The Irish standard., 1900-02-10
A CRIME AGAINST JUSTICE.

"A CKlME AGAINST JUSTICE.
There is no country on earth where a
political prisoner has less chance of get
ting fair trial than in ireland. In
1S4S, when John Mitchell was accused
OF treason-felony, he was tried by a
packed jury which convicted him.
O'Connell himself was tried and found
guilty by packed jury on some frivo-
lous charges of sedition and conspir-
acy. At his trial twenty-seven Cathol-
les were excluded from the jury list
Lord John Russell, Lord Macaulay and
Lord Denman, the last being chief JUS
tice of England, gave it as their opinion
that the jury which convicted O'Connell
had been unfair and fraudulent, and
therefore that the judgment against him
should be reversed. 1t was then that
Lord Denman declared that trial by
jury in Ireland is mockery, delusion
and snare"
The same system of jury packing ex-
lists in ireland to-day. Only a short
time ago two prominent Irishmen were
tried by packed jury in Sligo and sent
to prison. All Catholics on the jury
panel were ordered Ito stand aside"
for the government feared a disagree
ment or acquittal if Catholics were al
lowed to serve. The district in which
the two men were tried is overwl1elm-
ingly Catholic. Such a high-handed
proceeding was stigmatized as an out
rage by the Irish people, and they called
mass meeting to denounce jury pack
ing. The meeting was prohibited by
Gerald Balfour, the chief secretary at
Dublin Castle. In defiance of hi
illegal proclamation the people met and
condemned the scandalous system Of
jury packing to secure the conviction of
Catholics and Nationalist. The brave
William O'Brien was the principal
speaker, and in the course of an impas-
stoned address he fayed the chief Sec
rotary, saying in part:
"We have borne with good deal Of
petty persecution and vindictiveness-
very much the same kind of nagging
and bullying by which Mr.. Chamberlain
at last reused the Beers. Mr.. Balfour
makes no disguise OF the fact that he
despises us more heartily than ever Mr..
Chamberlain despised the Beers, and
thinks that it will be perfectly safe to
walk over us. Well, he is not the first
Saxon statesman that learned that con-
quering ireland is not quite so easy
job as it looks. In the first place, as
Mr.. Balfour has deliberately and in the
most offensive way raised this question
OF jury-pacsing and of branding the
Catholics of Ireland with badge of
slavery every time they present them
selves in the jurybox, venture to say
| that if the Catholics of Ireland have a
spark of the spirit of freedom which an
imated the Beers we will take up that
challenge, and within twelve months we
will be able to put down that system Of
jury-packing as effectualy as the Eng
fish people put it down when it was a
question of jury-packing against their
own seven bishops in London and not
in Sligo. In plain English, if we Irish
Catholics have as much spirit as mice,
Catholic jurors will either decline to at
tend at all, or every Catholic juror who
is challenged, except for cause, ought
instantly to make public protest or,
perhaps, better still, the jurors ought to
hold meeting beforehand, and to sign
round robin, declaring that if they
were insulted this way they would de-
cline to serve as jurors in any other
case, and, if the judge fined them, they
would compel the sheriff to levy the fine
after series of scenes and public pro-
tests that would soon give the govern
ment surfeit of the luxuries OF jury
packing. If public justice is to be
turned into an instrument for political
foul play, for landlords vengeance, and
for the degradation of Catholics in Ire
land, I think the time is come when it
is the solemn duty of every representa-
tive of the people to paralyze that sys-
tenn and bring it to a stand still"
The champion of the people was We
hemently applauded by thousands with
in the range of his voice. Vigorous
cheering was elected by the reading of a
letter from DR.. Clancy, the Catholic