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

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY MORNING, JANUARY 29, 1844.

answered the purpose of the - Attorney-General, whose
object it was to ensnare. And, gentlemen, if this prosecu-
tion shall succeed, as my Lord de Grey is a patron of the fine
arts, he should cause a statue of Justice to be erected in com-
memoration of his achievements; but the goddess should
be no longer represented- with a sword and balance, but
with a hook in one hand and a trap in the other. What,
gentlemen, has been the course adopted by the Government
in these prosecutions? Sir Edward Sugden begins by
dismissing some of the most respectable magistrates of the
country, on account of something or other that was said in
the House of Commons, and because " the meetings have a
tendency to outrage." The direct contrary has been proved
by every one of the witnesses for the crown, and Mr. Ross,
the clandestine sub-inspector of the Home-office, in
the very last words of his examination, stated that he saw
no tendency to outrage whatsoever. Lord Cottenham de-
clared in the House of Lords, that the proceeding of the Lord
Chancellor was utterly unconstitutional. Let me be per-
mitted, gentlemen, to contrast the proceedings adopted by
the Lord Chancellor of Ireland with the doctrines laid down
by Mr. Baron Alderson, in his charge to the grand
jury, delivered at the Monmouth summer assizes, 1839.
It is reported in 9th Carrington and Payne, page 95 :
" There is no doubt that the people of this country have a
perfect right to meet for the purpose of stating what one,
or even what they, consider to be their grievances ; but
in order to transmit that right unimpaired to posterity,
it is necessary that it should be regulated by law and
restrained by reason. Therefore, let them meet if they
will in open day, peaceably and quietly; and they would
do wisely, when they meet, to do so under the sanction
of the constituted authorities of the country. To meet
under irresponsible presidency is a dangerous thing. Never-
theless, if when they do meet under that irresponsible pre-
sidency, they conduct themselves with peace, tranquillity,
and order, they will, perhaps, lose their time, but nothing
else. They will not put other people into alarm, terror, and
consternation. They will probably in the end come to the
conclusion that they have acted foolishly ; but the Constitu-
tion of this country did not, God be thanked, punish persons
who mean4o do that which was right, in a peaceable and
orderly manner, and who are only in error in the views
which they have taken on some subject of political
interest." Gentlemen, I do not believe that a single
witness was produced by the Crown to prove that by the
great assemblies which took place within the last nine
months the slightest apprehension was created. But
the Attorney-General himself admits the fact, for
he dues not indict Mr. O'Connell for breaking the peace, but
for a conspiracy to keep it. Let us pass to the proclamation.
The commentaries of Mr. O'Connell upon the remarkable
• fact, that that proclamation was delayed until the day be-
fore the meeting was to take place, although notice for that
meeting had been given for three weeks, are most deserving
of your consideration. &circumstance occurred connected
with that proclamation not undeserving of note. It has been
always the usage in this country to summon every member of
the Privy Council. Upon this occasion the Chief Baron, al-
though living in the neighbourhood of Dublin, was not sum-
moned; and Mr. Blake, a Roman Catholic, who was in the
habit of attending the Privy Council, who lives also near
Dublin, was not summoned. He had been appointed to
the office of Chief Remembrancer by a Tory Government ; he
had been the intimate friend of Lord Wellesley,. the great
statesman ; he had never taken any part in any violent pro-
ceedings ; yet was he left out, while the Recorder of the City
of Dublin, by whom the jury list was to be revised, and in
whose department an accident of a most untoward kind has
happened, was summoned to the Council. A proclamation is-
sues ; it is at once obeyed. Mr. O'Connell had long before de-
clared that a proclamation should be obeyed. There was an
end, therefore, to these monster meetings. For what purpose,
then, did the Crown institute this prosecution ? The bills are
found ; the traversers apply for the names of the wit-
nesses on the back of the indictment. One of the judges de-
clared he thought it matter of right ; another of the judges
intimated his opinion that it would be advisable for the
Crown to furnish the list within a reasonable time. From
that day to this the list has never been given. The list of
jurors is drawn by ballot ; there are eleven Catholics upon it.
They are struck off. The trial comes on. A challenge is
put in to the array, upon the ground that one-tenth, or very
nearly one-tenth, of the jury list was suppressed. One of the
Court expresses an opinion that the challenge is a good one.
Ilis brethren differ from him ; but when in a trial at bar, at
the instance of the Crown, one of the judges gives an intima-
tion so unequivocal as to the construction of the jury list, per-
hops it would have been more advisable for the Crown
to have discharged the order for a special jury, and to have
directed the High Sheriff of the city to have returned a
panel. I mention these incidents, gentlemen, in order that
your feeling that the traversers have been deprived of some
of those contingent benefits given them by the law, should
give them an equivalent for any loss which they may have
sustained in your anxious performance of your sacred
duty. At length, in the midst of profound silence, the
Attorney-General states the case for the Crown, and
consumes eleven hours in doing so. I was astonished at
his brevity, for the pleading on which his speech was
founded is the very Behemoth of indictments, which, as you
see, " upheaves its vastness" on that table. Nothing com-
parable in the bigness of its gigantic dimensions has ever yet
been seen. The indictment in Hardy's case, whose trial lasted
ten or eleven days, does not exceed three or four pages? but
this indictment requires an effort of physical force to lift it
up. Combined with this indictment was a tremendous bill
of particulars in keeping with it. Gentlemen, the Attorney-
General, as I have already observed to you at the outset of
these observations, denounced the traversers at the close of
almost every sentence that was uttered by him ; but it struck
me that it was only in reference to two of those charges that
he broke forth in a burst of genuine and truly impassioned in-
dignation. The first of those charges was—a conspiracy to
diminish the business of a Court of Law. How wellinight Lord
Chatham exclaim—l remember to have read it somewhere
but I forget where—" Shake the whole Constitution to the
centre, and the lawyer will sit tranquil in his cabinet ; but
touch a single thread in the cobwebs of Westminster-hall,
and the exasperated spider crawls out in its defence." The
second great hit of the Right Hon. Gentleman was made
when he charged Mr. O'Connell with a deplorable ignorance
of law, in stating certain prerogatives of the Crown. With
respect, gentlemen, to the Arbitration Courts, the Society of
