The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-15 00:00:00

IRELAND.

From th 3 communications of our Irish correspondent
in the Times of yesterday, there may be ground—whether
conclusive or otherwise, as yet we know not—for suspecting,
that the old Irish demon of " bad luck" has been busy,
and somehow or other managed to "bewitch the milk." In
short, it is not merely that Mr. Pierce Mahony has sworn
another folio affidavit, in the hope once more to postpone the
evil hour of the trial, but that an oversight, and a grave one, is
said to have been committed by some subordinate functionary
or other in his treatment of the special panel on its passage
from the Sheriff to the Clerk of the Crown. The tale imports,
that upwards of 60 names among those returned by the
Recorder on revision had been emitted from the list before its
delivery to Mr. Kemmis. We hear it further stated, that of
the names thus left out, the majority were Conservatives led
Protestants. Now, it is not for us to say how far an act of this
description, should it prove true, may serve to vitiate the panel,
or to retard the trial, if at all. Any possible motive of cor-
' ruption or bad faith, in the subaltern officer at least, for the
benefit of the Crown, seems to be completely negatived by
the fact that the greater portion of the missing names
were Conservative. Moreover, an air of something even
beyond ridicule is flung over the entire history by a
repeal newspaper, which stammers away about re-
corder Shaw and Sir Robert Peel having themselves tampered
with the list, which was sent over to them at Tamworth ! pre-
vious to its final arrangement. If the account even of the
carelessness, however, be confirmed (we ask no more), what a
picture does it hold out of the way in which Irish placemen
discharge their duties, and of the manner in which an English
Government is likely to be served l On the other hand,
scarcely does a post come in from Dublin without fresh proofs,
as if such were needed, of folly and ferocity in the partisans of
men appealing ostensibly to the laws of their country, which,
in the course of our long experience, we have never seen sur-
passed. There have on this occasion of the O'Connell trials
been made—lit, an attempt on the part of the town-clerk, so far
as in him lay, by withholding the corporation books, notwith-
standing notice to produce them, to suppress the evidence
whence it would appear that certain persons, magistrates and
town-councillors, were disqualified by the 3d and 4th Victoria,
from acting as special jurors. 'I he plain purpose of which was
to pack a jury, and to commit the peace of the country to a
panel of furious Repeaters. For be it known that Mr. Forde,
who withheld the books, besides being town-clerk to the
O'Connell corporation, is likewise attorney to the traversers I
2d. A second attempt of the brawlers for constitu-
tional purity and liberty was, as we have already
seen, to deter, by loud menaces, the Crown solicitors
from discharging their own imperative duty, and from exer-
cising the lawful and obvious right of their clients, by
striking out from the jury-list the names of men from whose
known devotion to the traverser., an unfair acquittal might
with all confidence have been expected. 3d. The next at-
tempt for the indirect destruction of trial by jury was, by
abusive publications and factious advertisements, to insult
and degrade the jurors remaining on the panel, daring them
to find a verdict of guilty in the teeth of an interdict from
a silly Alderman in the Town Council, importing that the
" prosecutions ought to be dropped altogether by the
Crown !" 4th. The last attempt of which we yet have heard,
although it would be rash to calculate on what another day
may bring forth, is to stir up some sham commotion in the
country. by representing the decent, sober, and merely
technical discharge of their duties by the officers of the
Crown, to be such a flagrant outrage upon the whole
Roman Catholic body, as calls at this hour of factitious
excitement for an " aggregate meeting" of those millions
thus industriously exasperated, to sweep away the whole
administration of criminal justice by bursts of clamour and
pageants of multitudinous force. Every rational being must
construe such a course of flimsy, senseless, and utterly fruitless
violence as an index not only of conscious wrong, but of un-
deniable apprehension for the result cf this political and judicial
struggle. It is the tendency of power to be composed, of im-
potence to be fretful ; and whilst all the world must admit that
the Queen's Government has not erred on the side of eager-
ness or anxiety for battle, the opposite party have with equal
truth disgraced themselves by offensive arrogance while danger
was distant, and a shabby, sulky, and snappish querulousness,
as it approached a little nearer. Nothing could exhibit a more
discreditable contrast than Mr. Daniel O'Connell's whole de-
meanour before the Queen's Government showed signs of vigi-
lance with regard to him, and since the adoption of their more
animated and active policy. The first metamorphosis wrought
upon this grand ;incendiary was the work of the Queen's
speech, wherein, according to seaman's phrase, a shot was fired
" ahead of him." It was meant for a warning, but it had a
more manifold operation. It did warn, to be sure; but it also
irritated, provoked, frightened and perplexed him. During the
session, and while the Minister seemed asleep, O'Connell's
fierceness was not merely boisterous—it was buoyant, impatiseat,
savage. Her Majesty spoke, and the effect was instantaneous.
Still he was equally loud and boisterous ; but the swagger was
more circumspect, the ill-temper more guarded, the defiance
mere vague, the growl more crippled. Such was the interme-
diate condition of the disturber. Next came the proclamation,
finally the prosecution, and away at once went all of glorious
war, even the " pomp_ and circumstance." The fight was
evidently out of him. No more appeals to physical force, nor
talk of triumphant millions—nor trumpet, summoning his re-
tainers to this broad field and that fair mountain—whether the
recorded or the fabricated scenes of Celtic prowess—all sub-
sided from royal riot into " the better part of valour." The
collision of arms degenerated into that of chicane. Forma of
turbulence, obsolete for many years, are now again resorted to.
" Aggregate meetings"—an innoxious imbecility—are called
for ' • petitions are to be prepared—the proseeuting parties before
the Court are to be abused—national movements are to be sus-
pended, or rendered susceptible of no better than a paltry
galvanic impulse. Hopes are insinuated that Government
may relent ! and withdraw its no longer despicable chargse
To all this we answer—execute the laws. Surrender them—
and you, the Queen's Ministers, will be abandoned by then ;
and we, the unoffending portion of the Queen's subjects, may
have to seek the protection of our lives and properties from the
heartless, ruthless, and finally futile bayonet. Therefore, and
to the last we say, for the sake of civil government, execute the
laws ; meet evil report and good report—meet corrupt knavery,
and calumny, and falsehood—meet licentious incitement, by
even-banded justice, temperate, unflinching, and, when once
victorious,—merciful, if you will. We have condemned, as
unauthorised by equity and integrity, the gross assaults made
upon the Crown and its officers for the strict performance of
their unquestionable duty—with regard to the formation of the
jury. It appears to us that, setting aside the mischievous male-
volence of such conduct, nothing could be more glaring than its 1
folly. Was it for the so-called representatives of the Irish
" Liberals" to hold out to mankind the whole body of the Roman
Catholic gentlemen as leagued and identified with O'Connell
and his accomplices in this conspiracy to overthrow the State ?
Was it for Mr. Pierce Mahony and Mr. Forde to tell the
people of England—" Your Government in Ireland shall not
be suffered to enjoy the acknowledged rights of plaintiff or pro-
secutor in a court ,if justice against the enemies of the Imperial
Crown, if it should turn out that the individuals affected by
the exercise of such rights are members of the Church of
Rome ?" Is this the pretension of the Rotnan Catholic body,
that individuals appertaining to it shall be allowed an exemption
from those restraints of law to which all Protestants are sub-
jected ? that the epalilyso preached about lig our libel's.