The Sun. — 1842-04-30 (London, England)

PUBLIC JOURNALS. (FROM THE EVDNING PAPERS-OF YESTERDAY.) GLOBE.—Two cases have recently occurred in Ireland, which appear to illustrate in a very remark-. able degree the spirit in which the Government of that country is at present carried on ; and it may easily be seen how far the Irish administration is entitled to the praises which the Conservative press occasionally ventures to bestow on it. In the first case to which we allude, a man named Hughes, whom two Juries had refused to condemn, was arraigned for a third time on a charge of murder; when, in order to ensure conviction, care -Was taken to procure a Jury consisting exclusively of Protestants. The man was found guilty and hanged, having teen tried, as Lord Lyndhurst must admit, by a dozen "aliens" in religion; though twice, when his judges did not consist wholly of men belonging to a creed different from his own, his prosecutors failed in convicting him. But this zeal to obtain a condemnatory verdict arose, of course, from a desire on the part of the Government to bring to justice one whom they knew to be a murderer, though two juries had refused to pronounce him one. To condemn an individual in one's own mind on the appearances against him, before he is brought to trial, is a common error among the mass of the public ; but such pre judgment is dangerous indeed when people in authority not only form it, but use every means in their power to act on it. The Irish Government is assumed by its friends to have had a moral conviction of the guilt of Hughes—but no conclusion on the subject could or ought to have been founded on anything but the evidence adduced at the trial, and of this the Jurymen who heard it were the best, and assuredly the only lawful, judges. Two Juries failed to see in this evis dence sufficient to c•nvict the accused; but the Government, having made up its own mind of his guilt, determined to refer the matter to a third tribunal, consisting exclusively of " aliens" in creed to the unfortunate prisoner. If a difference in religious opinions was believed to be the reason for a verdict not having been come to, why should it have been presumed that the Catholics, rather than the Protestants, were the men who put a wrong interpretation on the evidence ? It may be replied, that the majority were for finding him guilty : and as the majority consisted of Protestants, it was thought unanimity would be obtained by making the jury entirely Protestant. But was unanimity to be purchased at the price of justice ? and what right has any Government to impute murder to a human being upon grounds which the law and constitution do not recognise as sufficient for doing so ? A verdict of guilty must be unanimous in order to be effective ; and life and death are not to be disposed of by mere majorities, though our Contemporary, the F&t, seems disposed to think it ought to be otherwise. So much for the first case to which we have to allude, and which may be regarded as an example of the stern and uncompromising principle which actuates the present Irish Government in criminal affairs ; but the second instance is a specimen of its milder qualities. A Mr. Bidelulph, a magistrate, advises certain prisoners to run away ; and after having done his best to defeat the ends of justice, and thus encourage parties to violate the law, he is retained among the list of those who are employed in enforcing it. As the Marquis of Normanby is to call attention to this subject in his place in Parliament, it may be as well to say no more on this subject, until some explanation of the circumstances mending it has been given ; but the looseness exhibited in one case seems to contrast strongly and strangely with the eagerness shown in the other instance to subject a suspected person to capital punishment. The scale of justice cannot be kept even by violently jerking it from side to side, now throwing in a degree of rigour that looks like vindictiveness, and then casting on the balance an amount of forbearance that has all the appearance of weakness. It is not thus that the scale can be duly ps;sed, but by the even and uniform employment of Justice and of mercy, neither of which should ever be used in their extremes of ill-judged lenity on the one hand, or harshness on the other.