The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-08 00:00:00

THE BURNING ALIVE AN IRISH

MANIAC.

[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the
strong expressions used in the following article,
which has been communicated to us by a Corre-
spondent. Were the assumed facts true, no lan-
guage could be too strong to express our horror
of so dreadful a crime ; but to believe them with-
out further evidence is impossible. Still a ter-
rible mystery hangs over the death of the poor
maniac, which it is the duty of the Irish Govern-
ment to clear up. Appended to the article of
our respected Correspondent are the latest ac-
counts on the subject which have appeared in the
Dublin papers.—En. Sun.]

We lately adverted to- the atrocious mur-
der of a poor idiot in Ireland, by a party of in-
carnate demons, described in the newspapers as
English military gentlemen, arid we again advert
to it because we have not heard that the Irish
Government has yet taken any marked steps to
bring the fiendish criminals to justice. There
was a time, indeed, when to have tarred,
feathered, and roasted a poor Irish peasant,
was a recreation of which officers of any rank
in Ireland were rarely denied the indulgence
by the authorities at the Castle; but we tell
Lords DE GREY and ELIOT that such times are
for ever past, and that were Ireland passively to
submit to the unpunished perpetration of such
an inhuman crime as we have recorded in our
columns, the justly roused vengeance of England
and Scotland would pursue and overtake the
criminals. This is an outrage which must not be
hushed up. In the sacred names of justice, of
humanity, and of our country's honour, we de-
mand the fullest investigation into all the parti-
culars of this horrid murder. We insist, more-
over, upon the fullest publicity being given to
them. What are the alleged facts ? A poor
idiot, upon whose soul Heaven never reflected
the light of reason, and therefore an object of
commiseration to his poor countrymen, is seized
by a number of demons usurping the designa-
tion of men—of gentlemen forsooth I—and wear-
ing the costume of British officers, and by them
steeped in turpentine and oil, set on fire, and
actually burned to death ! Such is the account
published in the Dublin papers—in journals
every morning to be found at the break-
fast tables of the VICEROY and Irish Se-
cretary. Yes, in the nineteenth century,
in the heart of a Christian country, and un-
der the boasted civilized and civilizing sway
of a Tory Administration, wretches calling them-
selves gentlemen, and wearing the QUEEN'S
livery, roasted to death a poor idiot, and, as the
local journals tell us, with quite a conviction on
their part that not a hair of their heads would
suffer for it. Now, indeed, we can fully under-
stand the O'CONNELL cry for equal justice. In
England no man can flog a donkey with impu-
nity- ; in Ireland a scarlet coat purchases a sort of
tacit permission to burn to death a fellow-creature.
But this must not be. The flames which en-
veloped the limbs, and drank the blood of this
poor idiot, ascended to the Throne of Gon, cry-
ing aloud for vengeance upon his murderers.
The Government is bound to prosecute the in-
quiry with the utmost diligence. Reports are
circulated that the criminals, by the distri-
bution of money, have withheld witnesses
from attendance at the inquest, so that the
verdict of that tribunal over the ashes of
the murdered man is universally denounced
in Ireland as a mockery. As the charar:ter of
the military is mixed up with this appalling
crime, and as the officers chiefly accused are
said. to be Englishmen, we call upon the British
army to hasten to wipe this stain from its honour
by co-operating with the Government in drag-
ging into the lurid light of everlasting infamy
the cowardly perpetrators of so foul a murder.

(From the Dublin Evening Mail of Jan. 5.)
With respect to the terrible outrage said to
have been committed in the King's County, at
the house of a gentleman, and by certain Eng-
lish officers, by means of which it is alleged that
an idiot-boy lost his life under circumstances of
appalling and revolting barbarity, it appears
that a Coroner's jury was legally assembled—
that the body was viewed by the members of
the inquest—that medical practitioners were
examined as to the cause of the death of the de-
ceased, and that a unanimous verdict was re-
turned, declaring that the boy had " died by
the visitation of God." We are quite confident
that the Monitor, in the columns of which
this dreadful story first originated, will do justice
to our common nature and our common coun-
try, by fully contradicting so horrible and dread-
ful a statement as that it put forward—namely,
that any set of gentlemen, or of human beings,
could be found capable of anointing the body of
a poor simpleton and idiot with oil of turpentine
—of setting fire to the inflammable matter, and
burning the wretched victim to death—and this
for amusement !! Indeed, we think that so deep
and so unpopular a sensation has the occurrence
produced, that it would be Well if the law officers
of the Crown—who by the way are, in conjunc-
tion with the Government, charged by the fac-
tious press with screening the alleged delinquents
from punishment—to call upon the Coroner for
his notes of the trial and finding, and publish the
report—not in their own vindication from a charge
so foul, but for the satisfaction of the public, and
the credit of the country.

