IRELAND.
It is stated that the Treasury department at Dublin Castle is to be bro- ken up, and a few clerks only retained to act under the head department in London.
The Evening Packet has reason to believe that it is in contemplation to abolish the Equity jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, and to transfer the Equity business to the Court of Chancery.
"Should the contemplated measure be carried into effect, it will involve the necessity of the creation of a Vice-Chancellor's Court, and an increase in the number of the Masters in Chancery. As a measure of economy, the proposition has, we believe, been brought under the consideration of the Treasury authorities, and has met with their approbation. Rumour has already selected an eminent Equity lawyer, now upon the Exchequer Bench, as likely to be the first occupant of the Vice-Chancellor's seat." [Mr. Baron Pennefather.]
A great meeting of the Belfast Protestant Association was held last week in the Music Hall of that town. The Earl of Roden presided; Sir William Verner, Colonel Blacker Mr. Napier, M.P., Mr. Watson of Brook- hill, Mr. Cleland of Rathgeal, and a number of clergymen, were present. The proceedings and speeches were of the most extreme " Protestant" tone. Mr. William Blackwood Price, J.P., described the organization of the Protestant Operative Society: the clergy and gentry were resolved to support it, and it was intended to spread its organization throughout Ul- ster. Protestants had too long acted on the defensive, and it was time to demand those rights and privileges to which they were entitled. Sir Wil- liam Verner complained of the Government treatment of the loyal party; owing to the determined opposition of which, a bold and bad faction had been put down and insurrection suppressed. Places and honours, he said, are heaped on those who first fomented and then betrayed revolution; while those to whom the country's safety was really due have but just permission to live a little longer. The Reverend T. Millar inveighed against the thral- dom of Popery— He had no hesitation in saying, that " in the hands of God, the Orange and the Blue, refined, remodelled, and regenerated," would be the means of spiritually emancipating the country. "The Orange Society is best of all adapted for the purpose of affording us the means of defeating rebel threats: it alone could fur- nish you with stalwart hearts, with watchmen who sleep or slumber not, and who are prepared to sound the tocsin of alarm, and defend and protect you even at the sacrifice of their own lives."
Resolutions were passed condemning the policy of Government, as one of concession towards the Church of Rome, in these points-
" 1. In the establishment of the National Board of Education; 2. In the en- dowment of the College of Maynooth; 3. In submitting the statutes of the Queen's College in Ireland to the Pope for his approval; 4. In the threatened endowment of the Romish Church in Ireland, by the payment of her priests out of the funds of the State. • • S An imperative call is made upon the Protestants of the empire to resist the further progress of such policy, as calculated to slip the foun- dations of the State, and bring down the Divine vengeance on the land."
Dr. Mant, Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, has been asked by one of his clergy, whether the special service or that of the Sunday should be read on the ensuing 5th. The Anglican Bishop replies, that he has known proclamation to be made commanding that service to be read, as well at the coronation of the good old King George as at those of his suc- cessors; and he thinks it ought to continue. This " Protestant " reply has been published by the Bishop for the information of his clergy.
The Clonmel Chronicle publishes a letter from Mr. James Morton, the local Inspector of Prisons declaring that there is not one particle of truth in the statement which his been circulated of Mr. Smith O'Brien's mis- conduct in Clonrnel Gaol. "No one ever conducted himself with greater propriety" there.
The Attorney-General has granted his certificate for the issuing of a writ of error in the cases of Mr. Smith O'Brien and the other Clonmel con- victs.
