The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-07 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1844

In the House of Lords a discussion took Place rela-
tive to the property of felons. - The subject- was in-
troduced by the I)nke of RICHMOND, who moved fora
copy of a circular which had been sent to the different
clerks of the peace in the United Kingdom. The
• paragraph in the circular to which he objected was
.that which authorised a constable to. enter the pre-
mises of a prisoner in order to ascertain the amount
"'his property. This, he considered illegal; and as

visiting magistrate he should consider it his duty

to inform every prisoner that, up to the period of his
tonvictit,n, he had a right to dispose of his property
in any way he might think proper.
Lord WnAnNclarrE concurred in the remarks
made by the Duke of RICHMOND. Lord BROUGHAM
Said it was impossible to defend tAat part of the cir-
cular which authorised a constable to commit a tres-
,
rpi; and after a few words- from Lord CAMPBELL and
the Duke of IlictimoNn the motion was withdrawn,
cm an understanding that the Government would.
make an intimation to the clerks of the peace that the
ib::-eeionable clause was not to be acted cm.
Lord CLARENDON gave notice that he would on
Friday put some questions to the Secretary for Fo-
reign Affairs relative to Spain.
A conversation then took place between the Nroble

Earl and Lord ABERDEEN, respecting the Chinese
eaty, when the Foreign Secretary said Government
tad not yet received the supplementary treaty, but he
trusted it would be satisfactory.

In answer to a question from Lord MONTEAGLE
the Duke of WELLINGTON said it was not the inten-
tion of the Government to appoint a Committee on
banking, as there was already sufficient information
before the House on the subject.
The Noble Duke also said it was the intention of'
the Government to institute an inquiry respecting
Vie. Irish poor-lain s, but not till the Irish representa-
tives had returned.

In the House of Commons, after the presentation

1 of petitions, Mr. COBDEN gave notice that on Tuesday
(fortnight he would move for a Select Committee to
inquire into the effect of the import duties on tenant-
farmers and farm-labourers.

Mr. ROEBUCK gave notice that, on the motion of
Lord ASHLEY, relative to Sinde, he should move that
the conduct of Lord AUCKLAND, in his negotiations
with the Ameers of Sinde, was iniquitous and unjust,
and was unfortunately the necessary cause of the
policy pursued by his succcessor.
Mr. RICARDO gave notice of a motion on com-
mercial treaties with foreign countries.

Mr. GISBORNE gave notice that he would on Tues-
day fortnight move for a Select Committee to inquire
into the deterioration of the gold coinage.
In answer to a question from Mr. WvsE, Sir J.
GRAHAM said it was his intention to introduce a Bill
to amend the law respecting the Registration of
Voters in Ireland before the recess.

After questions relative to the Right of Search and
Cemeteries in large towns, Sir J. GRAHAM moved for
leave to bring in a Bill to amend the laws relating
to factories; and, after some remarks from Mr. HUME,
Lord ASHLEY, Mr. STUART WORTLEY, and Mr.
HINDLI3Y, leave was given to bring in the Bill.
Mr. GLADSTONE moved the appointment of a Select
Committee on railways. The motion led to a
lengthened discussion, and the appointment of the
Committee was postponed.
On the Order of the Day for the House resolving
itself into a COMIDIItee of Supply, Mr. S. CRAWFORD
moved that the redress of the grievances of the people
should be taken into consideration before granting
the supplies. Mr. WILLIAMS seconded the motion ;
which, on a division, was rejected by a majority
of 108.

After questions put by Mr. WAKLEY and Mr. Fox
MAULE, relative to the Landlord and Tenant Com-
mission, and the Non-Intrusion riots at Roskeen, the
House went into Committee of Supply, passed the
resolutions, and adjourned at Half-past Ten o'clock.

