But, to our minds, the important part of the Report
lies in the appendix. From that it appears that on the O'Connor jury, all the jurors were Protestants,—eighteen Catholics and two Protestants having been sot aside by th'e Crown, and six Protestants by the prisoners. The Hynes jury consisted of eleven Protestants and one Jew, the Crown having ordered twenty-two Catholics and four Protestants to stand aside, and the prisoners having sot aside eleven Protestants. On the first trial of Patrick Walsh, when no verdict was agreed to, all the jurors were Protestants ; and again, the second jury which tried the case was entirely Protestant, the Crown having challenged eleven Catholics and nine Protestants, and the prisouer having challenged eleven Protestants. On the trial of Michael Walsh, the jury was exclusively Protestant, the Crown. having challenged fifteen Catholics and two Protestants, and the prisoner eight Protestants. All this cannot have taken place accidentally, and that it should have taken place by design seems to us highly discreditable to the Irish Administration. If Mr. Gray had commented in the Proentan's Journal only on this exclusion, by the advice of the Crown officials, of all the Catholics from these juries, we should have not merely justified him, but heartily applauded him. If juries cannot be trusted to do justice on the evidence, supersede them, by all means. But so long as you trust them, to apply religious tests to them under pretence of applying civil tests, is tricky, and a practice which, in England or Scotland, public opinion would never for a moment tolerate.
Previous page
