consider
the advantage the French coast enjoys over the coast
of this country, in observation of what is passing at
sea, that is, to the southward, they have the sun in
their backs,—they see everything quite clear ; and it
is possible, from the coast of France, to calculate to a
moment at what period a vessel coming up Channel
will arrive at particular points, and they may be in
readiness to seize her, at any point which may bappen

to be unguarded, supposing the vessel to be without
convoy, and supposing there should be no naval means
at that point to take care of her. I should say that
the trade of the port of London would labour under a
great disadvantage, if it were found that every vessel
coming up from Portsmouth was obliged to come up
in a convoy; that she should be shut up unless there
were a convoy. I have given a good deal of reflec-
tion to it, and have thought of it a long while, and
that is the conclusion to which I have come ; and it
is a rational conclusion, for it is founded on what the
state of the commerce of this port, which is the great
port of the country, will be by-and••bye, if something
is not done."

Ills Grace contemplates the possibility, even on the
Goodwin Sands, if we rightly construe his evidence,
of constructing such formidable defences, by means
of batteries, as efficiently to protect our commercial
marine in making for the Thames.

" I am not able to judge of the maritime capacity
of the Downs; but I should suppose, from what I
see, that the Downs is safe—not very comfortable,
but safe as a port; and I believe the holding ground
is gocd. I think it would not be at all difficult to
secure it, in a military point of view, for vessels run-
ning in there. Ido not mean to say that it is im-
possible to do anything in Trinity Bay. I think it is
wonderful what Captain BULLOCK has done upon the
Goodwin Sands; and I will not pretend to say how
far those measures might be carried out, and how far
they might give„ further security in the Downs.
There is no doubt whatever, that a port in the Downs,
to give to vessels lying in the Downs perfect security,
would be a very desirable object; but I cannot say
how far that system of Captain BuLLoces can be
carried out."

" 5,267. In time of war your Grace is aware that
it will be impossible, with steam, for the trade to lie
at anchor safely in the Downs ?—There have been in-
stances of privateers coming into the Downs and
taking out vessels; but now that there is steam, it
would be perfectly impossible for 400 or 500 vessels
to lie in the Downs. I should say it would be pos-
sible to give an increase of military security so as to
give complete security. I should say that it is a se-
cure place in the main, but I doubt if it is a very
comfortable place."
How the sea batteries requisite to give effect to
these salutary plans for protecting the commerce of
the port of London might be provided, Mr. AfxrcuELL
has recently shown, in a pamphlet, to which we shall
hereafter recur more at length.
In the mean time we cannot too strongly express
our hope that the Legislature will take into its very
earliest consideration the measures,—and at the ear-
liest possible period provide the means,—for remedy-
ing a deficiency of coast defence, which, in reference
to the interests to be guarded, will strike with as-
tonishment every reader who has not previously ac-
quainted himself with. the facts. Yet, if no other re-
cord existed of .the, disgrace which has been inflicted
upon our national reputation, in times past, by the•
same infatuated neglect of such primary precautions
as were thus authoritatively, urged on Parliament in
1843,' the lively narrative bequeathed' to us by ,
SAMUEL PEPICS in, his " Diary" might have illus-
trated to the existing generation of his countrymen,
the reality of the peril they 'are' now incurring,, and
have so wilfully incurred--and the facility with which
an enterprising enemy,mity. take advantage of such a'
state of things to lay waste our greatest naval arsenals,
and threaten London itself. It is not above some hun-
dred a-nd sixty years ago, since the Dutch burned
Chatham to the ground, forcing the passage of the
Medway, and afterwards sailing far up the Thames.
It is not more than fifteen years since that the late
lamented Sir JOSEPH YORKE wrung from the re-
luctant representative of the Admiralty in Parlia-
ment, the confession that he was justified in having
described the position of Sheerness, one of our most
important and best supplied dockyards, as so ex-
posed and defenceless, that it would be possible for a
foreign fleet to sail up one arm of the Swale, under
favour of a foggy morning, destroy all the works and
shipping, and capture and sail away with the com-
missioners, the dockmaster, the pay-clerks, and all
other officials doing penance in that muddy and pro-
fligate locality.

