The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-09-04 00:00:00

DEATH OF PRIEST WALSH-

FOUL CONSPIRACY AGAINST THREE PROTESTANTS-THEIR
ACCUSER CONVICTED OF PERJURY.

On Tuesday last the inhabitants of this town and
count were in the highest degree excited, owing to the
arrest of three respectable protestants, named Sly, Styles,
and Wynne, and charged on the evidence of a notorious
vagabond with the murder of the Rev. John Walsh. A
woman named Anne-Rupney had previously given infor.
!nation of the alleged murder to Mr. Malony, C.M., and
he reported the circumstance to government, when Mr.,
Tickel, K.C., was sent down to Bagenalstown, to make.
the necessary inquiries. There were several magistrates
in attendance, among whom were Messrs. Haughton and
Moore, well known as (what is. termed) the liberal ma-
gistrates of the county. During the entire of Tuesday
the road leading from this town to Bagenalstown was
crowded with dense masses of the populace, in expecta-
tion of the arrival of the prisoners, whom they enter.
tained no doubt would be fully committed for the murder,
and by way of preparation for their reception, some fran•
tic women were seen collecting stones, and supplying
their friends with ammunition_ fur the occasion. At live
o'clock there could not be less than three thousand peo-.
ple congregated on the road to Bagenalstown—but much
to their disappointment the inquiry terminated in the
conviction of the vagrant, Anne Rooney, of wilful per-
jury, and no doubt instigated to the foul deed by some of
the sacerdotal desperadoes who are anxious to keep up
excitement fur political purposes,. by inducing a belief
that the deceased had been murdered by protestants.
This unfortunate victim of ignorance and blind supersition
swore that she had slept on the night of Mr. Walsh's
death in the house of a herdsman named Hawley, in •the
employment of Edward Butler, Esq.—that she and the .
family were alarmed by noise on the road—thet she pro-
ceeded to the bridge of Kilgreany, accompanied by the.
daughters of the herdsman, and stood under the arch,
and that they saw the prisoners knock deceased down and
break his skull with a hammer. The herd and his daugh-
ters on being examined, declared "that they never saw
Anne Rooney before ; that she never slept in their house;
and finally, that the whole story was a fabrication, for
, that the daughters were neither oat on that night, nor
tveresever under the bridge! These facts were Corrobo-;
rated by several witnesses. When asked -to -identify
Archbold Sly, whom she said she saw give the blow, she
hesitated for some time and placed the rod " on the head
of Martin Nolan," brother to the priest of Bagenalstown!!
to the astonishment of the whole, court. On being ques-
tioned as to her place of residence, she stated that she
was. born in James's-street, in Carlow; that her father
lived there; and on being actually brought to this town,
accompanied -by- the police and Mr. Moore, they dis-
covered than no such street was ever in Carlow; and on
being brought to the place where she described as the
residence of her father, she altered her tack, and declared
he lived in the Queen's County. On being asked rbether
she knew any person in Carlow, she stated she was
acquainted with a woman from Graigue, whose name she
mentioned. This woman on being sent for declared she
had never seen Anne Rooney before; she then turned
round and stated she was not acquainted with the woman,
"but with her husband! !" .The woman quickly reoliJd
that she had stated a falsehood, for that "her husband was
dead upwards Of two years 11, The whole plot was now
fully developed, and it was clear that the wretch hid
been the dupe of some designing knaves who were-
' anxious to stigmatise the character of the protestants Of
the county, and to make it appear that a death which was
purely accidental, was the result of a murderous conspi-
racy against the deceased, wild, in Net, on the night of
his death drank freely and, as is given in evidence,
rode an ungovernable horse (that had frequently thrown
him before) at a furious pace, from Bagenalstown. The.
prisoners were honourably acquitted, and their abandoned
accuser was detained in custody to await the Measure of
his Majesty's government, whether she
.should be com-
mitted to'stand her trial for deliberate and gross perjury.
But still the wretch has succeeded ia lioldiritup three in-
nocent men to the notice of a blind, bigotted, and blood-
thirsty populace, who are ever ready to credit any story,
no matter how false or infamous the base fabricator. We
hope, whether the government interfere or not, that the
magistrates will prosecute thjivagrant for perjury, and
we are firmly of opinion the real conspiratOrs•against the
lives of innocent men will yet be disco% ered. We shall
make no comment on the atrocious article that appeared
in the revolutionary organ of the priests on the subject
of Mr: Walsh's death; I.4ut if they persevere in publish-
ing
lying statements tading to excite the populace to
commit murder, we shall be more explicit touching tire

death of Father: Walsh in our next, and publish ionic
statements respecting the proceedings of that unfortunate
man from the time he left this town till he reached
Bagenalstown on the evening of his death—and by way
of giving circumstantial proof, we shall publish the names
of the. parties who had been in his company.—Carlow
Sentinel.

RETIREMENT OF MR. DUNLOP FROM
PARLIAMENT.

The Constitutional,- A-new-Gtagow paper of conserv-
ative and -Constitutional principles, says—We: have
heard from scurces.on which the utmost reliance can be
placed, that the clique, since the: announcement of Mr.
Dunlop's intention to resign his seat,..have arranged with
Lord William Bentinck to come forward under their
auspices as a candidate for the representation of Glas7
g_ow, either in the event of Mr. Dunlop accepting the
Chiltern Hundreds at the commencement of another ses-
sion, or immediate dissolution of parliament and a new
general election taking place. 1-Tow so stolid a body as
the clique, stumbled on an idea of such. happiness 'and
brilliancy, and how so eminent and able a man as Lord
William Bentinck, could consent to have the brightness
of his orientiat'star placed under the shadow of the pa-
tron's of Mr. Crawford, of Singapore, we know not ; but
that such an engagement has been entered into we haYe
the 13,,5t reasons for believing, and we strongly • suspect
that Mr. Oswald, and some members of the government,
have got the whole matter adjusted with two or three prip-
cipal- heads of the therberus up in London. _How will a
gentleman who once anxiously shunned them, but on whom
they lately pretended to have fixed, religh this mode of giV-
ing him the go-by ? But this is a mere personal matter,
with- which the citizens of Glasgow have no cause to
concernthemselves. What more concerns
.them, and
the honour of the city,. is, this mode of privately bartering
away their franchises to suit personal and party arrange-
ments, without ever once consulting them in the matter,
as if they were a flock of mere slaves or simpletons, to be
driven to the hustings to vote as their good lords and
masters of the clique will have them. Are the independ-
eracitizens of Glasgow come to this pass ? ,And exists
there in Glasgow a party that presumes they are so, and,
on the ground of that presumption,
.proceeds to barter
them to the ministry of thellay, in exchange for points
conceded in furtherance of theie, own. views of interest
and aggrandizement ? At! who remember the first elec-
tion here, need not to be told that there doesexist a party
in Glasgow, presumptuous enough to venture. on all
this, and a great deal more ;' and- the question, then,
• comes to be, shall Glasgow, through the agency:of such
a party, become. mere nomination burgh of the govern-
ment like Edinburgh, ready at any time to receive, with
all meekness and submission, whatever rejected or other
nominee may be sent down for its- acceptance.