3 JUNE 1848, Page 7

IRELAND.

The Mitchel trial ended on Friday. That day's proceedings were of sufficient constitutional and dramatic intere.t to call for a somewhat full report in our columns.

The Attorney-General stated the case for the Crown, in a speech which excepting two of its points did little more than quote in succession the Passages, spoken and written, that were the foundation of the criminal charge: his comments were but paraphrases, or rather, in most cases, only repetitions in tones of surprise. The plain, unambiguous sense of the Passages he quoted was sufficient reason for this general course. In be- ginning, however, he briefly and clearly explained to the Jury the history of the present law.

Before April last, there were in activity several associations of politicians

whose object was by legal and constitutional agitation, and the formation of a public opinion in their favour, to accomplish the repeal of the Legislative Union of the two countries. In such an object there was nothing illegal. But a party separated itself from those so associated, with the professed intention to gain the repeal of the Union by. force and violence. In that state of things, the Crown and Government Security Act had been passed, making it a transportable felony to compass or intend, either the deprivation and deposition of the Queen from her style, honour, and royal name of the imperial crown of the United Kingdom; or the levying war against her in her kingdom, to force her to change her measures or counsels. The present prosecution had been instituted against Mr. Mitchel for a contravention of Chia law; and the evidence of his crime consisted in reports of speeches made by him, and of articles written by him, both published in his paper called the United Irishman, since the passing of the act. l'he first publication founded on for the prosecution was the report, in the United Irishman of the 7th May, of a speech made by Mr. Mitchel at "a soiree to the persecuted patriots," held in Limerick on the 30th April. In that speech, alluding to a mob outside the room in which lie spoke, who bad been instigated to show a violent antipathy to him, and who ultimately broke into a riot on account of his presence, Mr. Mitchel said he would prefer a Provisional Government, selected out of the mob that was then bellowing in the street, to the British Go. vernment. He openly advised the resort to violent measures— "Can I repudiate the last speech of Mr. O'Brien in the British Parliament—one et the noblest, clearest statements of Ireland's case—the very haughtiest, grandest defi- ance flung In the face of Ireland's enemies, that ever yet fell from the lips of man? Or can I condemn the alternative put by sir. Meagher, who says, when the last constitu- tional appeal shall be made and shall Iall—.Then, up with the barricades, and invoke the god of battles?' " The Attorney-General would respectfully ask of Mr. Holmes, who was to follow him in the prisoner's defence, what meaning but one—that of a physieal resort to barricades and battle—could to suggested concerning this passage? Mr. Mitchel was reported in his paper to have proceeded thus- " No ; all the sedittons and treasons of these gentlemen I adopt and accept ; and ask for more. (Hear, hear!) Whatever has been done or said by the most disaffected person in all Ireland against the existence of the party which calls itself the Govern- ment—nothing can go too far for me. Whatever public treasons there are in this land, I have stomach for them all. (Loud cheering.) But, Sir, have we not had in Ireland somewhat too much of this adopting and avowing, as also repudiating and disavowing, what has been said or done by others? Might we not, perhaps, act with advantage less as parties, and more as mere men, each of us on his own individual responsibility? (Hear, hear!) * S a In short, I have long felt that I belong to a party of on member—a party whose basis of action is to think and act for itself—whose one fun- damental rule is, to speak lta mind. Its secretary, committee, librarian, and treasurer are alt one in the same person ; and In its proceedings, I assure you, there reigns the most unbroken unanimity. Seriously, Sir, I know no other way of insuring both honest unanimity and independent cooperation than this very way of mine ; and with these views and sentiments, you may be sure I am not likely to misconceive the motive of your kindness In asking me to join your party tonight. I am here, I believe, as your guest on one account alone; you will say whether I state it truly. I am here not as a Jacobin (which I am not), nor as a Communist (which I tun not). nor even II a Republican (which I am), but simply and merely because I am a bitter and Irrec011e enable enemy to the British Government."

