The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-05 00:00:00

-1111;

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1944.

Our Dublin Correspondent gives the following
summary of the proceedings in the Court of Queen's,
Bench, Dublin, on Friday :
Mr. WHITESIDE resumed to-day at the sitting of
the Court of Queen's Bench. He adverted at great

length to the Arbitration Courts, and submitted that

it was monstrous to make them the subject of an in-
. dictment, inasmuch as they were perfectly in accord-
:. macs with the spirit of the law of the land, and of
- the COnititution. With respect to what had been
chiiged against Mr. O'Commu., relative to the army,'
6.55.41 that the sum total of Mr. O'CoNNELL's obser--
. vationson that head was that sergeants ought to be pro-
moted .
to commissions—,4 doctrine which had been pro-
= pounded by a host of military writers—men high in
station in the army; colonels and commanding officers.
How, then, he asked, could Mr. O'Coreum be in-
dicted as a conspirator for disseminating the very
same doctrines ? Much had been said about the use
that had been made of SAURIN'S words by one of the.
traversers. Why, those words were public property
—they were the property of posterity, and why not use
• them as such. It is now rather too late to prosecute
Mr. O'Comisix for quoting those words, for
during the last • 34 years they had been
scarcely out •of his mouth. On the trial
of Mr. MAoan, the then proprietor of the Dublin
Evening Post", for libel in the King's Bench, Mr.
O'CoNstELL, cited those very words in
.the presence of
Mr. Attorney-General SAURIN himself. &exam lis-
tened to the utterance of his own words, and did he
stand up and deny that he had ever used them?
Did he say that he regretted having so expressed
himself, or that such language ought never to have
been used ? No such thing. Mr. Attorney-General
SAURIN sat by unmoved. The songs known as "The
Spirit of the Nation" had been complained of, and
one of them, "The Memory of the Dead," had been
made the subject of an indictment. Why thus as-
sail what was but the impassioned outburst of a
young and fervid mind in a moment of excitement ?
Besides, had similar effusions not been published
before ? Had not Sorrner and MOORE wiitten
strong opinions in verse ? Could not the term violent
be applied to some of the effusions of those celebrated
men ; and yet was a prosecution their reward ? No ;
one was made poet-laureate—the other was punished
with a pension. The Learned Gentleman then pro-
ceeded with a powerful appeal to the jury to preserve
the right of free discussion as they would their lives;

and concluded a most powerful harangue amid the
applause of the crowded Court.

Mr. M'DowouGu then commenced his address to
the Court, on behalf of his client, Mr. BARRETT, the
proprietor of the Pilot newspaper, and contended that,
if the speeches and articles published in that journal
were fit subject-matter for a prosecution, Mr. BAR-
awn ought to have been prosecuted for a libel, and
not for conspiracy.

The following is a summary of Saturday's pro-
ceedings :
At the sitting of the Court of Queen's Bench this
morning,

Mr. O'CONNELL addressed the Court briefly. He
said he wished to state that, as the line to be taken
by him would not be precisely that taken by the
other counsel, and as he knew the materials which
Mr. M'DoivouGH meant to use would occupy the
Court the greater part of the day, be would ask their
Lordships not to call on him (Mr. O'CoNNELL) on
that day. He promised the Court that what he had
to say would not occupy much time, and he would
be enabled still further to condense his observations
if he were not called on till Monday next.
Chief Justice—Certainly, Mr. O'CoNNELL. Does
Mr. STEELE m•an to address the jury ?
Mr. O'CONNELL—NO, my Lord.