Friends are as liable to an indictment for conspiracy as the
defendants. The regulations under which the Quaker arbi-
tration system is carried, on will be laid before you ; and the
opinions of Lord Brougham, who has always been the
strenuous advocate of the arbitration system, will, I am
sure, have their due weight upon you. With regard to Mr.
O'Connell's alleged mistake respecting the power of the
Crown to issue writs—what is it, after all, but a project for
swamping the House of Commons, analogous to that of. Sir
James Graham and my Lord Stanley for swamping the
House of Lords ? The plain truth as this—the Sovereign
has the abstract right to create new boroughs. But the ex-
ercise of that right might be regarded as inconsistent with
the principles of the Constitution. Lord Denman and one of
his late Majesty's law advisers in the House of Commons, dis-
tinctly asserted the right to issue writs ; and although that
opinion was reprehended by Sir Charles Wetherell, I believe
that of its being strict law there can be little
doubt. But the real question between the Attor-
ney-General and the traversers, and the only one
to which you will be disposed to pay much regard,
was raised by the Attorney-General when he said that there
existed a dangerous conspiracy, of which the object was to
prepare the great body of the people to rise at a signal and
to erect a sanguinary republic, of which Daniel O'Connell
should be the head. Gentlemen, how do men proceed who
engage in a guilty enterprise of this kind? They bind each
other by solemn oaths. They are sworn to secrecy, to silence,
to deeds, or to death. They associate superstition with atro-
city, and heaven is invoked by them to ratify the covenants
of hell. They fix a day, an hour, and hold their assem-
blages in the midst of darkness and of solitude, and verify
the exclamation of the conspirators in the language of the
great observer of our nature—
" Oh, Conspiracy,
Where wilt thou find a cover dark enough
To hide thy monstrous visage ?"
How have the repeal conspirators proceeded? Every one
of their assemblages have been open to the public. For a
shilling, all they said, or did, or thought, were known to the
Government. Everything was laid bare, and naked to the
public eye. No oaths, no declarations, no initiation, no form
of any kind was resorted to. They did not even act toge-
ther. Mr. Duffy, proprietor of the Nation, did not attend a
single meeting in the country. My client attended only
three; Mr. Tierney, the priest, attended no more than
one. It would have been more manly on the part of the
Attorney-General to have indicted Dr. M'Hale or Dr. Hig-
gins. He spoke of Dr. Higgins, but thought it more
prudent not to include him in the indictment. Gentlemen,
an enormous mass of speeches, delivered by Mr. O'Connell
within the last nine months, has been laid before you. I
think, however, you will come to the conclusion, that they
are nothing more than a repetition of the opinions which he
expressed in 1810; and when you come to consider them in
detail, you will, I am sure, be convinced that these speeches
were not merely interspersed with references to peace and
order with a view to escape from the law, but that there was
through the entire mass of thought that came from the mind
of Mr. O'Connell a pervading love of order, and an un-
:affected sentiment of abhorrence of the employment of any
other than loyal, constitutional, and pacific means for
the attainment of his object. He attaches fully as much im-
portance to the means as to the end. He declares that he
would not purchase the repeal of the union at the cost of one
drop of blood. He announces that the moment the Govern-
ment calls upon him to disperse his meetings, these meetings
shall be dispersed. He does but ask " the Irish nation to back
him ;" for, from that backing he anticipates the only success
to which as a good subject, as a good citizen, and as a good
Christian, he could aspire. But if, gentlemen, it be suggested
that in popular harangues obedience to the laws, and submis-
sion to authority are easily simulated, I think I may fear-
lessly assert that of the charges preferred against him his
life affords the refutation. A man cannot wear the mask of
loyalty for forty-four years ; however skilfully constructed the
wizard will sometimes drop off, and the natural truculence, the
genuine features, of the conspirator must be disclosed. You
may have heard many references made to the year 1798,
and several stanzas of a long poem have been read to
you, in order to fasten them on Mr. O'Connell. It was
in 1798 that the celebrated man was called to the bar,
who is destined to play a part so conspicuous on the thea-
tre of the world. lie was in the bloom of youth—in the
full flush of life—the blood bounded in his veins, and in
a frame full of vigour was embodied an equally, elastic and
athletic mind. He was in that season of life, when men are
most disposed to high and daring adventure. He had come
from those rocks and mountains, of which a description so
striking has appeared in the reports of the speeches which
have been read to you. He had listened, as he says, to the
great Atlantic, whose surge rolls unbroken from the coast of
Labrador. He carried enthusiasm to romance ; and of the
impressions which great events are calculated to make
upon minds like his, he was peculiarly susceptible. He was
unwedded. He had given no hostages to the State. The
Conservative affections had not tied their ligaments, tender
but indissoluble, about his heart. There was at that time
an enterprise on foot ; guilty, and deeply guilty, indeed, but
not wholly hopeless. The peaks that overhung the Bay of
Bantry were visible from Nenagh-hill. What post was
taken in that dark adventure by this conspirator of
sixty-nine? Did he play Pierre at two-and-twenty,
who is ready to play Renault at sixty-nine? Cur-
ran was suspected ; Grattan was suspected. Both were
designated as traitors unimpeached, but on the name of
Daniel O'Connell, a conjecture never lighted. And
can you bring yourselves to believe that the man
who turned with abhorrence from the conspiracy of 1798
would now, in an old age, which he himself has called not
premature, engage in an insane undertaking, in which his
own life, and the lives of those who are dearer to him
than himself, and the lives of hundreds of thousands
of his countrymen, would, beyond all doubt, be sacrtficed ?
Can you bring yourselves to believe that he would
hashe
wouldwon without
theet h
leaffnu,
ds i
eofn
hoifs
ha i srti nhg, 1
ee
fd rhoi ps oafff
ebeltt—s tahnadt
blast all the laurels, which it is his boast that he
of his redemption, in a deluge of profitless blood, and that
he would lay prostrate that great moral movement, which
remotest
he has raised so high that it is visible from
region of the world ? What he was in 1798 he is iu
44.
Do you believe that the man who aimed at a revolution,
would repudiate French assistance, and denounce the pre'
sent dynasty of France ? Do you think that the man who
aimed at revolution, would hold forth to the detestation of
the world the infamous slavery by which the great trans-
atlantic Republic, to her everlasting shame, permits herself
to come nearer home, doyou think that
tthoebemadnegrwadhoecaimed ; t revolution would have mdignantlyre.
puisted the proffered junction with the Wish Chartuta

