The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-08
BRIBERS.
They Are Severely
Punished
ACROSS THE WATER.
Retirement From English
Bench of Judge Hawkins.

a. INC recent winter aSSlZeS, held in
Cork city, Ireland, should be of inter-
est to those who take pleasure in hoping
that all attempts at political corruption
do not go UNPUBLISHED, and that some
Gay, somewhere, retribution may over
take those who try to poison she wells
of popular election.
Those cases arose out of the election
of officers for the Kilrush board of
guardians. Several candidates were in
the field, and considerable electioneer-
ing was done by the various aspirants
and their friends The constituency
was canvassed from end to end, by day
light and moonlight and not voter
was left unsolicited by the tireless
workers.
One among these hustlers was a
schooiTnaster named Dwyer, who was
intensely interested in the election of
a certain man to the board of guard
ians. Mr.. Dwyer worked hard for his
man; but more zeal than discretion ap-
pears in his composition, for his peculi-
ar methods of campaigning brought
him within the grasp of the law. He
approached a voter named Burke, a
substantial man in the district, and
importuned him to vote for his candi-
date. Burke was not over anxious to
do this, being in favor of one of the
other candidates. But Dwyer hung to
the voter with tenacious grasp, and was
determined not to give up until he had
tried and exhausted all the arts and
arguments he could command. But
Burke was obdurate. AT last Dwyer
played his most desperate card, and he
offered the voter ESQ if he would vote
his way To his honor, be it told, Burke
Indignantly refused the bride, and not
only that, he placed the matter in the
hands of the authorities. The police
got to work, and in the course of their
investigation they rounded up another
gentleman who had tried to play the
part of briber in the same election, and
the pair was hailed before the bar of
justice.
The accused were tried in Cork a
week ago, were convicted and SEN
fenced to six months Imprisonment
with hard labor and to suffer in addi-
ton a suspension of their right to vote
for a term of years. Dwyer lost into
the bargain his government position as
teacher under the national board of
education.
The trials and their result are of
more than passing Importance, from
the fact that they occurred so close to
the election for the county boards to be
held in March in all 80 counties, under
the provision of the recently enacted
local government act.
These elections are bound to have
most vital and far-reaching results.
Upon them will depend literally the
political fate of Ireland for generations
to come. If the electorate proves equal
to the great trust placed upon it, and
elects to those county boards men of
character and standing in their re-
spective localities, men who will de-
monstrate 10 the world by their Off
cial acts that the Irish people can put
the boon of self government to good
use when it comes within their grasp,
then, to use the words of William
OBrien uttered recently at great
meeting in the west of Ireland, "home
rule as embodied in a national legis-
lature will come most certainly in the
near future. 1t will be as necessary
and inevitable as the roofing of a house
when the walls are ready to receive
it,
Judge Hawkins, one of the most ter
ribly just judges that ever sat upon a
bench in modern times, resigned from
the English judiciary few weeks ago,
after a career as advocate and judge
that was remarkable in a great many
ways. Judge Hawkins was the terror
of the wife beaten and the despair of
those who were brought before him
charged with robbery and violence.
These two offenses, if guilt was estab-
lished. were met by him with sentences
of flogging with 1.-The cat more fire.
quently than with terms of prison con-
finement. All he wanted was the sur
40 1AriGnnpr rNJI1A
stand the chastisement without risk of
death, and "the cat" was imposed in
stead of term in jail.
He was often criticised for this, in
the columns of the press, but his in
variable reply was that experience
proved to him that one good dose of
1.-The cat" laid on with brawny arms,
was better life and property preserv-
er. and the victim thereof a better
agency for the dissemination of salu-
tary views in his locality with his
striped and bleeding body when he was
let loose again among his associates,
than whole battalions of police or whole
libraries of acts of parliament.
Judge Hawkins tried Mrs. Maybrick
the Liverpool society woman, who was
sentenced to be hanged for poisoning
her husband with arsenic, and whose
sentence was committed to imprlson-
ment for life after the condemned wo-
man had arrived within Il few hours
of her execution.
The judge was begged and pleaded
with by the friends of Mrs. Maybrick
to lend his influence for the clemency
of the crown. But he was stern and
implacable in his refusal, and it was
only by the strenuous efforts of her
counsel, Sir Charles Russell now lord
chief justice of England, that the I'M
fortunate woman escaped the doom of
the gibbet. She is still in prison, and
despite the extraordinary efforts that
have been made in her interest by in
fiuential friends on both sides of the
Atlantic, she is likely to remain there
till she dies.
When Justice Hawkins tried his last
case at the Deptford assizes the other
day, he gathered his ermined skirts
about him after Diminishing the jury
and arose from his chair. AS he did So
the assembled be-wigged and gowned
counsellors and barristers rose in a
body and one of their number cleared
his throat. coughed to arrest his lord
ships attention, and started in to make
speech of farewell on the part of the
bar.
The venerable judge raised his voice
i'm mild reproof, and with a NO
speeches, please" he passed from oif-
cial life forever
The exit, so cold and free from sen
timent, was a fitting close to the car
eer of a man who knew no sentiment
in the performance Of his duty.
G. O'CONNELL CALVIN