The Report of the Carlow Inquiry Committee was presented to
the House of Commons last night. Mr. RIDLEY COLBORNE, the Chair-
man, said that it had received the unanimous approbation of the Com- mittee ; and, he was convinced, would be found to be in accordance with the evidence. The Report completely exculpates Mr. O'CoN- NELL from the charges preferred against him. It states, in direct contradiction to the evidence. of RAPHAEL, that Mr. O'CoNtsiad. " was acting on this occasion at the express direction of Mr. Raphael, and was only the medium between Mr. RAPHAEL and Mr. VIGORS and the Political Club at Carlow." It also states that the money de- posited with Mr. O'CONNELL by RAPHAEL " was available whenever wanted, and no charge of pecuniary interest can be attached to Mr. O'CoNNELL."
Unquestionably, the evidence justifies all this ; and if the Com-
mittee had gone further, and animadverted upon the means employed to bolster up the false accusation against O'CONNELL, they would not have exceeded their powers, or as some will think, their duty. In order to make out a prima facie case, letters were quoted, and circum- stances selected, which the parties knew would not bear the interpreta- tion put upon them if accompanied with a full and fair history of the whole transaction. They were therefore guilty of perversion and suppression of truth, for a malignant purpose. This is incontrovertibly made out by the evidence, though not stated in terms in the Report. For it was proved, that RAPHAEL supplicated O'CONNELL for assist- ance to get into Parliament ; that he was, and had been for months previous to his application, carrying on a negotiation with Mr. Vicons, as Chairman of the Carlow Liberal Club ; that when a vacancy occurred in the representation of Carlow, he made an arrangement with I'Moas to become a candidate ; that, at his request and with the concurrence of Iricoas, O'CONNELL agreed to act as the medium between the two principal parties, Mes- sieurs RAPHAEL and VIGORS; that, subsequently, RAPHAEL em- ployed Mr. BAKER to defend his seat, acquiesced in the withdrawal of Vicons from opposing the petition, and continued it himself, avow- edly for his own purpose, and knowingly at his own expense. All this was suppressed or denied by RAPHAEL and his employers. Let these facts be taken in connexion with the distinct statement by the Com- mittee, that the money deposited with O'CONNELL was available whenever wanted, and applied in discharge of the unavoidable expenses of an election, and then the infamy of O'CONNELL'S accusers will ap- pear enormous.
Throughout the proceedings, the anxious earnestness of O'CONNELL
to defeat the Tories in Carlow is most striking. This was his aim. RAPHAEL was only a means. The idea that he was sought for the purpose of pecuniary profit to O'CONNELL himself, is proved to be as completely false, as from the first it was outrageously absurd. In January 1835, O'CONNELL offered to set up his son MAURICE, already sure of his election for Tralee, and to advance 10001. for his expenses, rather than a Tory should get in for Carlow. All his acts, words, and correspondence, prove that he was devoting himself soul and body to the one purpose of defeating the Tories. Whenever there was a prospect of doing this, he was ready. While the petition for unseat- ing BRUEN and KAVANAGH was in progress,)he stood aloof; he let the Carlow people negotiate with RAPHAEL and others, and mind their own concerns : but when his time for exertion came, then, as in January 1835, he urged matters forward with energy, and a confiding earnestness, which has been taken advantage of by his enemies and their tools, but which will insure him the gratitude of every Reformer in the Three Kingdoms. It is impossible,:without a perusal of the full Minutes of Evidence,*
to conceive how complete has been the exposure of the plotters. And it should be added, that much of this is due to the admirable skill, coolness, and perseverance, of Mr. Sergeant WILDE. Without any thing approaching to legal bullying, he squeezed RAPHAEL dry of his facts and his falsehoods, and made the truth—the sole object of in- quiry—stand forth amidst the mass of calumny and equivocation.
• A cheap edition ought to be printed, for universal circulation.
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