the highest praise to say that he has proved himself to be
not unworthy of her. We should see her encompassed by
all the circumstances that associate endearment with respect.
We should not only behold the Queen, but the mother and
the wife, and see her from the highest station on which a
human being could be placed, presenting to her subjects
the finest model of every conjugal and maternal virtue.
I am not speaking in the language of a fictitious enthu-
siasm when I speak thus of her. I am sure that this
project is not only feasible, but easy. If the people of
his country were to combine in demanding it, a demand
so just and reasonable could not be long refused. It is not
subject to any one of the objections which attach to the re-
peal question. No rupture of the two Parliaments—no dis-
memberment of the empire is to be apprehended. Let Irish-
men unite in putting forth a requisition for a purpose which
the Minister would not only find expedient, but inevitable.
Put if you, gentlemen, shall not only not assist in an under-
taking so reasonable and so safe, but shall assist the Attor-
ney-General in crushing the men who have had the boldness
to complain of the grievances of their country, you will lay
Ireland prostrate. Every effort for her amelioration will be
idle. Every remonstrance will not only be treated with dis-
regard, but with disdain ; and for the next 20 years, we may
as well extinguish every hope for our country. Gentlemen,
you may strike agitation dumb—you may make millions of
mutes ; but beware of that dreary silence, whose gloomy ta-
citurnity is significant of the determination of its fearful pur-
pose. Beware of producing a state of things which may
eventuate in those incidents of horror which every good man
will pray to avert, and which will be lamented by those who
contribute to their occurrence, when repentance, like that of
those who are for ever doomed, shall be unavailing, and con-
trition shall be in vain. Gentlemen of the Jury, I do not
deny that strong speeches have been made by my client,
and by the rest of the traversers ; but I deny that those
speeches bear, when taken altogether, the interpretation put
upon them. To this subject I shall revert. At present
I entreat you to consider whether the speeches of Mr.
John O'Connell are of a more exciting and inflammatory
character than those which are spoken in almost every popu-
lar assembly, whether it be Whig, Radical, or Conservative.
Mr. John O'Connell proposed the health of the Queen in lan-
guage of enthusiastic loyalty at Mullaghmast, and added that
the' peech delivered by the Queen was the speech of the Mi-
nisters, and could not be justly considered as the emanation
of her own unbiassed mind. This is, beyond all question,
constitutional doctrine ; although the Attorney-General
took most especial care not to tell you this. Indeed he
made an ultra-forensic endeavour to convey to you
the impression that the traversers had spoken of her
Majesty in the language of personal disrespect. This is
most unfair. Mr. John O'Connell adds, that if the Mi-
nistry were wantonly to attack the people—in other
words, if they were, without a proclamation, without a no-
tice, without any form of law, to let loose the soldiery uron
a public assembly, resistance would be the result. But he
and his father had again and again said, that to the law they
would submit ; and that if a single magistrate came into a
meeting to disperse it, he should be obeyed. Mr. John
O'Connell may have used strong expressions, but he is not
indicted for them. He is indicted for a conspiracy, and for
nothing else. And even if he were indicted for these
strong expressions, in the uniform habit of Englishmen in
their public discussions he would find a justification. lou
probably have read some of the speeches made at the meet-
ings of the Anti-Corn-law League. They were fully as vio-
lent as the repeal harangues. The aristocracy is de-
nounced as "selfish," "sordid," and "base-hearted.' A total
overthrow of the existing order of society is foretold; refe-
rences are made to the French Revolution ; and the great
proprietors of the country are warned to beware. But the
Anti-Corn-law League, it may be said, is a Radical institu-
tion. How is it ? The Tories themselves, when under the
influence of partisanship, expressed themselves in reference
to the Sovereign herself. You cannot have forgotten the
contumelies heaped upon the head of the Queen upon the
resignation, in 1839, of Sir Robert Peel. I will not, gentle-
men, disgust you by a more distinct reference to those
traitorous diatribes, in which even Clergymen took part.
It is better we should inquire how it is that gentlemen
connected with these very prosecutions have thought it de-
corous to comport themselves when their own passions were
excited. The name of the Right Honourable Frederick
Shaw is attached to the proclamation. I hold in my hand
the peroration of a speech delivered by that gentleman, and
reported in the Evening Mail of 9th March, 1835 :—" The
Government might make what regulation it pleased ; but he
trusted the people knew their duty too well to submit
to its enactments. We might degrade our mitres; it might
deprive us of our properties; but if the Government dared to
lay its hand on the Bible, then we must come to an issue.
We will cover it with our bodies. My friends, will you
permit your brethren to call out to you in vain? In
the name of my country and my country's God, I will appeal
from a British House of Commons to a- British public. My
countrymen would obey the laws so long as they were pro-
perly administered ; but if it were sought to lay sacrilegious
hands on the Bible, to tear the standard of the living God,
and to raise a mutilated one in its stead, then it would be
no time to halt between two opinions—then, in every hill
and every valley, would resound the rallying cry of 'To
your tents, oh, gruel!" I won't ask the Attorney-General of
Ireland what he thinks of this, because this speech refers
to a subject somewhat embarrassing to him ; and what
his opinions are, upon the Education Board, it is not very
easy to conjecture; but I may venture to ask the Solicitor-
General, who is himself a commissioner of the Education
Board, whether Daniel O'Connell, in :his whole course of
agitation, ever uttered a speech half so inflammatory as
this? With respect to Mr. Sergeant 'Warren, he, I suppose,
agrees in every word of it, and only laments that after so
much sound and fury the Recorder of Dublin is the steadfast
supporter of the Government, by whom all the misdeeds thus
eloquently denounced have been subsequently committed.
Gentlemen, I find in the Evening Packet of the 24th of Ja-
nuary, 1837, an account of a great Protestant meeting which
took'place at the Mansion-house, where all the great represen-
tatives of the Conservative interest in this country were as-
sembled. Some very strong speeches indeed were made at that
meeting. The Earl of Charleville said, " Well, gentlemen, you
have a rebellious Parliament ; you have a Lord Lieutenant,
the slave and minion of a rebellious Parliament." That
speech was heard by the Right Hon. Thomas Berry Cusack
Smith. Did he remonstrate against the use of language so
unqualified? Not at all. lie got up and made a speech, in
which he stated that "he was sorry to find that Roman Ca-
