The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TITURStAY EVENTNO-, FEI3RITARY 1, 1844.

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LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1844

The Irish Attorney-General, already too cele-
brated for his way of conducting state prosecutions,
has at last reached the climax of absurdity, and

brought the Government which he represents into

supreme contempt. In every step he has taken in
these momentous trials he has committed a blunder.

The original panel of jurors was mutilated by the
withdrawal, or suppression, or abstraction, of forty-
eight jurors; all the. Catholics on the list were struck
off; the whole of Catholic Ireland was roused to mad-
ness by this deliberate insult; and every wise and im-
partial and honest Protestant said this rash proceed-
ing vitiated the whole proceedings. But all these
blunders or machinations, all the remaining bigoted
prejudices of bygone times, all the concealed rancour
of Orangemen in office, and the evident determination
of certain parties, by foul or fair means, to obtain a
verdict against Mr. O'CONNELL, are nothing com-
pared with the outrageous, and the hitherto un-
exampled, conduct of the first law officer of the
Crown, in challenging a brother advocate in the midst
of the proceedings to fight a duel. Why is he not

put into Bedlam at once ? Why is the representative
of even-handed justice—the guardian of the

laws —the man that evil-doers should look
up to with • fear, and the good for pro-
tection—to be allowed to disgrace his office,
and break down a prosecution, which, if it had
been the most just and imperative, could not have
withstood such unmeasured folly for two days ?
Talk of the wild Irish ! Talk rather of the wild
Saxon ; for in the whole course of the proceedings,
rashness, and bigotry, and violence, and the worst
passions, have all been displayed on one side, and that
is the side of the Crown. It is impossible to form a
greater contrast than that between the prosecu-
tors and the traveisers. The latter have, in every
respect, conducted themselves according to the
strictest forms of law, and the most fastidious cour-
tesy towards the Bench and the law officers of the
Croivn ; yet, because one of the counsel in the course
of his address to the jury tells the Attorney-Gene-
ral some plain truths, that legal functionary
flies into a passion, and insults the Court, the de-
fendants, and his country, by an appeal to arms. "If
these things are done in the green tree, what will be
done in the dry ?" If such opprobrious acts are
committed in open Court, what may be committed
behind the scenes ? If a list of forty-eight jurors is
stolen, who will now be accused as the culprit ? If
an Attorney-General can openly set the law of his
country at defiance, while conducting a solemn in-
vestigation, what may be done by himself and his
underlings in secret ? The impartial public, nay,
even those that are not always impar-
tial, will view such a scene with ab-
solute horror, and ask what chance any
man has for justice under such a system ? If Mr.
O'CoNNELL is guilty of the charges brought against
him (of which we believe him entirely innocent), he
has "the d—l's luck" in being blessed with such a
prosecutor. No one cares what Mr. SMITH now
says or does, and the sooner these trials are
brought to a close, by an acquittal, the better for the
Crown, the Government, and the country.

The Irish State trials were resumed on Tuesday, when
Mr. FITZGIBBON commenced his address, as Counsel
for Dr. GRAY. He said that the doctrine of con-
spiracy, as laid down by the Attorney-General, was,
that it was a combination of two or more persons to do
an illegal act, or to do a lawful act through unlawful
means. He denied the correctness of the doctrine.
That proposition had been laid down by Lord DEN-
MAN, in a case which occurred in 1832, and had been
repeated by the same Learned Lord in a case in 1834.
But it was a mere dictum and not a decision ; and in
1839, when it was cited before Lord DENMAN himself, his
Lordship said he did not think it a correct proposition,
In the case of the King v. Forbes, better known as
the bottle riot case, Chief Justice BUSHE had laid
down a similar doctrine to that of Lord DENMAN,
and it was to be found in East's Pleas
of the Crown. But however good a
text-writer EAST was, he denied that ihe was
to be considered a good legal authority.
They had looked in CORE, and all the old autho-
rities on the subject, without being able to dis-
cover any such doctrine. With respect
to the two cases cited by the Attorney-General in
support of the doctrine above quoted—viz., the King
v. Watson, Howel's State Trials, vol. 22,
and the case of the King v. Murphy, Bth
Carrington and Payne, in which latter case
Mr. Justice COLERIDGE had laid down the doctrine
of conspiracy adopted by the Attorney-Gene-
ral, he submitted that they did not apply in the
present instance at all. The former case was one of
high treason, and could not be cited as similar to
the present, which was one of misdemeanour, and

,
therefore Mr. Justice BAYLEY'S decision on it must
not be considered valid. In the case of the
King v.. Murphy, though the doctrine laid
down by the Attorney-General was applicable
to the facts there, it was by no means so to the facts
in the present case. The Learned Gentleman de-
nied that there was any case of conspi-
racy established. The people were peaceable
and orderly. They were not drilled, and ordered
to advance and retire, as they were in Eng-
land. The people met in large numbers, but

it was by such means that redress of grievances was
always obtained. The Learned Gentleman then re-
ferred to the means adopted by the mailed Barons of
England when the great charter of England's liberties
was wrested from King JonN, and to the attitude
assumed by the people at the time of the Clare

election. He afterwards commented, in very strong
language, on the conduct of the Attorney-General,

with regard to the prosecutions.

