The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-30 00:00:00

mittee .of this Society would communicate with . other
societies established in various parts of the country ;
and he hoped and trusted that ten days would not pass
before a similar society would be formed in every part of
England. It appeared to him, also, that those demon-
strations would induce the confidential advisers of the
sovereign to speak out plainly on the subject of the
corn-laws.—(Hear.) He thought that they were en-
titled to ask, not in the language of menace or of threat,
or even, perhaps, of any sort of reproach—that they
would be entitled to tell the Ministers of the Crown that
uncertainty with regard to their views on this sulaject
was an evil of no ordinary magnitude. We want to know
(continued the Noble Duke) what they are going to be
about?—whether they mean to maintain that protection
which is still left to us ? We will only ask them to
speak out, and no doubt they will, when they know the
opinions of so respectable a body of the farmers of the
country.—(Cheers.) Ile did not think it necessary to
detain them with any repetition of his recorded opinions,
further than to say that no consideration whatever would
ever induce him to vote against the agricultural interest
of this country—he would not sanction the withdrawal
of one iota of the protection at present ex sting. No
threats, on the one band, no cajolery on the other,
should ever induce him to depart drum the posi'ion w 1 zi
he now occupied. He did not speak from selfish feelings
when he declared his belief that on the well being of the
agricultural interest was based the prosperity of the
country and the welfare and happiness of every indivi-
dual re: ding in her Majesty's dominions.---(Cheers )
Thanks having been voted to the Chairman, on the
motion of Sir Charles Burrell, Bart., the ineetin&.
separated.

A subscription was afterwards opened, when upwards
of 1,0001. was at once subscribed ; the Duke of Rich-
mond, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Egmont, the
countyi Members, and other gentlemen, putting dew n
their names for 1001 each. •

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.

TIMES.—The Irish trials have of a sudden, although
perhaps but for a short time, changed in one Far:kat:l-
- outward aspect. To tediousness and dulness a
brilliant flash has succeeded. Mr. Sheil has made a
speech, the report of which fills eleven columns of the
Times of yesterday—a speech in his character of Coun-
sel for Mr. John 04Connell; and to which we should do
much less than justice were we to deny it those merits,
a very high degree of which might have been fairly .ex •
pected by every person at all acquainted with Mr. :...heirs
public history, or with his unquestionable talents as a
speaker, both in the House of Commons and at the bar.
This display of oratory embraced a field of observation
rather vague than grand, and fertile rather than fruit-
fuL How much it may have been calculated to work
strong conviction in any quarter, is a question which it
would now be premature, and possibly invidious, to pro-
.nounce upon. It may be disputed how far an advocate, es-
Tecially a paid one, is justified by his peculiar position, we'
Mean with a view to his client's interests, in laying
down broadly, upon his own personal authority, as if
he were a witness before the Court, any fact which, if
delivered by such witness, would have an important
bearing upon the case under trial. The word of a
hired, but unsworn advocate, can in itself have no
weight at all. He must be aware that the jury, on a .
moment's consideration, will be more surprised than
persuaded by such an effort upon their credulity, and
disposed to ask, why is the traverser's counsel so
much at "a loss for legal testimony, that he at-
tempts to put us off by his own bare word ?"
Yet, in one of those analogies or illustrations of
the O'Connell case, as treated by Mr. Sheil, which
were meant to be regarded as among the weightiest,
we find the advocate adducing, "of his own know-
ledge," the conduct of Mr. O'Connell, for instance. in
his management of the Roman Catholic cause, before
emancipation, as "conceived in the spirit of peace," and
" in the spirit of peace carried out," and in that " spirit
consummated," and all this to make it credible that the
repeal agitation has been conceived and carried on in
the same spirit. No doubt Mr. Shell, who claims to
have been a partner of Mr. O'Connell in the fOrmer in-
', stance, and " privy_ to his inmost thought?' (?), ought
to be some authority on that specific passage of his-
tory; but is not it odd that the Duke of 'Wellington, a
sagacious man, and a hold one, should have so far
in s-
taken the above " peaceful" spirit that he really regarded
the machinery for bringing about Rorsan Catholic relief
to have been framed in a spirit not of peace. but of " re-
bellion?" We have already, by describing the enormous
dimensions of this oratorical effort, abundantly ex-
plained to our readers how impracticable would be
the task of anything like an analysis or even enume-
ration of its details. lint, in truth, properly speakti g,.
the speech has no parts—that is to say, it is hie:liable
of argumentative ,division. Nowhere can it be bronglit .
to bear with a distinct and tangle effect, either upon
the matter of the indictment or on the evidence in sup-
port '•
of it. The character of the deft-nee is a declama-
tory appeal against the whole history of British govern..
went in Ireland—against the means (bad enough we,
admit) by which the union had been carried—being,
in fact, the spirit of corruption versus that of rebel-
lion,—and pretension to assimilate the measures
of O'Connell now to those of 1782, carried on by
Mr. Grattan and his colleague.. But Grattan had the
Parliament at his back. He made no attempt to set
up the brute force of Ireland against the Church
and State, the laws, institutions, and property of the
realm. He did not collect the multitude by hun-
dreds of thousands, make boast of their numbers and
their bravery, exasperate them by recalling the wrongs ,
of centuries, although at that time still unredressed—
whereas now, while dwelt upon by O'Connell, nine-
, tenths of them have no existence. It would be childish
and unhandsome to deny that the speech sparkles
with elaborate elegance—that its movement is light and
graceful, and that it is, as a whole, a full-dress version of
the rude, coarse, and unmannerly language of the Coro-
Exchange. Ilst that is all. It barely touches .the
question submitted to the jury-box. It loses sight of the
issue—whether the several traversers, or Air. Sheil's
client, with any one or more other:, did or did not con-
spire to produce certain specified purposes byilltgal means.
It puts the union on trial ; it puts. the law on trial; and for-
gets that the traversers, and not the law, are indicted.
Eloquence was not designed for admiration only—as a
mere arrangement of musical sentences. If it had 'so
been, Mr. t_4 ht it might be esteemed a most effective ora-
tor ; but the business of eloquence is to convince men—
to persuade them, and, in a word, to make them act,—to
satisfy, not the taste of a jury, but their inward con -
science, and, as one main instrument to that great end,
to keep tenaciously before their eyes the merits and in-
terests of the client as he who alone is entitled to their
sympathy, not the person or powers of the Counsel, as
a candidate for fame or ail object of wonder. We beait-
ily wish that, if inrocetit of the offences charged upon
him, Mr. John O'Connell may enjoy an honourable ac-
quittal. But we are bound to add that a mind gifted
ever so slightly with the elements of reasoning power .
must seek for proofs of that innocence—or, inileed, of
any other fact but of Mr. Sheil's rich vocabulary, some-
where else than in the speech of that Right Hon. Geu-,
tleman. _ _

