The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-29 00:00:00

DATIDOE'S ROYAL SURREY THEAI RE.

Enormous hit of " Stella Rittersclorr—more crowded than ever—
Increased attraction of the best Pantomime in London, overflow-
ing with fun.
THIS EVENING, JANUARY 99,
Will be repeated a New Drama, entitled STELLA BITTERS-
DORF. Sup; otted by Messrs. Saville, Hughes, Hicks, R. Honner,
Neville, Vale, Smith, Johnson, Lewis, estop, Mrs. R. Honner, Mrs.
Daly. Mrs. Hughes, Miss Terrey, and Mrs. H. Vining.
Aft( r which an entirely new (=rand Comic Pantomime, with
Splendid Scenery, Superb Dresses, Inimitable Properties and Tricks,
every thing new and of the most costly description, HARLEQUIN
GRAMMAR, or, Lindley Murray,and AEI 0 U. Harlequin, Mr.
W. H. Harvey ; Grotesque, Mr. Stilt; Clown Mr. Fuller • Pante.
loon, Mr. Hawkins ; Columbines (alternately) Miss M. Fair-
brJther and Miss Sharpe.

ROYAL VICTORIA THEATRE.
THIS EVENING, JANUARY 7:9,
Will be performed an entirely New Domestic Drama, entitled
POVERTY; or, Mary Graham. Leonard, Mr. Freer; Jessamy
Tacit, Mr. Mentz; Squire Graham, Mr. Dale; Patty Parrot, Miss
Arden; Mary Graham, Miss Vincent.
After which, the Domestic Drama of RUTH; or, The Lass
that Loves a sailor. Bernard Jasper, Mr. Freer • Ruth, Miss Vincent.
To conclude with THE MAN WITH THE CARPET• BAG.
Grimes, Mr. Gardner; Harriet, Miss Arden.

THE WEATHER —Sun OFFICE, JAN. 29.
THEILHOMETEII, Lowest, 37 ; Highest, 52 ; Noon, 45

BAROMETER, 30.1.-WIND, W.
NOTE.—The nmaber 32 on the Thermometer denotes
the freezing point, and 55 , temperate. In Barometers
flea is usually placed opposite 30, and rain at 29.

tiltiki WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning ... 3 minutes alter 8. I Evening ... 40 minutes after 8.

must be cleared. Mr. SHEIL launched some withering
sarcasm at the Attorney-General, which told with great
effect, and concluded his address at exactly three
o'clock. The Court then adjourned till Monday.
One of our Dublin Correspondents makes the fol-
lowing remarks on the proceedings which took place
in the Queen's Bench on Saturday
"It is not alone to the counsel arrayed against
him within the Court that the Tory chief law officer
of the Crown for Ireland has afforded opportunities, in
his drowsy, and yet, paradoxical as it may appear,
intemperate opening address to the Court and Jury ;
but even to many without the Court—to such indi-
viduals as he had occasion to allude, has he supplied
food for contradiction. Among several instances may
be mentioned that one connected with the "Baltin-
glass Monster Meeting." In adverting to some of the
attendant circumstances of that meeting theßight Hon.
Gentleman said that "he was in a position to prove the
observations of some of those assembled thousands."
Those observations, he proceeded to state, were to
the effect, "that they (the people) would and should
have repeal, and that, in this part of the country, they
would die to a man, but that they were afraid of the
sea-side fellows not standing by them ;" and that "Fa-
ther LALOR" (the parish priest of Baltinglass) " told
them in the chapel, that it was too far gone now, and
that they should get it, but not without blood being
shed." In the Dublin Evening Post, the Rev. Mr. La-
LOR has inserted a letter contradicting,in the most un-
equivocal manner, this statement of the Learned
Crown official, and the Rev. Gentleman assured me
this morning that he purposes remaining in town
during the trial, in order to prove on oath, on the
defence, that such language as that, thus attributed
to him, never escaped his lips.
" With respect to the course to be pursued by the
traversers in their defence, various rumours are afloat.
It is said they are prepared with no less than 270
witnesses, but I have been assured by one of their
counsel that they mean to call not more than sbmft
twenty, and that those are to be gentlemen of rank
and station in the country—some of them magistrates
and ex-magistrates, and also Members of Parliament
—each; of these to be examined briefly as to the
character and tone of the meetings, &c. The influ-
ence of their testimony, it is presumed, and justly
so, will be not a little enhanced by the circum-
stance of many of those gentlemen being neither
Roman Catholics nor Repealers.
"In case the course above adverted to be followed
up by the traversers, the trials are all but certain to
be closed by next Thursday week."

