The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
STANDARD,We are at length within view of the
termination of the .State trials in Ireland. After the
Solicitor-General had concluded his long, and, accord.
ing to its form, able speech to evidence, and the Chief
Justice, speaking for the whole Court (which is agreed),
had delivered a charge of great length, the jury,
on Saturday night delivered a verdict convict-
ing each of the traversers upon one or more
of the several counts (eleven in number), but omit-
ting to find any verdict upon several of these counts.
It will be seen from this that the jury consider
;dr. Daniel O'Connell guilty upon five counts, Mr. John
O'Connell guilty upon two counts, Mr. Ray guilty upon
three counts, Mr. Barrett guilty upon four counts, Mr.
Steele guilty upon four counts, Mr. Duffy guilty upon
five counts, Dr. Gray guilty upon three counts, and the
Rev. Mr. Tierney guilty upon one count ; with refer-
ence to six of the eleven counts, the jurors had not
tome to any conclusion. This verdict was of course
imperfect, and the jurors were, at twelve o'clock on
Saturday night,, locked up to this day, in order
to complete it. Sensible as we are of the
arduous task imposed upon the Learned Solicitor-Gene-
ral and the Venerable Chief Justice, we are much in-
disposed to criticise unkindly the course taken by either
of them ; it is, however, but just to the jurors, who have
been the sole sufferers by the error—if there has been
an error—to say, that though the speeches of the Soli-
citor-General and the Chief Justice extended to a length
which forced the case almost into the Sabbath, these
speeches appeared to us to have been so much overdone,
us rather to perplex than to aid the jurors in forming
their decision. The speech of the Attorney-General
in opening the case was necessarily long, because he
had to give for the first time, a narrative of tran •
sactions extending over many months, and occur-
ring in various parts of the island. And the
order and lucid arrangement of that— narrative,
assigning his . part distinctly to each traverser,
and its legal character to each act, and showing
the connection of all the acts, and of all the par-
ties, will scarcely be forgotten by any who heard or
read the statement ; while every lawyer admits that
it was a masterpiece of legal skill. The case as
thus stated was to the latter sustained by evi-
dence, and its arguments were scarcely touched in all
the long (and some of them eloquent) speeches of the
seven or eight gentlemen who defended the traversers,
and of the facts alleged not one was impugned by evi-
dence. Now, we respectfully submit that this was not
an occasion for a long speech to evidence on the part
of the Crown counsel„ who really had nothing to
answer, and who, we must think, would have
best discharged his duty by a brief resume of
the Attorney-General's statement, carefully imi-
tatieg the Right Hon. Gentleman's course of applying
each act to its proper actor, giving its legal character to
each act, and assigning the acts to their respective pro-
per counts in the indictment ; such a resume would not
have occupied more than a couple of hours at the ut-
most, and it would have relieved the jury from the con-
fusion and embarrassment in which they were evi-
dently planed by the mass of. unarranged matter
through which they have had no guide but the re-
collection of the Attorney-General's speech at the end
of a month. As to the seven or eight orations deli-
vered on the part of the traversers, they might, we
think, have been wholly disregarded by the prosecutors,
not only with safety, but with advantage. The
charge of the Chief Justice was more scientific and
lawyer-like than that of the Solicitor-General ; but,
though excellent in all its parts, it wanted the lucidus
ordo indispensable to conduct to a knowledge of the'truth,
when the acts of individuals are to be determined,
characterised, and appropriated through a wide, in-
tricate, wilderness of events. The Solicitor-General's
speech, and tha Chief Justice's charge are deficient in
this, that they do not take the counts in detail, which
would appear to have been the convenient course,
when it is considered that each count is, in fact,
a distinct indictment. The dealing with the facts
in gross reminds us of what once occurred (as
it is said, on a London church) at the marriage
of twelve men to twelve women by a single cere-
mony—" We, John, Thomas, James, William,
Re., &c., take you,. Mary, Elizabeth, Jane, Sarah, &c.,
Re., to he our wedded wives, and e converso with respect
to the ladies:' The happy couples, it is said, had some
difficulty and some disputes in " pairing off," and a
somewhat similar difficulty plainly embarrassed tho
Dublin -jurors, when called upon summarily to mulch
the several traversers with the several counts of the
indictment. Now this difficulty, we must still
think, would have been much diminished had the
Solicitor-General been less excursive and diffuse—
which in Ireland they call eloquent—and more
succinct and precise in his speech to . evidence.
The Court would have been under a necessity
for following him—the traversers would have bees
relieved forty-eight hours sooner from a painful
suspense, and the poor jurors, who had to spend-
the whole of yesterday imprisoned in a cold room
(and what a day yesterday was !) for no fault of
their own, would have been in the enjoyment of
their firesides and of the society of their families. Now
that public attention is directed to the social evils of Ire-
land, we submit that Irish eloquence ought to be taken
into consideration. We think that there are twelve gen-
tlemen in Dublin, that is, if all have survived the cold of
yesterday, who willagree with us, thatunnecessarily long,
and unsuitably fine speeches, are among these social
evils. Notwithstanding the glimpse which we have
had of the jury-box, we shall not offer any opinion
as to the probable' verdict. For anything we know at
present, the jurors, are committed in no respect ; they
may acquit all or any, or they may convict all or any,
_upon any of the corints,, or upon all of them. We pre-
sume, however, that if there be any count upon which
they obstinately disagree, the Crown has the power to
withdraw that count, so that there is no danger of a
faUure of justice through such disagreement in part. It
must be useless to say more upon a subject which pro-
bably has been already set at rest.
