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A HISTORY OF JURY PACKING TY IRELAND,
BY THE ABBE PERRAUD,
(Tranelated from his “ Etudes sur VIrelande Contemporaine.”’
wis what countenance, indeed, could the Whigs dixavow
blame a practice of which they had already availed
themselver, the use of which they had no‘fnotion of pro-
scribing ?
The last general election had scarcely closed, when a mayor
ns of the north of Ireland was acensed of
hand to manceuvres which cost tho Protestant
candidate his reat This mayor was a Catholic, aud belopged
to a connty in which fhe Protestants do not amount to a sixth
of the population ‘y, an exclusively Protestant one,
bronght ina verdict against (iim, and he was sentenced to fine
and imprisonment.
In 1860, during the summer assizes at Ballina (county
Meyo) a Protestant appeared in court, charged with having
attempted the life of a Catholic, ‘The proofs were conclusive,
and the jadge asked fora verdict of guilty. The ja ary had,
however, been packed ; acd the culprit was acquiite
the part of government, and had called forth the same strong
remonstrances on the part of the bar, and the independent
press. Two Catholics were tried for having assaulted and
maltreated a Protestant. They alleged, in their justification,
that the Protestant began the affair by insulting them and
calling them bloody papists. This was one of those affairs
termed in Ireland party cases, that is, cases in which religion
is at the bottom of the matter. ‘he Catholics were con-
demned,—one to six, the other to two mnths" imprisonment.
The jury was entirely Protestant. The prisoners’ counsel im-
mediately procured from the under she the list of the jury
empanneled for this session. OF
alone was that of a Catholic, an
cow cases.” The counsel indignantly protested against the
seandalons iniquity of putting an exclusively Protestant jury
to try such a case as this, adding, t! that so long as such things
were permitted the law would inspire no confiden
A Belfast solicitor, summoved to give. his opinion upon a
practice, with which twenty years’ experience had made him
but too familiar, said a short time ago (and his evidence is all
the more forcibie, as coming from a Presbyterian) that he had
** always been of opinion thatthe hopeless submission of Roman
Catholics to oppression encourages its continuance.
That if under a Roman Catholic soversign, law officers of the
same persnasion would, in Belfast, dare to try Protestants,
charged with a political offence, by an exclusively Roman
Catholic jury, it would be dificult to prevent a general insur-
rection of the Protestants of Ulster.
A trial, which a short time ago made a great noise in Ire-
land, has thrown the fallest light upon the odious sectarian
part ality manifest in the choice of jurors.
The editor of one of the chief Catholic papers of Dublin,
the Morning News, had, in the month of July, 1861, given
publicity to a letter, in which the under sheriff ot the county
Armagh wes e harged with having, during a number of years,
made up the jury lists in such a manner, as to exclude the
Catholics, on at least, to assign them a place totally out of
Proportion with their ow
under sheriff immediately entered an action for libel
against the paper which bad reproduced this letter. The lat-
ter months of the year 1861, were spent in preparation for a
trial, which was to throw light upon one of the most im-
portant points of public ¢ ndsinisbetion, This single debate
would substantiate or destroy the grave accusations under
which the Protestant officers of the crown had so long la-
‘This capital question called forth a marked manifestation of
opinion among the Catholics of Ireland. Month after month,
meetings, speeches, addresses, and ubserig tions followed one
anotber, in favor of the paper which had so vigorously at.
tacked the jury packing system, and undertaken, at its own
risk, the defence of the rights of Irish Catholics, Men of the
highest standing, both lay and ecclesiastical, joined the move-
ment. ‘The archbishops and bishops of Ireland were the first
to send in their subscriptions,
was a great national and religious trial, in which jurors aud
ja ‘e to pronounce upon one of the oldest and
weightiest of Ireland’s wrongs.
