The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-11-14 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY

The court was very much crowded throughout the day,
as it was generally rumoured that the city grand jury had
brought their labours to a close. Messrs. Steele, Ray,
Duffy, and others included in the state prosecutions, were
in attendance.

FINDING OF TRUE DILLS OF INDICTMENT

Their lordships came into court at twenty minutes past
three o'clock, at which time the inner and outer bars
were unusually crowded. The Attorney-General, the
Solicitor-General, Messrs. Brewster, Freeman, White-
side, M`Donogh, and several others of the counsel re-
tained in the prosecutions, were in court.
. .

At half-past three o'clock the grand jury came into
court, and handed down the bill.
The Clerk of the Crown read aloud—" A True Bill for
self and fellows—George Frederick Brooke."
One of the Jurors—My lord, I beg to express my dis-
sent from that bill.
The Chief Justice—What is your name?
Juror—My name is Richard O'Gorman.

The Attorney-General—My lords, I have now to move
that the defendants be called upon by their recognisances

to appear

Clerk of the Crown—Crier, call Daniel O'Connell.
Mr. P. Mahony said that Mr. O'Connell would be
there in a few minutes, but the court was so crowded that
it was next to impossible to get either into or out of it.
The Rev. T. Tierney, C. G. Duffy, and T. M. Ray
having answered to their names,
Thomas Steele was called.

Mr. Steele rose, and, after one or two ineffectual at-
tempts to arrest the attention of the Court, he proceeded
to speak as follows :—My lords, I stand before your lord-
ships in a peculiar position—one differing from that of
the other traversers, as I, my lords, intend to defend
myself on the present occasion, as I successfully did on a
former trial, and I strongly object to be prosecuted by
the present Attorney-General. (Loud laughter.) It is
no laughing matter ; it is a matter closely connected with
the due administration of public justice. I object to the
Attorney-General, for he has manifestly prejudged my
case, while the jury was sitting in consideration on it. I
do net now speak for the rest of the traversers, nor do I
know what their wishes are, but for myself I sincerely
hope that he will have the sense of propriety, or I should
rather, perhaps, say, the common decency. to retire from
his functions in the present case, and leave me to be pro-
secuted by his highly-gifted, patient, and well-tempered
colleague, the Solicitor-General. (Mr. Steele resumed
his seat amid peals of laughter.)
Mr. O'Connell, accompanied by his son, Mr. John
O'Connell, here entered the court, and was accommoda-
ted with a seat at the side bar. All the traversers having
answered to their names,

The Attorney-General said—l have now to apply to
your lordships, the defendants having appeared, to order
that they do plead within four days from the present.
The 60th Geo. 111., cap. 4, sec. 1, expressly provides to
that effect ; and I beg to refer your lordships to an exact
precedent in a case which came before this court in Ja-
nuary, 1831, in which a similar order was made—l allude
to the King v. O'Connell.
The Chief Justice—What is the condition of the re-
cognisanses ?

The Attorney-General—lt is to appear in person. In
pursuance of the recognisances entered into by them they
have all appeared, and now I call on them to plead i❑ the
time I have specified, in pursuance of the 60th Geo. 111.,
which enacts, " that when any person shall be prosecuted
in the Coart of Queen's Bench for any misdemeanour,
either by information or indictment, there found, or re-
moved into the said court, and shall appear in term time
in such court to answer such indictment, &c., such de-
fendant shall not be permitted to imparl to a following
term, but shall be required to plead or demur thereto
within four days from the time of his appearance, and in
default of his so pleading, &c., judgment may be entered
against him for want of a plea." In pursuance of that
act of parliament, the rule in the case of the King v.
Daniel O'Connell will be found to have been entered on
the 26th of January, 1831. I❑ that case the rule made
was somewhat special, in consequence of the defendant
not appearing when called on his recognisances, and the
terms of the rule in consequence were that he should
plead in four days from the day on which he should have
appeared, and neglected to do so, that is in four days
from the day preceding that on which the rule was made.
I apprehend that the duty of the officer of the court will
be now to state the charges against the defendants.
Mr. Hatchell, Q.C., said that he was not aware of such
a course of proceeding. He now applied on behalf of Mr.
Daniel O'Connell, that he be turnished with a copy of the
indictment, under the provisions of the same act of Par-
liament quoted by the Attorney-General.
The various counsel for the rest of the defendants made
similar applications on behalf of their clients, and Mr.
Steele, on his part, made the same demand.
The Crown-Solicitor said that copies should be fur-
nished that evening to the officer, who would transmit
them to the defendants.

