The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF TUESDAY.
GLOBE.—While strenuously striving to effect an
object, in which it signally fails, the Times establishes
another, and very important fact, of which it was, or
affected to be, altogether ignorant. The point aimed at
by the Times is to fasten upon the Whigs the charge of
aiding and abetting O'Connell in the repeal agitation,
for party purposes. This is an accusation which is
easily made. It has been reiterated with in-
creased assurance, as its utter falsehood became more
and more apparent. The accumulation of facts
by which it has been confuted, requires for its repetition
no common share of the courage which not merely dis-
penses with truth in dealing with political opponents,
but takes for granted that those who read the inventions
thus boldly put forth are utterly oblivious of recorded
facts, the records of which are accessible by all.
In proof of the perfectly gratuitous character of this
imputation, we might refer to more than one Royal
Speech on the opening of Parliament during the Whig
Administrations, in which the strongest language con-
sistent with the occasion was employed against the re-
peal of the legislative union of the two countries—to the
speeches of the members of the Whig Government in
Parliament—the explicit condemnation of the Repeal
Association by Lord Fortescue, when Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland, in which he expressed his determination
to exclude from every description of office under the
Crown, all who became members of the Association ;
and at the same time cautioned the leaders of the move-
ment, then in its infancy, against any violation of the
laws or interruption of th© public peace ; as, in that
case, the powers which the Constitution had placed at
the disposal of the Government would be employed—the
peace of the community protected—and the offenders be
visited with punishment. The same may be affirmed of the
journals which were and are conducted on the principle
by which the Whigs administered the Government. For
ourselves, we may safely assert that no language can have
been more unmistakeable than that which we have invari-
ably employed in reprobation of repeal. Our strongest cen-
sures have been directed against the folly of the Repeal
project, and to set forth the mischiefs to which the
agitation got up by O'Connell and his coadjutors were
producing among the population. This course we took
—not merely when we might be supposed to act under
the guidance of the marked reprehensions uttered by the
Whig leaders. Since the agitation for Repeal has become
an apparently national, rather than a local movement,
and three provinces have become the theatre of its ope-
ration—since Repeal has disturbed the country with
fears, and embarrassed the Government by its formid-
able proceedings, our language has been invariably the
same. No factious motives have induced us to vary our
tone or qualify our expressions. We still regard the
Repeal project with the same undeviating aversion,
both as to its objects, and the means by which it is sought
to be effected. We have said thus much in vindication of
our consistency, and of the political party with
which we are associated, against such imputations as
those which are to-day hashed up again by the Times.
The Times—without perceiving the tendency of its
admissions, and the manner in which it satisfactorily ac-
counts for the origin and.progress of the Repeal move.
ment on grounds other than those it has assigned—re-
fers to the fact, that the condition of the great mass
of the people—a condition which the Whigs, when in
office, laboured to improve—constitutes the element
in which discontent finds its encouragement ; and that
the utter %hopelessness of improvement under the pre-
sent Government imparts impulse to agitation, and
invests it with the elements of alarm. The prose-
cution of O'Connell—the way in which that prosecution
has been conducted—the various and often detailed ap-
pliances of irritation to an already excited people,
crowned by the expulsion of every Roman Catholic from
the jury panel on account of his creed—these insults and
injuries, accompanied by a stern refusal to inquire into
the general grievances, have stimulated the national dis-
like to Tory rule, which has taken the shape of Repeal
agitation. The movement might have been crippled by
conciliation—it has been fostered by coercion. Tho Times
may rave—for it is not reasoning. That which is
good in the exhortation, conies too late to be of use.
That which is evil in it the Ministers have already
tried, and it has increased the evils it was designed to re-
medy. The Ministers have " plunged" themselves into
the thickest difficulties that ever environed a Govern-
ment. They know not how to get out—whether by re-
treating—if they are, indeed, able to do so; or by during
the worst to themselves and the country, by attempting
to proceed in the course which has been beset with dan-
gers, and which threatens to become yet more perilous.
STANDARD.—It will have been seen, from our
yesterday's report that the Court of Queen's Bench in
Dublin was occupied until half-past six on Saturday
evening in hearing the arguments of counsel, as to the
admissibility as evidence of certain printed documents
issued from time to time by the Repeal Association, and
produced in Court by the printer employed by that
body. To support the charge of having collected money
for the purposes of the conspiracy as laid in the in-
dictment, the counsel for the Crown proposed to read
a paper headed " Instructions to Repeal Wardens," and
signed Daniel O'Connell. It was objected by the
counsel for the traversers, that the publication of these
papers was not mentioned in the bill of particulars. The
Court, however, decided that they should be admitted.
