The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-06-17 00:00:00

THE TRIAL OF FRANCIS

On Monday the eighth session of the London Central Cri-
inal Court commenced before the Lord Mayor and the

The. Recorder, after some remarks

sual civic authoritie

on the other cases in the calendar, came to that of Francis
for high treason, on which he made the following observa-
Although the charges were numerous and serious,

still upon reference to the depositions be did not think they
would find any difficulties in point of law as applied to the
facts which would be adduced before them. But there was
a case of high treason, which happily was not an offence of
frequent occurrence, and which would require from him a
few observations with respect to the law of high treason, and

to the particular offence which would be laid before them.
The charge, as far as he was able to collect from the deposi-
tions, would be founded on the ancient statute of the 25th
Edward 111., and also on a more recent statute of 36th
George lII.' c. 7. By the statute first alluded to, it was de-
clared to be high treason when a person imagined or com-
passed the death of our Lord the King; and that, he should
also tell them, would equally apply to a Queen Regnant ; as
an addition to the construction which has been uniformly at-
tached to a Sovereign, as laid down by Lords Coke and Hall,

it had always been the custom to consider a Queen as coming
within the meaning of the act, but in the 3d year of the reign
of Queen Mary a special act was passed giving her Majesty
all the privileges conferred by the former acts of Parliament ;
therefore, all difficulty with respect to that part of the case
would be done away with. The words of the act defined the
compassing or imagining the death of the Sovereign, or any
personal injury likely to cause death, as an act of treason,
and, as Lord Hale justly observed, those words gave a very
wide latitude, and referred, not only to the mind and will
of the party, but also to the necessity that the intention
should be exhibited by some act before the party could be
justly accused of such an offence. They must, however,
bear in mind that it was the intention that constituted the
offence ; and although the act might, as was happily the
case in the present instance, prove abortive, still the inten-
tion of the party in committing the act constituted the of-
fence. The law, therefore, required that the party accused
should be attainted of some overt act, showing an intention
to do personal injury. A later statute, the 36th George 111.,
cap. 27, confirmed the provisions of the previous acts of par-
liament, and also referred to the rules to be observed in the
proceedings, and which entitled the party accused to have a
copy of the indictment, and also provided that the case should
be proved by two competent witnesses. It further granted
that a sufficient time should be allowed for preparing the de-
fence of the accused, and likewise entitled him to have coun-
sel assigned to defend him, but none of those requisites
would apply in the present instance, for by a subsequent act
of the 39th and 40th George 111., it was enacted that none
of those formalities should be complied with in cases of trea-
son where the overt act was alleged to be a direct and perso-
nal attack upon the Sovereign ; and that when a direct at-
tempt was made either upon the life of the Sovereign, or to
do bodily injury, then the setae course should be adopted
on the trial as if the party was charged with murder, or at-

tempt to murder, under ordinary circumstances. The re
sons for the distinction made in such a case must be obviou