GLOBE.—The House of Commons met on Saturday,
and rro?eeded to business with some alacrity and effect.
'1 his rather unusual course was rendered necessary 1:),,1
the fai:ure to form a House on Friday. Thus then
was no opportunity to move the adjournment of the
House from Friday to Monday ; a meeting on Saturday
was in clue course ; and, as Hon. Members were in
attendance, and in a humour for business, some mea-
sures of considerable importance were alluded to, and
others introduced. The most important of these mea-
sures was a Bill for the amendment of the Poor-law, in-
troduced by Sir James Graham, and read a first time.
When the late Parliament was dissolved, a Bill of a si-
milar description, introduced by Lord John Russell,
was stopped in transitu. Sir James Graham, as Home
Secretary of the new administration, introduced a Bill
for the same purpose in the first session of the present
Parliament; but meeting with strong opposition from
the Walter and Ferranti confederation, he contented
'himself with passing a Bill for the continuance of the
Poor-law Commissioners, and the other machinery ne-
cessary to the working of the measure, and left the
stringent enactments of the old Act, which the Whig ad-
ministration had determined to modify, wholly un-
touched. The whole of last session was allowed to pass
away without any attempt being made by the
Government to amend the law which the
Tories had denounced, at the hustings, as an engine
of intolerable oppression upon the labouring classes:
thus admitting, in this instance, as in many others, the
dishonesty of the means by which they acquired power,
and the difficulties they consequently feel in adapting
their policy, as a Government, to the course they pur-
sued, as a party, when in Opposition. The changes
proposed in the Poor-law by Sir James Graham's Bill
are confined to the bastardy clause. The Bill now
before the House provides, that on application being
made within forty days from the birth of the child,
there should be power given "to two magistrates to
make an order of maintenance on the putative father,
operating not only against his goods, bat against his
person. This order to be made upon the oath of
the mother, fortified by some corroborative evidence.
The maximum of amount to be 4s. weekly ; and to
continue to be paid for the maintenance of the child,
by its putative father, until the age of thirteen. Appeal
from the order made by the two magistrates to be
allowed to the Quarter Sessions. We are free to con-
fess that we regard the change thus proposed to be made
ha the existing law as an improvement. By rendering
the person of the putative father liable, as well as his
goods, numerous instances of reckless and heartless
seduction, to which the working of the law has shown
that impunity may be given, will in future be reached;
and payment—now evaded because the person
of the seducer is not liable—will be enforced,
or the defaulter punished. Sir James Graham
proposes that parish officers, as such, shall have nothing
to do with applying for, or obtaining the order. The
mother of the child is to have power to make ap-
plication to two magistrates within forty days after its
birth ; and the magistrates, by a summary process, shall
have authority to.make the order of maintenance, upon
evidence that the alleged father of the child has its
paternity fixed upon him by reasonable proof.
The Bill also proposes to provide in large towns
houses of refuge for the destitute and houseless poor.
WP think this part of the Bill at once creditable to the
feelings of its authors, and one which will confer a
large amount of relief to the most wretched of the
human species. The period of their domicile is to he
restricted to one night; they are to be furnished with
inc al at night, on their reception, and another in the
in 'ruing on their discharge. As a test of their destitu-
tion, they may be required, and if able to work, will be
required to perform some kind of labour for four hours.
This, we presume, will be early in the morning ; they
s. ill then be examined as to the parishes to which they
• respectively belong, and will be conveyed to those
parishes, the authorities of which will be required to
receive them. A Parliamentary inquiry is to be insti-
tuted as to the propriety of abolishing or retaining the
Gilbert unions. Sir James Graham was probably a ppr
hensive of provoking a fierce opposition to the en
Bill, by introducing a clause which would interfere
with
these unions. He has therefore wisely referred their
constitution to a Parliamentary Committee ; and has
thus shifted to other shoulders the responsibility of their
fate, whether of life or death.

A FLAW IN THE INDICTMENT.—WO have to state
a fact, which must take away . the little interest that
may yet attach .to the State trials ; and we state this
fact. on authority which we regard as all but official.
grwisvtr, Of its truth we 'have no doubt. There is a flaw in
:...1 •• . ' ' '
the indictment. - Although convicted and brought up
~---• ~ -,...5, ...,i, for judgment, the traversers will be discharged on the
I.#;_,-,,,',3 y,../Vegal defect being made known. The flaw was first disco-
^.
1- F^yered by the English law officers of the Crown, and the dis-
t:4l-1,- .-7
,:.:;-,*-!,-,,,..-,.,?.Nr,, r4oVery has been communicated to the Irish Attorney-
,,...7
ttf:!7Atneral. He perseveres, however, because his purpose will
5:,,,. /,*
~, , p,i, attained by a verdict. Some people may think that a
4.\.ii ; wilful error was admitted, the escape of Mr. O'Connell being
, i ' lesi embarrassing to Ministers than his imprisonment.
';'S Fear,rus O'Connor 's, case is in point.—Liverpool Journal.
irOLYROOD PALACE.—On the 7th inst. the Princess
Marie, Marchioness of Douglas and Clydesdale, was, after a

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