He did not

object to his doing his duty, but he ought
to do so in a manly and straightforward manner, and
not state the law incorrectly to obtain the conviction
of a brother barrister, who had been an ornament to
his profession for many years. He concurred with
the Attorney-General that this was a mo-
mentous case—momentous to the Attorney-General,
and the party with which he was connected. It

would afford that party a scourge to repress
the people from giving expression to
their feelings and opinions, but he trusted
the Court and jury would interpose to pre-
vent them from obtaining that power. The
juries of England had always saved the liberties
of the peOplo when they were sought to be
crushed by charges like the present. The last case
of this kind was the charge of constructive
treason brought against TooKE and HARDY, but an
English jury three times brought in a verdict of not
guilty.

Our Dublin Correspondent gives the result of the
day's proceedings in these words :
" One of the most extraordinary scenes that perhaps
ever took place in a court of justice, was enacted this
afternoon in the Court of Queen's Bench, between the
Attorney-General and Mr. FITZGIBBON. It would
seem that the good old practice, so peculiarly Irish, of
settling all matters in dispute by an appeal to
the pistol is, in these degenerate days, becoming so
fallen into disuse, that, to sustain the character of the
law, even the law-officers of the Crown, and that too
in open Court, call out "Any money for a duel !"
During the progress of Mr. FITZGIBBON'S speech
this day, the Court and Jury retired as usual
about two o'clock, for refreshment. During their
absence the Attorney-General was observed
to convey a note to Mr. FITZGIBBON, which

he had been writing in Court. On the return
of their Lordship; Mr. FITZGIBBON applied
to them to ascertain whether he had, during

the progress of his address, permitted himself
to make use of any improper expressions
personally reflecting on the conduct of the Attorney-
General, with regard to the trials. He then called
on the Attorney-General to hand up to their Lord-
ships a note which the Attorney-General had sent
over to him.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said that if the Learned
Counsel had any motion to make on the subject he
had better state it upon affidavit.
Mr. FITZGIBBON (vehemently)—Never. And if
the Attorney-General does not hand up the note to
the Court I will state the substance of it. Mr. Frrz-
GIBBON then stated that the'Attorney-General had sent
him a note, calling on him to retract certain expres-
sions which he was represented to have used in the
course of his address, and which the Attorney-
General considered as personally reflecting on
himself, and calling on him, if he did not retract
them, to name a friend.

This statement caused the most marked sensation,
surprise being the most prominent feature of it,
throughout the Court.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said that Mr. FITZ-
GIBBON had stated in• his address to the Court, that
-he was influenced by private motives in the conduct
of the present prosecution—that he was guided
in the conduct of it by his feelings as to what effect
success or failure might have upon his political ad-
vancement, and if he withdrew the reflection thus
cast upon his conduct, he would be satisfied.
Mr. FITZGIBBON said the Attorney-General
came with pistol in hand, and he could not help
telling him that he would not thus draw an apology
from him.

Mr. MOORE suggested that as all must regret that
such an occurrence had taken place, an opportunity
should be given to both parties to become reconciled
with each other by a mutual explanation.

The CHIEF JUSTICE thanked Mr. MOORE for his
suggestion, and stated that the Court felt itself in a
very embarrassing situation ; and that the Attorney-
General was the last man that ought to have allowed
himself to be betrayed into any such expression as
that now declared to the Court.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said that now he would
not impose any condition respecting the withdrawal
of the expressions which had hurt him.

Mr. FITZGIBBON declared that he had never meant
to impute anything like improper motives to the At-
torney-General in the conduct of the trials, but
that he felt he did not exceed his duty in canvassing
his conduct as a public man. _

After some flirther observations from the mutua'
friends of both learned gentlemen,

Mr. FrrzwuuoN resumed his address to the Court,
which rose at a quarter to five.

There is one circumstance that rendered the send-
ing the challenge at such a time and in such a manner
especially blameable. The lady of Mr. FITZGIBBON
and her child were sitting at the table nearly by the
side of Mr. FITZGIBBON."

