COMMENCEMENT OF STATE PROSECUTIONS AGAINST MR. O’CONNELL.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 33, 21 March 1844, Page 4

COMMENCEMENT OF STATE PROSECUTIONS AGAINST MR. O’CONNELL.

(From the Atlas , October 21.) Tlte events connected with Ireland liave during the week been of the most exciting kind, and by this time there is hardly a corner in Europe which is net acquainted with the fact that the English Government lias declared the Repeal Meetings illegal, and that the Executive has commenced prosecution* against the Liberator and others, on the charges of conspiracy and misdemeanor. As our opinions on these topics are expressed in other parts of this journal, we shall here simply confine ourselves to the relation of facts, and make a continuous narrative of the events as they occurred, commencing with the first notification against Mr. O'Connell, issued on Saturday last Shortly after the celebration of mass at the residence of Mr. O’Connell, at which the hon. and learned gentleman received the sacrament, about half-past nine o’clock on Saturday, Mr, Kemmis, Crown Solicitor, waited upon him, and presented to him a paper, intimating that the Government had instituted proceedings against him and his son, Mr. John O’Connell, M. P.. on a charge ©f “ conspiracy and other misdemean©rs.” The communication went on to desire that Mr. O’Connell would indicate a time at which he and Mr. John O'Connell would enter bail before Mr. Justice Burton, themselves in £I,OOO each, and two sureties for each in £SOO to answer any charge that may be preferred against them by her Majesty’s Attorney General, on the first day of the next Term. After some convereation between Mr. O’Connell and Mr. Kemmis, who, we understand, acted with the greatest courtesy, the hour of 3 o’clock was fixed upon to enter bail, at the residence of Mr. Justice Burton, in Stephen's Green. Mr. Kemmis then withdrew. Accordingly, at a quarter before three o’clock, Mr. O'Connell, accompanied by his sons John and Daniel, Mr. Jeremiah Dunne, and JVlr. Cornelius M'Laughlin (and followed by several other friends) arrived in the hon, and learned gentleman’s carriage at the residence of Mr. Justice Burton. On entering the draw-ing-room, Mr. O’Connell allowed his attention to be immediately attracted by the beautiful collection of paintings for which the learned Judge's residence is remarkable, and which he continued to examine with apparent interest until three o’clock, when Mr. Kemmis, and Mr. Bourne, the Clerk of the Crown arrived.

The entire party consisting of about thirty persons, many of whom, including Mr. O’Connell and his two sons, wore prominently on their breasts the repeal button, were then conducted down stairs to the learned Judge's library. Mr. O’Connell, on entering, shook hands with his lordship, aud the recognizances having been read over by the lion, and learned gentleman, he took the necessary oath and subscribed them. Mr. John O’Connell having done ikewise, the) acknowledged themselves bound in £I,OOO each to abide their trial on the charges preferred against them, which are con spira y, sedition, and i ’egaby assembling. The sureties, Mr. Jeremiah Dunne, mer hunt, ot No. 14, Fitz-william-square, and Corals M’Loughlen, of No. 14, Fitzwiliam-place, acknow edge themselves hound in £SOO ea ; h for V?r, O'Connell, and in £o(K) each for Mr. John O’Connell, to abide their trial, a* aforesaid. Mr. O’Connell having again shaken bands with the learned Judge, retired. He was loudly cheered in his exit from the lioU'e by a mob of persons who had followed his carriage from Merrionsquare. Mr, Pierce Mahony, just as Mr. CV( onnell was retiring, complained that t) e depositions on which Mr. O’Conne 1 was held to bail were not furnished,to him, and handed in the following not<e to the Crown PrO'ecutor;—” Pursuant to the act of Parliament 6th and 7th of Wm. IV., I hereby require and demand to ha e copies of the examinations of tie witnesses respectively upon whose depositions 1 have been this day held to bail; and I hereby oficr payment of such reasonable sum for same as may be demanded. Dated this 14th clay of October, 1843. Daniel O’Conneir Mr. Kemmis said, that now that the parties had given bail for their appearance, they v/ere entitled by the Statute to copies of the depositions, and, as a matter of course, they should have them. AH parties then withdrew. As to the trials which are to take place next Term, we cannot do better than give the following paragraph’s from the London “ Chronicle,'* “ MR. o'coNNELI/s DEFENC*. " Mr. O’Conuell has finally determined to defend himself against the Government prosecutions, in the Court of Qaeeu’a Bench, to which the agitation ia to be transferred Irom the Corn Exchange for a full month at least Mr. O'Connell is to address the Jury on hia behalf, and in doing so, to enter into the whole case of the country. Certainly the course adopted by the Crown lawyers will afford the learned gentlemen ample latitude, for lie ia bound to answer the multitude of oharges set forth, and ' all sach other matters as shall he alleged against him.* This is de omnibus rebus tt quibu>dum aliis with a vengeance- “ tvir. Sheil lias been retained amongst the counsel for the defence-