After a review of " the cause," and some advice as to succeeding steps, Mr. Mitchel went on-

" It is better that the leaders should be called to encounter danger in the courts of justice first, than that it should fall on a people not yet prepared In the field. But while we meet the enemy in the Queen's Bench, we have a right to call upon you to sustain us by a firm and universal avowal of your opinion. On the constituents of Smith O'Brien especially devolves this duty. While the British Parliament calls his exer- tions ' treason' and felony,' It Is for his constituents to declare that In all this treason and felony he is doing his duty by them. And more than this—it is your duty further to prepare systematically to sustain him, if it come to that, in arms."

What these arms were for, was made plain in immediately subsequent words-

" May I presume to address the women of Limerick ? It is the first time I have ever been in the presence of the daughters of those heroines who held the breech against Ring William; and they will understand me when I say, that no Irishwoman ought sq much as to speak to a man who has not provided himself with arms."

" No lady is too delicate for the culinary operation of casting bullets. No hand ti too white to make up cartridges. And I hope, if It be needful to come to the last resort, that the citizens of Limerick, male and female, will not disgrace their paternal ADA maternal ancestors."

Mr. Mitchel had, then, a stomach for all the treason that had been uttered, and far more; he was ready to fly. to barricades and to invoke the god of battles; and he was a Republican in principle: what, then, was the aim of the advice to arm, to cast bullets, and to go into the field? and what the significance of the allusion to a Provisional Government? What was to become of the Queen if a Provisional Government were formed ?

But if any doubt were possible on the intentions of Mr. Mitchel as disclosed by the contents of his paper of the 7th May, all such doubts must be removed by aft article in the number of that paper published on the 13th May, The Attorney- General read at length a letter addressed by Mr. Mitchel ' To the Protestant Farmers, Labourers, and Artisans of the North of Ireland"; observing that Mr, Mitchel himself was a native of the North. That article concluded with these words— "1 ten you frankly, that I, for one, am not loyal' I am not wedded to the Queen of England, nor unalterably attached to the house of Brunswick. In fact, I lave my own bare better than I love that house. The time is long past when Jehovah anointed kings. The thing has long since grown a monstrous imposture ; and hag been already in some civilized countries detected as such, and drummed out ac- cordingly. A modern king, my friends, is no more like an ancient anointed shep- herd of the people than an archbishop's apron is like the Brim and Thumrcirt. There is no divine right now but in the sovereign people. And for the butte tutions of the country,' I loathe and despise them : we are sickening and dying of these institutions fast; they are cousumiug us like a plague, degrading us to paupers in mind, body, and estate ; yes, making our very souls beggarly and cowardly. They are a failure and a fraud, these Institutions—from the topmost Crown jewel to the meanest Detective's note-book, there is no soundness in them. God and man are weary of them. Their last hour is at hand ; and I thank God that I live in the days when I shall witness the utter downfall, and trample upon the grave of the most portentous, the grandest, meatiest and cruellest tyranny that ever deformed this world." Lastly, Mr. Mitchel had replied to some hostile remarks of the Times news- paper with this explicit reference- " Now, the fact Is, the editor of the The United Irishman Is no hero at all, and never said he was. He has only endeavoured to persuade his countrymen that they will ne- ver gain their liberties except by fighting for them ; and that the only arguments the English Government will understand are the points of pikes—that's all And he con- tinues to preach this saving doctrine, and will continue to do so mail a considerable number of his countrymen agree with lihn ; and then he hopes to aid lu enforcing the arguments practically—that's an."

Such were the proofs in support of the charge made against Mr. Mitchel of compassing the purposes which the act of Parliament declared felonious. The Attorney-General defended the Crown proceedings in regard to the Jury panel.

