A division of races in Ireland has had its usual
concomitant, is closer union of each race within itself—a preference of the claims of blood to all others. Is a man accused of a crime, the popular question is, not whether the charge is true, but of what race is he ? If he is of the indigenous race, to prove the truth against him is to brave popular fury. Witnesses therefore must be protected ; but people are reluctant to become witnesses unless they are assured of pro- tection beforehand, and of maintenance too • for, of course, a wit- ness kept in security cannot starve. The law then secures those privileges to witnesses ; and thus it has established a bonus on evi- dence against prisoners. The result might have been anticipated— a trade in such bonuses has sprung up, and is prosecuted with vigour. If there is no prisoner to give evidence against, the witness makes one for the occasion; and if there is no crime committed, the witness himself commits it, and then transfers the ready-made crime to the credit of the prisoner that is to be. In that way DELAHUNT murdered a boy, to inform against any strange woman that might fit his description ; and trials at the Assizes of the week disclose many cases of imputed sedition and violence committed by the informer himself, for the sake of his maintenance as a witness against the innocent. Lord ELIOT told Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL, in the HOMO Of COLODIODS, that the present system cannot be relinquished, or else crimes will go unpunished. What then ? there is a time-honoured maxim, that it is better ninety-nine criminals should escape than one innocent suffer. To come closer to the point, it is not the way to get at one kind of truth by putting a premium on the opposite kind of false- hood. The difficulties of a change are obvious ; but the existing evil is intolerable' an outrage to justice, and a disgrace to the Go- vernment that happens to be its minister. Whatever the diffi- culty, some remedy must be found.
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