THE MAAMTRASNA MURDER.
[To Tag EDITOR OF TEE .SPECTATOS."] SIR,—In the Spectator of December 17th, there is a paragraph referring in terms of condemnation to Lord Randolph Churchill's "attack on Lord Spencer, and his readiness to revise the Maam- trasna sentences." I am not concerned to defend Lord Ran- dolph Churchill, but I beg you to judge from what is stated in this letter whether there are not two sides to the question.
Three men were executed for this atrocious crime, two of whom confessed their guilt; the third, an old man who could not understand a word of English, was strongly believed to be innocent, and was emphatically declared innocent by the younger men some days before their execution. So great was the impression in official quarters that a mistake was being made, that Lord Spencer himself sent down Mr. Brady, the Stipendiary Magistrate, to Galway Gaol, to take down the statements of the two younger men, then at the point of death. They solemnly declared that the old man was guiltless, and the official report was made accordingly. The telegraph was kept open all night, every one believing that a reprieve was Inevitable after this official inquiry ; but Lord Spencer, an obstinate man, because, as many believe, a very weak man, came to the unprecedented determination to hang the old man, whose name was Joyce.
So strongly did I feel about it, that before the debate on the Maamtrasna case came on, I, who was then a supporter of the Government, went to Mr. Gladstone and told him that my con- science would compel me to vote and speak against what had been so wretchedly done in these sad circumstances. However willing the Parnellites may be to keep this and other instances of official weakness in high quarters in the background, now that the beat-abused officials who ever governed Ireland have gone over to them, it is certain that a feeling of horror and indignation passed over the County Galway at these pro- ceedings, and that it was largely shared by neutral persons, as well as by those who had grounds of tolerably sore knowledge.
I have always thought that Mr. Brady's official report on the case of Miles Joyce -ought to have been published, and I now challenge its production by Lord Spencer.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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