The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-18 00:00:00

Q' bertall# rintd

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1844.

The Irish State Trials commenced in good earnest on
Tuesday, at ten o'clock. The traversers made no more
opposition to the swearing of the jury, which was pro-
ceeded with, after a short delay caused by the non-
appearance of the traversers, Mr. Barrett and Mr.
Duffy, the former from having to come from
his country residence, some distance from Dublin,
and the latter from ill health. Mr. Cantwell, the soli-
citor, and Mr. Henn, the counsel for these gentlemen,
each offered to allow the trial to proceed in their ab-
sence, but the Attorney-General would not per-
mit it, and the consent of the Crown is necessary for
s defendant in such a case to appear by attorney.
The Chief Justice said the reason given by Mr .
Barrett was no excuse, and if the delay
occurred again the Court would enforce the recog-
nizances. Some applications for exemption, sup-
ported by affidavit and certificate of bad health
and incapacity, having been granted, and one
for exemption on account of age having been
refused, the following gentlemen were sworn :
dames Hamilton, Upper Ormond-quay, Foreman ;
Capt. Roper, Eccles-street ; Edward Clarke; F. Faulk-
ner, Grafton-street; John Croker ; Henry Flynn,
William-street ; Henry Thompson ; Anson Floyd,
Rellington-street ; John Rigby, Suffolk-street'

Robert Hanna, Henry-street ; William Longfield ;
William Ord, Cork-street.

The Attorney-General then rose and commenced
his address for the prosecution. He stated the nature of
the offence and the law of conspiracy, supported
by numerous quotations from law authorities.
He went into a lengthened history of the
repeal agitation, gave sketches of the different Associa-
tions that have been connected with the movement, and
grounded his case against the individual traversers by
,quotations from the repeal press, from the speeches
of Mr. O'Connell, and the evidence of the
organisation of the Association itself. In de-
scribing the repeal card of membership, the
mention of the portrait of Brian Boru, which is
one of its illustrations, excited considerable merriment,
which he immediately reproved, appearing somewhat
vexed at a merriment he considered so out of place.
In reviewing the different scenes which had been
exhibited during the repeal agitation, he pointed out
the illegal course pursued by Mr. O'Connell. That
gentleman, he said inculcated peace and order, but
his object was to carry out the designs of the con-
spirators ; for if the peace was not kept
till the conspiracy was ripe, its purpose
would be frustrated. And what were they to say
of the law put forth by Mr. O'Connell, that
the Irish Parliament could be revived with-
out applying to the Imperial Parliament at all ?
Could it be that a lawyer, eminent as he was in his
profession, spoke as he believed, when he laid down
such a doctrine, in the face of the 3d article of the
Act of Union ? No, said he, it was laid down
for the purpose of lulling the apprehensions
of the authorities. His object was to crouch,
but it was the crouch of the tiger to clutch
its foe in its grasp. As another instance,
he said, of the objects of the accused, at a meeting
held on the Ist of February, 1843, Mr. O'Connell
said, England is in distress, and now is the time for
Ireland. Could Ireland have been worse if she was
a dependency of France ? In the speech made by
him on that occasion, he evidently intended to
convey the idea that Ireland had the power of
driving her oppressors into the sea—every road
was a defile—every field was a redoubt—
and cavalry could not aot against the people. He
next alluded to the wild speeches of young TYLER in
America, and quoted some spirited verses entitled
" The Memory of the Dead," and at five o'clock the
Court adjourned. The Attorney-General was to
resume his speech on Wednesday morning. The
jury then retired to their homes. No officer of the
Court was appointed to attend them. The speech of
the Attorney-General was, carefully got up, and
delivered with firmness, but it was destitute of that
fire and animation which distinguish Irish speakers.

