The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-05 00:00:00

itening /Ativ4

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1844.

Our Dublin Correspondent gives the following
summary of the proceedings in the Court of Queen's
Bench, Dublin, on Friday :

Mr. WHITESIDE resumed to-day at the sitting of
the Court of Queen's Bench. He adverted at great
length to the Arbitration Courts, and submitted that
it was monstrous to make them the subject of an in-
dictment, inasmuch as they were perfectly in accord-
ance with the spirit of the law of the land, and of
the Constitution. With respect to what had been
charged against Mr. O'CoNNELL, relative to the army,
he said that the sum total of Mr. O'CornvELL's obser-
vations on that head was that sergeants ought to be pro-
moted to commissions—a doctrine which had been pro-
pounded by a host of military writers—men high in
station in the army, colonels and commanding officers.
How, then, he asked, could Mr. O'CONNELL be in-
dicted as a conspirator for disseminating the very
same doctrines ? Much had been said about the use
that had been made of SAURIN'S words by one of the
traversers. Why, those words were public property
—they were the property of posterity, and why not use
them as such. It is now rather too late to prosecute
Mr. O'CONNELL for quoting those words, for
during the last 34 years they had been
scarcely out of his mouth. On the trial
of Mr. MAGEE, the then proprietor of the Dublin
Evening Post, for libel in the King's Bench, Mr.
O'CONNELL cited those very words in the presence of
Mr. Attorney-General SAuRIN himself. SAURIN lis-
tened to the utterance of his own words, and did he
stand up and deny that he had ever used them ?
Did he say that he regretted having so expressed
himself, or that sueh language ought never to have
been used? No such thing. Mr. Attorney-General
SAURIN sat by unmoved. The songs known as "The
Spirit of the Nation" had been complained of, and
one of them, " The Memory of the Dead," had been
made the subject of an indictment. Why thus as-
sail what was but the impassioned outburst of a
young and fervid mind in a moment of excitement?
Besides, had similar effusions not been published
before ? Had not SOUTHEY and MOORE written
strong opinions in verse ? Could not the term violent
be applied to some of the effusions of those celebrated
men ; and yet was a prosecution their reward ? No ;
one was made poet-laureate—the other was punished
with a pension. The Learned Gentleman then pro-
ceeded with a powerful appeal to the jury to preserve
the right of free discussion as they would their lives,

and concluded a most powerful harangue amid the
applause of the crowded Court.

Mr. M‘DoNouGH then commenced his address to
the court, on behalf of his client, Mr. BARRETT, the
proprietor of the Pilot newspaper, and contended that,
if the speeches and articles published in that journal
were fit subject-matter for a prosecution, Mr. BAR-
RETT ought to have been prosecuted for a libel, and
not for conspiracy.

The following is a summary of Saturday's pro

ceedings :
At the sitting of the Court of Queen's Bench this
morning,

Mr. O'CoNNELL addressed the Court briefly. He
said he wished to state that, as the line to be taken
by him would not be precisely that taken by the
other counsel, and as he knew the materials which
Mr. M'DoNoUGU meant to use would occupy the
Court the greater part of the day, be would ask their
Lordships not to call on him (Mr. O'CoNNELL) on
that day. He promised the Court that what he had
to say would not occupy much time, and he would
be enabled still further to condense his observations
if he were not called on till Monday next.
Chief Justice—Certainly, Mr. O'CONNELL. Does
Mr. STEELE mean to address the jury ?
Mr. O'CONNELL-NO, my Lord.

Mr. M‘DoNouun then resumed his address to the
Court, by commenting on the various " monster
meetings." With respect to the meetings at Baltinglass
and Clontibret, he contended that there was no evi-
dence to establish anything like a charge of con-
spiracy, and as to the meeting at Tara, he submitted
that the witness, whose evidence had been chiefly re-
lied on, Captain DESPARD, had been humbugged
much in the same manner as Mr. TREVELLYAN, the
author of the letters signed " Philalethes " in the
Morning Chronicle had been humbugged by the
carman, who told him that the letters G.P.0., marked
on the mile stones along the high-roads were the
initials of the words GOD preserve O'Coromu,. In
allusion to the last of the "monster meetings," that
at Mullaghmast, he told the jury that Mr. O'CoN-
NELL was desirous, and endeavouring to repeal the
Act of Union by legal and constitutional means, and
he reminded them that 'there was a large
party in this country, and large societies,
(the Learned Counsel alluded to the Protestant
Operative Society, and the Conservative Association),
that were equally anxious to repeal another im-
portant measure affecting the public interest, viz.,
the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill; and though
the speeches and proceedings of those Societies were
published from time to time in Saunders' News Letter,
there never was any question made of their right to
seek the carrying out of their purposes by illegal
means. Why, he would ask, were not the members
of those Societies indicted for conspiracy ?