because, in any ordinary ca

eof treason, some political of

ject might be inferred, or suggested, but nothing of the sort
could occur where the offence was a direct attack on the life
of the Sovereign. In investigating the case, therefore, they
would have to regard it as one of an ordinary description, of
shooting at, with a felonious intent, and they would see how
far the evidence went to support such a charge. He cer-
tainly felt some difficulty in alluding to the facts of the case,
as all he could gather on the subject was from the deposi-
tions returned to the court, and he must therefore, request
them, in the observations hewas about to make, to consider he
was laying before them merely a probable case, to which the
law would have to be applied, and in adopting such a course
he was merely following the example of Lord Chief-Justice
Abbot in the case of Arthur Thistlewood and others, who
were indicted for high treason. He should, therefore, beg
them to suppose that he was putting a probable case to them,
and they would hereafter act only upon the actual evidence
which would be adduced upon oath before them. He pre-
sumed it would be laid in evidence before them, that on the
evening of the 30th of May, as her Majesty was passing in
her carriage at a rapid pace down Constitution-hill, a person
leaning against the wall was noticed by one of the equerries ;
the demeanour of that person attracted attention, and the
moment her Majesty's carriage reached him, he was observed
to draw something from his bosom, and immediately after-
wards fire off a pistol. It would, he believed, appear that
the pistol was deliberately pointed towards her Majesty's
carriage ; that it was actually discharged, as the report was
distinctly heard, and the flash seen to proceed, from it ; and
it would further appear, that at the time it was discharged
the person was within a very short distance, not more, he
believed, than seven feet from her Majesty, at least from
that side of the carriage in which her Majesty was sitting.
It would, however, appear that at the moment the pistol was
discharged it was not pointed in a direct line with the body
of the carriage, but more towards the bind wheels; but that
might probably have been occasioned by the rapidity with
which the carriage was proceeding, or from the pistol hanging
fire. There could be no doubt, he believed, of the identity
of the person who so fired the pistol, and it certainly appeared
to be a cool and deliberate act. There did not appear to be
the least pretence for presuming the discharge of the pistol
to be the result of accident, as all the witnesses agreed
in describing the pistol to have been deliberately levelled.
The witnesses, however, were not enabled to speak posi-
tively as to the precise direction in which the pistol was
pointed, but a great deal would depend upon the situation in
which the respective witnesses stood, and the opportunity
they would have of witnessing the act. They must take all
those matters into their serious consideration, always bearing
in mind, as he had before stated, that the intention of the
party constituted the offence, and that the fact of the pistol
not doing any mischief had nothing to do with the question :
if they were of opinion that the original intention was to do
mischief, the case was complete, although the criminal intent
was, most happily, not carried into effect. It would appear
that when the prisoner was seized by a constable who hap-
pened to be near him, and the pistol taken from him and ex-
amined, it was clearly seen that it had been recently dis-
charged ; but still a question would arise whether it was
leaded in such a manner, and with such materials, as could
be calculated to do mischief or injury to the person of the
sovereign, at whom it would appear to have been discharged ;
and with respect to that point, the previous conduct of the
prisoner would be very important. If it should appear by
the evidence that, on the day previous to the occurrence, the
same person was seen at no great distance from the spot
where the pistol was fired, and at the time her Majesty was
passing, exhibiting a pistol and pointing it towards her, al-
though from some cause it did not appear at the time to have
been discharged, and that at the same time he made a decla-
ration of a wicked intention, and his regret that he had
not carried his intention into effect, it would be for them
to say whether it was not a strong proof of his intention,
by the act he subsequently committed, to do some serious
mischief. If they also found that on the following day
the prisoner was again seen waiting for the carriage, and
that upon its appearance with her Majesty he discharged
the pistol, it would certainly be a fact strongly confirmatory
of his intention to carry out the malicious intention express-
ed by him on the previous day. The chief inquiry would
then be, with what intention the pistol was fired, and with
what materials it was loaded. Now, that it contained powder
there could be no doubt, and then it would be material to
ascertain whether or not it contained a ball. The declaration
by a party of an intention to do an injury was, beyond
doubt, a strong proof that the pistol was loaded with such
materials, and in such a manner, as to enable him to carry
his object into effect. It would further appear that the per-
son who fired the pistol stood with hisback towards the wall,
and discharged in the direction of the Green-park •, conse-
quently, unless the ball had stleuck some hard substance,
it would be almost impossible to have discovered it, for it
might have lodged in the earth without leaving any traces,
and therefore the circumstance of no ball having been found
would not at all justify the conclusion that it did not
contain one, and upon that point they would refer to other
facts of the case. In addition to the fact of the decla-
ration of mischief expressed by the accused on the previous
day, he believed they would have the evidence of persons ex-
perienced in such affairs, who had frequent opportu-
nities of firing both ball and blank cartridges, and who
would give it as their opinion, from the sound of the
report, thaw at the time it was discharged the pistol
was loaded with ball. It would be for them to decide,
under all the circumstances, whether the pistol was
fired with the vile intention of injuring her Majesty, or
with the still more dreadful purpose of taking her life—
in fact, did the accused make a direct attempt to take the
life of the Queen.? About two years since, unhappily, a case
very similar in many respects to the present occurred, and
upon reference to those proceedings he should in--all prob-
ability be enabled to state the nature of the charge which
world be preferred in the present instance. The prisoner
would most likely be charged with compassing the death of
Her Majesty by firing at her with a pistol loaded with ball.
They would have to deal with the case as one of an ordinary
'character, where one person was charged with shooting at
another with intent to murder, and they must look at all the
facts and all the circumstanees as the only means of judging
what the actual intention of the prisoner was : they would
bear in mind the declaration of mischief ; they must look to
the spot selected for the commission of the act, and also the
nature of the weapon made use of. Under all these circum-
stances, it would be for them to say whether it was not a case
which they ought to send to be thoroughly investigated by a
petty jury. In conclusion the learned recorder said—" It is
impossible that any case can arise which demands more
serious inquiry than this—it is an attempt to take away the
life of our Sovereign—a Sovereign dear to us all—the pro-
tector of our liberties and our laws. Serious, however, as
is the offence, still, on the other hand, its heinousness
ought not to weigh with you in taking it into consideration,
and the only effect it should have should be to induce you
to weigh every circumstance with the greatest minuteness.
I again say I think it is a case which you will feel justified in
sending for further investigation, and with these observations
I remit you to your room to proceed with your duties."