The counsel for the traversers then objected, on the
same ground, to the reading of a " Letter addressed to
the "Secretary of the Repeal Association, by the author
of the Green Book." The Attorney General replied
that the letter had appeared in the Nation newspaper,
publications from which were included in the bill of par-
ticulars ; adding that in their objections the traversers'
counsel confounded the charges against them with
the mode of proving them. The Crown had supplied
a bill of particulars of the charges to be brought against
them, but it was absurd to pretend that all the
documents it was intended to use in evidence
should have been set forth. The Court -finally
decided in favour of the admissibility of all the docu-
ments, and then adjourned until 10 admissibility
on Monday.
The admission of these papers is considered of much
greater importance to the issue of the trial than any
other proceeding which has yet taken place during its
progress ; furnishing as they do the most complete evi-
dence of the connection of the traversers with the As-
sociation, and their consequent responsibility for
the publications issued by that body. The most im-
portant of these documents are—l. The letters of the
Secretary of the Loyal National Association, relative to
the new Card of Members, by the author of the " Green
Book."-2. A Plan for the Renewal of the Irish Parlia-
ment.-3. Instructions for the Appointment of Repeal
Wardens.-4. Form for the Appointment of Repeal
Wardens.-5. A Proclamation relating to the Arbitration
Courts.-6. The Address of the Association to the Inha-
bitants of Countries subject to the British Crown.-7.
Rules to be observed by Arbitrators in Districts.-8. Arbi-
tration Notices, &c. A great many witnesses for the
Crown remain yet to be examined. The Morning
Chronicle has attempted to palliate its own inconsistency
in reference to these prosecutions by fictitious allegations
against its Contemporaries, and has charged the
Standard, among others, with having published " gas.
bled" extracts from the evidence. It is hardly necessary
for us to defend ourselves from such an accusation. We
have carefully abstained from any comment whatever on
the evidence, although we have not hesitated to express
our disgust at the paltry devices by which it has been at-
tempted to protract the proceedings. The only two ex-
tracts from the evidence to which we have directed atten-
tion, consisted of samples of the mode in which the cross-
examination of witnesses is being conducted by the counsel
for the traversers, and which involved no fact that could
have the slightest influence on the issue. One counsel
asks a witness, whom he has in vain attempted to baffle
by questions arising out of his evidence, " If he would
have any objection to give a piece of Irish tabinet for a
lady?" He answers perhaps he should; when the
counsel replies "then the lady would have the worst ,
of the bargain." We certainly deprecated such a
mode of cross-examination, and we repeat our opinion,
that it was in the worst possible taste. With regard to
the facts of the case, as detailed in the speech of the
Attorney-General, and supported by the evidence, we
have studiously refrained from all comment upon them ;
and notwithstanding the threat of the Morning Chro-
nicle, that it will proceed to comment upon them de die in
diem, we shall not be induced to follow its example.
The Chronicle is not, however, alone in its breach of
the rule ordinarily observed on such occasions ; the
Whig and Radical press generally has evinced a dis-
regard for " decency" and " justice" in its attempts
to intimidate the jury, and calumniate the wit-
nesses for the Crown, wholly without precedent.
It was reserved for our Morning Contemporary,
however, to warn one of the jurors that the trials would
be protracted to a period which would render his death,
"if game," all but certain ; and that if he were wise, he
would forthwith take to his bed and send in a physician's
certificate. This, our impartial journalist suggested,
with an ill-disguised chuckle, would bring the prosecu-
tions to an abrupt termination.
TEN EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The Irish State trials proceedings of
Monday are before us. With the exception of
Saturday's—the whole of which were occupied
by the evidence of that most imaginative wit-
ness, Mr. Jackson, the Morning Herald's veri-
table correspondent—the proceedings of Monday
were the most stale, flat, and unprofitable for the
purposes of the prosecution (and this is saying a
good deal) of any of the preceding days. The pro-
prietor of the Morning Herald receives anything but
commendation from the Dublin Tory journals for his
anxious solicitude on behalf of the Government.
Whether the break down of the witness he sup-
plied has caused the Tory organs to treat his fond
concern with such cold, insulting comment, we know
not. There may be, and possibly is, a general feeling,
that to hand a confidential agent over to the Crown
Solicitor, and to forward letters to this officer whioh
had been written under the seal of such confidence,
without once consulting or communicating with the
writer—just as though he had been "a horse, a dog,
or a mule," are acts which reflect discredit on the en-
tire press ; and are therefore visited, as they deserve
to be, with reprobation. The following allusions by
the Dublin Mail to the Morning Herald's "supply in
aid," are anythingbut complimentary to the obsequious
journal :—" Mr. Jackson, a reporter connected with
the Morning Herald, was put upon the table to
verify sundry reports transmitted by him to London.
It appears that the manuscripts forwarded by Mr.
Jackson to the Herald office, were placed in the
hands of the Crown Solicitor, by the proprietor
of that journal, without the knowledge of Mr.
Jackson. On a cross-examination, it was made to
appear that several of the reports were mere com-
pilations from the Dublin morning papers, and con-
sequently Mr. Jackson's evidence was rendered
nugatory." This witness was evidently regarded as
one of the main props of the prosecution. His de-
plorable "break down" was therefore felt to be a