The trial of Mr. Dillon and the other Irish Members
of Parliament accused of inciting tenants not to pay rent, ended on Thursday in a discharge of the jury, which was, according to Mr. Sexton, equally divided. There was no dispute as to the facts,—indeed, the accused gloried in them,—and the Judge, Mr. Justice Murphy, laid down the law clearly and strongly. "It was clearly and manifestly an offence for two or more persons to urge tenants not to pay the rents they had contracted to pay. Any body of men, also, who urged tenants to adopt means whereby to render unavailable the legal remedies for enforcing payment of rents were guilty of the crime of conspiracy. That, in his opinion, was clearly and indisputably the law." Half the jury, however, refused to take the law from the Judge, and Mr. Dillon and his associates go free till April, when it is stated they will be tried again, doubtless with a similar result. Trial by jury has, in fact, broken down in Ireland, and until it is super- seded, justice is extinct. The best palliative from the point of view of order would-be to entrust Magistrates with the power of punishing intimidation and boycotting ; but that will not prevent the much graver perjuries committed by jurors in capital oases.
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