LONDON» SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1848.

V o l . IX. No. 451.

C a i l e o î C o n t e n t s *

latest Intelligence:— ••• 817

Letter of an Irish Priest to his Ex­

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cellency Lord Clarendon, LordLieutenant of Ireland—Latest Intelligence from Ireland : The State Prosecutions: Mr. Duffy’s Trial—Removal of State Prisoners to Dublin—Irish Refugees in America — Jury Packing— Paris Correspondence — Italy ; Rome : Affairs of Italy—Piedmont—Lynn Election : Return of the Honourable E. II. Stanley —The Cholera — Last Night’s Gazette — Smithfield MarketAdvertisements. Catljolie Intelligence-.— ...

« The Lives of the Saints.” Catholic and Protestant Education The Cistercian Convent, Stape-

hill, Dorset. London:—

Retractation made by the La-

_

nonico Fr. Cosentini on his Repentance—Father Thomas : ^St. George’s , Grand Midnight Mass. I reland:— , _ . Prayers for the Pope in the Diocese

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of Clogher—The Right Rev. Dr. Maginn’s Pastoral Letter—The Exiled Pontiff—The Archbishop of Tuam—The Godless Colleges. Ireland (Political): — 821—827

State of the Country Droumtariff, Co. Cork—Landlords and Tenants — State of Skibbereen—Property Tax in aid of Poor Rates—Irish Loans—Reproductive Works — The Refugees — Rotatory Parliament Society—The Dublin Corporation—Revelations of a Spy—Irish Poor Law Guardians—Detective Agencies—Cholera in Belfast. Meeting of Catholics to Sympathise with Pope Pius IX. The State Commission : Trial of

C. G. Duffy—The State Prisoners—Mr. Smith O’Brien and the Oxford and Cambridge Club —The Memorial against JuryPacking—The Catholics and the Whigs. Notices toCorresponbents ... îLeaïnng articles:— ...........

The Council of Wurtzburg. The Devonshire Protestants. Stabbing in the Dark. The Queen’s Colleges. Spirit of tie Press :— ...

Prince Louis Napoleon’s History. oreign antiColonial Intelligence ........................... The Events of the Week. F rancb — P aris.— State of Paris—

The Presidential Election — Eccentric Voters—Letter of M. Barbés. . _ Italy—Rome.—Affairs of the Pope

Proclamation of a Provisional Government — Reported Intrigues of France—New Cabinet of Turin—Affairs of Naples. Austria.—Frightful Atrocities in

Hungary—Movement of the Generals. ffitie Court:— Prince Albert and the Duke deNe­

mours—Prince Albert and the Working-Men’s Prize Essays— The Royal Bounty—The Queen

PAGE and Robert Owen—The Prince and Princess ot Parma-The Duke of Wellington at Strathfieldsaye — The Turkish Embassy.

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p e r s o n a l :— .............. •••

Appointments by the Council oi

Education.

P o l i t ic a l :— ..................................

The West Riding Election—The

Leominster Election.

ffi&e p u b l i c P ica ltf):—

The Cholera. Mortality in the Metropolis.

© x f jib it io n s :— ...................

Mr. Banvard’s Panorama. P rotestantism ;— ..............

BristolCathedral—Difficulty of the 830 827 Bishop of London.

Hail) atib P o l i c e :— ..............

The Norfolk Assassinations. 830 827 Sccibcnts— C r im e :— .............. Manslaughter at Newport—Pelynt

Church Struck by Lightning. 830

m iscella n ea ’— ........................

The New Cattle Market at Isling­

ton, &c.

&be a on b on ffia zette:— . . .

Bankrupts, &c.

m o n e y m a r k e t :— ..........

British Funds. Foreign Funds. Railway Shares.

828 Bank of England.

SJtfjc m a r k e t s :— ..............

Agriculturists’ Report, &c.

SUrberttsements:— ..............