(From the Dublin Pilot of Jan. 5.)
The Government organ of last night has the
following confirmation of the accounts that have
already appeared of the Philipstown tragedy,
which has been fittingly described as the most
brutal and inhuman murder on record :
An inquest was held so far back as the 19th
ultimo, by the Coroner of that district and a re-
spectable jury, numbering 21 bonds et legales
homines, on the body of a person named Flana-
gan, who died on the preceding day in conse-
quence of extensive injuries, by fire, received on
the 11th of said, month, in two houses of Wilhaill
Magan, Esq.. near Philipstown.
After uamining several witnesses, and amongst
thern the brother and sister of the deceased, with
t co medical gentlemen of the Philipstowa dispen-
sary, who attended Flanagan during his illness,
the jury unanimously returned & verdict or " Ac-
cidental Death."

(From the Dublin Evening Post of Jan. 6.)
This article shall be confined to the foul mur.;
der said to have been committed at Philipstown,
and to which we have already twice called the
public attention. It was only on Saturday last
that we first noticed it, expressing, in the part of
the paper where the detail was given, on the
authority of a contemporary—very truly— our
disbelief at the time, of the fiendish atrocity of
the parties who perpetrated the murder. Sub-.
statementse ciuent i n qwuaisry, noth oowYeevrertZetdisLiead we the
dnusthsa(t)
ex-
pressed oursel';''§ in a short paragraph on the
same `...coling. That we had not been made,
or had not made ourselves previously ac-
quainted with the fact, arose from the
of such hor-
credulity subsequently at the recitalindis-
position of crime-hunting, and of our natural
forin-
fittbuel
Gcircumstance, and
o v egranted,m i
e ntt
wsouuch
arn
c'see. vs
se
anßrtielhys iadbdeest
nk‘fevoner
mptloeadockeo,
would take prompt measures for the apprehen-
sion of the murderer, or murderers, if there were
more than one, and placing them safely for trial
in the felons' gaol of the County where the foul
deed was committed. The reader, therefore,
may judge of our surprise when we learnt from
the Evening Mail of Monday—speaking evi-
dently about the matter on authority—that Go-
vernment had received no account at all of the
matter up to Saturday night lasti
Upon this fact we tkprtssed no little surprise
in our last. The murder) We new itkir the
first time, Was committed, nit the 11th ult.; the
victim of the hellish 'Crime died, we are told, on
the 19th, and the Mail of the tAd inSt. tells us,
that the Government ktitW nothing of the facts
on the Ist of the present Month: 1;114 is a most
extraordinary statement=antliVtll might we ask
has Lord De th'e abdicated his function—has
Lord Eliot been writing tigniarelegi 01 Oquire
Lucas fashioning his face befoite a looking-glass,
into the most approved lineaments Of wisdom ?
A murder is Committed forty--seV'eli fillies from
town, and twenty days at ie'ast have passed over
before the C4overnMent ever heard a word upon
the subject. Vigilant and active AdrifiniStration!
We are told by the Pwitet in thiers Latin,
that an inquest was held on the body of a per-
son, named Flanagan (the idiot boy), on the 19th
ult.—that he had died of extensive injuries by
fire, received on the 1 lth preceding, in two
houses of W. Magan, Esq., near Philipstown.
And we are informed, moreover, that the Jury
consisted of twenty-one competent persons. It
is added, that the brother and sister of the de-
ceased and two medical men were examined, and
that there was an unanimous verdict of aceidepf
tal death.

New, we must first inquire, who was the Corg,