HERALD.—It would be uncandid to deny to Mr.
Sheil's speech for the defence in the Dublin State trials,
the praise of great brilliancy—but moteriam superat opus
—Air. Sheil has bean forced upon the Egyptian toil of
" making bricks without straw, and for a conclusive
argument he has necessarily- substituted at most a splen-
did thesis. Through the whole of his very long address
he did not in a single instance impugn one of the im-
mense mass of facts detailed with such lucid order in
the matchless statement of the Attorney-General for
Ireland. Bow, indeed, could he impugn any of them ?
All of the whole body of proof had been published by
the traversers themselves, and, as it were, ratified by -
the publication. As little could he attempt to break the
connexion of these facts with the central movement of
the Repeal Association. All that was done in the agi-
tation avowedly emanated from, and again oonverged te,
that central power. The concert was as certain and as
notorious as the facts that flowed from it ; and though
it has been ruled in law that conspiracy may exist with-
out concert—concert and combination are inseparable.
Whether the combination was for a lawful or unlawful
purpose—whether its proceedings were calculated to pro-
duce disaffection in some and alarm in others, and to
create ill feeling among all, is a question upon which a
Court am! a jury have still to decid,.. But this appears to •
us to be the real question in the case, for if it be found
that the combination produced such eff,cts as we have •
described, every man of common sense must see that a
combination producing such effects, and persevering in ,
its course for months and even years after the effects
were manifest, must be an unlawful conspiracy. To
this cardinal question, however, the Right Hon. Advo-.
cate did not address a single sentence of his speech.
Why, we will not at present surmise ; but the omission
is surely instructive. For the rest', the speech is a beau-
tiful speech ; but, in truth, Mr. Sheil might as well have
tried to work the acquittal of his clients by continuing the
excerpta of love songs Irom the Nation, read in defence,
or by a recitation of the magnificent ballad of his name-
sake, " Chevy Chase," as by such a speech.

SUPPOSED ATTEMPT AT INCENDIARISM AT WOOL-
mem—Yesterday and Sunday the town and garrison of
Woolwich were in a state of great excitement, in consequence
of a report that an atrocious attempt had been made to
set fire to an ammunition store-house, near the Medical
Hospital. On inquiry it was ascertained that a sergeant of
marines discovered near the building a ball, or species of
grenade, composed of stout paper, covered with a composi-
tion apparently of a highly inflammable nature, and filled
with gunpowder. The ball, which was found close to the •
building, had evidently been lighted, as a fuse was party
burnt. The probability is, that fear or want of skill, had p?e-
vented its being thrown into the building, which is composed
of wood, and contains a large quantity of ammunition ready
for service ; had it taken effect the consequences would un-'
doubtedly have been most disastrous.
Information has been received at Bow-street that,
on the morning of the 23d inst., about the hour of three ,
o'clock, some evil disposed person or persons wilfully and
maliciously set fire to a thatched hovel, in the occupation of '
the Hon. and Rev. H. Tollemache, at Harrington, North-
amptonshire. Also,.about 7 o'clock the same evening, another. •
thatched hovel was set fire to in the same lordship, in the
occupation of Mr.W. Cheney, whereby the hovels were entirely
consumed. A. reward of lOW. has been offered by the Hon.
Charles Tollemache for the discovery of the incendiaries.
On the evening of the 25th inst. a hay-rick, about twelve
tons in weight, situate in a field near the house of Mr.. Wm.
Rogers, in the parish of Kingston Deyerii, Wilts, was wilfully
set fire to, and the whole destroyed. A reward of 401 Is
t ono •
offered for the discovery of the incendiaries. Also,. about
o'clock on the morning of Friday last,. the 26th inst., niniartigiee
wheat-rick in the farmyard of Mr. 4•?htfi
iliully set
parish of Desborough, IC"tijamPt"sidffeal of other valuable
fire to, and the whole destroyed, with a
agricultural property.•
Law-
rence Sheriff, beer and citizen.
he
..iiitolphorordnt,wefodr
REMARKABLE Criaxon rf
London,orEur It.
third part
partthe endowment scinhootlhae ptaßriusghbciff,
more than Si. a year. This field was called Conduit-close,
of a field of twenty-fourof agrmalmcrares,
la'n°d was nearly half a mile from any house. It is now covered
with buildings, and the rental exceeds 10,0001. a year. The
field has risen in value from 81. to 10,0001. and upwards.