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TO CORRESPONDENTS. An unusual quantity of matter, pressing very late upon our

NEW AND CAREFULLY-REVISED EDITIONS OE THE R OM AN G R A D U A L and V E S P E R A L .

SECONDEDITION. TO HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CLARENDON

LORD-LIEUTENANT OP IRELAND.

My L ord, May it please your Excellency— It is not, I believe, inconsistent with constitutional principles or usages, nor with the profound respect due to your office and rank, to address your Excellency through the medium of the public papers, on a public question o f the deepest importance to the community at large.

Neither is it inconsistent with the same principles usages, or respect, in language to your Excellency inpffensive, and by fair reasoning, to examine, to combat, to disprove, utterly to destroy and bring to nought statements and arguments solemnly and officially propounded by your Excellency. This task 1 purpose to accomplish in this letter, and am sure of accomplishing to the satisfaction o f every being in the empire gifted with the faculty o f reason, and willing: to use that faculty.

A Memorial has been presented to your Excellency, complaining of the public, shameless, systematic corruption o f justice in the recent State trials, and praying your Excellency to use the authority with which you are invested—so far as it legally extends— and the influence which accompanies that authority, to discontinue and discountenance this practice. The substance o f the principal facts of the case— now long before the public— and the inference to which these facts, in the judgment o f so many o f the Catholic Prelates, Priests, and people o f this kingdom, necessarily and plainly lead, were embodied in the Memorial.

columns, compels us to postpone several important letters: viz., a lqtter “ On the Guilds”—“ J.W.,” “ Father Ignatius”—“ Rev. Thomas Flanmgan,”— ‘ •E.C” “ P- O’S.,” “ Right Rev. Dr. Briggs”—“ Pastoral *of Right Rev. Dr. Maginn” “ Ashton”— « Olericus.” The same circumstance obliges us also to withhold the usual Reviews. E. L. I. is unautbtnticated. Perhaps it will be well for our correspondent to examine the forthcoming number of the Rambler. Delta.—We are not able to give the information sought, j), s. (St. Alban’s).— The subject of his enclosed letter shall be attended to shortly.

P rince Louis Napoleon, Queen Mary, Abd-elKader, M. Guizot, G. Hudson, Esq., Grisj M “ Norma,” Jenny Lind, Edward the Sixth, the benevo.ent Pope Pius IX . , Henry VII., James I., the Heroes Hardinge and Gough, the whole in new and magnificent costumes, go up 01 the present season. Admission is., Napoleon’s Room, 6d. Madame TUSSAUD and SONS, Bazaar, Baker-street. Open from 11 till dusk,and from 7 till 10. “ This is one of the best exhibitions in the metropolis.” —The Times.

nhelsea.— To be Let, Apartments

FURNISHED, with Attendance, to suit a Lady and Gentleman, or Single Lady or Gentleman of respectability,’adjacent to the Catholic Chapel. Terms moderate. References exchanged. Apply to C. A. Morgan, 4, Halsey-terrace, Sloanestreet.

M r. Bums begs to announce that he has been appointed AGENT for the Sale ot the NEW MECHLIN EDITIONS of the ' “ VESPERALE ROMANUM”

AND

“ GRADUALE ROMANUM* which have been so long in preparation, under the auspices of the Archbishop of MALINES, and which have just appeared from the Press of M. Hanicq. Each forms a very thick small 8vo. volume of 760 pages, both the letter-press and musical notation being in a distinct, legible type,' and is offered at 6s, or ¿by post for 7s.

The following are from the same Press :— 1. PARADISUS ANIMÆ. New and enlarged Edition, 1848 ; in a superior type and on an improved paper, 3s ; by post, 38 6d ; also neatly bound in flexible calf, for the pockety 5s : or by post, 5s 6d.