" It has been alleged that the Government, of which I am the humble servant, have endeavoured unfairly and improperly to empanel a jury to try this portant case. You were present in court yesterday, gentlemen, when an attempt was made to satisfy the Court and the Jury, or rather the gentlemen appointed triers, that the Crown had endeavoured to Interfere with the right and duty of the Sheriff in empanelling a Jury. The complaint against the Jury was, that it did not contain a sufficient proportion of Roman Catholic jurors. It wee not alleged, gentlemen, that Mr. Mitchel himself is a Roman Catholic: on the con- trary, it is stated in the publication that Mr. Mitchel is a Protestant. The evidence, I believe, satisfied everybody that the Government, or any servant or officer of the Government, had nothing whatever to do with the formation of the Jury panel; that it was merely and entirely the act of the Sheriff; and that the difference between the present panel and those panels by which it was preceded consisted in this, that men of the highest respectability were pat upon it. That is the only charge brought against the Sheriff for the constitution of that paneL Gentlemen, if there were a person more than another who could be supposed to be incapable Of objecting to his Roman Catholic fellow countrymen being placed upon the panel, that individual is myself; for, gentlemen, I am by education, con- viction, and practice, a Roman Catholic, and it is a calumny upon the Govern- ment and upon me to assert that they or I would object to Boman Catholics being neon the panel: and that the Government would not be capable of lending them- selves to such an act, has been proved by their having promoted me to the high office which I hold, and their also having promoted several distinguished members of the profession to which I belong." The only instruction to the Crown Solicitor was upon no account and under no circumstances to exclude a man for his reli- eon. No matter what religion he professed, it was his duty to exclude from the jury-box men, no matter what their religion might be, who coincided with the prisoner in his political opinions. The Crown Solicitor was told—" Any man who from year information you believe not to be a man who will give an im- partial verdict between the Crown and the subject, that man, and that man alone, without reference to his religion, you are to exclude from the panel ': and that Mr. Kemmis has, according to the best of his judgment, exercised that right, I entertain no doubt." The legal proofs were given of Mr. Mitohel's presence at the Limerick Meeting, and of the words used by him there and afterwards reported in his paper; and proofs also of his proprietorship of the paper, and of the publication of the copies containing the other articles for which he was prosecuted.

Mr. Holmes then entered on the defence.

Commencing with an attack on the constitution of the Jury panel by the Sheriff, and being stopped by Baron Lefroy on an inaccurate statement of fact, he went forward a step. and declaimed against the course taken by the Attorney- General, after a fair Jury was empanelled, of challenging the array. Two re- spectable citizens appointed to try the fairness of the panel had declared it fair and impartial; yet thirty men had been afterwards struck off by the Crown, of whom eighteen were Roman Catholics. Mr. Holmes then dealt with a technical point. The indictment charged two distinct offences of felony; each of them, however, supported by the same evidence. The Foreman of the Grand Jury, in returning the bill, had declared the bill was for sedition; then, on correction by the Clerk of the Court, said it was for treason; and at last, on recorrection, said, ' We find for sedition, treason, or felony, or what- ever it is." So at present, the Crown would be happy to get a conviction for " what- ever it is." But the distinct crime alleged was felony; and if the Jury thought he had committed a sedition or a treason, they must acquit the prisoner of the felony charged in the present indictment. Mr. Holmes criticized the frame of the charge, and clared.himself unable to see the meaning of the words " to depose the Queen from her style, honour, or royal name," though he could understand deposition from her throne. He defied the Crown to produce evidence of any particular mea- sure or counsels the change of which by force and violent compulsion was aimed at in the speeches or articles charged. If any such could be pointed to by the At- torney-General, Mr. Holmes would willingly allow him to amend his speech and indicate them. He put it to the Judges, that there must be an acquittal directed, if no specific measure could be indicated. Baron Lefroy intimated, that the Jury would be properly directed on such points in the judicial address.

Mr. Holmes resumed. If it was intended by the Crown side to leave

• the Jury in such uncertainty, he would go fully into the case.

Alluding to expressions in the articles and speeches quoted, he admitted there were very strong expressions used in those publications. " Mr. Mitchel avows them; and many of them I also avow; and I want to try this case of felony between the Crown and the accused, which I cannot do without calling your attention to something of the history and the present state of Ireland. And with that view, I tell you, in the first instance, that Ireland is an enslaved country. A great mistake is entertained by many persons, to the effect that there cannot be slavery

— that no man can be a slave unless he be in chains, or subject to the lash of the planter, like the Negroes: but the slavery of which I speak is the slavery of the people, which consists in this, that they do not make their own laws themselves — that they do not make the laws by which they are governed, but that those laws are made by others; and I say it boldly, that a people so circumstanced are in a state of slavery."