In earnestly invoking the public, at large, to give
their most careful and attentive perusal to the " Ad-
dress of the Society for the Emancipation of In-
dustry" (which will be found in another column), we
claim for that remarkable document no higher a de-
gree of consideration•than it is amply entitled to by its
subject matter and the intrinsic importance of its con-
tents. From the greatness, the simplicity, the benefi-
cence, the national character of its objects, it is a paper
with more powerful pretensions to the active sympathies
of every class of British subjects—ranging, in the
scale of society, above that enormous working com-
munity, on whose behalf its eloquent appeal is more
especially asserted—than almost any we remember
to have met with in our whole experience as
journalists. We will briefly state what those
pretensions are. The objects of the Asso-
ciation are not private or corporate, but strictly
public. The attainment of those objects is not
merely a question of expediency, but of vital neces-
sity to the welfare of the State. This vital necessity
consists in the visible, incontrovertible, appalling
fact, that a wasting disease, which has been gene-
rated in the entire system of British greatness, civil
and political, by erroneous legislation, must
speedily become mortal, if it be not arrested
by some legislative remedy of timely applica-
tion. The remedy suggested in the " Address,"
with a view directly to relieve, and perma-
nently re-establish, that branch of our population
which has hitherto most suffered, and at present
languishes and declines under the influence of the
disease we deprecate, would indirectly but rapidly
reinvigorate the energies and prosperity of all other

sections of the public who have been fellow-sufferers
from the same *evil influence. The type of the
disease is,
." all the wrong and misery" which have
been wrought to the labouring poor, in all occupations,
by the Currency Act of 1819; and the simple remedy
proposed is, the repeal of that fatal measure, accom-
panied with the issue, by Government, of Govern-
ment paper to the amount of our annual taxation.
It would be affectation on our parts were we to
disclaim the gratification we have derived from find-

ing that the "Address," in tracing the origin and the
course of the disease which has so long invaded, and
now threatens to destroy, " the comfort and happiness
of all the productive classes," and in indicating the
remedial course requisite to be taken for its removal,
concurs in all respects with the views which we have
ourselves long announced on these subjects, and have
more particularly enforced for some months past. The
Address, after announcing that " the time has arrived

when active measures must be taken for the protection
and relief of the industry of the country," takes a
rapid review of those isolated and partial attempts
which, only, have hitherto been made "to rescue our
suffering people from the cruel bondage" imposed on
them by the consequences or the results of the mea-
sures we have so often denounced. It adverts to the
Anti-Corn-law League, and its exertions on behalf of
the manufacturer ; to the efforts from time to time
put forward on behalf of factory children—female
colliery labourers—education of the children of the
poor, &c.—and laments the insufficiency of these "to
meet the exigencies of the times." It then proceeds,
" We turn to our fellow-countrymen of every de-
gree, and ask them to join us in forming a Society
which, entertaining no schemes of private advantage,
but devoted solely to the public good, hopes, by the
corrective aid of the Legislature, to remove the evils
which an unfortunate Act of Legislation has created."

We will not do the "Address" the injustice of giving,
in abstract only, the several paragraphs occupied by the
argument for the propriety of securing taxation wages
to the labourer, and taxation prices to the manufac-

turer and the agriculturist--as to the 'manu-
factured commodities of the one, and the produce of
the other; or to the demonstration of that enormous

legislative blunder or injustice—unparalleled at least
in the annals of legislative spoliation—which by fixing
and legalising, exclusively, a gold standard of cur:
rency, and diminishing the previous paper circulation
in the enormous proportion necessary to enable the
Bank of England to meet its excessive liabilities
under this more expensive and prodigiously decreased
metallic currency, so reduced prices, and by conse-
quence the wages of labour, that " it is calculated

that more than 30,000,0001. annually are wrung
from the hard earnings of the poor by means of extra
toil and increased privations, which nature cannot
long endure." "By adding taxation to natural or
gold prices, that portion of the indirect taxes which
cannot be borne by the productive classes in their
productive capacity will be paid at last by the con-
sumer"—from whose shoulders, let it never be forgotten
—Sir ROBERT PEEL'S iniquitous Bill quietly trans-
ferred it to those of the then already taxed, but since
miserably under-paid, under-fed, and unregarded
labourer and artisan. As we must here conclude
our notice of the " Address," we may commend
these, its benevolent purposes, to the best assistance
and the best wishes of our readers.

" We object to the labouring man being burthened with
the task a providing all that wealth which others, who do
not work, enjoy at his expense, while they allow him, in re-
turn for unremitting toil, less food and clothing, worse shel-
ter, coarser and harder fare, than a West India planter
allowed his slaves, or an English farmer gives his horses.
We are desirous of seeing the industrious workman. partake
of some of the benefits of those improvements in machinery
which have hitherto added so wonderfully to the luxuries of
the rich, but have sunk the poor into deeper poverty."
" To effect this, we shall urge that higher wages be given—
wages not merely increased in numerical amount, but able to
command a greater quantity of every useful and necessary
article. We pledge ourselves to prove that this is attainable
with the greatest facility, depending for the extent of its be-
neficial action solely upon a vote of the Legislature."

We indulge a pleasing confidence that this appeal
will be most efficiently responded to throughout the
country; and we cordially concur in the old ballad

prediction that follows :

4. It was onee merry England,
And it shall be so again."