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With Plates,

4 vols., red and

T o be Let, a respectable Cottage, containing three rooms on the ground-floor and four above, •with good Garden, beautifully situated in the vicinity of EAST LULWORTH, within ten minutes’ walk of the Catholic Chapel and one mile from the Sea. Also, a MALTHOUSE attached, which will be let with or without the house.-For particulars apply to Mr. Wm. Barns, East Lulworth, near Wareham, Dorset.

7. ST. ALPHONSI LIGUORPS “ THEOLOGIA MORALIS. 10 vols., 20s.

8. HOMO APOSTOLICUS. 3 vols., 8s. 9. CATECHISMUS CONCILIITRIDENTINI 12mo., 3s.

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The reply of your Excellency is of course marked by the unequivocal profession o f abstract liberal principles, and by the tone o f winning polite • ness and condescension which characterise every document of this kind that has emanated from your pen since you came to rule over us. Even when one sees clearly the errors of your statements and the fallacy ot your arguments, it is impossible not to fe*l that you possess m the highest degree the power of clothing your sentiments, however unsound, in the most persuasive form. You are, my Lord, one of the first statesmen and diplomatists o f the first empire in the world; deeply skilled in the logic, perfect master of the phrases o f your art; zealous for the honour o f the party to which you belong, and the triumph o f the cause you advocate ; assisted by wise and learned advice; anxious to rebut a charge which, if well founded, fixes an indelible stain on the Whig Government, and exhibits to the world, in the language o f an eloquent admirer o f Whig principles, Ireland as still “ cursed by the domination o f race over race, and o f religion over religion, reproachfully pointed at by all who fear or envy the greatness o f England.”

I am bound, therefore, to suppose that the reply o f your Excellency is the ablest and most comprehensive refutation that could he drawn up, of the allegations put forward in the memorial. I f anything could be wanting to the overwhelming force o f evidence brought to sustain the charge of the systematic packing o f juries in the State Trials, it was this, that those most interested in disproving that charge should impliedly or avowedly admit its truth. Your Excellency has added this last link to the chain. Your reply is in reality nothing less than a tacit admission o f the main points urged in the Memorial. I wish that your Excellency had summoned up courage openly to express the conviction which your words so unmistakeahly presuppose. This would have been indeed an act o f chivalrous heroism not to he expected from ordinary men : hut it would have added a transcendant lustre even to the great qualities that adorn your name.

I come now to the genuine facts and the unanswered—the unanswerable arguments.

The first allegation was that the panels were so constructed by the Sheriff as to contain a disproportionate small number o f Cutholics, and this small number placed upon the panel in an unfair and partial manner. The facts upon which this allegation rests were then detailed : they are now known to every one : I need not repeat them here.

To this your Excellency answers, that it is without the province o f Government to interfere in the formation o f the panel—that such interference would he unconstitutional, and might expose to serious question the legal validity o f the return— that you are bound to presume that the Sheriff will perform his duty in strict accordance with the obligations o f his office— and that you are confirmed in this presumption by the fact that on the occasion o f the array being challenged on this ground, the legality of the return was fully sustained. This is the whole o f your Excellency's reply, to which I thus reply:—

1. Whatever may be the constitutional limit o f your right of interference in this case, surely it is not unconstitutional to lay before your Excellency, as the chief governor of this country, in the shape of Memorial, complaint, protest, a sustained statement of facts proving a maladministration o f justice in one o f the ministers o f justice; to call your Excellency’s attention * facts; to pray your Excellency to take measiu- ’ event the recurrence of

P r ic e 6

this iniquity. You are, my Lord, the head o f the Government in Ireland: to whom more naturally should a complaint o f this sort be in the first instance preferred?

But you cannot constitutionally interfere! Pardon me, my Lord, I think you can. Let me suppose a case. Let me suppose that facts are laid before your Excellency to prove that systematic panelpacking has taken place. Let me suppose that the facts were so clearly sustained by evidence, and the charge so clearly sustained by the facts, that not a shadow o f doubt existed on your mind. Let me suppose that a new State Trial was about to take place before a ju ry selected from a panel made up by the same panel-packer. With him (the panelpacker) your Excellency cannot directly interfere. Be it so. But could not your Excellency order the Attorney-General to drop the prosecution rather than that the forms o f justice should he desecrated, its fountain polluted, its very name spurned and hated as the symbol o f sectarian ascendancy, o f perjury and oppression ?