Mr. M'DoNouou then resumed his address to the
Court, by commenting on the various " monster
meetings." With respect to the meetings at Baltinglass
and Clontibret, he contended that there was no evi-
dence to establish anything like a charge of con-
spiracy, and as to the meeting at Tara, he submitted
that the witness, whose evidence had been chiefly re-
lied on, Captain DESPARD, had been humbugged
much in the same manner as Mr. TREVELLTAN, the
author of the letters signed " Philalethes " in the
Morning Chronicle had been humbugged by the
carman, who told him that the letters G.P.0., marked
on the mile stones along the high-roads were the
initials of the words GOD preserve O'CortivELL. In
allusion to the last of the "monster meetings," that
at Mullaghmast, he told the jury that Mr. O'CON-.
NELL was desirous, and endeavouring to repeal the
Act of Union by legal and constitutional means, and
he reminded them that [there was a large
party in this country, and large societies,
_.(the Learned Counsel alluded to the Protestant
Operative Society, and the Conservative Association),
that were equally anxious to repeal another im-
portant measure affecting the public interest, viz.,
the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill ; and though
the speeches and proceedings of those Societies were
published from time to time in Saunders News Letter,
there never was any question made of their right to
seek the carrying out of their purposes by illegal
_means. Why, he would ask, were not the members
of those Societies indicted for conspiracy?
The Learned Gentleman then proceeded at much
length to advert to the peaceable nature of all Mr.
O'ConNzLes proceedings. He pointed cut how fre-
quently Mr. O'CoNnELL had disclaimed everything
revolutionary; and he laboured to impress upon the
jury the perfect legality of the course which the Re-
pealers had adopted to effect their purpose.

Mr. HENN next addressed the Court. He said he
had been engaged, with Mr. SHEIL as his senior, as
counsel for Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL, but that one of the
traversers, Mr. STEELE, who had appeared first with-
out counsel, had selected him as his, advocate, and
hence it was that it became his duty to address the
Court and jury—a duty which, until lately, he did
not think would have devolved upon him. The ques-
tion which they (the jury) were empanelled to try
was, not whether the repeal of the Union was bene-
ficial or not to the interests of the empire—not
whether the discussion of the expediency of repeal or
otherwise was legal or illegal. That was not the
question which the jury was empanelled to try; and
he thought it necessary to say so, because
he knew that the question submitted to their
decision had been already, before the trials com-
menced, prejudged out of Court—because he
knew that there was not an honest Repealer
who had not already pronounced a verdict of " not
guilty" in his own mind for the traversers, and
because he equally well knew that there was not an
honest Anti-Repealer who had mot, in like manner,
pronounced a verdict of "guilty," both under an
erroneous impression of what the question was that
was submitted to the Court and jury for ti ial. For his
own part, he did not hesitate to say, that he differed in
opinion from the traversers on the question of repeal.
He was of opinion that the repeal of the Union would
be prejudicial to the interests of the empire at large ;
and he claimed the right of holding that opinion—of en-
forcing that opinion by every legitimate means ; and if
he found any great body of men agreeing with him in
that opinion, he claimed the right of making known,
by legal means, their sentiments on the question to
the Government of the day, and the Minister who
directed that Government. The right which the
claimed for himself, he felt that he was bound to
concede to others—nay, he claimed that right for the
traversers now before the Court. 'The question, then,
they were to try was not the legality of discussing
the question of repeal ; but they were empanelled to
try whether or not the traversers were guilty of the
charge of conspiracy. The Learned Gentleman then
defined what in law constituted a conspiracy, and
proceeded to arg ae that there was no evidence what-
, ever to sustain that charge.
He went through each of the counts of the indict-
ment severally, and contended that neither in law nor
by the evidence could they be sustained. The Learned
Counsel then directed his arguments to the particular
charges againt his client, Mr. STEELE, and concluded
a short but able address, by imploring the jury to
show by their verdict, that in no country on the face
of the earth might the accused calculate with more
cei iainty of obtaining justice than in Ireland, and at
the hands of a Protestant jury.
The Court shortly after adjourned at four o'clock
till ten on Monday (this day).

Whatever may be said lor thought of the conduct
of the Government officials in relation to, or during,
the now pending trials—however the conductors of
the prosecution may have disappointed the hopes of
their principals, and proved unequal to the position in
which they placed themselves, and incapable properly
to discharge the duties which their position required
—this much is quite certain, that never in the bright-
est days of the Irish Bar, was more brilliant powers
of eloquence displayed ; more devotion and energy,
combined with judgment and talent, exercised than
on the present occasion,_ in behalf
.of the traversers.
The speeches made for the defence present a mass of
oratorical beauty, of legal lore, and of logical skill un-
equalled. It is to the honour and credit of the Trish bar,
that several of those who, in behalf ofthe traversers, have
shown such identity of feeling with the accused, and
who have so clearly and convincingly proved that no
crime hai been committed or attempted, are yet in
politics, and in religion, opposed to the clients whose
cause they have so gloriously advocated. It is' de-
monstrated beyond a doubt, that the Irish bar, con-
tains many men in its ranks, who are now able to he
the guardians of the liberty of the subject, and who
are worthy hereafter to be the dispensers and the
expounders of those laws, which can only be purely
administered by men of clear minds and unclouded
intellects. It is plain that there are hearts which
beat as proudly, as devotedly, and as freely among
the bar of Ireland as among the very first in the
legal profession in this country.