The solemnity of the debates was in keeping with the mag-
nitnde of the question. The conduct of the lord chief justice,
during the whole trial, was impartial,
‘The evidence upon oath
during the six preceding years, Protestants and Catholics ee
figared i in the jury panels of the county Armagh,
‘he following table shows these proportions with the most
rigorous exactness
Years. ghzize Sapa Catholics. Pesteatante
lempanneled 0 Catholics
we {item | ae | | oR RE
wer {{Staner | lel 16 B | ie}
ws {iStnmer | tt it » | 3 Ri
1850 | Sinner it 18 an | tg
1800 | /Semmer | dot in my | ahiot
rest [Shimmer ind io Ltt
Although these figures proved, as clearly as evidence can
do, the influence exercised by sectarian party Prejudices over
the officers of the crown, to the detriment of the just rights
Co ue still a verdict was given against the editor of the
Pethe ‘facts were patent; no denial of them had been at-
tempted. No written law obliged the sheriffs to take into
consideration, in empanneling jaries, religions denominaticn.
The plaictif’s counsel got a verdict by insisting upon the let-
ter of the law, although the spirit of it was clearly and scan-
dalously violate:
According to ‘strict right, which, says the old adage,
trenches so nearly upon strict wrong, the county Armagh
magistracy had in nowise overstepped its powers, since in
REDPATI’S ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY}
these matters they are discretionary and absolute. ‘Thank
God, however, the trial before the Court of Queen’s Bench,
in December, 1861, was something m
weightier than a libel wait between individuals.
the 11th, 12th, 18th, 14 December, 1861, entered
upon nothin’ Tens than a a Solana trial of ye spirit ruling the
application of British liws to Irish Cathol
This spirit was not only tried, but condone. The reser-
jw an f damages, merely
nominal, awarded to the plaintiff roth themselves. stropg
The statutes of the realm do not reqnire a single Catholic to
be empanneled upon a jury. For this reason we give a ver-
dict in favor of the magistrate, and against the journalist. We
wish, nots itbstending, to show that although the letter of the,
law aequit the on emn the otber, natural equity,
conscience, and public opirion give a totally opposite verdict ;
that they Joudly rote against the continuance of a sectarian
spirit, catenlat erpetnate among the inhabitants of one
same country the moat fatal divisions.
May the trial
those abuses which it has so
ut an end for ever to
more "interested ¢ than apy others in re-
sponding by a hearty am
Nothing, in fact, is more re caleulatea to lessen the moral an-
thority of a gov vernment, without which material strength is
owerless, than mistrust or doubt concerning the equity of
legal decision. The confidence of a nation’s reprecentatives
may be purchased—the treay of 1800 is but too celebrated
and shameful an example of the fact; the journalist's pen
may be bought, and the liberty of the press become a delu-
sion; but if in the tribunals jndges and juries are above sus-
picion, anation oppressed and betraye though it still pos-
sesses guarantees, themselves a source ef moral power to the
government which respects them. , on the contrary, dis-
honest practices have, unhappily, farniched the reputation of
those who sit in jndgment upon the life and fortune of the
citizen, it may be veeee that the res publica stands upon an
unsound basis, and that the government which fears not to
introduce these fatal practices into the sanctuary of the law,
compromises there its safety, after having there lost its honor.
—_—_.—_—_.
It is seldom that 8 news paragraph or political article growded
of one issue can appear in the yext n
A PAIR OF ber. But, Jast week, there were tw ws
ANGLO-IRISH paragraphs which make an historical picture
{picturEs, when they are placed side by side, and there.