Baron Lefroy interposed; observing that the course taken by Mr. Holmes was most embarrassing.

Mr. Holmes said, he could not do justice to his client "without doing justice to Ireland." [This expression having been loudly cheered by the audience, Baron Lefroy ordered the Sheriff to report every person commit- ting such breaches of decorum.]

Mr. Holmes maintained the importance of showing all the circumstances of the case, and the provocations under which Mr. Mitchel had uttered his pub- lications. " My client may be guilty of felony; but I say it broadly and boldly, that England is the cause of the offence of which he is accused: and I will de- monstrate it. I care not by what means you have been empanelled. I address you because I believe you to be honest and faithful Irishmen. Take nothing from me: I will state upon high authority. What does the liberty of a people consist in ? It consists in the right and power to make laws for its own govern- ment. Were an individual to make laws for another country, that person is a despot, and the people are slaves. When one country makes laws for another country, (and that England makes laws for Ireland I will demonstrate, by which Ireland is enslaved,) the country which makes the laws is absolutely the sovereign country, and the country for which those laws are made is in a state of slavery.' I give that upon the authority of an Englishman—an honest man in his day— Blackstone. And what does he say ? In constitutional questions he will not be suspected or accused of being too much in favour of popular rights: he says= It follows from the nature and constitution of a dependent state, that England should make laws for Ireland'—(treating Ireland as a conquered country, he is arguing that England had a right to do so). Ireland'—(this is a conquered country)— 'conquered, planted, and governed by England, it might be necessary that it should be subject to such laws as the superior state thinks proper to prescribe.' In speaking of this country, Ireland, Blackstone maintains, that because Ireland had been a conquered country in his days, Ireland of the present time, and for posterity for ever, should be bound by such laws as the conquering state thinks proper to make for her."

After inveighing against Poyning's Law, and the Union, Mr. Holmes proceeded — " I say it, boldly and broadly, as a man, that the Act of Union is only binding as a thing of expediency. Men will often submit to a certain order of things, rather than run the risk of subverting by force of arms the state of things as established. No man upon slender grounds should endeavour to subvert the order of things; but it is the right of an enslaved country, and the laws of Providence approve the right, to arm and right itself. What man would live—" Mr. Holmes was here stopped by Baron Lefroy; who remarked that he was teaching the same doctrines for the publication of which the prisoner stood at the bar: the prisoner's case must not be founded on the subject of repeal by force of arms.

Mr. Holmes persisted that he would make it appear that England had caused the present state of the country.

From past times let them turn to the present time, and what did they see? An Attorney-General—an able lawyer—under a Special Commission a most suc- cessful prosecutor. Death bad followed his footsteps; and it was asked, ought not the assassin to suffer for his crime? Yes, but in the history of the civilized world and of free nations, has there ever yet been a nation of assassins? he. assassination is the crime of the untutored savage or the brutalized slave. We; the assassin to suffer for his crime? Yes; but deep, Beep, deep was the guilt of England, in its unprovoked invasion and unjust dominion in Ireland. At the close of seven centuries of wasting wars, wasting laws, and still more wasting policy, it was now found necessary to maintain that dominion in Ireland b ope: cial commissions, state prosecutions, and military force—by the gibbet, by the

gaol, and by the sword. • •

Let England give to Ireland her own Parliament; not the Parliament of '82-- that was a meteor light which flashed across the land—a deceptive vapour which quickly. vanished. Ireland wanted a fixed star, bright and resplendent, the cor- dial influence and reflecting radiance of which might be seen and felt in the gio_ rious union of liberty, happiness, and peace. But it was urged that if they did that, it would lead, as Lord Althorp had said, to separation, and that Ireland would be erected into a separate independent state. And suppose it did; who was to blame for that? England! What right bad England—what right had any country to build its greatness upon the slavery, degradation, and wretchedness of another?

At the close of Mr. Holmes's speech, the Judges were again obliged to repress a burst of applause, by orders to clear the court if the noise eon. tinned.