Mr. O'CoNNELL now alone remains to address the
jury, for with Mr. HENN'S speech on Saturday the
Counsel for the defence concluded. The mingled re-
lations in which Mr. O'CoNNELL stands throws an
intensity of interest upon him which all the magnifi-
cent efforts preceding only tend to increase. It is
the great Champion of Ireland pleading for Ireland—
for his country—for his countrymen—for their right
to proclaim and to discuss their grievances, and to
endeavour, by peaceable means, to obtain redress. It
is the Liberator of millions from the ban of exclusion
on account of religion, contending for the rights of
those millions to the possession of equal laws, equal
justice, and equal freedom from civil disabilities—
to the same franchises, and to the same enjoyment of
Parliamentary privileges as their brethren of Eng-
land ; and pleading, and contending for the right to
seek these ends by every peaceable, and every legal
means. No feelings for self can, or will, mingle
with the enthusiastic devotedness that O'CONNELL
will throw into his country's cause; the man will be
sunk in the patriot; all thoughts of private conse-
quences will be merged in public considerations, and
Ireland alone will be his client. But to -those

who look upon the man, who know what he has
done, who know how eagerly the bloodhounds of Ire-
land thirst for his conviction, the position in which he
this day stands at the bar of his country, is one of the
deepest interest.
May Heaven direct the jury in their verdict—may
they show that an Irish and a Protestant jury, can
yet give justice to a fellow-countryman although a
Catholic—may they show that they can decide upon
the case before them without bias, and in conformity
to their oaths. Whilst with us, they may believe
that a repeal of the Union would not be a good to
Ireland, let them not be led to declare the seeking of
that repeal a crime, when all the evidence laid before
them has proved, that peaceable constitutional, and
legal means alone, have been used, to compass a legal
end, namely—the repeal of an Act of Parliament, at
the hands of the Parliament of Great Britain.

In the debate which arose in the House of Com-
mons, on Friday evening, relative to the State
Trials now pending in Dublin—to the conduct " and
infirmity of temper". recently manifested by the
Irish Attorney-General in his squabble with Mr.
FITZGIBBON—and to the affairs of Ireland in general—
an incidental allusion was made to the Commission
which has been discharging the very important
duties confided to it, of examining thoroughly into
the existing relations between Landlord and Tenant
in that country. We are sorry to be obliged to
confess that the tone and temper in which Mr. FFRENCH
alluded to this body as the " White-washing" Com-
mission were in all respects emulous copies of the good
taste and moderation so conspicuous in the defiance
of Mr. Attorney-General Swim. It must have
struck every body who heard Mr. FFILENCR'S com-
plaint that the " Head of that Commission and its Se-
cretary were Englishman," as a singular oversight in
the Hon. Member, to have incorporated into his cata-
logue of the grievances, (those of English patronage
more especially), under which Ireland really labours,
—the best and most unexceptionable and least inter-
ested intervention which the Government has yet
exercised on behalf of Ireland. Confident as we feel,
under assurances given to that effect by the highest
possible authorities, that the labours of the Commis-
sion must be productive of incalculable benefit to the
agricultural peasantry of Ireland, and by the
developement of all her great native re-
sources, to the market of her native labour
we lament to see any Irish Member overlooking the
admitted beneficial tendencies of this wise and salu-
tary appointment, for the sake of venting upon the
Earl of DEvox and his colleagues a little of that
atrabillious humour which may have been most un-
naturally excited by the deportment of other Minis-
terial functionaries in Ireland.

