The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-05 00:00:00

No. 16,026.

JANUARY 5, 1844.

PRICE sd.

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IRELAND.
THE STATE FROSECUTIONS.-STRIKING OF THE SPICIAL

JURY.

Deem:, Jar. 3.—This being the day fixed for the striking
of the Special Jury in the case of the Queen v. O'Connell and
others, the parties attended at the Crown-office at twelve
o'clock, when Mr. Brewster appeared for the Crown, and
Messrs. Whiteside and Close for the traversers. In conse-
quence of the authorities having seen fit to exclude all but the
Government reporters, we are unable to give a formal report of
the proceedings, but can state that Mr. Whiteside at once ob-
jected on the part of the traversers to the jury being struck
that day, and called on the Sheriff to adjourn till the Clerk of
the Crown had furnished the traversers with a copy of the
special panel from which it was intended that the jury should
be struck. He reminded the Clerk of the Crown that when
the order was made in the case, counsel said it was from the
new panel the jury would be selected, but it was manifestly lan-
possible for the agents for the traversers to go on, in the ab-
sence of all knowledge as to the constitution of the panel.
Mr. Brewster, on the part of the Crown, objected to an ad-
journment. An order had been made by the proper officer for
striking the list, anjl he and his Learned Friend, the Attorney-
General, had made a minute calculation, and found that in
order to have a trial next term, it was incumbent on them to
strike the list that day.
Mr. Whiteside asserted that his Learned Friend was mis-
taken. The; jury could be struck to-morrow or next day just
as well as to-day.
Mr. Latouche, the Sheriff, said he had every disposition its
the world to accommodate, but he was not a free agent; he
could do nothing in the case without the consent of both par-
ties ; but he had no objection in the world to furnish the tea.
versers with a copy of the panel provided the Crown consented.
After a long and very desultory discussion, it was finally de-
termined that a clerk from each party should attend at the She-
riff's office at two o'clock, for the purpose of making out a copy
of the panel, and that the jury should be struck in the Crown-
office at two o'clock to-morrow.

It is said that an agent of the Conservative Society has been
employed for the purpose of obtaining the signatures of such
Liberals as have been returned on the special jury list to a sort
of declaration against the course of policy pursued by the Go.
vernment in reference to the prosecutions, and that the signa-
tures will be brought before the Clerk of the Crown in the
event of any of the writers being drawn on the ballot. The
person employed on this honourable mission represented him-
self as an agent of the Repeal Association, and very manz gen-
tlemen have been deluded into an act which may j'robab.y dis-
qualify them to serve on the jury.

maim%

ven. Concessions to pu iic
ikely to make ; but they will
have lost the power to con-
Imptish no end but to irritate
party to whom concessions
fiefs, ten the demands And expec-
tations of those who receive them, not with gra-
titude, but with contemptuous triumph.' A Mi-
nister like this was not born to set right times so
much Out of joint as the present. He is not Ihe
man to tell us " What is to be done ?"
POST.—We have, during the past year, con-
tinually, emphatically, declared our opinion, that
Sir Robert Peel has based his Government on a
wrong principle; he has based it on the fears of
the timid, not on the hopes of the courageous—
on the indifferentism of the worldly-minded, not
on the generosity of the high-hearted—on all
the low and some of the respectable feelings, not
on the high and ennobling virtues of mankind.
Sprung, as he himself boasts, from the middle
classes, the mean, though it often be the mean
between right and wrong, is ever to him the
happy mean ; neither high nor low, hot nor
cold, approving nor condemning, he has fixed
his Government on the moderate opinions of the
moderate portion of the middle classes, and there
" Content to dwell in decencies for ever,"
he and it remain. In the meantime the princi-
ples, opinions, and aspirations of his supporters
are to be examined, and as they are to be found
in the highest and lowest, as well as the middle
classes, it is of the first importance to discover
whether the middle class basis he has adopted
finds fsvour in their eyes or not. It is our belief
that it does not. It pleases neither the aristo-
cracy nor the people ; and an English Govern-
ment in these days should aim at pleasing both,
and benefiting the one through the medium of
the other. In saying this, we are far from wish-
ing a return to the Whig oligarchy established
at the Revolution, nor are we anxious
.to see
men of high birth or rank invested with office,
simply on that account; but we are anxious to
see more deference paid to the opinions of the
natural leaders of the people, a greater desire
shown to consult their advice, and less to follow
that of their vulgar enviers, than we have been able
to detect in the proceedings of Sir R. Peel's
Government. It may, perhaps, be said that we
are arguing on wrong data; that the ari*too
cracy is well pleased with the Government, and
that the House•of Lords has passed all its men,
sures with overwhelming majorities. True, the
majorities may be as large, or nearly so, as they
were before; but where are the energy and en-
thusiasm that render those majorities really
triumphant? Though a thousand causes con-
nucted with private friendship and public duty
may keep tinder any open expression of disap-
probation, will any one venture to say that the
feeling of at least one-half of the House of Lords
is strongly and heartily in favour of Sir Robert
Peel and his Government? The contrary is too
notoriously the case. But is the matter mended
as we descend the scale ? By no means. The
rural aristocracy is, if possible, more alienated
from • the Ministry than are the nobles; the
representatives of the country gentlemen in
Parliament have done nothing but grumble
and complain—after a very lame and im-
potent fashion, we confess—since the Mi-
nister first propounded his commercial schemes.
Every club has resounded with their entre..
sions of discontent, and the Carlton, last sum-
mer, was a hot-bed of sedition. Indeed,
always excepting the middle classes, it would be
difficult to mention any great division in the
country with which the Ministry can be said to
be in favour. The Church, which embraces 811,
and to which we shall devote a separate article,
regards Sir R. Peel with distrust; and the lower
classes are loud in their complaint that no prac-
tical relief has been afforded to them. They
deserted and discarded the Whigs because,
talking loudly and promising much, the Whigs
did practically nothing for them; and it now
behoves the Tories to take care, lest, failing
in a similar manner, a similar fate await them.
It is vain to say that the Whigs were turned out
of office, not because their principles were
wrong, but because they skilled not to carry them
conveniently into practice ; they fell because,
professing democratic principles, they acted for
the benefit of an oligarchy, and gave way to the
Tories in order that they, professing Royalist
principles, might act for the benet of the
people. We see, to say the least of it, a dispo-
sition in men in power, and their more imme-
diate followers, to profess the same abstract
principles of governing as their predecessors,
and, believing those principles to be essentially
wrong, we continue to give them our hearty op-
position. We are confident that if anything can
save this country, it is, under God, a recurrence
to those sounder, more humane, more Christian
principles which guided our forefathers; and we
shall ever be ready to help and urge on those
who are not afraid or ashamed to plant the old
Tory standard in the ground, and under its folds
to fight the battle out. There is energy enough,
enough of patriotism, enough of religion,. to
render the fight hopeful ; and the gentlemen of
England—those, at least, who will engage in it
—have the glorious satisfaction of knowing that
if they succeed, they rescue not only the
Monarch front degradation' and themselves from
contempt, but the poor and oppressed people of
England from the harsh and grinding tyranny
of a sensual, heartless, and ignoble plutocracy.

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