The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-08 00:00:00

(V
" gran4 Int
)

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 8, 1844.

We are utterly at a loss to understand why these
long'speeches are made in the House of Lords on the
"Irish ::;`ate Trials. It was known to Sir THOMAS
ard Mr. Kama?, and the other cotm-el for
and his friends, that the Judge's
nrr i-,ye'on a certain day, we believeVeclnesday,
t. A. ':e assiz at their respective cinuitS, and
;!,,use of Lords, represented by tlyi.Law

t, . •,,:nting to half-a-dozen, or thereabouts,
L l,ronounce judgment but in presence of
t Lb. vet three days have already been spent in
arguments, which might have been emu,
pr.-is-J.4 )11:,11 the compass. Every argument of itn-
:111 the facts, all the points of law,' all the
rest:- ren' to authorities, might have been adduced at
theiclo.e. of the sitting on Friday; the ATTORNEY-
GoNERAL could have replied on Saturday, the Judges
could have given their opinion on Monday, and the
Law Peers might have delivered their final judgment
Om Tuesday= Mr. O'CONNELL would thus have
known his fate ; but, as it is, possibly he may not
know it till the month of March, 1845, when
411 his colleagues shall have been set at
libigt.y, and he shall have only •a month, or
twa months at most, to complete the
,period
of expiation for the great crime of making an attempt
to free hicountry from slavery. We make no allu-
sron totn'repcal question. .1-Ve have ever been hos-
tile to it, because it is impossible without a civil war,
ana that an along Mr. O'CONNELL has repudiiiiid in
5t0i;::,...-st language that he could'u.se, and, hl uni-
foria hither to has proved that his deeds are in
pede, t er.:.-rilance with his words. There never was •
such a riNpoiterotts mode of conducting a great ques-
Eat', nfw• sr(!ti an anomaly in the administration of
juoiee, us tiik!se State Trials have exhibited from the
beginning to the present time, for the end is not yet
come. In the first place, why puniSh, if the law
allows an appeal which may end in a ,complete ac-
quittal? Why send Mr. O'CONNELL and his friends
to gaol while the Court of Appeal may pronounce

An extraordindry case was heard on Saturday at
the Bow-street police-office, on which it may be worth
while to make a few comments. The facts of the
case are these :—On the day just mentioned, a young
man, afterwards ascertained to be the brother. cf
Lord 'AUDLEY, entered the shop of Mr. SMlTll,gim-
maker, of High Holborn, who keeps a shooting-gal-
lery there, and inquired whether he could have a shot
or two with pistols. • The reply being in the affirma-
tive, the prisoner took the loaded pistols which were
handed to him, and fired them at the target, observing,
ra he did so, that the trigger of the second pulled rather
hard. Upon this Mr. SMITn handed him a third pis-
tol, and while he was preparing to load another;the
young man turned the muzzle of the one which he
held in his, hand towards that gentleman, and fired,
wounding him severely, if nut fatally, in the back.
Having perpetrated the deed, be evinced not the
slightest anxiety to make his escape, " but stood still
end smiled"--7says the report ; and when taken to
Bow-street, and asked by the magistrate wit/ he bad
committed such an atrecity, he replied with infinite
sang froid, " I have-no explanation to, give, except
that I lfad no ill-feeling towards the man, but I 'did
it on.purpose, as I wish to be hanged." Throught
the examination he • conducted himself, it appears,
in the most cool and quiet manner possible, anaer-
ing every question put to him just as if j lit
were perfectly - contented, with the. predicamlen
in which he was placed. Prom an accolin
in the Post of :this morning, it seems that th
prisoner had for some weeks resided with his brothel
Lord AUDLEY, in Weymouth-street; but that nothni
had occurred to lead his I,,ordship to believe that
mind was affected. until within the last few defrs
when his- manner, which was invariably reserv;dl
became more so, to such an extent indeed, that it as
exceedingly difficult to . obtain an answer, to any
question put to him. "On Saturday morning," ads
our Contemporary's report, " the prisoner received a
letter, which added to the gloom under which he
previously ,appeared to labour, and for a considerable
period he became quite. abstracted. At elewen
o'clock be left home to take a walk, having
then rallied• a little," and was, permitted to
pursue his walk alone ; and it was during this
stroll that he perpetrated the act for which be is ,r+w
committed to Clerkenwell gaol. "It is said," ob-
serve's the Post, " that letters written by the yoting
man evince decided proofs of aberration of mind, 6ut
the members of his family had hoped it was hue a
temporary affliction, which had long since passed
away." Under these circumstances, we cannot bu/