The Learned Gentleman then proceeded at much
length to advert to the peaceable nature of all Mr.
O'CoNNELL's proceedings. He pointed cut how fre-
quently Mr. O'CoriELL had disclaimed everything
revolutionary; and he laboured to impress upon the
jury the perfect legality of the course which the Re-
pealers had adopted to effect their purpose.
Mr. HENN next addressed the Court. He said he
had been engaged, with Mr. SHELL as his senior, as
counsel for Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL, but that one of the
traversers, Mr. STEELE, who had appeared first with-
out counsel, had selected him as his advocate, and
hence it was that it became his duty to address the
Court and jury—a duty which, until lately, he did
not think would have devolved upon him. The ques-
tion which they (the jury) were empanelled to try
was, not whether the repeal of the Union was bene-
ficial or not to the interests of the empire—not
whether the discussion of the expediency of repeal or
otherwise was legal or illegal. That was not the
question which the jury was empanelled to try; and
he thought it necessary to say so, because
he knew that the question submitted to their
decision had been already, before the trials com-
menced, prejudged out of Court—because he
knew that there was not an honest Repealer
who had not already pronounced a verdict of " not
guilty" in his own mind for the traversers, and
because he equally well knew that there was not an
honest Anti-Repealer who had not, in like manner,
pronounced a verdict of" guilty," both under an
erroneous impression of what the question was that
was submitted to the Court and jury for trial. For his
own part, he did not hesitate to say, that he differed in
opinion from the traversers on the question of repeal.
He was of opinion that the repeal of the Union would
be prejudicial to the interests of the empire at large;
and he claimed the right of holding that opinion—of en-
forcing that opinion by every legitimate means ; and if
he found any great body of men agreeing with him in
that opinion, he claimed the right of making known,
by legal means, their sentiments on the question to
the Government of the day, and the Minister who
directed that Government. The right which the
claimed for himself, he felt that he was bound to
concede to others—nay, he claimed that right for the
traversers now before the Court. The question, then,
they were to try was not the legality of discussing
the question of repeal ; but they were empanelled to
try whether or not the traversers were guilty of the
charge of conspiracy. The Learned Gentleman then
defined what in law constituted a conspiracy, and
proceeded to argue that there was no evidence what-
ever to sustain that charge.
He went through each of the counts of the indict-
ment severally, and contended that neither in law nor
by the evidence could they be sustained. The Learned
Counsel then directed his arguments to the particular
charges againt his client, Mr. STEELE, and concluded
a short but able address, by imploring the jury to
show by their verdict, that in no country on the face
of the earth might the accused calculate with more
certainty of obtaining justice than in Ireland, and at
the hands of a Protestant jury.
The Court shortly after adjourned at four o'clock
till ten on Monday (this day).

Whatever may be said or thought of the conduct
of the Government officials in relation to, or during,
the now pending trials—however the conductors of
the prosecution may have disappointed the hopes of
their principals, and proved unequal to the position in
which they placed themselves, and incapable properly
to discharge the duties which their position required
—this much is quite certain, that never in the bright-
est days of the Irish Bar, were more brilliant powers
of eloquence displayed ; more devotion and energy,
combined with judgment and talent, exercised than
on the present occasion, in behalf of the traversers.
The speeches made for the defence present a mass of
oratorical beauty, of legal lore, and of logical skill un-
equalled. It is to the honour and credit of the Irish bar,
that several of those who, in behalf ofthe traverers, have
shown such identity of feeling with the accused, and
who have so clearly and convincingly proved that no
crime has been committed or attempted, are yet in
politics, and in religion, opposed to the clients whose
cause they have so gloriously advocated. It is de-
monstrated beyond a doubt, that the Irish bar, con-
tains many men in its ranks, who are now able to he
the guardians of the liberty of the subject, and who
are worthy hereafter to be the dispensers and the
expounders of those laws, which can only be purely
administered by men of clear minds and unclouded
intellects. It is plain that there are hearts which
beat as proudly, as devotedly, and as freely among
the bar of Ireland as among the very first in the
legal profession in this country.

Mr. O'CoNNELL now alone remains to address the
jury, for with Mr. HENN'S speech 'on Saturday the
Counsel for the defence concluded. The mingled re-
lations in which Mr. O'Cor vsx.s. stands, throw an
intensity of interest upon him which all the magnifi-
cent efforts preceding, only tend to increase. It is
the great Champion of Ireland pleading for Ireland—
for his country—for his countrymen—for their right
to proclaim and to discuss their grievances, and to
endeavour, by peaceable means, to obtain redress. It
is the Liberator of millions from the ban of exclusion
on account of religion, contending for the rights of
those millions to the possession of equal laws, equal
justice, and equal freedom from civil disabilities—
to the same franchises, and to the same enjoyment of
Parliamentary privileges as their brethren of Eng-
land ; and pleading, and contending for the right to
seek these ends by every peaceable, and every legal
means. No feelings for self can, or will, mingle
with the enthusiastic devotedness that O'CoNNELL
will throw into his country's cause; the man will be
sunk in the patriot ; all thoughts of private conse-
quences will be merged in public considerations, and
Ireland alone will be his client. But to those