tholic Members of Parliament paid so little regard to their
oaths." When the Right Hon. Gentleman had such im-
pressions, I cannot feel surprised that care should have been
taken to exclude every Roman Catholic from the jury-
box. Let him not misapprehend me. Ido not refer to
his language in the spirit of resentment. Resentment is
not the feeling which the conduct of the Right Hon.
Gentleman is calculated to produce. The Right lion. Gen-
tleman has expressed great indignation at the references
made at Mullaghmast to transactions from which the veil
of oblivion ought not to be withdrawn. He said, and justly
enough, that men should not grope in the annals of' their
country for the purpose of disinterring those events whose
resuscitation can but appal and scare us. But how does the
Right lion. Gentleman reconcile that position with his having
been himself a party to a resolution passed at the meeting of
which I am speaking, in which it is stated, that the con-
dition of the Protestants of Ireland is almost as alarming
as it was in the year 1641, when events took place, from
whose recollection we ought to turn with horror and dismay.
I referred you, gentlemen, to speeches. Permit me now to
refer you to the great monster meetings which have taken
place in assertion of the rights of the Protestants of Ireland.
Mark, Ido not complain of those meetings. Ido not com-
plain that seventy-five thousand men should have as-
sembled and moved in order of battle; but I do complain
that the men who looked upon those assemblages with so much
indulgence, when the purposes of their own party were
to be promoted, denounce as treasonable assemblies in
which no such demonstration of organised and per-
fectly disciplined physical force was made. The following
account of the Hillsborough meeting was given by the Even-
ing Mail :--" At an early hour of the morning (some of them,
indeed, over night) the great landed mprietors of the county
repaired to the different points on their respective estates at
which it had been previously agreed they should meet their
tenants, and march at their head to the general place of as-
semblage, so that the area in front of the hustings did not pre-
sent a very crowded appearance, until the arrival of the men
in large masses, each having a pride of marching border-fa-
shion, shoulder by shoulder, beside his neighbour and bro-
ther, with whom he was ready to sacrifice life in defence of
his country and religion. Shortly after eleven o'clock, a
tremendous shout from the town announced the approach of
the first party. They were from Moira, and were headed by
the Rev. Holt Waring, who was drawn by the people. A
flag, the union jack, was hoisted at Mr. E. Reilly's, as the
signal of their arrival. In a few moments they were seen
descending the steep hill from the town, and approaching the
place of meeting in a close, dark, and dense mass, comprising
rt ceainly not less than 20,000 persons. Having escorted Mr.
Waring to the foot of the platform, they received his thanks,
expressed in warm and energetic language, and having Oven
three cheers, deployed round and took the position assigned
them. • . . Amongst those who marched at the head of
the largest battalion, if we may use the expression, were the
Marquises of Londonderry and Devonshire ; Lord Clanwil-
liana.; Sir Robert Bateson, Colonel Forde, Colonel Blacker,
Lord Castlereagh, and Lord Roden. The latter had 15,000
men in his followers. 'They marched from Dromore. At
twelve o'clock, the scene was the most imposing that fancy
could conceive, or that language possesses the power of de-
picting. The spectacle was grand, unique, sublime. There
certainly could not have been, upon the most moderate
computation, less then seventy-five thousand persons present,
exclusive of the thousands who filled the town, or thronged
to absolute impediment all the adjacent roads and
avenues." From that description, gentlemen, I turn to a re-
solution, passed by the Irish Orangemen on the' 12th Novem-
ber, 1834, and which I find in the appendix to the report from
the Select Committee on Orange lodges :—" And, lastly, we
would beg to call the attention of the grand lodge, and
through them return our heartful thanks and congratulations
to our brethren through the various parts of Ireland, who, in
the meetings of three thousand in Dublin, four thousand at
Bandon, thirty thousand in Cavan, and seventy-five thousand
at Hillsborough, by their strength of numbers, the
rank, the respectability, and orderly conduct of their
attendance—the manly and eloquent expression of
every Christian and loyal sentiment, vindicated so
nobly the character of our institution against
the asperion thrown on it, as the paltry remnant of an
expiring faction.' " That phrase, gentleman, is one which
Lord Stanley, in one of his variable moods, was pleased to
apply to the Orangemen of Ireland. Gentlemen, in the part
of the report which I have read to you there are some re-
markable entries relating to a subject of which you have
heard a good deal from the Attorney-Genaral ; and although
I deviate, I am aware, from the order of topics which I had
prescribed to myself, yet, finding in the book before me
matter which seems to me to be exceedingly pertinent to
that topic, I shall now advert to it. Gentlemen, the entries
to which I am alluding are these—, " 15th 1833,
William Scott, 16
company Royal Sappers and
Miners. That the Committee
would most willingly
forward all documents connected with the Orange system
to any confidential persona in BallY mona, as prudence would
not permit that printed documents should be forwarded direct
to our military brethren." " Ist January, 1834--Resolved
that warrant 1,592 be granted to Joseph Min of the Ist
Royals." "17th December, 1829, moved by the
v'
Charles
Boyton, seconded by Edward Cottingham, that t e next
warrant number be issued to the 66th regiment, and that
at the
be Quec brethren be directed to send in a correct return
order that new warrants may be issued." Gentlemen, I
in
refer you to these resolutionswith no other view than to show
you what proceedings men who conspire to establish an in-
fluence over the army naturally adopt. If it was the
object of the traversers to seduce the army from their
allegiance, would not expedients have been ado_ p ted
very different from those imputed to the defendants? Would
riot Repeal societies have been formed? Would not a
clandestine correspondence have taken place with the "mili-
tary brethren ?" Would not money have been distributed
to the soldiery? Would not the propagators of mutiny
have been located in the public houses frequented by sol-
diery? Would not Roman Catholic priests, who attend at
the military hospitals, have been charged to instil Repeal prin-
ciples into the soldiers' ears? Does anything of this kind
appear to have been done? A letter written by the Rev.
Sir. Power—a Waterford priest, who is not made a
defendant—who is not to be punished for his letter
s—is given in evidence against my client, although
he is as innocent of its composition as the fore-
man of your jury. When that letter appeared in the Na-
tion newspaper, whir was not an ex officio information filed
against the Rev. . Power, whose manuscript would most
`eigtainly have been given up ? But that would not have