Mr. Henn replied briefly for the Crown. Mr. Justice Moore charged the Jury; at the outset condemning the introduction of irrelevant topics by the counsel both for the Crown and the prisoner.

The construction of the Jury panel, and the subsequent challenge of several ju- rors by the Crown, the alleged steps of intimidation of the Jury by the prisoner's friends, and the personal honesty of character of the prisoner, were all points which the Jury would dismiss from their minds. So also the point whether Ire- land was now an enslaved country was one on which no issue was presented to tbe Jury to determine. Indeed, the Judge had felt great surprise that so eminent a lawyer as Mr. Holmes should have thought fit to introduce such topics as the last.

After explaining the law as bearing upon the indictment, Mr.Justice Moore no- ticed this remarkable feature in the case—" The Attorney-General, in his opening statement, read to you the passages, and stated to you the meaning he thought those passages bore. The able counsel for the prisoner never once adverted to those publications, and never made a single observation for the purpose of show- ing that the Attorney-General, either by the indictment or in his statement, had pat a wrong interpretation upon this publication."

The Jury retired at four o'clock in the afternoon. At six, the Sheriff learned from them, and informed the Judge, that they were not yet agreed. This information ;sized a momentary tumult of delight in the audience, The Judge retired for a time. At seven he returned, and the Jury had agreed. Having been called in the usual way, the Foreman, in solemn si- lence, handed to the Clerk of the Crown the verdict; and it was read aloud —" Guilty."

The reporters describe a scene. The prisoner's wife, who had sat near him through the trial, threw herself on his shoulder, and wept aloud in an agony of grief. His friends pressed around him and seized him by the hand; many barristers rushing in a most disorderly way across the table before the Judges. Baron Lefroy called on the Police to clear the passages to the dock. At last this was done, and the prisoner was removed; to be brought up for sentence next morning at eleven.

Shortly before the Jury had pronounced their verdict, some person ran into Green Street and announced to the people that there was no proba- bility of an agreement. This was at once caught up, and deafening shouts of applause followed. The Police received orders to clear the streets; but the moment these orders were given the people dispersed quietly. When the reality of the verdict became known to the populace, they began to de- part in gloomy silence; and at half-past seven o'clock the streets in the neighbourhood of the prison were clear. Almost all the shop-windows in Capel Street were immediately closed when the news spread abroad. The Police were marched off shortly after: some of the Jury departed on foot, others in cars; the Foreman was escorted in a covered vehicle guarded by three policemen to his residence.

At eleven o'clock on Saturday morning, Baron Lefroy and Mr. Justice Moore took their seats on the bench. Mr. Mitchel was placed at the bar, where he stood in a calm, firm attitude. His friends who were about the bar, warmly shook him by the hand. Baron Lefroy called out, in a pe- remptory tone, "Keep order in court! "

At the suggestion of Sir Colman Ologhlen, the Clerk of the Crown read the finding of the Jury. The Clerk of the Crown then asked the prisoner whether he had anything to say why the sentence of the Court should not be passed?

Mr. Mitchel said he had-

" I have to say, my Lords, that I have been found guilty by a packed Jury— by the proceeding of a partisan Sheriff—by a Jury which was not empanelled even according to the law of England, but by a Jury which was packed—was jug- gled, not by a Sheriff, but by a juggler." High Sheriff—" My Lords"—

Mr. Mitchel—" That is the reason why I object to your sentencing me to any punishment." Baron Lefroy rebuked Mr. Mitchel for so unfounded an imputation. He then reviewed the evidence and remarked on the verdict-

" With that verdict, however you may be advised, or think yourself justified in calling it the verdict of a packed Jury, thus imputing perjury to twelve of your countrymen—deliberate and wilful perjury,"— Mr. Mitchel—" No, my Lord, I. did not impute perjury to the Jury." Baron Lefroy—" I understood that you had stated in arrest of judgment, that you had been tband guilty by a packed Jury." Mr. Mitchel—" I did." Baron Lefroy—" I shall make no further observation upon that; but I owe it to the Jury to state, that upon the evidence furnished by yourself; no juror who had the slightest regard to the oath he had taken could by possibility come to a different conclusion." In estimating the weight of punishment due to the crime, Baron Lefroy took into consideration the deliberation with which it was committed, and the repeti- tion of the offence in aggravated degrees of criminality.. He dwelt, too, on the fact that no attempt at favourable interpretation had been made in the course of the defence. Indeed, "a line of defence was taken which not only expressly stated that you might be statutably guilty, but that you were yet Joel:. fled in what you did. The Court, though we did not stop that line of defence, yet