Our Dublin Correspondent gives the following
outline of the proceedings in the Court of Queen's
Bench on Monday
The knowledge of the fact that Mr. O'CONNELL
was to address the Court to•day, drew a larger con-
course than usual of all classes to the neighbourhood
of the Courts this morning. At an early hour the
Queen's Bench was thronged in every part, a great
portion of the auditors consisting of fashionably-
dressed ladies and members of the most distinguished
t'amilies in this country.
At a few minutes after ten o'clock, Mr. O'CON-
NELL, who was not habited in wig and gown
as on the preceding days of the trial, com-
menced his address .to the Court and jury,
by saying that he felt some diffidence in addressing
the jury, not for his own sake, but when he reflected
how important was the cause he had to plead, and
how numerous were his clients. He had seven mil-
lions of clients—the whole Irish people—and he was
afraid that their case might in any respect be
injured by the incompetency of his advocacy.
Ile was not there to palliate or mitigate anything
.he had ever said. He would reiterate, in the pre-
sence of the Court and jury, every protestation he
had ever made against the union—for that union had
been carried, he repeated, by the most nefarious
agency, and had been designed in fraud and a feeling
of envy—as had often been said by one who had long
ornamented that Bench (Chief Justice Busua)—a
feeling of envy of the growing prosperity of Ire-
land. With respect to this prosecution for
conspiracy, it was the most preposterous
proceeding that had ever yet been instituted. He
had looked into the dictionary, 'and he found the
meaning of the word conspiracy was a private or
secret agreement among various parties to commit
crime. He asked the jury, then, as consisting of men
of honesty and intelligence, what evidence had been
adduced to them of any such agreement in the pre-
sent case ? Had it been proved that there
was any secret agreement between the parties
indicted in the present instance ; and, even if
had been proved, had it been shown that he was pre-
sent when that agreement had been entered into ?
No such thing. At least this might give him the
benefit of an alib,(.
The Hon. and Learned Gentleman then alluded to
the Anti-Corn-law League, and ridiculed the idea of its
being denominated a conspiracy. Yet the organisation
of the League differed in little from that of the Re-
peal Association. Could a jury be found in England
that would convict the League of a conspiracy, if it
were possible to suppose that such a charge would be
preferred against that body ? Then there was the Anti-
Slavery Society—would that be termed a conspiracy ?
That body received money both from home and
abroad ; its members held their private and their
public meetings, and yet it was never thought of call-
ing the body a set of conspirators.
With respect to the constitution of the jury, he
stated that in England no twelve men would be put
as a jury into a box to try men from whom,
according to the principles on which they were edu-
cated, they differed so widely in opinion. He then
alluded to the peaceable character of the meetings;
and with respect to the charge of intimidation which
had been brought against them, he said this Go-
vernment, who had all the gentry, the magis-
tracy, and the clergy of the Established
Church attached to them, could have ascertained
whether the charge was founded in truth or not. But
not one witness had been called to prove that any-
thing like intimidation had been used at those meet-
ings ; and why ? Because no one could conscientiously
swear that intimidation had been used. He pointed
out that eight years ago, when illegal combination
was attempted to be established among the trades
unions of Dublin, he was the person who put a
stop to it. Would he have done so if he was one
who was justly liable to the charge of conspiracy ?
Allusion had been made by the Attorney-General to
the conduct of the men of 1798, and it was sought

to fix upon him the charge to which they were
amenable—that of desiring French sympathy and

French aid. Had he acted as one who had desired
either ?- had he not rejected the proffered assist-
ance of the French party, at the head of which was
31. LEDILU ROLLIN. He flung back with indignation
and contempt the charge which the Attorney-General,
in his opening address, had sought to fasten upon him
of speaking disrespectfully of the QUEEN. He denied
it. The charge was false. The Hon. and Learned
Gentleman then proceeded at much length to de-
monstrate that the English Government had, from
the commencement of its connexion with Ireland,
governed this country with the most narrow jealousy,
and he adverted, par parenthese, in proof of his position,
to the history of the woollen trade of Ireland—
that the transactions of 1782 were intended to be
a final adjustment of the condition of the Irish Par-
liament, which it was then agreed should be estab-
lished as an independent Parliament for ever—that
the greatest prosperity of the country followed from
the establishment of an independent Parliament—that
the union was forced upon the Irish people, against
heir consent, and by the most corrupt and
fraudulent means—that the poverty under which
Ireland is now suffering is the result of the union, and

