We have looked through al...
The Times, 1824-10-25T00:00:00

| Ve have looked through all the late arrivals of Irish. papers for their promised report of the evidence and pro- ceedings in the recent case of Lord CLERMtONT, who was convicted of a barbarous assault on two poor boys, and fined, on account of each of them, in the sum of 1C1. We ac- knowledge our disappoinitment at this unseemly silence on the part of the Irish press. Lord CL1tRMONT is a Peer and a Magistrate of the old schiol: it is little wonder, tlhen, of course, that the Orange and " loyal" newspapers should exhibit some delieacy towards him: but wlly should those who call themselves the popular, the liberal, the patriotic journalists-those who are perpetually importuning us with the grievances of the lower Irish, the overbearing character of the upper classes, the unequal spirit of the laws, the oppressive demeanour of the Magistrates, and their corrupt administration of justice-why should such editors withhold from public notice the especial features of a case like this, so descriptive of the conduct observed by great mnen towards the poor, and so novel and striking at the same time for the redress of the poor man's wrong, and the punishment of the great mnan's violence ? 'rhat Lord CLEaMONT is a ?'icht man, ought, we suib- mit, to weigh with an Irish journalist as an unanswerable argument for the immediate and full disclosure of all the proceedings out of which arose the verdict and sentence against his Lordslhip, if it were on no other grounid than the natural imputation of mercenary motives to an editor who suppresses, in favour of a rich man, that of which the latter would be too ready to purchase the suppression at any price. Enough, however, has transpired to elucidate for the people of this country the intolerable claracter of that re- lation which has been fostered during many ages between the Irish aristocracy anid the labouring multitude. From the manner in which the CLERSIoNT-prosecution terminated;, we are likewise induced to hope, that a serious change has begun to opelate in the ternper of the iMlagistracy itself re- specting their principles, by which alone the peace of Ire- land can be preserved, or the mechanism of society held together. Fifty, twenty, nay five years ago, such a thing would not have happened as the trial of a Miagistrate, and that magistrate a Peer, for any outrage upon a miserable peasant short of actual murder. The mere attempt would have been exclaimed against as a monstrous inso- lence; the bill would have been thrown out, and the coin- plainant put under strict surveillaice as a "suspected" rebel. In onie point, therefore, Ireland has begun to experience a practical and solid reform. That point is no less than the administration of justico-the indispensable source of every social imnprovement among mankind. We should be less disposed to dwell upen the case at the Louth Sessions, as affording decisive restizony of' such an advance in the poli- tical state of Ireland, if it werenot supported by other and evern rnore convincing evidence; for Lord CLERMONT'S personal unpopularity might have gone for sometlhing in the county where he resides; but the conduct of a j * ry at no great dhistance from Louth, where Orangemen and Ca- tholics were for the fitst time indiscriminately punished, shows that the Sheriffs have becn taught how a nanel ought to be composed. The determination of the OnRD LIEUTENANT to discountenance the brutal practice of flog- ging the people for slight off'ences-a reforn enforced on one occasion by his discharge of a number of poor prison- ers whom the local magistrates had reserved, after sundry periods of inprisonmenIt, for a day of general torture-has removed an indescribable odlium and abhorrence from the minds of the peasantry towards the laws and their adminis- trators. T'hcforbearanceiwithwlhiclh the Insurrection Act has beein enforced, so far as the Irish Government is concerned, mnay bejudged of by the complaints of the country gentle. men in the South, that " the hisurgeiuts had experienced a mischievous lonity ; but the real character and fruits of that lenity are discoverable in the numaber of counties from which the Act has bectv withdrawn. Signior PA'sroarIN and his prophecies ought to he sincerely put down by the Catholic priests, for they cats lead to nothing but destriie- tion. OCOVNELL andl his brother dtemagogues would act wisely by exhibititig tlhcir patience for a term. The Orange Atistocrats ought not only to be disavowed, but displaced frottt office ; the forty shilling frecholds to he boldly aEi(I speedhily abolished ; the priests, like the Prcshvteriani clergy of' Ireland, to be ntadle de- pendent ott the state for a large portioti of their incoinc; and duties to be exacted from the Established Churclh. bearilg somle intelligible ratio to thc grandleur and proeliga- lity of its endlowmnents. Until these, or the greater part of thesc objects slhall have bcen accomplished, constituting as they (lo the deinan(ds of jitlstice on behalf of the nation ge- ncrally, it is vain to hope, fronm the rectress of in,dividual injuries, that the pablic interest can be fully consulted, the re.sonrces of the country ecveloped, or its tranquillity in all eases ensured. The inost enlighitened theorv of Irish Government must remnain in sonm respects adead letter, or expose its official patrons to the rea(ly charge of lending it only an insincere support, until the British Cabinet at home shall systematically and h: earnest devote itself to the removal of those practical obstructiouis whieh bcset the footsteps of evcry statesman who seeks in Irelanid a good beyond " the passint holur."