Glasgow Courier. — 1848-02-01 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

ATTORNEY-GENERAL, in-addressing the jury, said the proceedings that had been already had M the adjoining counties of Limerick and Clare under this Commission, and now formed a part of the history of the country, rendered it superfluous that he should state any of the reasons which made it not merely advisable, bat indispensably necessary, that they (the jury) should be called upon to discharge their duty as jurors of Vile county under this Special Commission, and that the administration of justice should not be delayed till the ordinary period when the criminal law of the county was administered. The prisoner was charged with the wilful and deliberate murder of an unoffending fellowcreature. The evidence was in some degree circumstantial, because no human eye saw the murderer discharge the gnu with which Mr. Roe was shot, but still it was of that description that it approached almost, as far as he (the Attoruey-General) could form an opinion upon it, to actual evidence that the prisoner was the person by whom the murder was committed. Mr. Roe was the proprietor of some property in this county, called Boytonrath. There were several tenants upon the property, and of a portion of it, about seven acres, James Lonergan, a brother of the prisoner, was the tenant. Other members of his family were tenants of other parts of the 'same property, In consequence of James Lonergan's being in arrear, Mr. Roe found It absolutely necessary, for the protection and management of his property, to have recourse to the law to enforce recovery of the rent, which Lonergan refused to pay. Mr. Roe accordingly proceeded by ejectment. Lonergan defended the actlon—lie bad no defence, in fact, and Mr. Roe was put to very considerable expense in bringing down a record for , trial at the assizes. Lonergan made no appearanoe, and the result was, that Mr. Roe, as the landlord, became entitled to the possession of the property previously held by Lonergan. A writ of /tubers was issued, and in the latter end of September, Lonergan was dispossessed by the Sheriff, and possession given to Mr. Roe. , Mr. Roe principally resided in Dublin, but he had a residenee called Rockwell, near the land from which Lonergan was evicted, land about the 27th or 28th of September, he went there and took , up his residence. Rockwell was about half a mile from Loner- ' gan's land, and Mr. Roe, intending to retain that laud in his own occupation, was in the habit of going thither almost every day from his own residence, for the purpose of eoperintending some Improvements. On the morning of the 2d of October' about ten o'clock,- he was proceeding thither as usual, when he was fired at from a plantation on his own property; the shot struck him' and he was almost instantly dead. The question the jury had to decide was, whether that shot was discharged by the prisoner, or whether he was present, aiding and assisting the person who discharged it, and as far ache could judge, If the circumstances and facts which had induced the Crown to bring forward this ease again'st the prisoner did not amount to certainty, he did not know what coeld be considered certain in human evidence. It would appear that In the interval between the die,. possession and the murder—about a mouth—the prisoner upon one occasion said there were some persona whom he designated as blackbirds, whom It would be a good thing to bring down, and perhaps It would afford a lesson to others—that Mr. Roe was one of those persons whom he designated as oppressors of the people, and that he ought to be the first to suffer. If that were proved there could be no doubt as to the motive and feeling which I Induced the prisoner to commit the murder. It would also appear that some two or three days before it was committed the prisoner was seen skulking and watching about the very spot where it TIPPERARY SPECIAL COMMISSION, was afterwards perpetrated, and where he knew Mr. Roe would