that the only remedy for Ireland's grievances, and
the only means of preventing the ultimate separation
of the twO countries, was the repeal of the union.. In
the course of his observations he quoted AUGUSTIN
Tutßaal', Mr. PITT, Primate BOLTON, Chief Justice,
finsuz, and several other writers and speakers, in
support of his position. . He also entered at length
into" statistical details to show how prostrated
were the energies of the Irish people,
and how ruinous .were the effects of the union upon
the manufacturing industry of this country. He
then read in full several of the documents issued by
the Repeal Association, and which had been read in
part and produced in evidence by the Attorney-Ge-
neral, and he contended that those very documents
GREY, Busns,
constituted his best defence. He cited LOCKE, Lord
SAURIN, PLUNKETT, &c., in support of
the doctrines which he had propounded asa Repealer.
In a . nation like the British empire, where Parlia-
ment had so often changed the succession to the
throne, was he to be told that he would not be allowed
to discuss a question like the repeal of the union?
There might he error, but there could not be
crime in discussing the question. He again re-
verted to the present state of Ireland, and com-
pared it to that of the country in the middle
of the last century when ARTHUR YOUNG visited it
The people, then, according to that writer, had
each " a belly.full of potatoes " to eat when hungry ;
but now, according. to the report of. Captain LAE..

PENT, 30 per cent. of the town and city population,
and 70 per cent. of the agricultural population were
in a state of the most abject poverty. - Were, then,
those who sought to remedy that dreadful state
of things to be branded as conspirators, and those
who sat undisturbed in the enjoyment of the emolu-
ments and honours of place, to be lauded, when they
assailed those who endeavoured to remedy such evils?
The Hon. Gentleman concluded by glorying in his
attempts, whether successful or• otherwise, to benefit
his native country.
At the conclusion of Mr. O'CONNELL'S speech
the Crnur JUSTICE inquired if the traversers were
going into evidence, and being informed by Mr.
MooRE and Mr. HATCIIELL that the witnesses could
not be conveniently produced this evening, the Court
adjourned until the usual hour to-morrow morning.

It is now generally admitted, that the Govern-
ment has totally failed in establishing the shadow of
a case against Mr. O'CONNELL and the other tra-
versers ; it is allowed, on all hands, that not a parti-
cle of evidence has been adduced, from which a con-
spiracy can be inferred, an illegal intent presumed, or
an overt act either of conspiracy or unlawful in-
tendment established : and yet nobody presumes to
guess, with anything like certainty, what the next
Government move is to be, either in the event of a
conviction; in the procurement of which evidence
has no concern ; of an acquittal, which the
evidence given ought clearly to cause ; or of no
verdict at all, to which the general opinion, at this
moment, seems to lean.

Suppose O'CONNELL convicted, what then ? What
earthly creature, save a Government creature, will
attach the smallest importance to such a consumma-
tion of fraud, of intolerance, of official and judicial
knavery ? Suppose him acquitted, what then ? Does
any human being, save the-Tory and renegade GRA-
HAM clique, think that the acquittal of O'CONNELL
is other than the mere dealing out of barren justice
to him? And suppose, that the jury do not agree
upon a verdict, what then ? Is there a man who
will not believe that, honest although the jury may
be, there are men among them who wish to save the
Government from that defeat which a direct acquittal
might be thought to inflict ?
Let what will happen, the Government of Sir
ROBERT PEEL in Ireland is damaged beyond re-
demption by the result of the trial. Commenced in
anger, tarried on with hatred and malice, ridicu-
lously imbecile in all its progress—the only remem-
brance in after times of the Irish State trials of
1844 will be of a Government powerless to prevent,
eager to punish, and yet without the ability either of
inflicting effectual punishment or of procuring the
means by which that end might have been attained.
Without a single individual, from the Attorney-Ge-
neral downwards, competent to set the legal machine
in motion, to direct its movements, or to bring
those movements to any useful end, the engine
of Irish law has been rolling about, totallymisguided,
and without direction. Such a getting up of a case,
lawyers never yet saw ; such a 'conduct of a case,
heaven grant no lawyer may again witness ;—and
from Crown Solicitors and Attorney-Generals such
as. Ireland is now blessed with, there is not a man in
that country, who does not heartily pray to be deli-
vered.

