The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-22 00:00:00

ebirb ambition

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Clock.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.

GLOBE.-Whether accidentally, or by design,
we take not upon ourselves to determine; but certain
it is that the proceedings against O'Connell and his
co-defendants have been brought to a dead lock. On
Saturday, shortly before the rising of the Court, the
Attorney-General, in person, applied that the
motion for a new trial, which stood for Monday
(to-day), should be postponed! From the state-
- ment of the Attorney-General, it would seem, that
the prosecutors have not taken a single step toward
answering the affidavits on which the counsel
for the defendants moved for a new trial. The report
of what took place on Saturday sufficiently explains
the new dilemma in which the Crown lawyers find
themselves involved. The effect of this new impedi-
ment will be to throw the case over the term.
Should the motion for a new trial be refused
by the Court, the writ of error cannot reach
the House of Lords during the present session.
The party which goaded the Government into the ill-
starred prosecution, and whose journals indecently
anticipated the verdict, and actually assigned the
measure of punishment which the defendants would
receive at the hinds of the Court, were loud in their
complaints whenever an objection was taken to any
part of the certainly very questionable proceed-
ceedings of the Crown lawyers, that justice
was delayed by unnecessary impediments.
The Irish Tories thus showed their thirst
for the conviction, and for a vindictively severe
punishment, as the result of that conviction. Easter
Term was anticipated with impatience. It would
then be known what course would be taken, and when
that course would be entered upon. That was to be the
termination of all doubt. Certainty would then be sub-
stituted for conjecture. These rabid prophets would
then see their predictions confirmed by the event.
The ordinary proceedings were adopted on the part of
• the defendants. On receiving a four days' rule,
giving them notice that the Attorney-General, on
the part of the Crown, would move the Court for
judgment, a motion for a new trial, founded on
affidavits, was made on their behalf. The Court
axed this day for the argument. One class
of the affidavits flied in support of the motion had
reference to the mysterious loss of a consider-
able number of names from the jury lists. These
affidavits, as the Attorney-General saw, were of a
nature which demanded a specific answer : "He con-
ceived it to be his duty"—so he stated to the Court—
" to cause the clerks of the peace to be served with a
notice, setting forth the charges in these affidavits or
the' traversers, in order to ascertain whether they would
swear affidavits in reply." The clerks of the peace,
it would appear, from the Attorney-General's state-
ment, had taken no official notice of his notice. What
private intimations, explanations, or directions have
been conveyed on the one hand, which, if known,
would account for the expressive silence of these func-
tionaries, or whether that which appears pregnant
with suspicion of design be only the result of one of
those accidents, or " mistakes,' which have sig-
nalised the proceedings against O'Connell from
their commencement, perhaps time, the great ex-
pounder of mysteries, may explain. All we at pre-
sent know is, that the order of the Court has been
discharged generally, and that the notice stands
on the lists without any day being named for
its renewal. This new delay, caused by the prosecu-
tors, will tend to strengthen the generally-believed
report, that the Government has not the intention of
pressing for judgment against the parties. Modera-
tion may, and will be, condemned by the intempe-
rate ; hut it will be approved by men of all parties
who desire to see the mass of the Irish people conci-
liated and emancipated from the delusions of repeal.
Next to abstinence on the part of the Government
from interference with an agitation which (as Sir
Robert Peel admitted) was " burning itself out"—
but which was revived by the new fuel supplied by
the prosecutions to its flickering flame--we could
wish to see a decided disposition on the part of Mi-
nisters to proceed no further in the course on which
they ought never to have entered. The Government
has gained nothing, but has lost much, in character
and moral influence by the prosecution. Every step
onward in the ill-advised course will be fraught
with danger. It is possible that this new hitch
in the proceedings is the result of accident. At all
events, it mu,t cause considerable delay. By arrest-
ing the progress of the law it will afford to the Go-
vernment an opportunity of more dispassionately re-
viewing the whole proceedings. If that review in-
duce a prudent disposition to abandon the idea of
' pressing for judgment, a plausible excuse is supplied.
lime, in such a state of things, is of great importance.
This is obtained by the accidental or designed impe-
diment to the argument on the new trial motion,
which was to have been entered upon to-day; but is
now postponed, sine die.
STAN DARD,—From what passed in the Irish
Court of Queen's Bench on Saturday, it is certain
that the Attorney-General will have the fraud of the
abstracted names of the jurors' list searched to the bot-
tom. l n consequence of the traversers and their
solicitors having sworn to their belief that the abstrac-
tion of the names was not accidental, the high-spirited
Attorney-General instantly called upon the Clerk
of the Peace and the other functionaries who
had access to the lists to answer these affi-
davits before twelve o'clock on Saturday. At
three o'clock on Saturday, however, they had
• neither answered the affidavits nor intimated any
purpose of doing so ; and there the matter rests. The
Attorney-General, unfortunately, has no power over
the Clerk of the Peace and the other persons concerned.