The prosecution against Mr. O'CONNELL and his
fellow traversers, "like a wounded snake, drags its
slow length along" the slimy paths of Irish law.
The challenge to the array, or, in other words, to
the entire jury, although refused, and productive of
no direct advantage to the traversers, served, at all
events, to expose more fully the gross injustice
which carelessness, or wilful intention, had perpe-
trated, by excluding from the panel nearly one-
tenth of the entire number of qualified jurors. The
fact is now admitted on all hands, and it is openly
confessed that, by the conduct of the Irish officials,
the jury-list has been limited in number, and the
chances diminished, to the prejudice of the ac-
cused. So much for justice to Ireland, and the
Irish, under a Tory Government, when even the
material out of which a jury is to be selected, shall
be confined, and partially annihilated, to the utter
prevention of all fair choosing.
And when the forty-eight names were chosen from
this unfairly diminished list, the course taken by the
prosecutors, to exclude every Roman Catholic fromthe
the panel, was just as unwise, and improper, as the
omission of the qualified jurors from the entire list
was illegal and unjust. Can it be wondered at,
that the traversers should make every effort to set
aside a panel, from all chance of serving upon which
so many had been by fraud excluded, and all of one
faith rejected ? Can it be any matter of surprise, that
they should fight every inch of ground, and contend
foot to foot with their persecutors, not for advantage,
for of all advantage the Crown officers have deprived
them, but to obtain, if possible, justice in the tribunal
appointed to try them, and to show the public how
justice is dealt out to the people of Ireland P Shame
upon all concerned, that fraud, and exclusion from
civil privileges, on account of religious opinions,
should be perpetrated under the name of justice !
Shame upon all concerned, and may the day of their
shame be the day of their punishment, as it is of their
exposure and disgrace !
A jury has at length been constituted, after pro-
ceedings which, most unfortunately for the ends of
justice, have taken away from it every claim to con-
fidence, and rendered the conduct of that jury matter
for the closest scrutiny, and the most rigid observ-
ance. And before that jury, a jury chosen from a
list improperly narrowed in number, and to serve
upon which religious opinions were made the test of
fitness, or of exclusion, the eyes of England and
Ireland are now fixed. That jury may yet show its
disdain of the trammels in which the law officers of
Ireland have sought to place it, and may prove that
an Irish jury, although selected from fraudulent
lists, and sought to be confined to one religious creed,
can do the duty of jurors to their fellow-countrymen,
by deciding according to the evidence submitted to
them, and not according to the would-be dictation of
Tory prosecutors. The Attorney-General for Ireland
may be taught that the juries of his country are, as
yet, proof against all the manceuvres of his subal-
terns, and that no conviction can be attained by
sharp practice, or the trickery of official underlings.
It is said, and we believe it to be true, that. Sir
ROBERT PEEL, and the English law officers of
the Crown, look with disgust and disapprobation
upon the :proceedings of the Irish officials, in the
whole matter of this trial. No one on this side of
the water connected with Government, save and
except the renegade Whigs, part of the present Ad-
ministration (and to whom, in order to form a " Go-
vernment of Combinations," as Sir ROBERT PEEL
himself said and wrote, he sacrificed the patronage
and the real reins of Government), in heart approves
the reckless desire and purpose to convict O'CONNELL,
displayed by the conduct of the present prosecution
The director of the " Derby Dilly" and the " Ne.

therby Clan" desire to crush the fearless assertor of
Irish rights—the champion of equal justice—equal

awg—equal privileges for Ireland. But we do not

believe that Sir ROBERT PEEL, led, as he is, by the

fiery TYBALT of his Administration, and yielding to

the advice which, disapproving, he yet follows, can

really hope for gain to himself, or power to his Go-
vernment, even by a conviction upon the present

occasion.

It would have been far better for the Crown officers,
that their mischievous intents and decided aims at
conviction should have been more decently shown,
and less obnoxiously avowed. It would have been far
more decent that the jury list should have been pro-
perly formed, and that the names of 65 persons, of whom
thirty-seven are Catholics and Quakers, should have ap-
peared thereon, rather than have been totally omitted,
with every appearance of design. It might have been
more decorous if the Recorder had waited to see the
lists completed, before he hastened off to join the fes-
tivities of Sir ROBERT PEEL at Drayton Manor, to
which place the sheets of the jury list were sent. It
would have been less obnoxious to every Catholic in