Melancholy, indeed, is it to witness the destiny of
a great nation confided to instruments so utterly
incompetent. Melancholy is it, to witness the play-
ing with the welfare and well-being of_ a great coun-
try, merely to gratify the vanity and the self-pride of
a GRAHAM, a STANLEY, or any other renegade of such
a school as that to which they belong. Melancholy is it
to witness the spectacle of two entire terms consumed in
a. vain and hopeless prosecution of the man who has
been to Ireland, and accomplished for Ireland, more
than man could have hoped, and achieved more than
any other man for her liberties, her rights, and her
privileges. To witness the whole legal business of a
nation suspended, that an illegal attempt might be
made, to crush by the name, but not by the spirit, of
the law, the right inherent in every man of England,
Scotland, or Ireland, to discuss his grievances, and,
by peaceable means, to seek for their redress I
Is Sir ROBERT PEEL prepared to enact the part of
RICHARD the THIRD in our times ? Is he prepared—
having gained the Government by deception, by base
truckling to the prejudices of all parties, to the worst
passions of bigots and monopolists, in all the three
countries—to support the power he has gained by
force of arms and of violence ? Does he adopt the
sentiment ?

" Thrones that are won by blood, by blood must be
maintained." And is he prepared to carry this doc-
trine out in all his relations ? If so, he will find. his
field of .Bosworth sooner than he may calculate.

Those who hear the tittle tattle about town must
long since have heard the rumour, that immediately
on the meeting of Parliament it was the intention of
the Government to apply for a sum of money to pay
her MAJESTY'S debts. The amount so to be applied
for has been stated at various sums, but the sum al-
leged generally was 200,0001. - We have heard this
report frequently, and have always been able to trace
it to some of the old Tory party. The last time we
heard it was about a week ago, when a gentleman, who
boasts of his intimacy with the Duke of BUCKING-
IIAM, and glories in the great services he has rendered
to the good old cause, gravely assured us that
he knew from indisputable authority, closely connected
with the Palace, that 200,0001. was required, and
would be asked for.

The incredulity we then expressed to our un-
doubting informant, was justified by what occurred
in the House of Commons last night, when Sir
ROBERT PEEL, in answer to a direct question on this
subject, said " I give a most emphatic denial to the
rumour. It has not the slightest semblance of truth
for its foundation. There is not one shilling of arrear
in the Civil List."

We presume this will stop the circulation of one
falsehood at all events. And, whilst on this topic,
how much it would rejoice us to see condign punish-
ment inflicted on the gang of slanderers, who, ever
since her MAJESTY'S accession, have made the state
of her MAJESTY'S health, then of her children's, next
her domestic habits, and lastly even the Royal visits
among her people, subjects for the foulest and most
malignant rumours. Every slander has been based
in envy, every report has been a wicked lie; the in-
ventors are well known to belong to the old CUM-
BERLAND clique.

In the House of Commons, on Monday, Mr. GLAD..
STONE, pursuant to his notice, moved for the appoint
ment of" a Select Committee to consider the stand-
ing otders relating to railways." We have so very
recently commented on the incalculable importance of
the Parliament or the Government taking the initia-
tive in all future legislation on Railway Bills, that we
have now little to add, in adverting to what trans-
pired in the discussion of Mr. GLADSTONE'S motion
except the expression of our wish, that the views of
her MAJESTY'S Ministers had been somewhat more
strictly directed to first principles, necessary to be
affirmed in dealing with this subject, than we collect
them to have been. For although we cannot deny
that both the terms of Mr. GLADSTONE'S motion
(which will be found at length in our Parliamen-
tary report), and the views announced by
that Right Honourable Gentleman, Mr. LA..
BOUCHERE, and Sir ROBERT PEEL, and the in-
cidental complaints and objections. alleged by Mr.
ROEBUCK and Mr. WALLACE,—Were connected, and
coincide with the objects we yesterday touched upon
as those which should form the preliminary basis of
all further legislative proceedings in these matters ;
yet the speeches of these several gentlemen were
devoted rather to details than to principles. These
details were, no doubts of grave importance; but to
us it is evident that even their very existence—still
more certainly, all modifications of them—must be
governed by certain established principles, which
never have been yet laid down. The omission of this
vital precaution, in lintine, has led to nine-tenths of
the mischiefs, which the public on the one hand—and
the sabscribers to and shareholders in those companies
on the other—have had so seriously to complain of,
since the first introduction of these lines of commu-
ncation. From the want of that digested system
or scheme of railway lines, connecting in
the first place various important, but remotely
situated localities, with the metropolis as a centre,
and these with other points of a previously deter-
mined radius,—such points being ascertained, in re.
ference to various considerations connected with
local and individual interests, but all of them made
subsidiary to the permanent demand, of public utility