"According to usage," says the Morning Chronicle, "the agent of each of the prisoners, on depositing the writ of error, has to pay a fee of fifteen guineas to the Attorney-General, on attaching his signature. This fee the learned gen- tleman has remitted in the case of Mr. P. O'Donolioe; but the other ,parties, Messrs. O'Brien, Meagher, and M‘Manus, have paid the required amount." The argument of the case will take place on the 13th instant. The Law-officers of the Crown have suffered a most embarrassing defeat in Doffy's case. We stated lately that new bills of indictment against Mr. Duffy have been preferred since the discovery of the letter by him in Smith O'Brien's portmanteau. In order to avoid the technical point raised in former cases about the disqualification of corporators to sit on the City of Dublin Juries these new bills were preferred before the County Jury. On Friday, the drown lawyers moved to have the City indictment quashed; and, with the consent of Sir Michael O'Loghlen, this course was taken. A motion was then made to transfer the prisoner from the custody of the City gaoler to that of the County gaoler, in order to proceed with the County indictments: but it was objected, that there should be ten days' notice of this transfer; and, after argument and a night's deliberation, the Judges held that this objection was good. The Attorney-General humbly begged to have the Commission adjourned for ten days, that be might repair his error: but the Judges thought that would be of no avail; the notice must be given before the Commission. Ultimately, the prisoner was sent back to prison under this state of things. He cannot be tried on the County charges, because of the omitted notice; he cannot be tried on the City charges, because they are quashed; no new charges in either jurisdiction can be preferred this session, as both Grand Juries are discharged; and Mr. Butt claims the prisoner's discharge by proclamation at the end of the ses- sion, as a prisoner against whom no bill is found!
Mr. O'Doberty has been tried at Dublin for the third time, under the Crown and Government Security Act.
The trial began on Monday. No additional evidence was offered beyond that given at the last trial; but the Attorney-General contended for a reading of the law somewhat different from that given to a former Jury by the Lord Chief Baron. He submitted that the offence did not rest in the composition, but in the publication of the treasonable articles. The case was adjourned till Tuesday. In the course of Mr. Butt's speech he diverged considerably into political topics, and provoked such criticisms in reply from the Solicitor-General, that the Judges were obliged to interfere several times, and rebuke unseemly personalities. Even- tually, each counsel apologized to the other for this behaviour. Mr. Butt's de- fence rested on the law of case. He admitted that his client had published sedition, but denied that his acts supported the charge of treasonable conspiracy. The lengthened cross-examination, and the squabblings of counsel, protracted the case till Wednesday.
On that day Mr. Justice Crampton summed up. He laid down the disputed law with clearness. "Sir Michael Foster said, The overt acts undoubtedly do discover the man's intention.' It would be monstrous to say that the intention could not be established without some evidence extrinsic, and over and beyond the publication itself. If there were no other evidence the publication was evi- dence to satisfy the Jury, not only of the publication Aself, but also of the in- tention imputed. It was a maxim of law that what a man intended to do was to be presumed from what he had done. What a man had done or said was evidence of what he intended. If he said his intention was different from that which the publication would primarily import, then it devolved upon him to show that he had a different intention. If the Jury considered that the publica- tions, or any of them, had been brought home to the prisoner, and that they manifested the intents described in the indictment, or either of them' then the in- dictment was sustained; if they were not satisfied on the evidence that the prisoner published those articles—if they did not believe that the intents ascribed, or any of them, were clearly deducible from those papers or some of them—then the Jury ought to acquit the prisoner. The publication fastened the responsibility on the actual publisher; and if the prisoner would relieve himself from that respon- sibility, he was hound to show he was not criminally responsible because he had taken no part in the transaction."
The Jury deliberated some hours; and returned once for a copy of the indict- ment, and again for the manuscript of the indictment: ultimately they found a verdict of " Guilty " on the fifth count, and "Not guilty" on all the rest. The fifth count was the general one for compassing to levy war; and it contained all the articles charged as treasonable.
" We have heard from one of the curing stations, Killybegs," says the Advocate," that the prospects are most cheering. In one week of the early part of this month 300 barrels of fish were cured, and during the last week 30,000 fish were caught and cured at this one station. What a proof this is of what may be done by perseverance!" [The Advocate or Irish Indus- trial Journal is a new weekly paper, devoted to fostering the material interests and industry of the country: it promises to be a useful organ of Irish improvement. It is ably written, well printed, and full of interesting matter.] The Dublin Gazette of Tuesday evening contains the names of ninety- eight insolvents in the Queen's county, county of Clare, county of Tippe- rary, county of Limerick, county of Kerry, and county of Cork; of this number sixty-eight are set down as "farmers and yeomen." On the pre- vious Tuesday there were one hundred and thirty-two insolvents; the ma- jority of whom were farmers.
Previous page