desired to"— implicitly but Mr. Holmes—"My Lords, with the greatest respect, what I said was, that

thou- gh he might be statutably guilty, he was not, in my opinion, morally guilty. I repeat that opinion now." &mu Lefroy—" I should be glad to find that I am mistaken altogether in my eiew of the drift of the remark; and I should be extremely glad to adopt the con- viction. I shall say no more upon that point. I only adverted to it in order to shield the Court from the Rossible supposition that we sat here and acquiesced in a the of defence which appeared to us very little short of, or amounting to, as oh-

tionable matter as that of which the prisoner has been found guilty."

otlr. Holmes—"I am responsible for that under your act of Parliament." [This ob:ervation created great excitement in the court.]

Baron Lefroy—" Are there any policemen in court, to prevent this interruption? " The High-Sheriff—" I have given distinct orders to the police to remove from the court any persons interrupting the proceedings."

Baron Lefroy—" But they should make prisoners of them, that they may be committed to prison." The Judge continued. The Court had taken much time, and had deliberated anxiously. Their duty was to mete out no excess of punishment beyond the measure of the offence, and yet to apportion such a degree of punishment as should tend to prevent crime in future and Five security to the country. " We had to consider all this—to look at the magnitude of the crime, and to look also at the consideration that if this were not the first case brought under the act our duty might have obliged us to carry out the penalty it awards to the utmost ex- tent: but, taking into consideration that this is the first conviction under the act—though the offence has been as clearly proved as any offence of the kind could be—the sentence of the Court is, that you be transported beyond the seas for the term of fourteen years."

Mr. Mitchel obtained leave to speak again. We quote the entire scene from the reports written on the spot.

Mr. Mitchel—" The law has now done its part; and the Queen of England, her Crown, and Government in Ireland, are now secure, pursuant to act of Parlia- ment. I have done my part also. Three months ago, I promised Lord Claren- don and his Government in this country, that I would provoke him into his courts of justice, which places of this kind are called; and that I would force him pub- licly and notoriously to pack a jury against me to convict me, or else that I would walk a free man out of this court, and provoke him to a contest in another field. My Lord, I knew I was setting,my life on that cast; but I knew that in either event the victory should be with me, and it is with me. I presume neither the Jury, nor the Judges, nor any other man in this court,presumes to imagine that it is a criminal who stands in this dock. (Murmurs of applause, which the po- lice endeavoured to repress.) I have shown what this law is made of in Ireland. I have shown that her Majesty's Government sustains itself in Ireland by packed Juries, by partisan Judges, by perjured Sheriffs." Baron Lefroy—" The Court cannot sit here to hear you arraign the Jurors of the country, the Sheriffs of the country, the administration of justice, and the tenure by which the Crown of England holds this country. We cannot sit here and suffer you to proceed thus, because the trial is over. Everything you had to say previous to the judgment the Court was ready to hear, and did hear. We cannot suffer you to stand at that bar to repeat, I must say, very nearly a repeti- tion of the offence for which you have been sentenced." Mr. Mitchel—" I will not say any more of that kind; but I say this—

Baron Lefroy—" We will hear you within the limits of public decorum; but you have already exceeded those limits, and the privilege we accorded you in this Instance has been abused.

Mr. Mitchel—" My Lords, I have acted throughout under a strong sense of duty. I do not repent of anything I have said or done. I retract nothing. The course I have opened is only commenced; and, as the Roman patriot said when the tyrant had his hand thrust into the fire, while that hand was shrivelled, and burnt to ashes—'I can promise for one hundred, two hundred, three hundred to be of my opinion.' So say I: one—yes, two—yes, three hundred, are ready to follow my course." (Sensation, and murmurs of applause.)