,hink that the prisoner's family, and more especially
Lord AUDI...Hi, have acted with exceeding indiscretion
—to use the most lenient term—in keeping so negli-
gent a watch on his proceedings, and allowing hitn snch
unrestrained liberty of action, when it must have ben
evident to them that he was by no means in a jfit
state to be trusted out alone. Entertaining
as they appear to have done, strong doubts of his
sanity, it was their duty to have taken the requisite
precautionary steps without an instant's loss of tithe,
and not have left him entirely at large, in the hope
that some amendment might shortly take place in the
state of his mind. They owed this duty not less, to
themselves and to the prisoner, than to the public;
and their neglect of this .evident duty hes led to }an
act which may possibly result in the death of an inr•
cent individual, in no way whatsoever connected-with
any of the parties. The catastrophe that has befallen
Mr. §atiru might have befallen any other gentleman ;
it •might have occurred at the West-end or the Eaist-
end; the victim might, or might not, have been a man
Of rank and celebrity ;
.for who shall say when, or
where, or against whom a lunatic's blow may 'be
struck, when he is permitted to walk the streets
vvithoat the slightest 'watch being kept on his more-
meets Whenever any individual exhibits symptOms
of mental .hallucination such as Mr. TUCUET seems
to have exhibited
.for some time previously to his
deadly attack On Mr. SMITEf,.it becomes the obviCus
bounden duty of the members of his family, or this
g?ardians, instantly to keep a waif eye• on his every
motion, and, above all, to take care that be is not
allowed, to roam the streets, except under their oNn
person al-charge,. or the charge of Some 'one whom they
may commission to look after him. A sense of public
duty, to say nothing of other considerations, demands
that this should be .the case. From the neglect of
such -timely precautions, her Maansrr's life 'vas
twice attempted in• publiC,, and Mr. DRUMMOND
fell a sacrifice-, to a maniaes blow aimed at Sir
ROBERT PEEL. By the bye, the LORD CHANCELLOR
mentioned some time ago that he intended to bring
in, a:Bill on the subject of MonOmania or Insanity.
What has become of this Bill? We hope it is not to
be postponed,: like many other Ministerial Bills, ad
Grcicas Calendag, for incidents' are of frequent oc
currence whidb show how much it is wanted.

The !Vacancy created. in the ,Parliamentary repre-
sentation:of Birmingham by the deith of the.late Mr.
ScnoLsrismi, haS already called three competitors
for, this important seat into. the field. Ve.have so
recently offered our tribute` of respect' for the unsul-
lied private character of the deceaaed -Member, and
of hibh regard
„for the eceisisten4; integrity of his
Puhlic life .and political- opinion,; hat are not
called upon
.on this occasion -to preface' the few re-
Jnaflcs . we
.have to offer on
.the, choice of can-
didates,: by any eulogy, however :well deserved,
on the merits of the gentleman whose honourable po-
sitien, in the House 'Of Commons it- I'S their common
desire to ,occupy. .By ,the
.Birininghwis- -Journal 'of
_Eiaturdny last., we perceive that Air. JOSEPH STURGE
PreSiaent.of the Complete. Suffrage Association, Mr.
R. Sroexes a connection of, the eminent banking
hou,so,of AT:rwoon.and c 0.,, anti, Mr. W. ScnoLt.-.
FIELD, son of the late Member, are each, ofthem pre-
salted to, the: constituency', of BirMinghaM by his
respectiye friends,-as peetiliaoY, if not exclusively;
qualified to. solicit the:honour of their support.;
It is-well: observed by the Afornink Chronicle that
" the. Liberals can 4efent the Conservatives in no
election contest unless. united: To tun the pre-
tensions, then, of . one 'Liberal candidate' against
those of another, would be a manifest element and
indication, of disunion in the. ranks of that party
with which the town, of Birmingham has-so signally
and so successfully identified itself. We should be
inclined to hold that even the vindication of some great
abstract principle in the political creed of that party
would. be dearly purchased just now, by a"practical'
demonstration of diiided counsels and conflicting pre-
tensions among its members. This demenstration would
be assuredly exhibited by such en internecine election-'
eering contest as Birmingham nitrat become the theatre
of, ifithere is to be War,- not' only on 'the pert of the
Liberals against the attempts,of Tory
candidate, bid also by one of their own Men against
the pther; Whether in such an unseemly contest, the
.event Of' which can.retUrn but one competitor, Mr.
JOSEPH SWAGE ShOUld triumph over Mr. WiLtiAsi
Senottetzu), or Mr.' WILLIAM SCHOLEFIELD over
Mr. JOSEPH STuaGE ; the result would be a Pyrrhus-
like -victory, the repetitien:'of..i*hich: Would 'be
tantamount to a fatal defeat of J tbe great
cause, which both antagonists are solemnly

them innocent, and at the- same time declare that
they have been illegally imprisoned ? But, abots'
all, why do his counsel waste time iti long
speeches while the very object which they pro-
fess to have in view may be- defeated by the
multitude of words ? The counsel for the traversers,
.takinig pits
.'day into the account, have now had four
days ;''thJy were warned that the time was limited.
If the ATTORNAT:.CLEXBRAL__ChOOSeS— tit-OW-4y two.
days more
,thFy cannot complain i
~and thus the
great object- ter - which they rebeive fees—
large fees, too —will be defeated, and the
whole scene will exhibit only a,flourish of words..
Does Sir T. WILDE or Mi. Rum. T 'not know that
the Law Peers and the Judges have watched with
intense interest •the whole procedings in the Queen's
Bench in Dublin, that they 'were masters of the ease
before it came before them, and that if the counsel
were to speak for ten years, they could not make
a stronger impression than they could in ten hours ?
Many parts of these harangues, and one entire
speech, in particular, were not listenedi to
at all—they were regarded as mere verbs irrita ;
and thus the most'valuable time—the time, if pro-
pcqly employed, which might have saved Mr.
O'Comisr.L—has been wasted in pure legal display.
The whole affair is involved in mystery, and should.
it end by an adjournment, it will appear to:English.
men, and to foreigners too, as the most perfect bur-
lesque of justice, end afford to Mr. O'CONNELL a
better argument than any he has yet found for a
total reform in the institutions of his country.