The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-19 00:00:00

IRELAND.

MORE TRICKERY IN THE JURY LISTS.
DUBLIN, SEPT. 17.—The following remarkable
statement appears in the Dublin Evening Post of this
afternoon :

" After the thorough exposure of the illegal and
fraudulent practices in regard to_ the jury list of the last
year, and the effect of those exposures, one might ex-
pect that all parties concerned in the preparation of
the new lists would take care, at least, to comply with
the forms required by the jury law. The public will
learn with surprise, that all such forms have been ut-
terly disregarded. We have learned from Mr. Ma-
bony, to whom the duty of attending to the revision
last year had been entrusted, that the cess collectors
are playing the same game. Notwithstanding the
strict directions in the Jury Act, and also in the pre-
cept sent to each of them that they should print and
circulate their lists of qualified persons, in each of the
parishes, early in August—notwithstanding all the
remonstrances last year that those provisions of the law
had not been complied with, the duty still remains
undone in the middle of September. But the disre-
gard of the law for the protection of trial by jury. has
been carried much further.

" Although the lists of the cess collectors are re-
turnable to the clerk of the peace before the 22d of
August, the first return of those lists was not made
until that day, and even then three parishes only were
returned. The last returns, required by law to be in
the hands of the clerk of the peace betbre the 22d of
August, were not in the possession of that officer
until Friday last, the 13th of September! But, even
although thus held back, the provisions of the law
requiring the previous printing and publishing of
the entire lists in the various parishes had been wholly
neglected.
"It is remarkable also that the entire number of
jurors, common and special, now returned, amounts
only to 5,175. Last year, imperfect as the lists were,
they exceeded this considerably, and it is notorious
that there are at least 12,000 persons qualified to
serve as jurors in the city of Dublin.
" The Government have the power to compel those
entrusted with the administration of the jury law to
fulfil its mandates ; and if Lord Hey tesbury desired
that his administration should maintain a shred of
character for impartiality, he would require that the
jury lists should be made according to law. What
are the Government Crown solicitors for, unless they
see that a law, upon which the entire administration
of justice is based, has been complied with ?
" Never was there anything so scandalous -as the
whole course of proceeding in reference to the jury
system in Ireland. The present Jury Act has been
the law of the land for ten years. That Act requiros
that there shall be an annual revision, before the Re-
corder, for the due administration of justice and the
security of the subject. Nevertheless, there never
was a revision until last year, when Mr. Mahony,
acting on behalf of the traversers in the State trials,
demanded it. Care will, no doubt, be taken that there
shall be another revision this year; but up to this
moment, as we have shown, the provisions of the
jury law have been utterly and daringly disregarded.
\Ve call on Mr. Shaw, the Recorder, at once to inter-
fere. Why should he receive lists which have been
made up illegally, and in the arrangement of which
every guarantee provided by law for the impartial
administration of justice has been violated ?
" As to the county of Dublin we have inquired,
and have learned, to our utter amazement, that the
precepts were issued so long since as the 25th of June
last. The return should have been made on the 25th
of July at the latest, and yet we now write on the
17th of September, having ascertained the fact that
not a single collector has made a return to the clerk
of the peace up to this hour. Is there, we ask, no
remedy for this ?"

FRACAS IN THE THEATRE ROYAL.
In the course of the evening an unpleasant fracas
occurred between an officer of the 11th Hussars and
a gentleman who not long since held the office of
high sheriff for a southern county. The latter was
sitting with some ladies in the last row of the dress
boxes, when the officer in question opened the door
and remained standing at it, the box being full. Ho
was requested to close it, as the air incommoded the
ladies, and from the reply he made some words passed
upon the occasion, but the affair did not terminate
without blows. Cards were exchanged, and several
officers of the regiment having interested themselves
in consequence of the position in which one of their
corps had been placed, not a little discussion took
place subsequently, which ended, as we learned, in
explanations being given, which put an end to any
ulterior proceedings.
The preceding statement is copied from Saunders's
News Letter of this morning. The gentleman al-
luded to is Mr. Saunders, who had been high sheriff
of the county of Kerry two or three years since, and
who is regarded by all who know him as one of the
most peaceable men in society. It is stated that the
officer of the 11th Hussars, who had been engaged
in this rencontre, subsequently apologised to Mr.
Saunders.