Baron Lefroy—" You must remove him." Clerk of the Crown—" Mr. Bourne, remove the prisoner."

The turnkey then caught Mr. Mitchel by the arm, and forced him to the rear of the dock; upon which the friends of Mr. Mitchel rushed forward, and seizing him by the hands and head and shoulders, detained him for a moment: but their hasty farewell was no sooner commenced than it was terminated by the inter- position of the police.

During the delivery of Mr. Mitchel's short address, as well as during the deli- very of the Baron's charge, he evinced perfect composure and self-possession. After the sentence was pronounced a scene of excitement ensued. The per- sonal friends and adherents of Mr. Mitchel, who thronged the vicinity of the dock, rose, and rushed to get a touch or sight of the prisoner. The police resisted them, and a violent riot ensued in front of the very bench. Gentlemen of the bar who wore the costume disrobed themselves and entered into active resistance to the police; by whom several persons were taken into custody—amongst them were Messrs. Meagher, Doheny, and Richard O'Gorman junior.

During the excitement that prevailed at this period of the proceedings, Baron Lefroy lose and retired from the bench; but Judge Moore remained. The learned judge was evidently affected by the distressing circumstances in which the pri- soner was placed.

When order had been in some degree restored, Baron Lefroy returned to court. Mr. Doheny was brought in custody of policemen to the bar; when one of them preferred a charge against him, to the effect that he had disturbed the Court by clapping his hands, contrary to the order of their Lordships.

Mr. Doheny—" My Lords, I admit that I clapped my hands in applause for Mr. Mitchel; and I adopt every word he said in that dock." Baron Lefroy—" You have aggravated your offence by pertinaciously adhering to the contempt you have offered to the Court. Supposing your approval of what the prisoner said had arisen in the excitement of the moment, and that the ex- pression of your approval had been involuntary, the Court would consider the cir- cumstance in your favour, and act accordingly. But you have committed a wil- ful contempt of Court by the additional offence you have just now expressed."

Mr. Doheny—" My Lords, it was not my intention to commit a contempt of Court."

Mr. T. E. Meagher was then brought to the bar in custody of a policeman; who, on being sworn, deposed that he arrested Mr. Meagher, who, by clapping his bands and feet, disturbed the Court, contrary to the order of their Lordships. Baron Lefroy—" Have you anything to say in explanation of the charge against you?"

Mr. Meagher—" Not in the least, my Lord."

Baron Lefroy—" We don't wish you to enter farther into the question than to Offer an apology to the Court for the irregularity you have committed." Messrs. Meagher and Doheny were then detained in custody; but after the lapse of some time they were brought before the Court, and having stated that in ex- pressing their sympathy with Mr. Mitchel they did not mean any disrespect to Lae Court, were discharged from custody: In pronouncing their release, Baron .4efe roy said, that the Court did not mean in the least degree to interfere with the 'eelines or judgment of any person; but they were bound to preserve order and de- corum in the court.

Wuen order had been somewhat restored, and the Court were about to proceed With the ordinary business,

Mr. Holmes rose and said—" My Lords, every sentiment I gave expression to _,._.Ye6terday, when addressing. the Jury in the case of Mr. Mitchel, I adopt as my opinion--1 avow as my opinion. And, perhaps, under the late act of Parliament, her Majesty's Attorney-General, if I have violated that law, may consider it his duty to proceed against me: but if I did not violate the law in anything I said, I must, with the greatest respect to the Court, say that I had a perfect right to say everything I said; and I repeat now, upon deliberation, the expressions I used yesterday with regard to the treatment of this country by England. They are my sentiments, and I avow them openly." (Loud applause.) Baron Lefroy—" Let the ordinary business be proceeded with?

On Saturday morning, the prisoner was allowed a hasty farewell inter- view with his wife and children and a few friends. Then he was rapidly removed from the prison to the quay, and thence on board the Shearweter steamer, by which he was conveyed instantly to the convict-prison on Spike Island in the Cove of Cork. His removal was a surprise to the people, but raised little commotion. He was treated with consideration on the voyage; and was allowed a day after his deportation before being brought under the convict discipline. He is now treated as other prisoners for felonies.