Had a combination been effected between the Chartists and customed to feel and act as gentlemen. Mr. Wilkins,
the Repeaters, it would have been more than formidable. however not only cast the imputation we have de-
At'
the head of that combination in England was Mr.
Feargus O'Connor, once the associate and the friend of scribed upon the Lord Mayor in the most offensive
Daniel O'Connell. The entire of the lower orders in the terms and tone ; but after his Lordship had indig-
North of England were enrolled in a powerful organization. nantly and positively contradicted the offensive state-
A league between the Repealers and the Chartists might ment —and this twice—persisted in repeating that such
have been at once effected. Chartism uses its utmost and its
most clandestine efforts to find its way into this country. were his "instructions,' behaving previously affirmed
the fact of his own knowledge .• " I know," said
O'Connell detects and crushes it. Of the charges pre- „
" • " that one of the magistrates of the
ferred against him, am I not right when I exclaim that
his life contains the refutation? To the charge that Mr. City of London has visited that poor woman, and has
"
O'Connell and his son conspired to excite animosity been tampering with her. N ow, giving Mr.
amongst her Majesty's subjects, the last observation
Wilkins the benefit of his subsequently softened
that I have made to you is more peculiarly applicable. Gen-
down " I know," into " such are my instructions,"
tlemen, Mr. O'Connell and his co-religionists have been made
the objects of the fiercest and the coarsest vituperation ; and is it, we ask, to be endured, that a Magistrate,
yet I defy the most acute and diligent scrutiny of the entire sitting on the bench of justice, and administering
of the speeches put before you, to detect a single expression the laws of the country with an anxious desire
—one solitary phrase—which reflects in the remotest degree to further the course of justice, is to be bearded
upon the Protestant religion. - He has left all the contumely
blyir a barrister, and accused of perverting his office to
heaped upon the form of Christianity which he professes
utterly, unheeded, and the Protestant Operative Society has t e purposes of private intimidation, and endeavour-
not provoked a retort ; and every angry disputant has, with- ing to work on the fears of a female, in a state of
out any interposition on his part, been permitted to rush in sickness, to induce her to make " a declaration" re-
"where angels fear to tread." Gentlemen, the religion of Mr. lative to the offence of which she stands accused, and
O'Connell teaches him two things—charity towards those who concerning
in open
which she is, in a few days, to be brought
him wrong You recollect it is from
dissent from him in doctrine and fos ucrgivenessh incidents that we of those who
are before him doCourt ? This has been affirmed
.
enabled to judge of the characters and feelings of men—you of the Lord Mayor by Mr. Wilkins, of his own know-
remember to have heard, in the course of the evidence, fre- ledge, and emphatically denied by the Chief Magis-
quent reference made to poor old Sir Bradley King. The trate, as " grossly false and untrue:' The couple of
unfortunate man had been deprived of his office, and all coin- sheets of paper, stitched together, and indorsed with
pensation was denied him. He used to stand in the lobby of "
m
the House of Commons, the most desolate and helpless look- the agical words two guineas," as the price of his
ing man I ever saw. The only one of his old friends that vituperation, and designated his " instructions," were
stuck to him almost was Baron Lefroy. But Baron Lefroy then opposed to,the Chief Magistrate's distinct denial.
had no interest with the Government. Mr. O'Connelfisaw The explanation which the Lord Mayor conde-
Bradley King and took pity on him. Bradley King had been
scended to give, not merely exonerated his Lord-
his fierce political, almost his personal, antagonist. Mr. O'Con-
ship from the unjustifiable and utterly unfounded
nell went to Lord Althorp, and obtained for Bradley King the
compensation which had been refused him. I remember assertion of the barrister. It did more. It proved
having read a most striking letter addressed by Sir Abraham the extreme delicacy in which the Lord Mayor acted
Bradley 'King to Mr. O'Connell, and asked him for it. He toward the unfortunate woman. He had been sent
could not at first put his hand upon it ; but while looking for for by a prisoner confined within his special jurisdic-
ithe told me that soon after the death of the old Dublin
tion, without knowing the object for which she sought
alderman an officer entered his study, and told him that he was
the son-in-law of Sir Abraham, who had a short time before his presence. Had he not gone to her at her request,
his death, called him to his bedside, and said—" When I it might have been said that she wished to complain of
shall have been buried, go to Daniel O'Connell, and tell him some of the prison authorities in their treatment of
that the last prayer of a grateful man was offered up for him,
ner, and had no opportunity of doing so. He, there-
and that I implored heaven to avert every peril from his
fore, went. But no sooner did his Lordship find that
head." Mr. O'Connell found the letter : you will allow me to
read it : she was desirous of making some communication re-
specting the offence with which she stands charged,
than he refused to receive her statement ; and most
considerately referred her 'to the professional gen-
tleman employed in her defence, as to the pro-
priety of her making such communications. The
Lord Mayor could only receive her communications
as a magistrate ; and would not receive them until he
was satisfied that the woman's attorney concurred in
the expediency of her making the proferrecl disclosurds.
Had the Lord Mayor acted with less caution—had he
encouraged the prisoner's disposition to make a " clean
breast"—there might have been a suspicion of " tam-
pering" with the weakness of the unfortunate woman,
confined in a felon's jail on a charge of felony, and
suffering from illness ; but, as it was, the whole
matter, both in its spirit and form, was a pure inven-
tion ; a gratuitous outrage upon decency, perpetrated
by a barrister, and therefore holding the rank of a gen-
tleman, such as we never before witnessed in a court of
justice, and hope never to behold again. If
Mr. Wilkins should be . tempted to repeat his
experiment of yesterday in one of the higher Courts,
we have little doubt that he would speedily find him-
self in a situation in which he would have time and
opportunity for reflection. At the termination of the
cause, in which a Judge had been so grossly insulted
by a barrister, a committal for contempt would most
certainly have ensued. As to the paltry excuse re-
specting his. " instructions," on which the meagre
apology Mr. Wilkins subsequently tendered was made
to rest, it was far from being commensurate with the
gravity of his offence against propriety.
STANDARD.—There is so much to gratify in
the meetings of agriculturists now following each
other in such rapid succession all over the country,
that we hardly know howto object to any incident
of their proceedings. The congregation of good men
for the promotion of a good object always tends to
make the men themselves wiser and better, and in
this way, and in many other ways, always reflects a
benefit upon the country. The purpose of the as-
semblies of which we are speaking may be but to
protect a great and important interest, but their
effect must be to promote political and statistical
knowledge, to advance agricultural science, now
already so rapidly advancing, and to give to the
' pursuits of agriculture that activity and that vigour
which are always the result of security and confi-
dence. But the active' and vigorous advances of
agriculture are the greatest blessings to that country
which is the scene of them—for they are, in fact,
additions made to the strength and resources of a-
. •
people, so much more valuable than territorial ac-
quisition, that they are subject to no external influ-
ence, cause no extension of exposed frontier, and need
neither fleets nor garrisons for their preservation.
In forty years the population of the United
Kingdom, and the means of supporting that popula-
lation from the produce of agriculture, have doubled.
Who does not see that the absolutepower of the United
Kingdom has doubled also ? And though the con-
temporaneous increase of population in other
countries has rendered the relative power of the
British empire less than double at the end of the
40 years, it will scarcely be pretended that Great
Britain has not greatly outrun every other State
of the world. But that this is the effect of the
mighty improvements that have been made in
agriculture, the work of the British farmer, is plain,
from the consideration that an increase of population,
without a corresponding increase of the independent
means of supporting that population, is a movement
towards weakness and: not towards strength.
With these views, we shall not, as we hope, be
suspected of carping,r naturedly at anything con-
nected with the agricultural meetings in progress ;
persons. are induced to join the
btyhaat cfeoarnspirac—
but, as the truth is always best to be told, we
must say that in our opinion they are making a great
deal too much of the Anti-Corn-law League. We
of the conspiracy;
know that many
y as contemp-
tibleisi we run a risk of retard-
ing the agricultural organisation at which we re-
joiceconvincedrofitaubsle to the, speaker
aange
thatula
su r aitl representingmacltli ny meetings
as much as any one ; but an experience, not
that though it
most profitable to the
; and the truth is that
despicable_altogether unworthy
o tof
may
ttehl the
ln
theost h obrr
at
aihtya ssi s
mosta w always
yps
Great Britain. The
subscribed money. We
thohfe
eat rheer
Leaguet o
fears have ai vs eou
ft thettethe
utterly
truth
farmers
tr
sl d
of
than a mere
doubtLeagli ethrsatsatyhetyhahtaytheeysubscribed
trifle--enough to print a few tracts, hire a few lecturers,
and pay a year's rent for a few plaistered houses. The
be, and no doubt it is, their deity ;
principle of their union is to cheat, and why should
we doubt that they cheat in the details by which they
try to establish that principle ? But suppose that they
have collected as much money as they pretend, what
people. They can-
with one hundred
then ? Money may
seillitshile English O'Con-
nbuott ith oipsenotto the idol oefntthye British people.
thousand pounds.
es
tl e odf
himself
Again, the League was avowedly
Repeal Associa-
nell. We do not dispute some
tfoiormn.emd urpo.
Cnobdtheenmhoodu
points of resemblance,
but they happen to be such as are now under the as-
say process of a judicial iuquiry, and it is therefore not
proper to allude to them. And suppose the imita-
tion complete—suppose the League an exact copy
of the Repeal Association. The original bubble has
been burst by Mr. Smith's strong right hand, and
its fate shows the hollowness and fragility of the
imitation. Whatever the fate of the trials, the
Repeal agitation is dead for ever, and the "League"
must soon follow in the course of nature. In con-
ceding to the League, however, a vigour and vitality
equal to those of the Repeal Association, we have
conceded enormously, too much. The Repeal Asso-
ciation found prepared to their hands that complete
organisation which the Leaguers have been vainly
labouring to imitate, even at a distance. The Re-
, peal Association had a principle pervading, and
as it were, saturating at least three provinces
of Ireland. The League have no such prin-
ciple. The Repeal Association is thus in Ire-
land everywhere—the League is in England no-
where, except in some house in Manchester and in
the corner house of Water-lane ; for the "Punch
and Judy" übiquity of its tumblers, hired from
the Judge and Jury Court, cannot be gravely said
to constitute " a local habitation " anywhere. To
treat the thing as in any respect formidable is a
cheat, though it may be an unconscious one ; and it
is a cheat in extending which we exhort the speakers
at agricultural meetings not to assist. They may
make a danger by raising the League from its proper
state of contempt; but in that state the League will
perish if they do not relieve it by the honour of their
notice.

