The Sun. — 1858-09-07 (London, England)

THE CORMACKS AND THEIR SYMPATHISERS. Another old Roman Catholic journal (the Water- 1 ford Chronicle) has some judicious remarks in reference to the meeting the other day at Nenagh, celebrated as it now is by the eloquence of Father Kenyon and his fellow sympathisers : " As regards this particular case a great outcry has been raised throughout the length and breadth of the vast county of Tipperary ; men of experience in Tipperary have not hesitated to term this trial and execution a ' judicial murder,' and to aver that it was a sacrifice at the shrine of landlordism. The history of Ireland has too many instances on record of hasty trials and speedy executions in years gone by ; of men, troublesome from their patriotism to the superior powers of that day, being entrapped and removed out of the way ; ' but we do not think that an occurrence of the present day should be judged of by the deeds of the past, and we should be much surprised indeed to find that we still lived in those dangerous times when a judge and jury could be found:ready to , aid in making victims of two Irish peasants We do not think that such can happen in the , nineteenth century ; we think that Ireland has attained that commanding position to make such an event almost an impossibility, and, therefore, on this ground alone, if on no other, we cannot join in the verdict of guilty against the judge and jury who tried the case. However, we think an inquiry would be of no harm ; if there be no grounds for the accusation, then one result will be that the spirit of justice will be found to have been in this instance above reproach, and much obloquy will be removed from innocent parties. If there be grounds for the accusation, then is the inquiry imperatively demanded, and justice should be visited on the delinquents. ' The Tipperary Examiner, too, the persevering champion of the Cormacks, is thoroughly ashamed of the exhibition made at Nenagh : " The case of the Cormacks is not the first that has been injured by injudicious advocacy. We looked forward to the meeting at Nenagh as the legitimate conclusion of the agitation upon the piestion. A calm and deliberate efpression of public opinion would, we hoped and believed, have been delivered there, and the Government would not refuse its attention to a fair and reasonable petition emanating from such an assembly. But, as the strength of a chain lies in its weakest link, and that is the part in which an attempt to sever it should be made, those who wish to prevent any review of the circumstances connected with the trial assail the weakest point of the meeting—namely, the attack upon the past political career of Judge Keogh, and the very coarse and ill-timed jest about petitioning Parliament to hang him. How strong soever any man's feelings may be as to the impropriety of such a jest, and that it was intended merely for a joke, and that it was taken by the meeting solely in that light, is placed beyond all doubt by the laughter with which the absurd suggestion was received, and by the gross and palpable absurdity of the proposition itself. Had it borne the most distant resemblance to an expression of even an earnest wish it would have been checked and repudiated by the chairman and the entire meeting instantly as an atrocity not to be endured."