In defending this Commission, Sir ROBERT PEEL
said—" We appointed five Commissioners to inquire
.into that most important subject—the relation be-
tween landlord and tenant—the state of the law and
practice respecting the occupancy of land. The whole
of the five gentlemen composing the Commission are
proprietors of land in Ireland. It certainly was desira-
ble that one of the Commissioners should have a know-
ledge of the English law as bearing on the subject. There
was a nobleman who was willing to undertake the duties
of Chairman —a nobleman, a large proprietor in the
south .west of Ireland, and who had been a Master
in Chancery, and had had peculiar opportunities of
ascertaining the law and practice touching the oc-
cupation of land in England." Now, these facts
would certainly show a strong prima facie case for
the nomination of Lord DEVON to the head
of the Commission, were there no other recom-
mendations to be predicated of that noble in-
dividual, in the high attainments, the practical
talents, the legal experience, and the business-
like habits which have always :distinguished him
in private life, throughout his professional career,
and ever since his entrance into the Legislature. Be-
sides, he is a popular and an "improving" Irish landlord,
who is a frequent resident upon his Irish estates,
and at such times a personal superintendent
of their occupation, their farming, and ge-
neral management. Nor must the moral influence
of his exemplary character in all the relations of pri-
vate life, nor the authority of his public reputation
as a nobleman, enjoying the respect and confidence
of all parties in the State, be set aside, as things in-
different to the justification of his selection, in this
case, for the duties that have been delegated to him.
After all, these are really not subjects for party
feeling.. They should be sacred from the bitterness
sad irritation that surround the purely controversial
questions of contemporary politics. The inquisition
into the vicious principles which—not one man in
either of the two kingdoms attempts to deny—do,
somewhere, exist, in the relation of landlord and
tenant in Ireland, must operate to the application of
a remedy; and the advent of a remedy for all that
social and natural disorganisation which their fatal
activity has hitherto produced, ought to be hailed
with entire satisfaction by every Irishman who
desires to see the prosperity of hisnative land consoli-
dat2d on the permanent bases of external or domestic
equity and justice. In this spirit we have perused, I
with unmixed satisfaction, the prompt and handsome
testimony which was borne to the value of the Corn-
mission ; to the public character of the objects they
proposed by their investigations to accomplish ; to
thek earnestness and impartiality with which they
have conducted the business before them ; and to the
mode in which they have hitherto fulfilled the
pledges recorded by her MAJESTY'S Ministers on
under taking to appoint them, which was borne by
Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD. To the patriotic na-
tionality of this gentleman, in the zealous and de-
voted services which he is at all times prepared to
perform on behalf of the Irish people, we adverted so
recently as Saturday last, in an article on
the impolicy of the amendment upon the
Address: which was moved by him on the first night
of the session. Our pleasure in recurring to the
tribute of respect which we then offered is, surely,
not to be lessened because " an Englishman"—and
that Englishman the Prime Minister—has confirmed
our judgment of the high character of an Irish gen-
tleman, by declaring, at the close of Friday night's
debate, that " the Hon.. Member for Rochdale's must
always be the highest and the most disinterested
testimony on any point of this kind." But we can
as little conceive why, because at the head of the
Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Commission, there
happens to be an Englishman, and that English-
man the Earl of DEVON—Mr. FFRENCH should
feel himself called upon to designate it by
the contemptuous epithet -of " white-washing." 1
It is certain that the true welfare and interests of
Ireland have as often been sacrificed to the mere
political antagonism of Irishmen, as to any other
evil influence. Let not the same little objects com-
promise the working of so great an engine of improve-
ment as this Commission will prove, if it be left to
its own unfettered and uninfluenced action. We can
easily conceive why, with such an object of inquiry
before it, the Commission should not be differently
constructed, but the question of its propriety, or its
utility may easily be tested. If these points cannot
be made out in its favour, let its discontinuance be
mooted in Parliament; but if Parliament affirm, as
it has already sanctioned, its continuance to the com-
pletion of its labours, Parliament must be assumed to
have stamped and recognised the national value of its
results, by such affirmation. If the results shall turn
out to be really thus valuable, of what importance is
it. to Ireland, whether they be realised to her by Irish,
or by English hands ?

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 eon-
tents. From the greatness, the simplicity, thebenefi-
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