NEWS OF THE WEEK.
CLONMEL is still enlivened by the State trials, but the proceed- ings have lost their interest from their sameness. The charge is still the same; the defence rings the changes on the same point— a disclaimer of the insurrection. Mr. O'Brien repudiated the re- bellion; the other prisoners repudiate Mr. Smith O'Brien. All of them agree in averring, that instead of intending to levy war against their gracious Sovereign, they were only intent on get- ting out of the way. Even Mr. Doheny, who is not on trial but writes from a safe refuge in France, avows that he had parted finally from Smith O'Brien, and also that the projected insurrec- tion was sure to fail : "I only abandoned the cause of my coun- try," he says, "when that cause became utterly hopeless." That must have been about the time when Mr. Doheny was seen tra- versing Ireland with a carpet bag. It follows from all these dis- claimers, that "the cause "—meaning the plans of the Confede- rates—has been " utterly hopeless" at least from some date before Mr. O'Brien's attack on Widow M'Cormack's house, and is so still. This is no news to any English reader; but the avowal ought to be useful in Ireland. As the convictions multiply, so one fact becomes more evident —that the extreme penalty of the law cannot be inflicted in any one of the cases. A very general movement is made in Ireland, even among the Orangemen, to back the Jury in craving mercy for O'Brien ; and Lord Clarendon has intimated, as plainly as etiquette may allow, that the sentence will be commuted. The main reason for this merciful disposition, no doubt, is a sense that, although the culprit was led away by insane vanity, he is on the whole a well-meaning, good sort of man—upright, bene- volent, and amiable. Had it been some knavish, truculent, ty- rannical, dangerous fellow, many who now petition for mercy would probably have been glad enough to see him hanged. As it is, the universal desire is granted. But apart from his personal qualities, O'Brien's case is flagrant ; and if he be let off, it will be impossible to enforce the penalty on others. If Ministers regarded the culprit only in relation to his crime, there could be no special reason for indulgence. Although Queen Vic- toria herself was not seriously menaced either in person or dignity, the peace of the realm was actually broken ; and but for the over- whelming force which Government displayed, and which made "the cause" manifestly "hopeless " to the Dohenys who aban- doned it or skulked at the eleventh hour, vast numbers of the ignorant classes would have been led into overt rebellion, and could only have been put down at the cost of their own blood, possibly in lavish effusion. That is the substantive crime for which O'Brien was tried ; and in respect to that crime there are really no circumstances which call for a mitigation of the penalty.
It will not be inflicted. Personal considerations are sustained by a growing hesitation to inflict death in cold blood. But, we say, if O'Brien be let off, it will be impossible to enforce the penalty against any man not more guilty than he is ; and it would be difficult to arrive at a more complete proof of guilt. If the penalty is to be habitually waived, while it remains on the statute-book, a very mischievous effect will accrue from a custom of mitigation which will look like an habitual indulgence for high treason. It seems to follow, therefore, as a corollary to the commutation of the sentence in this case, that the penalty of death for high treason must be removed from the statute-book.