" Barnett's Hotel, Spring Gardens, 4th August, 1844.
" VERY DEAR Six,—The anxious wish for a satisfactory termination
of my cause, which your continued and unwearied efforts for it have
ever indicated, is at length accomplished. The vote of compensation
passed last night. To Mr. Lefroy and to yourself am I indebted for
putting the case in the right light. To my Lord Althorp, for his
Lordship's consequent candid and straightforward act, in giving me
my just dues, and thus restoring myself and family to competence,
ease, and happiness.
"To you, Sir, to whom I was early and long politically opposed---
to you, who nobly forgetting this continued difference of opinion, and
who, rejecting every idea of party feeling or of party spirit, thought
only of my distress, and sped to succour and support me, how can I
express my gratitude ? I cannot attempt it. The reward I feel is to
be found only in your own breast ; and I assure myself that the gene-
rous feelings of a noble mind will cheer you on to that prosperity and
happiness which a discriminating Providence holds out to those who
protect the helpless and sustain the falling.
" For such reward and happiness to ynu and yours my prayers
shall he offered fervently ; while the remainder of my days, passing,
I trust, in tranquility, by a complete retirement from public life, and
in the bosom of my family, will constantly present to me the grateful
recollection of one to whom I am mainly indebted for so desirable
a closing of my life..—Believe me, my dear Sir, with the greatest re-
spect and truth, your faithful servant,
"ABRAHAM BRADLEY KING."
You may deprive him of hiis liberty—you may shut him
outsfrom the light of nature—you may inter him in a dun-
geon, to which a ray of the never yet descended ; but
you never will take away him the consciousness of
having done a good and nbl tion, and of being entitled
to kneel down every, fig fore he sleeps, and to ad-
dress to his Creator tht divinest portion of our Redeemer's
prayer. The man to whom that letter was addressed, and
the son of the man to whom that letter was addressed, are
not guilty of the sanguinary intents which have been
ascribed to them ; and of this they put themselves upon
their country. fescue that phrase from its technicalities
let it no longer be a fictitious one; if we have lost our
representation in the Parliament, let us behold it in
the jury-box, and that you participate in feelings
of millions of your countrymen—let your verdict afford
a proof. But it is not to Ireland that the aching solicitude
with which the result of this trial is intently watched will
be confined. There is not a great city in Europe in which,
upon the day when the great intelligence shall be expected
to arrive, men will not stop each other in the public way, and
inquire whether twelve men upon their oaths have doomed
to incarceration the man who gave liberty to Ireland ?
Whatever may be your adjudication, he is prepared to
meet it. He knows that the eyes of the world are upon
him, and that posterity—whether in a gaol or out of it—
will look back to him with admiration ; he is almost indif-
ferent to what may befal him, and is far more solicitous for
others at this moment than for himself. But I—at the com-
mencement of what I have said to you—l told you that I was
not unmoved, and that many incidents of my political life,
the strange alternations of fortune through which I have
passed, came back upon me. But now the bare possibility
at which I have glanced has, I acknowledge, almost un-
manned me. Shall I, who stretch out to you m behalf of the
son the hand whose fetters the father had struck off, live to
cast my eyes upon that domicile of sorrow, in the vicinity of
this great metropolis, and say, " 'Tis there they have im-
mured the Liberator of Ireland with his fondest and best be-
loved child ?" No ! it shall never be I You will not con-
sign him to the spot to which the Attorney-General invites
you to surrender him. No. When the spring shall have come
again, and the winter shall have passed—when the spring
has come again, it is not through the windows of this
mansion that the father of such a son, :and the
son of such a father, shall look upon those green hills on
which the eyes of so many a captive have gazed so
wistfully in vain ; but in their own mountain home
again, they shall listen to the murmurs of the great Atlantic ;
they shall go forth and inhale the freshness of the morning
air together ; " they shall be free of mountain solitude ;"
they will be encompassed with the loftiest images of liberty
upon every side ; and if time shall have stolen its supple-
ness from the father's knee, or impaired the firmness of his
tread, he shall lean on the child of her that watches over
him from heaven, and shall look out from some high place far
and wide into the island, whose greatness and whose glory
shall be for ever associated with his name. In your love of jus-
tice—in your love of Ireland—in your love of honesty and fair
play—l place my confidence. I ask you for an acquittal, not only
for the sake of your country, but for your own. Upon the day
when this trial shall have been brought to a termination,
when, amidst the burst of public expectancy, in answer to
the solemn interrogatory which shall be put to you by the
officer of the Court, you shall answer "not guilty," with
what transport will that glorious negative be welcomed ! How
will you be blest, adored,, worshipped : and when, retiring from
this scene of excitement and of passion, you shall return to
your own tranquil homes, how pleasurably will you look upon
your children, in the consciousness that you will have left
them a patrimony of peace, by impressing upon the British
Cabinet, that some other measure besides a State prosecution
is necessary for the pacification of your country.
At the conclusion of the Right Hon. Gentleman's speech, a
suppressed murmur of applause ran through the Court, which
presented a very excited appearance for some time before he
' sat down, and several of the auditors were seen to shed tears,
and amongst them Mr. O'Connell himself.
' The Lord Chief Justice intimated, that if it met the appro-
bation of both parties, the Court did not feel disposed to hear
other counsel that day (it was then three o'clock .
Mr. Moore, who was to address the Court t e second in