The evidence for the Crown on the Irish trials has
closed, and the case for the defence has been com-
menced by Mr. SHEU.. To any casual observer these
questions would arise : What have the accused to
meet ? What is the charge against them ? What is
the crime of which they are guilty ? The witnesses
for the Crown have not proved anything against
them ; and, for aught that appears on the proceedings,
not a single offence has been committed. Combina-
tion for unlawful purposes—conspiracy with ille-
gal intents—union of combiners and conspirators for
objects contrary to law; not one of these has been
proved by the evidence for the prosecution. On the
contrary, there is not the slightest evidence of com-
bination, of conspiracy, or of illegal union ; and there
is every proof that all acts done were peaceable, and
in furtherance of a peaceable intent.
What, then, have the accused to meet ? Before
an English jury, and an English tribunal, we answer
NOTHING ILLEGAL, NOTIIING CONTRARY TO LAW.
But they have an Irish and an Orange Jury, and an
Irish Attorney-General, whom Mr. SHELL designates
as an " ARTFUL DODGER" to meet. They have to
break the trammels of the net which has been thrown
around them, and they have only truth, justice, and
innocence to rely upon, as a protection from per-
jury, espionage, and a packed jury.
Before an English jury, and with English judges,
the closing of the case for the prosecution, would have
been the finding a verdict for the defendants. For
never, in our experience, did case for a prosecutor
furnish such ample means for a traverser, as this pre-
sent. Nothing proved—nothing established, save
this great fact, that the Government of Sir ROBERT
PEEL was, by its organs, prepared to go all lengths,
and to run all hazards, to gain a conviction of the
man, whom, by argument, it could not put down, and
whom it was determined to crush by m-ans legal or
illegal.

Everything that eloquence, that argument, that
learning can do, will be done by the counsel for the
traversers. They have a glorious and an important
office to perform—they have to strip sophism of its
influence, superstition and bigotry of their powers
over a prejudiced tribunal. They have to argue as if
were possible to convince by argument, or to make
predetermination submit to reason. If they succeed,
great to them the glory, great to the jury the honour
will be. If they fail, no dishonour will attach to
the counsel, and the public will give as much im-
portance to the decision of the jury as they would to
the finding of Eastern satraps, or to the nominal
council of the Grand Seignior.

Whatever may be the result of the trial for murder
and parricide which must ensue upon the finding of
the Coroner's inquest just terminated at Taunton—
(and GOD forbid that we should prejudge, even in
the most unimportant particular, the issue of that
solemn proceeding ; or prejudice, by the weight of the
minutest atom, the case of the parties now in prison
to await it)—we may, without impropriety, direct
attention to one remarkable fact in the case, that may
be noticed without any detriment to individuals, the
question of whose guilt or innocence must be deter-
mined on the proof, or failure of proof, as to their
own personal acts, of a much more grave and direct
character.
The unhappy victim in this case was a labouring
man, of very good reputation ; and although his
family appear to have been on the pauper books of
the Somersetshire Union, within which their place
of residence was comprehended, he had managed to
subscribe, and regularly pay up his contributions, to
one of those benefit clubs, which assure to parties
standing in a given relation to any member or sub-
, scriber, a certain sum; in the name of funeral ex-
penses, payable on such subscriber's death. On the
decease of the man SEALEY, whom the verdict of the
inquest declares to have died by poison feloniously
administered to him, the somewhat considerable sum
of 8/. was paid to the eldest daughter for the
expenses contingent on the burial of her father. It
is not necessary to recur here to the point which
came out, howevei, in evidence—that -the money
does not appear to have been so paid to the
" nearest relative," in the eye of the law ; for there
was an eldest son in neighbouring service, who, pro-
_ _

bably should have been the individual to receive the

amount. But this is a question which we must
leave to the Society to settle on future occasions,
with persons similarly situated—as to relationship
to a deceased member. Let us hope that there

may be no further features of analogy to the present
in any future case, wherever the burial money may be
claimed of such associations. We have simply to
remark that the unfortunate man, the fact of whose
murder has been affirmed by the finding of the in-
quest on the result of medical and chemical evidence,
tendered with great apparent accuracy and scientific
detail, was a member of such a society ; that the
funeral expences actually incurred in his burial,
&c., were proved by the party to whom they were
paid, to have somewhat exceed( d 21. ; and that his
eldest daughter claimed and received 81. Now
this is a circumstance calculated to create a prima
facie case of suspicion against her in the minds of the
jury, who will have to try the capital indictment
against her, before another Court. And if the
wretched prisoner were not, as to the receipt of this
burial money, in the same position, only, as thousands
of the labouring classes innocently are, in the course of
a single year, there might be some reasonable ground for
this sort of presumption of guilt against her. But in
common justice both to her and to her sister (and
fellow prisoner), we would warn those who may be
called upon to discharge the duty of sitting as jurors
on their coming trial, that the claim of the burial
money—even in connexion with the much inferior
charge of the actual funeral—can justify, of it-
self, no such presumption. This is one only
of a class of cases, arising out of a system
vicious and dangerous, undoubtedly, beyond any
terms of reprobation that we can employ. The
inevitable tendencies of such societies to degenerate
from their legitimate and valuable purposes, is as un-
questionable its it is to be deplored. objects of

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