IRELAND.
1Ve omitted to state, last week, that Lord Clarendon arrived at Dublin Castle, from England, on Tuesday the 5th instant.
A deputation waited upon the Lord-Lieutenant, on the 11th, with a me- morial very numerously signed, praying him to take measures for insuring that Roman Catholic jurors shall not be excluded, on account of their reli- gion, from juries appointed to try political offences. The Reverend Dr. Spratt, a Roman Catholic clergyman, headed the deputation and read the memorial. Lord Clarendon replied at some length. To that part of the memorial which referred to the proceedings of the Sheriff, Lord Clarendon stated, that it is wholly without the province of the Government to give instructions to the Sheriff. That officer is amenable to the Courts of which he is a servant for breaches of his duty; and those Courts have the means to try and punish any irregularity. On the particular occasion alluded to in the memo- rial, an inquiry did in fact sustain the correctness of the returns made by the officer in question. With regard to the conduct of the Law-officers of the Crown, Lord Clarendon knew of no principle having ever been propounded, still less adopted, that Roman Catholic jurors should be excluded on account of their per- suasion. The privilege of objection has in every case rested on quite a different ground—on the ground ex pressed in the emphatic language of the law, that each jury- man should stand indifferent between the parties to the issue as he stands unsworn. "-The practical application of this principle will vary with the circumstances of particular cases. In some, the smallest amount of direct pecuniary or personal interest in the result of the trial may be sufficient to disqualify; in some, con- nexions of kindred, even remote, but supposed likely to affect a bias of inclination, will justify the exclusion of the most uprightjuror. Any cause, in short, which leads to the conclusion that he may be affected by a presumed or actual partiality, or act under some undue influence or prejudice, is recognized by the cemmon law of the land as affording just ground of challenge. The existence of such prejudice may not be limited to a particular juror—local or political excitement may occasion its prevalence among the whole, or a great portion, of those who may be summoned, whether in reference to the individual to be tried or to the matter ,144 ntJtot frith, afence of which he is accused; and the Courts have recognized the ap lication Lthe rules of law to the existence of such a state of things, even Raw,
er
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ttfg qt re vim, the trial altogether from the county in which the m-
eta* `prejudices might justly be apprehended among the jurors, to the of justice was not likely to be so impeded or disturbed." :Ise
a_ ties le* he officers of the Crown no doubt on their course under the c, rinitancealn whi they acted. "It became the bounden duty of the public - ,:- ,,-11-6seiiiter as wate ilantly the condition, the character, and the associations of
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e"---tMaight beritnpanelled on the juries, and to exclude, as far as in him lay, 4... a of** associations, all known supporters of their principles, all, of whatever religions persuasion they might be, who could on reasonable grounds be supposed to be under the undue influence of such opinions and such views. To act otherwise, would have been on his part a serious dereliction of duty. It is my firm belief that he did no more than his duty. In the exercise of the privileges of the Crown, he was necessarily compelled to set aside not only many Roman Ca- tholics, but even a greater number of Protestants; to whom your memorial makes not the slightest allusion, but of which fact, I presume, you cannot have been ignorant. It is one which, I should have thought, might not unnaturally have led you to some apprehension of the true circumstances of the case, before you thought yourselves warranted in arraigning the conduct of the officers of the Crown as being based on a studied design of excluding Roman Catholics, as such, from the juries of whose constitution you complain." Satisfied with the conduct of the Attorney-General, the Lord-Lieutenant did not feel called on to interfere with the exercise of that discretion which the law had intrusted to him.
With this rebuke, the deputation bowed and withdrew.
The Dublin correspondent of the Morning Chronicle accumulates fur- ther evidences of improvement in Irish trade. The Mercantile Advertiser, quoted as " possessing accurate information on commercial affairs," prints a letter from " one of the most intelligent merchants of Dublin," containing these encouraging passages— "I consider that the trade of this country is in a healthier state at present than it has been for years; the transactions, no doubt, very much of a retail nature, but out of which no losses accrue, and very few bankruptcies follow. "I may mention, what indeed is notorious, that a protested bill, or a dis- honoured one, amongst the commercial classes, is quite a rarity; the notary's occupation is therefore nearly gone. It is also well known that the consumption of teas, sugar, and all excisable articles, is steadily on the increase; and as I think the railway pressure is nearly over, as far as Ireland is concerned, I confidently expect to see better times, and steadier, are long."
The Tipperary Vindicator denounces with passionate earnestnesa the evictions which continue to be a feature of land-management in its district.
" We do not say that there exists a conspiracy to uproot the 'mere Irish'; but we do aver, that the fearful system of wholesale ejectment, of which we daily hear and which we daily behold, is a mockery of the eternal laws of God—a flagrant outrage on the principles of nature. Whole districts are cleared. Not a roof-tree is to be seen where the happy cottage of the labourer or the snug homestead of the farmer at no distant day cheered the landscape. . . . The ditch-side, the dripping rain, and the cold sleet, are the covering of the wretched outcast the mo- ment the cabin is tumbled over him; for who dare give him shelter or protection from the pelting of the pitiless storm'? Who has the temerity to afford him the ordinary rites of hospitality when the warrant has been signed for his extinction? . . . There are vast tracts of the most fertile land in the world in this noble county now thrown out of tillage. No spade, no plough goes near them. There are no symptoms of life within their borders—no more than if they were situated in the midst of the Great Desert—no more than if they were cursed by the Creator with the blight of barrenness. Those who laboured to bring those tracts to the condition in which they are—capable of raising produce of any description—are hunted like wolves, or they perish without a murmur." The only remedy be the publi-
city of inquiry by a Commissioner from Printing-house Square. "Let the
Times, then, by all means send a Commissioner to Tipperary. There are able and generous spirits in London, who, we are sure, will perform the duty even in the midst of winter, and let the world know some of the excruciating agonies en- dured by the 'mere Irish' in this the day of their unparalleled affliction." The journals of the West and of the central South dwell on the im- mense augmentation to the emigrant tide which the last few mouths has shown- " In the week before last," alluding to a letter published by the Clonmel Chro- nick, "one house in Liverpool is said to have received not less than 9,0001., in separate sums of 11. each, as head-money for so many separate families emigrat- ing to America. It is thus that the bone and sinew of the country are rapidly wasting away; all the small farmers are becoming paupers and burdens on the land, and all the large ones are becoming levanters,' as in fashionable parlance fraudulent runaways are styled. Other classes, too, of a more respectable and independent kind, are preparing to quit the country. I have met with numerous instances of gentlemen farmers who used to follow the hounds, who kept large establishments with a number of domestic retainers, and gave employment nearly all the year round to the labouring poor of their several districts, also cursing the country and preparing to quit it. Damn the country! ' is not an unfrequent exclamation amongst those persons; 'latterly it is gone to the Devil entirely.' These persons carry with them when they go from 5001. to 1,0001. each; and thus some estimate may be formed of the money-drain in Ireland at present."
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