order of the traversers' counsel, said that he felt grateful for
the kindness manifested by the Court in that intimation, as he
felt unwilling to address the Court after the speech which had
been delivered by his Learned Friend. If it were not tres-
passing too much on the time of the Court and the public,
he would feel it a great pleasure not to be called on to
address the Court till Monday. But, if his Lordship had not
thrown out that suggestion, he would not have felt justified in
asking the indulgence. If their Lordships thought that they
could consistentlywith the discharge of their duty postpone the
further hearing of the case till Monday, he should be most
happy to avail himself of the indulgence thus accorded.
The Lord Chief Justice said, it was now three o'clock, and
without unnecessarily infringing on public time, as Mr.
Moore's speech could not be finished by the time the Court
would rise, if the Attorney-General had no objection, the
Court was desirous to afford every indulgence to the
Learned Gentleman, if postponing the further hearing to
Monday morning would do so.
The Attorney-General having intimated that he had no
objection to the course proposed,
The Court then adjourned till 10 o'clock on Monday
(this day)•

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.

GLOBE.—A " demonstration," such a:s, under
the circumstances, we believe to be unprecedented,
as it was certainly unprovoked by anything in the
conduct of the magistrate against whom it was ha-
zarded, took place yesterday at the Mansion-house
during the examination of the parties accused of the
will forgeries. Mr. Wilkins, who appeared as
counsel for Mrs. Dorey, one of the prisoners, took
occasion to remark upon a decision by the Lord
Mayor, that a portion of evidence, the reception of
which had been opposed by Mr. Chambers, was pro-
perly admissible—
, I do not wonder at the decision, when I know that one
of the magistrates of the City of London has visited that
poor woman (pointing to .Mrs. Dorey), who is suffering from
Illness, and has been tampering with her.
" The Lord Mayor—You are making, Mr. Wilkins, an
assertion which is grossly false and untrue.
" Mr. Wilkins—My Lord Mayor, I accuse you of that con-
duct. Such are my instructions.
" The Lord Mayor—Your instructions tell you, then, that
which is false and untrue.
" Mr. Wilkins—My Lord, permit me to say—
" The Lord Mayor—No, Sir, I will not hear you ; attend to
me. The fact is, the woman sent for me ; I went to the
prison, as it was my duty, as a magistrate, to go. She told
me she was desirous to make a declaration to me. I declined
to hear her, and desired her to confide her case to her solicitor
and professional advisers, and not to send to or make any
statement to me.—(Loud cheers from the audience.)"
We often hear of the privileges of the Bar. The
licentiousness of speech in which the Old Bailey bar-
risters have indulged from. time immemorial, has
passed into a proverb from an experience of its truth.
This licentiousness has been hitherto confined to
squabbles with each other ; bullying of witnesses in
cross-examination • outragingdecency when addressing
a jury for the defence ; occasionally pressinga point
after the presiding judge has given kis decision ; or
cracking coarse, jokes with the Common Sergeant at
an after-dinner sitting of the Court. It remained,
however, for Mr. Wilkins—who is, we believe, a new
importation from the provinces—to aspire to pre-
eminence in the worst characteristics of the Bar,
by this bold experiment on magisterial endurance.
There is said to be but one step between the
sublime and the ridiculous. In aiming at the one
it is by no means unusual to sink to the level of
the other. The learned gentleman in question pro-
bably only meant to serve himself by showing his
professional courage. He first created the giant
he undertook to slay. Before he even ventured to
hint that which he asserted of the Lord Mayor, as
a magistrate, he ought to have ascertained, 'beyond
the possibility of a mistake, that his Lordship had
acted as he described. The time when, and the
manner how, ought to have been stated with pre-
cision. Even then, the allusion to, or assertion of,
the facts, ought to have been calmly and circum-
stantially set forth. This was demanded by the
relative position of the parties in the Court; and this
would have been instinctively felt by most men ac•

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
COURSING.
CARDINGTON.—The Puppy Stakes (25 subscribeis) were
won by Mr. Nash's Cruiskeen • Mr. Dobede's David Deans ran
up.—The All-aged Stakes (32subscribers) were won by Capt.
Daintree's Kate; Mr. Arch's Actress ran up.—The Consola-
tion Stakes (8 dogs) were won by Mr. Dobede's Foremost;
Capt. Daintree's Kissing Crust ran Up
BETTING AT MANCHESTER•••••FRIDAY.
CHESTER Cur.-6 to 1 agst Davrson's lot-7 to 1 apt
Kent's lot-100 to 7 agst Sir Robert (taker.)—.lB to I agst
Cattonite (taken)-22 to 1 agst The Prior (taken)-25 to 1
agst Alice Hawthorn)-25 to 1 agst What (taken)-25 to 1
agst Hooton-25 to 1 agst Tacita (taken)-30 to 1 agst
Portrait—y.33-2too :oaf; agst Astr Orlandonagill(taken)-33 to 1 agst Recipro-
city-40 to 1 agst Testatrix (taken). Offers on the field agst 15.
(taken)-20 to 1 agst Cock-
amaroo-20 to I agst Leander-30 to 1 agst lonian-33 to 1
agst Voltri-50 to I agst Saddle Bow. The three favourites
as before.
Mr. Thornhill's Elixir and Elemi have arrived at Sam
Chifney's stables ; and the Duke of Bedford's f by Liverpool,
out of Plaything, and Lord B. Russell's Glen Fishie at W.
Edwards'.
At the Aberystwith Hunt Meeting on Wednesday, the Open
Steeple Chase Stakes ',were won by Mr. Lewis' Tally-ho
(Oliver), beating three others, by a length.

We have reason to believe that the statement
which iik'Pearaci in yesterday's (Friday) Herald? relative to
some projected improvements in the Post-officee ii completely
watruer.iltrnkl.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE
(SATURDAY.)
MANSION-HOUSE.

A young man of fashionable appearance, who d. clined
mentioning his name, was brought before the Lord
Mayor in the custody of John Forrester, the officer,
under circumstances of a remarkable description. Mr.
Bush, the solicitor to the Committee of Bankers for

protection against felonies and fraud, prosecuted.
Upon being put to the bar and asked what his name
was, the prisoner said—My Lord, I am brought here, as
they tell me, for having committed some offence ; what
that offence is Ido not know. Mr. Bush is there, and I

call upon him to state.
• Mr. Bush said the prisoner had, as it appeared, two
names, Charles Powers and William Wallace, and the
charge against him was the double one, of having be-
come improperly possessed of a bill of exchange, and
with having forged an endorsement upon it. Mr. Bush
stated the facts as they appeared in the evidence.
The prisoner said he was taken by an officer into cus-
tody, without having committed the slightest offence,
and he had no solicitor to aid him.

The LORD MAYOR—YOU are charged with having
stolen a bill of exchange. You understand that, I sup-
pose ? The prisoner—Stolen it ! that's impossible.
stolen it, indeed ! who are the prosecutors ?
The LORD Moron—The Queen prosecutes in this
case. If you wish to consult a solicitor before we pro-

matter; but notwithstanding this, he got the goods con-
demned, and ran up the expenses from ss. 6d. to 125.,
and would not part with them until the 1!. 12s. was paid.
The landlord of the poor woman, in the course of the
proceedings, complained that though the defendant had
barn paid the money on Tuesday week, he had not been
enabled yet to obtain his twenty shillings, and was there-
fore advis:d to take out a summons for him in the Court
of Requests, which he did.
Mr. NORTON called on the defendant at once to pay
the poor man his pound, and also t'Ae sixpence he had
paid for the summons. lie (the defendant) could not
suppose for a moment that the money paid from the
poor-box was intended to be pocketed by him.
The defendant, with evident reluctance, paid the 11. 6d.,
and having pleaded guilty to an overcharge of 25.-in his

expenses,
Mr. NORTON, after some severe -and pointed remarks
upon what he termed disgraceful and disreputable con-
duct, convicted him in a penalty of three times the
amount of the overcharge and the expenses. ➢lr. Nor-
ton also diracted that the inventory and appraisement
put in by the defendant should be impounded, as they
were so irregularly drawn up as to subject him by an-
other mode of proceeding to very heavy penaltios.
WORSHIP-S7'REE

coed, I shill remandyou at once.
The prisoner—But if I am remanded I shall be
obliged to go to prison.
The prisoner still persisted in withholding his name.
Mr. Bush then called Mr. Francis Smith; a banker at
Hastings, in the firm of Smith, Hilder, and Co., Mr.
Hogg, a clerk In the country department of Master-
man's banking-house, Mr. F. Borton, clerk at Messrs.
Prescott and (rote's, and Mr. Stride, banker, of Token-
house-yard, for the purpose of proving that the prisoner
had negotiated a bill to which he had no right, with a
forged endorsement. After some conversation between
the Lord Mayor, Mr. Bush, and the prisoner, he was
committed for a week, under the names of Charles
Powers. alias William Wallace, and on leaving the bar
declared that it was a great cruelty that a man should
be thus sent to prison for nothing.

