The trial of Mitchel proceeds slowly; every inch of progress
being opposed and pertinaciously debated. Au enormous time was consumed on Thursday in a con- test :over the jury-list--a challenge of the array. At last the Jury were sworn. On a motion by Mr. Keogh for returns respecting the Irish jury-lists, on Tuesday, Lord John Russell disclaimed the least interference with the composition of the lists, and declared, for his own part, that he would rather see the accused persons acquitted than that any unfairness should be practised by the exclusion of Ca- tholics solely on account of their religion. On this reply the Times correspondent in Dublin writes—" The speech of Lord John Russell on Mr. Keogh's motion touching the alleged packing of juries has been hailed as a godsend by the Mitchelites; and there is little doubt that some of the opinions enunciated by his Lordship will lose nothing in the hands of so practised a lawyer as Mr. Robert Holmes, the leading counsel for the defence."
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