Mr. Moore, Q.C., said that nothing could he done
with the copies that evening. The indictment, he was
given to understand, ran to a considerable length, and
there should be no abridgment of the time to which the
parties were entitled for perusing the charges brought for-
ward against them in the indictment.
The Attorney-General having again read the words of
the statute,
The Chief Justice said—The act of Parliament is pe-
remptory, and the court has no discretion in this matter.
The act requires that the parties shall plead or demur
within four days of their appearance. Ido not say that if
an application, on special grounds, were made to the
court for an extension of time, we would not travel out of
the act.

[Mr. Shiel entered the court, and was accommodated
with a seat by the high sheriff.]
Mr. M`Donogh, on the part of the Rev. Mr. Tyrrell,
argued that the parties were not called upon to plead until
they had been regularly charged, and the parties could not
be considered as charged until every syllable of the in-
dictment should be read. If the Attorney-General should
persist in his motion, it was his (Mr. M`Donogh's) inten-
tion to call upon the officer to read that most voluminous
document at length. The Attorney-General might have
obviated the difficulty, by having copies served at an
early hour this day.
The Chief Justice—How could he furnish copies until
the bills had been found ?

Mr. M`Donogh thought it quite possible. The Attorney-General said it was not his wish, in the
slightest degree, to evade the eighth section of the act.
Copies of the indictment, as he had before stated, should
be in the hands of the officer of the court, within an hour,
and no delay should occur in transmitting them to par-
ties. If Mr. M`Donogh persisted in his motion to have
the bills read at length, he (the Attorney-General) should
not oppose the proposition for reading them. As to hav-
ing copies served at an early hour to-day, that was impos-
sible. There was no indiqtment until the bills had been
found, and ten minutes had not as yet elapsed since the
Jury returned the indictment into court.
Mr. M‘Donogli said he should be sorry to be driven to
the alternative of having the indictment read at length.
To obviate this, we will take the copies to night, and be
here to-morrow morning. The rule to plead can then be
entered from to-morrow.

The Court—Do you object, Mr. Attorney-General?
The Attorney-General—Yes ; and I call on the court
to enter the rule according to the terms of the act.
Judge Crampton—The parties cannot be called on to
plead until they are regularly charged. Perhaps counsel
would agree to hare the charges read briefly.
The Solicitor-General—Vß e propose that the defend-
ants should be charged now.

Mr. Whiteside—The indictment is against eight per-
sons, and therefore the officer must read it eight times--
(laughter.)
Judge Crampton had a suggestion to offer. Would
there be any objection to enter the rule to plead now, but
not to run until to-morrow morning ?
The Attorney-General—l understand the suggestion
thrown out by Mr. Justice Crampton to be this—that the
parties are to be charged now with the indictment—that
the rule to plead is be entered now, but not to run until
to-morrow.

Mr. Justice Crampton—Just so.
A lenthened discussion then ensued, and it was ulti-
mately agreed that Mr. Justice Crampton's suggestion
should be agreed to.

The Clerk of the Crown then read the first count,
shortly, and having read the names of the parties charg-
ed, the discussion terminated, and the court adjourned at
five o'clock.

PROCRASTINATION.—The Court of Queen's Bench,
Dublin, was occupied a considerable time on Thursday
with two applications by Mr. O'Connell's counsel, appa-
rently with a view to procrastinate the proceedings. The
first was a motion for liberty to compare the copies of the
indictment furnished to the traversers with the original
bill. Those copies having been properly certified,
with the original, merely to ascertain their cor-