On Friday a filthy old creature named Margaret Gra-
ham, was placed before Mr. Broughton on numerous
charges of plundering little children of their clothing.
The circumstances which led to the prisoner's de-
tection were these :—As Mrs. Eliza Sillery, the wife
of a publican, residing in Mare-street, Hackney,
was walking at dusk in the evening on the 16th
instant, down the Middleton-road, which is very
lonely, and leads from Dalston into the Kingsland-road,
she heard the cries of a child a short distance off,
and after listening some time, saw the prisoner kneel-
ing under a dark wall about twenty yards out of the
road, in front of a little boy between three and four
years of age. As the child kept crying and sobbing, she
thought it suspicious, and stopped, when she heard the
prisoner say, " Step here, my dear, and I'll come back
again in a minute.' She then walked away from the
child towards the witness, but seeing she was observed,
she became confused, turned back again, took hold of
the little boy's hand, and led him down to the bottom of
the wall, the child asking her to take him to his mother.
The witness was now convinced the prisoner was steal-
ing the child, and went up to her, when she found the
little creature without any external covering, shivering
from head to foot, and crying, as the witness said,
" ready to break its heart." She told the prisoner the
child was not her's, but she said it was, and while she
was speaking the witness saw something hanging out
under the prisoner's shawl, which she pulled on one
side, when the prisoner dropped the child's cloth cloak,
and fur tippet. The witness picked them up, and in-
stantly seized the prisoner by the arm ; she struggled
violently to get away but she held her firmly, and called
for the police, which attracted the notice of an elderly
gentleman, and brought him to her assistance, and be-
tween them, in spite of the resistance of the prisoner,
succeeded in dragging her down the road till they
met a policeman, into whose custody they gave her.
The child ceuld neither tell its name nor where it lived,
bet fortunately its aunt, Matilda Wright, came up at
the moment and identified it as James Cowley, the son
of respectable parents, residing in Brunswick Cottage,
Hackney-road, from whose door it had been decoyed
about an hour and a half before. The prisoner had
given the little fellow two apples to induce him to go
with her, and they were still in his hand when Mrs.
Sillery found him.
The prisoner was remanded till yesterday for identi-
fication, as a great many other children in the neigh-
bourhood had been robbed by an old woman exactly
answering the prisoner's appearance, but though several
children were produced, and there could be no doubt
the prisoner was the guilty party, they were all too
young to depend upon their testimony, and the charges
were obliged to be reluctantly abandoned. The pri-
soner was fully committed to Newgate on the case above
stated.
CHARITY.—H. 8., 51., and 8.N.F., 10s., for the widow
Hoscroft ; and half a U. note from R. E., who will send
the other half on this being acknowledged.
UNION-HALL.
George Kent, a marine-store dealer in Bermondsey,
was brought up, charged as the receiver of the brass-
work.of a fire engine belonging to St. Olave's parish,
under the following circumstances :
It appeared that since the destruction of Saint Olave's
church byfire, the engine-house having shared the same
fate, the engine and its appurtenances were kept locked
up in an arch under the Greenwich railway. This
place, it seemed, was broken open on Tuesday night, and
the engine itself being of too unwieldy a description to
carry off without detection, the thieves proceeded to
wrench off all the brass-work, together with the copper
tubes on the new hose, thus rendering the machine totally
useless, in the event of its being required. The follow-
ing day the prisoner sold the brass-work of the engine
to a brass-founder in Shoe-lane, named Payne, the latter
of whom, on subsequently being informed of the circum-
stances of the robbery, gave information of the fact of
his purchase from the prisoner, which led to the appre-
hension of the latter. A portion of the brass-work had
"St: Olave's-Parish" marked on it.
The prisoner, in accounting, for the possession of the
article, said that ,he purchased it all of a man whose
namd he did not know but whose person he should again
recognise if he .saw him.
The MAGISTRATE said that .the prisoner gave a most
unsatisfactory account of the manner in which he be-
came possessed of the article, and remanded him.
Three men, named 7'ramley, Bent, and Bishop, were
charged with furiously driving a cart against the pony-
phaeton of Edward Crawley, Esq., of Battersea, throw-
ing that gentleman out, .and smashing the vehicle to
pieces.
From Mr. Crawley's statement it appeared that on
the preceding afternoon, between five and six o'clock,
as he was driving his pony phaeton along Kennington-
lane, the three defendants, who were in a cart, came
along in the opposite direction on the wrong side, in such
a furious manner as to come in collision with the phaeton,
which it upset, shattering it to pieces, and he (Mr. C.)
was thrown out, and it was miraculous he was not
killed ;as it was his arm sustained some injury. The
phaeton was not only broken in the way described, but
the pony was also very much hurt.
The defendants :expressed their regret at what had
taken place, and the man who was driving having under-
taken to pay for the damage sustained (upwards of 201.)
the magistrate, at the intercession of the complainant,
consented not to inflict the penalty, at' the same time
reprobating in strong terms their conduct in driving in
such a reckless manner.
Two young women, named Rebecca Jones and Mary Brien,
were charged with attempting to commit suicide.
Jones, it appeared, was seen at a late hour the preceding
night, in the neighbourhood of Bankside, go towards the river,
into which she was about to plunge when she was seised by a
policeman, who prevented her. It was then observed she was
under the influence of liquor, and when questioned by the Ma-
gistrate, she said that she was 19 years of age, and that for
some time she had been leading a life of prostitution, that her
life was one of misery, and that she could no longer survive it.
Mr. COTTINGHAM said that there was an excellent institu-
tion, called the South London Institution, into which she would
be taken if she consented to go.
The unfortunate girl said that she would gladly become an
inmate, upon which the Magistrate sent a policeman with her
to the institution.
The other girl, Brien, was observed to ascend the balus-
trades of Waterloo-bridge, and was prevented by a gentleman
from throwing herself into the water.
Mr. COTTINGHAM, on finding that she was desirous of re-
forming her wretched mode of life, that of prostitution, also
sent her over to the above institution.
GREENWICH.

On Friday Captain Henry Pratt, who stands charged
with obtaining moneys from different persons, under
pretence of procuring them advantageous engagements,
was brought up for final examination before Mr. Jeremy,
and the following additional evidence taken :
Mr. Daniel Davies, owner of the brig Constance, lying
in the Commercial Docks, whom the prisoner had re-
presented to Captain Parker, of Commercial-road, East,
as a person who would appoint him to the command of
the Dryope, another vessel belonging to the same owner-
ship, deposed that he had nothing whatever to do with
that ship. About ten days before the prisoner came on
board, and represented himself as having been in the
employ of Mr. John Davis, of Prince Edward's Island,
and was going to that island in the spring. had never
made any appointments with the prisoner to meet at
Lloyd's. Had no property or interest in the Dryope
Pratt told witness he was going master of the Dryope.
Thomas Andrew Carr deposed that he is owner of the
Dryope ; the ship is in dock under a ship-keeper, no
master being appointed to her since her voyage from
North America. Prisoner came to Lloyd's, and was in-
troduced by the waiter, as a person wishing to see him.
He said he understood the ship was for sale, and two
friends of his had gone on board to examine her, with a
view to purchase, and that, if not sold to them, he was
willing to offer terms. He said he had been in Cunard's
employ, the great North American shipowner, and
would give bills on that firm in payment. Witness de-
clined, having heard of the prisoner's proceedings. He
ordered the ship-keeper not to let him on board again,
many people having, he understood, being duped by the
specious representations of the prisoner.
Mr. JEREMY said he believed an extensive system o
fraud had been carried on by the prisoner ; he should
therefore, certainly send him for trial on the two charge
of Capt. Parker, and -Mr. Hay, the shipwright.
The parties were bound over to prosecute at the Sur-
rey Sessions.