fore they Goserve to be preserved and ri
membered. Here the:
“As we went to press Tast ‘Thursday morning the last news
by cable announced that the Irish General Woolseley,
commanding the British troops in Payee had stated in his
official dispatch tha
“Gri eat emulation w was evinced by the regiments to be the
first in the enemy’s works. The Royal Irish particularly dis-
tga itself by its dash and the manner in which it closed
with the
poke. Tatest m1 news by mail, received on the same day, described
in which Eng’: and rewards the loyal Irish—the
eat loyal to Ireland—for the heroism of the Royal Irish—
or the Irish loyal to England, A correspondent of the Dublin
Freeman's Journal thus described the scenes he witnessed
on, the road from the city of Galway to Oughteraid ;
“For miles upon miles the visible signs of a people’s exist-
ence are roofless cottages and the remains, in ruins, of de-
serted villages. The only comfortable-looking dwellings are
the houses of the constabulary. The others are huts, which
I at first concluded were for cows, but which a more minute
inspection showed me that they were habitations for human
beings. The whole country hereabout appears as though a
conquering and devastating army had * passed over the Jand,
leaving ruin and desolation behind.”
The trouble with both of our political parties is that they
are merely administrative machines—that their
runue 6 seek only to get possession of the ma-
chinism of legislation and without any higher
ABOUT
AMERICAN
PoLitics. purpose in view.
erica needs anew deal—to cashier its old
officers with their old feuds and to bring to the front men with
new ideas and new plans for reviving the democratic spirit of
our institt ons.
Such a revival is sorely needed now. For although we
have no royal or uristocratio families with inherited and trans-
mitted ‘* prerogatives,” t! as arisen in America a new
power that is rapidly developing an evil as dangerous and as
selfish as feudal * privileges.
is the power of Corporations,
is corrupting justice at its source andatits fount. It controls
t] It buys legislators. It corrupts judges, It
If these conspira-
tors could control the country as they control some districts
of it, and the people submitted, the dirge of American liberty
might be written. But the people never will thus yield, for
revolution would sweep away corruptions, if all peaceful
remedies were teyond their reach,
It is to avert such a conflict—surely coming if the Jay
Goulds and other vampires multiply—that every sincere and
liberty-loving man should take an active part in politics,
There is only one vital question in this State campaign—
Free canals, See that this scheme, (at present the only effi-
cient barrier against Railroad aggression) is sustained by an
overmishning popular vo!
there is one issue compared to
which all the noisy ‘‘issues” are insignificant, because it is
the foundation stone of our Temple of Liberty—shall honest
men or reg gues represent
‘his is a government both of men and laws; and honest
men are “needed more than good laws.
If any representative has betrayed you, or if you do not be
lieve a candidate to be absolutely hor est,—for liberty’s sa!
for the love of America, and to hasten the reign of justice on
cer for
infest the fair garden of democracy and destroy it,
The evil is Monopoly. It
SHORT HISTORY OF FEMAMSY.
BY D. P. CONYNGHAM, LL.D.
[From “Ireland, Past and Present.”’*]
THE RISING IN IRELAND.
TPVHE Sth of March, the day to which the rising had been
postponed, at length arrived, and now the real fight was
about to commence. Limerick Tanction had been selected as
a strategic point, and the forces ordered to assemble at this
place were assigned to the command of General Massey.
This man, whose real name was said to be Condin, no sooner
stepped from the train to the station than be found bimself in
the hands of the police, and (berenpen gave an exhibition of
the wonderful courage said to have been displayed by bim in
the Confederate States of America, by fainting dead away!
His real character was soon after displayed, when he appeared
on the witness-stand as a fuil-fledged informer.
the capturs spread throu;
wildfire, and it soon became evident to the insurgents that all
their plans had been revealed to the crown authorities. Find-
ing themselves almost wholly unarmed, and without any com-
petent head to guide their movements, the people naturally
became discouraged, and soon began to seek their homes in
every direction.
In Cork County the rising assumed its most formidable
shape, ‘where, under the command of Captain Mackay, seve.
ral police barracks were taken, where 1n every instance their
defenders, the police, were treated with the greatest courtesy
and forbearance. In fact, this was the prevailing spirit dis-
played by the people and their leaders all over the country
wherever a temporary victory was obtained over their ene-
mies.