TO HIS GRACE THE MOST REV. JOHN MA
HALE, LORD ARCHBISHOP OF TIJAM.

MY LORD,—A friend has just favoured me with an Irish
copy of Moore's English Melodies, bearing your lordship's
signature. I candidly confess that it never fell to my lot to
read any production with greater surprise ; and the public
will admit the cause of my astonishment to be strong and na-
tural when they are told that I read my own work under
another, higher, and more important impress. During some
of the idle and leisure hours of my past life I strove to bring
whatever talents I possessed in that way to bear on the sub-
ject, and whilst my ambition was sufficiently satisfied by
sending some manuscript copies to a few of my literary com-
panions in Ireland, I could not expect that my version of the
work would be palmed on the world under another name,
much less could I believe that any of my effusions could con-
stitute a gem for a efown which the far-famed Hierophilos
would deign to wear.
Few of your subjects are more disposed to sustain your
views on any occasion, or will more readily admit your un-
doubted right to talents of a sublime and brilliant order ; but
I cannot conceive how the " poeta nascitur, non fit," or the
inheritance of natural poetry would not be peculiar to more
than one of the sons of the Land of Song ; " and more in-
conceivable still is it, that high and towering genius would
suffer itself to be sullied with the stain of plagiarism,, 0,,r con-
descend to shine in " borrowed plumes. ' * ' *
Your grace will not, I hope, blame Inc if I inform the
literary world that the original merit of that translation is
exclusively mine, that I am prepared to establish this fact be-
yond the possibility of dispute, by documentary evidence of
a convincing and unquestionable character. I had many
reasons for not publishing them to the world ; and among my
numerous arguments, none weighed so heavily on my mind
as the melancholy truth that few, very few of the people of
this ill-fated province could understand their tendency, or
derive any consolation from their perusal in a language with
which they are utterly unacquainted. * * * *
If your grace composed a series of Irish sermons for the use
of your clergy, your time would be usefully employed ; the
clergy would be both edified and initiated in the Irish
languages, and the faithful would be duly impressed with
wanted;
Songs, this
orwtohueld
Heathen
their moral duties, through your instrumentality. This
would be a desideratum long
better fruit than Moore's Irish
Mythology of Homer, or any other infidel writer. * *
Open then the doors of knowledge, too long barred against
the poor, instruct the people in the use of letters, and then,
indeed, your grace can talk with some show of argument of
acquainting the people of Ireland with their political griev-
zbes, through the medium of Irish or English song, as
either may suit your taste and attention. Until this be don
is evident your grace's efforts must be fruitless, as they ea%
it
no more be perused by the people than a Syrian or Syro-
Chaldeac version of the same songs.—l have the honour to
remain, your lordship's very humble and faithful servant,
JAMES O'MALLY, R.C.C., Ballinrobe.
Dated the Kalends of June, 1842.—Castlebar Telegraph.