Since we noticed the evidence of his Grace the.
Duke of WELLINGTON to the urgent importance of
providing not only " Harbours of Refuge " between
Portsmouth and the Downs, but also of erecting, at or
near the stations to be selected for such harbours,—
forts to protect the trade of London, entering or de-
parting from the mouth of the Thames ; we
have carefully perused Messrs. MITCHELL and
SON'S " Description and Sketch of a Pa-
tent Screw-pile Battery and Lighthouse. "
Having already demonstrated that the prodigious
commerce of the port of London must, in the event
of a " maritime " war—(to preserve the distinction
so justly enforced by the Duke in the evidence
alluded to)—and the continued deficiency of such
protection along the coasts,—of that portion, more
especially—of the Channel, be always liable to incal-
culable injury from the armed steamers of any naval
enemy (for this species of force can readily navigate
in those shallows which, as to other craft, are among
the natural defences of our shores) ; we need not
further insist upon the vital policy involved in the
speediest possible reparation of our long-enduring
negligence.
The sort of screw-pile battery and lighthouse
which Messrs. MITCHELL and SON modestly but
powerfully recommend, has the invaluable advantage
of being easily erected on sea banks—on banks even
of loose sand, " at a distance of many miles from the
nearest coast ;"—of being inconceivably strong to
resist the action of high winds, tempestuous seas,
and the rolling swells which break outside so
many of our great estuaries ; and of being very
economical in its construction. These admirable
properties have been excellently tested, and we may
add, triumphantly confirmed. The pamphlet before
us is illustrated by two sketches—the one representing,
in perspective, such a battery and lighthouse " con-
structed entirely of malleable iron, and having its
screw-pile foundation firmly planted on a bank beneath
the sea." The other, showing an elevation view of a
screw-pile battery of twenty-eight guns, with a
vertical section of the bank, in which the screw-piles
are fixed. Now, as to " the principle of such founda-
tions," it is gratifying to know that it has been
" well tested both on the east and west coasts of Eng-
land, off the shores of which have been erected
screw-pile lighthouses, that, have now withstood the
storms of several winters without exhibiting the
slightest symptom of insecurity or decay."—" That
the first of such foundations was fixed on the Maplin
Sands" by these engineers (Messrs. MITI-JELL and
Sox), in the summer of 1838, by order of the Corpo-
ration of the Trinity House, at the recommendation
of their engineer, JAMES WALKER, Esq., F.R.S.,
&c. &c., " who has since erected on it the Maplin
lighthouse ; and though it stands upon a bank of
loose sand, many miles from the nearest coast, and
" exposed to the swell from the German Ocean, yet
it is as stable and as likely to endure as if based upon
a rock."—" But the first lighthouse of this, or indeed
of any description, that has ever been based upon
a submarine sand-bank was erected entirely by Messrs.
MITCHELL and Sox, after their own designs, in the
winter of 1839,i at the entrance of the sea reach lead-
ing to the town of Fleetwood-on-Wyre. It has now

been standing nearly four years, having been first
lighted on the 6th of June, 1840; and, though the
material is principally wood, a little paint is all that
has been requisite to keep it in perfect condition,
since its erection, though exposed on the north and
west to the swell of the open sea ; the tide rising on
the columns upwards of thirty feet."
The stability of these screw pile structures is stated
by these engineers to depend—first, on the firm hold

which the broad scree takes of the ground, by being
forced far beneath its surface ; secondly, on the solid
part of the building being placed above the reach of

the highest sea, no broad surface is opposed to thefree
passage of the wares, which consequently do not affect
the structure. It is necessary to bear these two

causes of stability in mind, when contemplating the
engraved view of the battery and light house, in order

:0 overcome the distrust which one would otherwise

naturally entertain of a surbase represented only by

one and forty narrow pole-like stems of iron, severally
insulated, and at first sight seeming to mock the
volume and the velocity of a tempestuous sea by a
frame-work of such contrasted apparent fragility and
inadequacy. But this inadequacy and fragility are
only apparent. There can be no sort of doubt, upon
the result of the most severe experiments, that the