The prosecution of the ma...
The Times, 1824-08-10T00:00:00

The prosecution of the maniac Priest CARROLL, at Wex- ford, for the horrible cruelties whiclh he inflicred on a poor infant, and which produced its immediate death, is reported in the Irish newspapers. Five of those who witnesse(d that appalling spectacle were at the same time put on their trial as accessories; and the upshot was, that the whole of them were acquitted The insanity of the unfortunate Priest was, indeed, beyond dispute; and his malady being one with which it might have pleasedI the AT.A1IGHTY tO visit any other, the best and wisest of his creatures, no matter what their station or their faith, no person, we imagine has yet been unfair enough to draw inferelices from the conduct of this unhiappy luinatic himnself, disrespectful to tlle church or to the ministry of whichl he was a member. But it is not so with the spectators of his dreadful, though unconscious, barbarity. In spite of the many glosses with which their participation in the deed havc becn varnishe(l over, we can never cease to regard thern as the most inhliunan criminals on earth, or as the most ahject slaves of a degrading and frightfulsuperstition. Whenthissecneof butehery came to be discussed in Ireland, how was it explained by the popular leaders of the CatholiLs ? Mr. O'CONN EL1, who speaks ex catledra on such occasions, excused the blind fanaticism of the lookers on, and the utter perversion of soul under which they safered a rnurder so heart-rending to be accomplished in their presence, by saying that their attachtment to their priests was so strong, and their c,>nfi- dence in them so unlinited, that they couldl not persuade tlhemselves of any miiischief being likely to result fromn the proceedings of a Minister of the Gospel. This mode of reasoning, be it observed, is general in its application to the whole mass of the Irish lower ortlers. It defends the par- ticular case, by ascribing it to a national, or at least to a predominant characteristic of the peasantry, and fully justi- fies the direct conclusion, that the Irish nultituide are irn- capable of exercising the faculties of rationial beings, become deaf to the liveliest emotions of humanity, and lost to the evidence of their natural senses, at a word or signal from the priest. Now this, we say, is a coudition, which, when predicated, as it has been, by a Catholic advocate, of the great mass of that community to whiclh he himself be- longs, strikes us with equal sorrow, humiliation, aiid alarm. Whether the result of Popery, or, as is more near the truth, o1 barbarous ignorance acted upon by Popery, there is no shutting out from one's mind the app)rehension that cala- mities the most dreadful may at any time be produced by an erroneous or deliberate misdirection of credulity so im- plicit and immeasurable. A comparison has been attempted betWeen the lower orderof the Irish, with thst of the l,ng- lish, on the score of superstition, because, indeed, JOHAN;NA &OUTHCOTr had, disciples irithis country: but the parallel is absurd in More ways than one. First-the proneness to put faith in that female fanatic was confined to a small number of the English-perhaps a few hundreds at the most- allowing largely,. we may say 5,000 individuals, or one in three thousand of the inhabitants of Great Britain; whereas in Ireland, it would appear on Catholic authority, the whole body of the people have gone mad. Secondly, whatever proportion of the sncre multitude throughout England may be disposed to act upon any given foolishness, there exists lere an immense and enlightened power in the artisans and middle orders of the English, to put down such a nuisance at once; whereas the mob of Ireland wouldi have no moral counterpoise. Thirdly, wve have not yet been informed of any instance in modern times where the force of faith in any religions frenzy like that of MIrs. SOUTHCOTE, or in a popular prepossession like that of the second sight, has overpowered the natural instincts of the human heart, and led the disciples of either folly to gaze in silence on the shedding of infant blood, without one arn being raised, or one feeling roused, to save the helpless suf- ferer. Some better sohool of civilization, andl solid system of practical instruction in the duties of man towards man throughout society, must, indeed, by some means or other, be set going for the Irish poor. And, perhaps, it would be well for the gentlemen of Ireland to consider if a usefuil outset towards such a censummation might not be made by their endeavouring to divide wvith the priests the influenice and authority to be extracted from a course of beneficence towaads tlte people,