The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1871-12-24
s. G.,
Sunday Morning. December "a 1871.
Th~ ;xzl.l By Jary-P.oked JarIes.

T'h@ gziai by Jary-PaoIked Jurlos.
AS eminensiy a:spEopriato to the times
in which We live, and the experience
now before US, we submit the annexed
extracts. The United States Govern
ment is fashioning it's course after that
pursued by the Euglish authorities in
Ireland. We have now in the United
States Court both grand and petit juries
that are "paoked" notoriously 80. The
foreman OF the grand jury is miserable
specimen OF the genus ''carpet. baggsr,"
and against this foreman" we learn that
charges are now pending at the hands of
the City Council of this city. He, we
believe, is reverend gentleman;" but
ss there are black sheep in the church
as we'll as State, this does not prevent
him from being the unworthy person
his record makes him-the at tool OF a
Government that seeks, by improper
means, to administer the low over fet-
tered and conquered community. How
often with men do we find
with smooth dissimuation, skilled to grace
devifs purpose with an angelic face"
Nor is it better with the petit iuries.
Generally speaking. these men are bitter
partisans. and OF the political party op-
posed to the party Of the prisoners on
trial. This is what the trial by jury has
come to in this State. Heaven save us
from the consequences of this state of
things! But to the extracts. Comment
is unnecessary. The application is OBJ
vious:
lit is the very ancient privilege OF the
people of England, says Edmund
Burke, "that they shall be tried, exceptin
the known exceptions. not by the judges
appointed by the Grown. but by their
own fellow-subjeots. Trial by jury has
probably exercised more influence than
any other institution, in moulding our
national character, and in impressing on
it especially that inborn reverence for
law which has become proverbial But
with that singular perverseness, which
has characterized all our dealings with
Ireland for centuries, we not only i'm
posed our own institutions on that un-
happy country. but we imposed them
shorn of all that which made them pre-
cious to Englishmen. This is true, in
an aggravated sense, OF trial by jury.
The very essence of trial by jury ia, as
Burke has observed, that the accused
shall be tried, not by the judges ap
pointed by the Grown, but by his own
fellow.subiects.' But how did We carry
out this principle in Ireland, in the case
OF political prisoners in particular? BY
simply ignoring it. We retained the
name and the forms Of trial by jury,
but We SO perverted it's intention and
spirit, that what Englishmen regard as
the palladium OF their liberty, became
in ireland the symbol Of every species
of injustice and wrong. When it was
an object with tho authorities Of Dublin
CASTLE to secure the conviction of q
prisoner, they never hcsitated to pack
the jury that tried him. Names, which
ought to hnve been on the panel, were
systematically and arbitrarily excluded,
and the jury box was filled with mon, oi
whom it might have been predicted
with tolerable certainty beforehand. that
they would bring in verdict of guilty.
Let US illustrate our argument by typi.
cal example. In 1874, the government
OF the day succeeded in getting a verdict
OF guilty against Mr.. O'Oonnell, q man
OF whom Macaulay has declared with
truth that the place which he held in
the estimation of his countrymen was
such as no popular leader in our history,
l might perhaps say in the history Of the
world, has ever attained
"lf ever there was an occasion when
the Government should have been scru-
pulously careful to administer justice
fairly, it was on the trial of O'Connoll;
for the eyes not only of Ireland, but of
all Europe, were upon them. But 80
inveterate had the habit OF managing
verdicts become i'll Ireland. that on a
crucial occasion. when trial by jury
itself might be said to be Oh it's trial,
the authorities shnmelessly packed the
jury which sat in Judgment on the great
tribune. Twenty seven names were
omitted from the panel which ought to
have been on it. And then from this
matilated jury list, as Macaulay indig-
nantly calls it. fo!ty-eight names we're
taken by lot. And then'-we must
tell the rest Of the story in Macaulay g
burning language: And then comes the
striking. You struck out all the Roman
Catholic names; and you give us your
reasons for striking out these names