The Government have resolved to prosecute twenty-three out of the
thirty-six persons named by Mr. Justice Keogh in the schedules to his Galway judgment as guilty of undue influence, and, according to their view of the law at least, there was no choice for them but to institute such prosecutions in all cases in which the Attorney-General of Ireland should satisfy himself on a full review of the evidence that the evidence was prima facie adequate to sustain a criminal prosecution. Among the twenty- three persons to be prosecuted are Dr. Patrick Duggan, the Bishop of Clonfert, Captain John Nolan, the unseated member, and his brother, Mr. Sebastian Nolan, with various others, chiefly priests. We regard the necessity under which the Government believes itself to be of instituting these prosecutions as a very unfortunate one, for it is certain that they will greatly increase the popularity of " the victims," as Ireland will call them, of a religious prosecu- tion, and give them many of the honours of martyrdom. Nor is there the least chance of their conviction. One of the new ele- ments of the case is the recently passed Irish Juries' Act, which will almost certainly half fill the jury-box with Macdonoghe, Mac- dougalls, O'Donnells, O'Flahertys, and genuine Catholic Cella, in whose eyes al most all that is imputed to Dr. D uggau and his colleagues in adversity will be not a crime, but an honourable popular dis- tinction. The distinction of martyrdom without its penalties will be more coveted in Ireland than a K.C.B., and that is what these prosecutions will almost certainly confer.
