NEWS OF THE WEEK.
but no— , ere more delays. First, Mr. O'Cosnletr., who e iu riding in the Lord mayor's- coach, took tewint-
.
tit just on his wig; which implies a good deal of time spent at the looking-glass. Then the question of the Jury. list was raised again, with a colourable difference. When the Jury was called, the traversers challenged the panel, on the ground of -the omission ; and now the more modest proposal was made, that the Recorder should be required to amend the list by introducing the omitted names. Having politely listened to the whole of Fri- day's argument over again, the Bench again refused compliance. But the objection was made to subserve to a further and subsidiary delay : a separate challenge was made out for each of the travers- ers; and not only that, but the documents setting forth the seve- ral challenges were not ready ; and the Court actually waited for hours while that attornies-work was performed. The Crown- lawyers profited a little by the delay, for they retired to cogitate over the sample challenge which had been produced : so there the Bench sat, passing the time in grumbling to young Sir COLMAN OTOGHLEN, while the attornies' clerks on one side were scribbling and the counsel on the other were pondering. However, that ob- struction was at last surmounted. Then came Tuesday, and of course more delays. First, two of the accused, two newspaper- editors, did not come up to time, and it was proposed to go on without them. One of the Judges goodnaturedly suggested to the Attorney-General, that in misdemeanour cases, persons under trial were sometimes allowed to appear by their attornies—an improper licence in criminal proceedings ; and the Chief Justice even inti- mated that he was satisfied that it should be so! The Court could "rub on" very well without a few prisoners more or less ; but pre- cise Mr. SMITH was inexorable, and the proceedings were staid. The Court waited : it waited " a few minutes "—then nearly half an hour—then "four or five minutes "—then the recognizances were about to be forfeited—and then the absentees entered, amid much laughter. Fun rules paramount in the Irish supreme crimi- nal court! That obstacle surmounted, another presented itself. Some of the jurors had been remiss on the Monday, and they were so again on Tuesday: they were fined. Others claimed exemption on the score of ill health ; but the traversers' lawyers struggled vigorously to keep the invalids on the Jury, avowedly for the sake of the chance that the illness of a juror might put a stop to the trial. They succeeded in retaining one old gentleman of seventy-two, troubled with rheumatism ; and as protracted sitting and change- able weather are bad for rheumatic patients, the traversers have reasonable hopes that they may not yet be driven to a verdict. At last the way is clear, and the Attorney-General proceeds with his statement—that alone occupying nearly two whole days. It may be called an "able" statement, though it contains nothing novel, brilliant, or ingenious, to relieve its length. He explains the law of such conspiracy—some of his authorities telling so patly that they seem to be describing this very case ; gives a history of the Repeal agitation ; enters by the bye into a controversial discussion of Mr. O'CototEra:s position that the Act of Union is void, which he leaves where he found it ; and brings into a focus all the strong points of the monster-meetings and Repeal inuendoes—the drill- ing, the display of numbers, the denunciations of " the Saxon," the threats of foreign aid, the money-levies, and the prophecies that " something is coming." Standing by itself, Mr. Surra's speech seems to foreshadow, as imminent, a rebellion like that of 1798; and it is almost enough to double the number of Irish ab- sentees with alarm. Mr. SMITH ceased, and the taking of evidence began. There has been the expected ohligato accompaniment of agitation out of doors. Mr. O'CONNELL scatters abroad his assurances that he is ready for martyrdom ; and he is echoed in the solemn sounds of mass offered up for his safety. The agitators, making the most of their new grievance—the accidental omission of some Roman Catholics from the Jury-list, and the deliberate exclusion of eleven more from the reduced Jury-panel—have had a great " aggregate " meeting, at which Mr. O'CONNELL figured as a martyr in posse ; Mr. SHEIL, counsel for another "conspirator," extended his brief to attendance at the meeting ; another Ex-Minister, Mr. Timm WYSE, was present and energetic ; and Mr. MORE O'FEttaa.m. con- curred by letter. While the trial proceeds, the party friends of the accused assume a position at once injured and threatening : the trial is to be used in the House of Commons, the House of Com- mons is to be used at the trial.
It is clear that each side will be prepared to beg the question against an adverse verdict, whichever way it may fall. The Repeal- ers and Liberals would impute it to "a packed Jury," a term already used with as little decency as appositeness : the Tories would impute it to intimidation and the usual vices of "an Irish Jury ": thus, whichever way it go, in Ireland it will be no more than a party triumph or defeat; the vanquished party remaining in uncon- vinced sulkiness to "try again." The prosecution will be really tried in England. The reported evidence will be weighed ; the conduct of the trial, the verdict itself, and the very judgment, will form part of the evidence ; and from the whole we shall learn what is the actual state of the law in Ireland respecting these multitudinous and ambiguous agitations—what its bearing on the state of the country. It will then be for Parliament to decide whether the existing law suffices to preserve the internal peace or not ; whether the law must be left as it is or not ; and farther, whether or not the grievances, which are the causes or the pretexts for tempting the law, ate- to remain untouched. The Legislature will have to deal with the law of public safety, and then with the whole case of Ireland.
* "Yesterday the Irish Law-officers were to swear in their packed Jury for the trial of Mr. O'Connell and the other traversers."—Morning Chronicle, Tan. 16; opening of the first leading article.