At Kilmalock, County Limerick, where the town was in the
hands of Nationalists during the greater part of the dey, nota
single act that could reflect on their honor or discipline was
committed. Private property of every description was scrupu-
in the banks where arms had been
single penny of the large sums of
moned ighb t re
afternoon ‘ond ‘compelled the nationalists to retire, several o1
whom were killed or wounded. One among the killed tes
wholly unknown to the people of the vicinity, and to honor his
mene a) monument was placed over his grave, in-cribed,
“
Unk
Captain Jobn McClure commanded at the attack and cap-
ture of Knockadoon Coast gnard station, and treated bis pris-
oners with the greatest kindness. He end the gallant Edward
elly were captured at the sharp engagement at Killoony
Wood, which took place on March 31st, and in which the
brave ‘and chivalrous Peter Crowley was kille d.
A fight in Ireland without Tipperary, to be sure, would b
atame affair, and bold rebel Tipperary fame glintly to the
front. But even the courage and headlong daring for which
the people of this noble couniry are Stlebrated could not bear
up under the depressing effects of imperfect organizations in-
competent, leadership, sed a {ote ion
of war. General T!
trict, but he too, like all} his ss fellow leaders, found himself in
the hands of the police almost before ad time to realize the
absurdity of the work he was about to commenc
In the city of Dablin, to which all eyes were, turned, the
attempted insurrection was the worst failure of all. The gov-
ernment authorities, fully posted in all the movements of the
Nationalists by the ‘traitor Corydon, permitted the thousands
of men who left the city on the morning of the 5th of March
to pass out unmolested. The departure of these men was Do
Secret ; it oceurred in broad daylight, and even if there had
been no traitor in their ranks, the publicity given to the
movement could not fail to have excited the suspicions of the
the Castle people. All the morning this rem:
continued to
that arrived, greatly to their surprise, were received wit
voliey of musketry, which sent them bak in confusion.
Corydon the traitor had done his work wi The news of
the betrayal was soon communicated to the: advancing throng,
and escape was sought in every direction. Before night, or
rather before the following morning, hundreds of these
misgnided people were in the hands of Englands merciless
hirelings.
It wax as well, | Perhaps, thet this part of the plan miscar-
ried. iad the ablin assembled under the leader
who had been chosen to command them, nothing could have
prevented a desperate struggle. General William G. Halpin
as an ofticer Ww 0 had rendered eminent service in the Union
my di Ne American civil war, an nce BUC.
ceeded i in gett sine these men under his coxtrol, ‘bis natural
soldierly instincts and his | unfaltering Jove of discipline would
n have moulded them into a formidable force, that would
have at Teast put England's trained ranks to a fearful test.
The men from Kingstown, always fre in their duty to the
cause, captured on their way two police barracks and made
prisoners of the police. ‘These wer
side and Glencullen. eo on ivi
they were soon made
te secrets of tl
a
32
“thas vended the so.called ‘‘rising” of 1867, which for wild,
utopian conception, and lack of ability in the execution of the
plan asa whole, exceeds every other attempt known to the
sonal of Trish history. The movement, however, developed
one fact, from which’a lesson for the future may be learned :
that the people of Ireland, Peper guided, “nd with the
means in their Possession, will t for their ‘independence,
Much has been said and written eat the precipitous flight
of the people before armed force, but there is nothing in all
this that ought to be recorded to their discredit.
0 prove that their natural common sense and sound judg.
ment were superior to the false reasoning of enthusiastic, and
any iustances sale oF Tel leaders. his wi
Be and depend less on
outside aid. ‘There were in Ireland on that Sth of March,
1867, a thousand Irishmen, any one of whom were worth a
dozen Cluserets or Fariolas, had they been only tanght to
rely on and to cultivate their own natural ability to
comman
“+ [This short history of Fenianism is chapt “
and_Present ‘embracing complete Try. ot te. so, Queaons
from the Earliest Period to the Present. Time” By D. P. Conyngham,
LL.D. New York; James Sheehy, Publisher. Copyright secured,
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