The verdict against Mitchel seemed to paralyze the Confederates at first, but they are again moving. The United Irishman press and types were seized by Government on Saturday, but subsequently yielded up again to prior legal claimants. The paper is to cease nominally; to be replaced by the Irish Felon, under the guidance of Mr. Reilly, Mr. Martin of Lough- erne, and Father Kenyon.

Mr. Doheny presided, on Monday, over a meeting of the small yeomanry and tenant farmers of Dunboyne in Meath; at which he spoke vauntingly of future steps. The following are specimens.

"Although branded as a felon, and although standing in that dock and in the face of the Judge who acted as his prosecutor on the bench, he was nut afraid to announce that there was one, two, three—ay, three thuuaand—who would redeem the pledge he gave to Heaven; and I came here tonight to ask you to ratify the promise, and to say the work he began shall be consummated. (Tremendous cheers, and cries of " Yes, yes, to the death!") Before a week—let the selec- tion be by lot or otherwise—another of us shall take his place in the same dock. (Loud cheers.) Mistake us not. We did not commence this contest to terminate it by a compromise. One thing I can assure you—that we shall lie in shrondless graves, or this island shall be free, before another year. (Cheers.) I do not speak felony here tonight, for this reason, that there is no honour that five or six of us more aspire to than to be the next felon, and I had to give a solemn pledge to them that I would not take advantage and be the first! We shall determine it amongst ourselves who shall be next, and next, and next, until the harvest sun shall gleam upon us, and England have to determine to battle with our bravery, and not to starve us." (Cheers.) There was more of the same tissue; and the guests responded with cries of " Pikes, pikes!" 'The health of " The heroine Mary Mitchel " was drunk with wild excitement. Mr. Doheny gave a glimpse of the farewell scene in Newgate Gaol—

Mrs. Mitchel [whom he called "loveliest of all in this lovely land "] had visited her patriot husband: after some words calculated to cheer his spirits, she as if by inspiration, exclaimed " No matter, John, the day will come that they will pay for this! If necessary, die for Ireland! "

The Clubs have initiated a subscription for the support of Mrs. Mitchel and her children; and the Repeal Association have reso ved that it is the duty of Ireland to adopt the family of Mr. Mitchel as its own, and provide for their comfort and education during Mr. Mitehers absence from his country. The fund has received 1001. from Lord Cloneurry, sums from some Roman Catholic Prelates, and large amounts from the active Con- federates.

At the meeting of the Repeal Association, on Monday, there was a crowded attendance, and an adoption of strong resolutions. Mr. John O'Connell came thither from the bed-side of Mr. Smith O'Brien, where he was still confined by his Limerick wounds, and made a sort of announce- ment that Mr. O'Brien and the leaders of the Association would shortly fraternize: terms were under discussion. Mr. John O'Connell made some- thing of the trials. He "sincerely trusted," that it "that unfortunate man the Attorney-General should speak to any of his fellow Catholics, they would spit upon him, as he had done on them in excluding them from Mr. Mitchel's Jury." He once knew him, but would no longer know anything so degraded and infamous. He decried tame submission, and preached unity and agitation. Rent, 121.

The Standard picks out of an Irish paper of May a letter from the Rev- erend Father Hughes of Claremorris to Lord John Russell, in which, under form of a warning to Lord John, is sketched out the plan of an organized re- bellion to begin in September next. Mr. Hughes says the best time for civil war will be from October to the 21st of March; "the commissariat of Irish armies" not being then "dependent on fo- reigners for supplies." Local guides to be organized, so that 40,000 Guards can be secretly and safely taken to any certain point. " Out of the 2,000 parishes in Ireland fifteen hundred of them will furnish each a body of National Guards, varying from 500 to 1,000 of determined and vigorous lighting Irishmen ; making an army of not less than 750,000, advantageously located over the country, un- der the management and guidance of resolute and intrepid Irish officers." General engagements to be avoided. Every one of the long nights from mat October to let March will give ten hours for worrying the enemy; in which warfare the native knowledge of the country will be of fatal avail.