They are the servants of the repeal corporation, or
of the well-known Mr. Frederick Shaw, the person
to whom chiefly the repeal corporation owes its
existence. Magrath, the person responsible
for the lists, is, we presume, wholly in Mr. Shaw's
hands ; for we remember that in the late debate, in
which this question of the lists was raised, Mr. Shaw
*declared, with some affectation of scorn, that he had
not dismissed and would not dismiss Magrath. Of
course he will not dismiss Magrath, even though that
person still decline to purge himself of the fraud imputed
to him in the affidavits of the traversers and their attor-
neys. This most extrao► dinary conduct of public
officers calls for another delay, and this, no doubt, is
one of the motives of the recusants. While
we are upon this subject, let us follow up
a hint of the Morning Herald, by a suggestion
that we think might go far to baffle the
dilatory scheme of the traversers. They say
that they will split their motion, in fact into
eight motions, each traverser employing his own
counsel. Now it is observed by our Contemporary,
that the punishment, sooner or later, or at all,
•of six of the conspirators is of little moment,
and we so far agree with the Herald. The
cases of Messrs. Barrett, Duffy, Steele, Ray,
John O'Connell, and Doctor Gray, may very
well stand over for as many terms as shall be found
convenient. But the case of Mr. Daniel O'Connell
and Mr. Tierney must be disposed of at once. Why
not then, as the traversers choose to split their mo-
tion, take them separately in fact : first deal with Mr.
Daniel O'Connell, then with Mr. Tierney, both
promptly, and afterwards take the rest at leisure.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT
(THIS EVENING.)

H OUSE OF LORDS.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Wool-
- sack at Five o'Clock.
DISSENTERS' CHAPELS BILL.
Lord DACRE presented seven petitions in favour
of the Dissenters Chapels Bill, but the designations of
the petitioners were not heard in the gallery.
The Duke of WELLINGTON presented a peti-
tion to the same effect from a place in Lancashire.
Lord BROUGHAM presented a similar petition
from a congregation in Belfast.
MESSAGE FROM THE COMMONS.
Mr. GREENE and others from the Commons brought
up the Hartlepool Harbour and Dock Bill, the Yar-
mouth and Norwich Railway Act Amendment Bill,
the North British Railway Bill, the Brandon and Nor-
wich, and other Bills.
PRESBYTERIAN MARRIAGES.
Lord BROUGHAM presented a great number of
petitions from congregations of Presbyterians in
Donegal, Trim; Down, and other parts of the north
of Ireland in favour of Presbyterian marriages. The
Noble and Learned Lord presented also a petition
from the National Association for the Political and
Social Improvement of the People, complaining that
they had not been able to obtain a certificate, which
would exempt them from paying
taxes for their pre-
mises ; also a petition from the Mayor and Corpora-
tion of Nottingham (as we understood), praying for
the alteration and amendment of the Bankruptcy laws.
Lord NORMANBY presented a petitionth
from the
-Dissenting congregation of a place in e north of
Ireland, expressing surprise and alarm at the. nature
`and probable results of the Bill brought m by the,
_Noble Lord on the. Woolsack, entitled the Dissenters'
Chapels Bill, and praying their Lordships not to allow
it to Pass. 'The Noble Lord presented another
petition from the ministers and presbytery of a con-
gregation in Yorkshire, expressive of their approba-
tion of the provisions of the Bill, and hoping that it
might be allowed to pass into a law.—(Laughter.)
Lord CAMPBELL presented several petitions
against the Dissenters' Chapels Bill.
• After a few words from Lord Brougham, the Lord
Chancellor, and Lord Cottenham, the Debtors and
Creditors Bill, which stood fora second reading, was
postponed till Monday next.
Lord NORMANBY presented a petition from the
members of a Presbyterian congregation in the north