Which of the two, my Lord, is more in accordance with the eternal principles o f right, more conducive to the stability o f social institutions— that a man should not he prosecuted at all, or that he should be prosecuted and convicted by a packed jury ?

Let me suppose, my Lord,—the case has happened in this country in former times— that the administration o f justice was altogether in the hands o f partisan Judges, and perjured Sheriffs, and packed juries. Let me suppose that such a network of iniquity, spun out o f the brains of demons, and woven in the chambers o f hell, were again to spread over this ill-fated land. Could not— would not your Excellency interfere, not indeed by any assumed official direction, to the parties implicated, hut thus far and in this way, by openly expressing your own opinion on a system so abominable; or by communicating with the chief Ministers o f the Crown, and urging upon them the necessity o f rooting it out by constitutional means, that is, by legislative enactment, which their influence with Parliament, in such a case predominant, would he sure to obtain.

Thus there are at least three ways in which you may constitutionally interfere. You can abandon the prosecution or suspend it until the chance of a fair trial is obtained. You can emphatically pronounce your own individual personal judgment on the facts submitted to you, and the facts which they jnfer— a judgment that should necessarily possess the greatest moral weight. You can use the influence you possess with your colleagues, to secure their influence in redressing so monstrous an evil by legislative enactment.

The first would be a hard and perhaps mortifying step; but harder infinitely and more mortifying should it he to a just and honourable mind to sanction, to defend, to tolerate the corruption o f justice by the systematic packing o f partisan juries. Crown prosecutions have been often and in all times delayed, suspended, abandoned—hut never from a nobler motive, for a nobler end than this.

The second step is surely not forbidden to your Excellency. You can express your opinion as well on the packed j uries of a hundred and fifty days ago, as on the packed juries o f a hundred and fifty years hack: on the packed juries that convicted Mitchel and Martin and O’Doherty, as on the packed juries that convicted Stafford and Russell and the Lady A lice: on the Commission o f 1848, as on the Bloody Assizes o f 1685. They are all now alike in the history o f the past. It might be undignified in one placed in your exalted position : hut that juries should be packed under your own administration, and that you should look on and not discourage them—is this less undignified ?

The third step might he accompanied with some trouble and delay. But such trouble and delay are nothing to secure the impartial administration o f Justice. Incomparably heavier and longer, and in the end fruitless, the efforts to appease the just disaffection of a people, whom the memory o f the past and the experience o f the present have taught to believe that, in the very temple of Justice and under its forms, Justice does not exist for them.

For, let your Excellency hear in mind that deeply at the root o f the deep deadly hatred of English domination that festered in the hearts of the great mass o f the Catholic population since that domination was first established over them, lay this feeling o f utter distrust and, in State trials, of utter despair of an impartial administration of law. _ .

2. The facts so distinctly and in detail submitted in the Memorial are passed over without the least notice in your Excellency's reply; as if the inference o f panel-packing were a mere hypothesis or conjecture, and did not grow necessarily out o f these facts. The facts are that the Sheriff is a Protestant o f High Tory and anti-Catholic principles— that there is an underling in his office, named Wheeler, also a notorious High Tory, bigoted, anti-Catholic partisan— that on the Jurors’ book there are between four and five thousand names, of which about two-thirds are Catholics, and the remainder Protestants of various denominations— that on the panel taken from this book there were to four Protestants hut one Catholic — that nearly all o f this moiety of Catholics were thrust so low down on the panel, as to leave no chance of their being on the jury— that of the one hundred and fifty names on the panel, one hundred were supplied by the aforesaid Wheeler, These being the