“ I should tell yon that the Orange party are becoming much lest confident than they bad been ot aconviclion ot Mr> O’Conuel.*

And all Ibis while Repeal is making a steady and unfaltering progiess. Of the ultimate Mtccesa of the agitatiou w« entertain hardly any doubt —in fact, no more doubt than is necessarily incident 10 the accomplishment of every great change. K«. peal must come ; Repeal will come. And we most firmly believe that next year will sees Farliament sitting in College Green. The very pro* seditions tnat are now impending will fan the Oamr and add fuel to it. Every one remember* ihe stimulus given to the Repeal in the early part of the year hy the discussion in the Corporaiion ot Dublin. 1 The end ol the year will (as it ought) b« graced by another discussion—coronmnoed, oariied on, and concluded under still more impressive and momentous circumstances. If. as O’Connell s*id with reference to the Clontnrf proclamation, lie lud paid Govejnmeut lo do biswoik, they could not have done it more completely than in tlies- prosecu* tiona. The discussion will be worth halt the year’s Repeal rent. It will not he now lor B“nie Aiderman Butt to ramble through the whole subject vaguely. Rut the law—or rather t)ie no Jaw—of the Union will now be discussed hand to hand with the Crown lawyers before the judge* ol the country. The informations now lie before as, and tr a urea they are in their way. O’Conntll is to be tried for seditious libel,” and for bringing into contempt the “government and constitution of the realm." And bow are these facts to be made out ? Why, of all things, by the following extract from Mr. O’Connell’s speech at Mullaglimast: •* At Tara 1 protested against the Union ; to day I repeat the protest at Mullagbruast. I d*clhre solemnly my thorough convielion, as a constHuHonal lawyer, that the Unioo ia totally void in point of principle and ol constitutional force. 1 tell yon no portion of the empire had the power to trample on the right* and liberties of the Irish people. The Irish Parliaments were instituted to make laws aud not Legislatures ; it was instituted to act under the constitution and uot”annildliatc it. The delegation

fiotn the people was confined within the limits of the const! ntion, and the moment the Parliament went beyond it, and destroyed the constitution, that instant it aouihiliated its own powers, but could not annihilate the immortal spirit of liberty, which belonged as a rightful inheritance to the people of Ireland. Take it then, from me, that the Uuion is void.” And by the following Mullaglimast resolution: put from the chair by Mr. O’Connell: Resolved—‘That we, tile clergy, gentry, freeholders, burgesses, and other inhabitants of the province of Leinster, in public meeting assembled, declare and pronounce, in the presence of our country, before Europe and America, and in the sight of heaven, that no power on earth ought of right lo make laws to bind this kingdom, save the Queen, Lords, and Commons of Ireland; and here standing on the graves of the martyred dead, we solemnly pledge ouisclves to ui every constitutional exertion to free this our native land from the tyranny ol being legislated for by others than our own inb ibitanta. Upon this speech and this writing must tbe great issue be raised as to the legality of the Union. Now it is a lart, incapable of denial, or, at least, of even the semblance ol disproof, that the Union is ntterly, t loroughly, and brutally illegal. It ha« not so much as a stump of law to stand upon. English o mmnn law, English practice, and one notable English precedent in pariicu ar—that of Charles the Second’s res’oration—damn it beyond all power of redemption, Now, in this prosecution O’Connell has got exactly what he wanted. He has got this questi»n raised solemnly and formally. He has the crown lawyers tied by the leg to prove by good, .ouiid, and plausible legal arguments, that a Legm* afi ra, overthrown wi bin the memory of men now Hive, by a combination of foice, fraud, and terror, (any one of wliioh circumstances affecting Ihe essence of aoy act whatever, even to the value ot a shilling, does by the settled principles of law render such an act invalid and worthless), that a Leg s autre so overthrown—the overthrow being never lor an instant adopted, or acquiesced in, by tbe na* tint—is legally defunct and abolished. This is the proposition to be made good by the Crown lawyers. The judges on the Bench may, in their peremptory way, lav down such a proposition without proof to an ignorant jury. ’ But tba crown lawyers have to supply thepioof; and will have to rebut the deiQ'.rioiraiinii with which O'Connell is In a condition to defy them. They have to supply not such proof merely as will convince a judge—predetermined how to decide tbe point—hut such p'oof as will convince (it may be) an unwilling jury ; such proof as will convince a crowded court; suon proof as will satisfy the bulk of edneated aod impartial men imt in Ireland merely, but all tbroogb the empire. This proof they cannot supply, because it is no) in existeooe. The Union is not lesal; it has no foot* ing in law ; it is otterly'unsupportable by argument. On Ibis point O’Connell is certain of a cheap and ed»y victory. But we will not speculate long r upon this matter. It will speak tor itscll shortly. We turn from this matter to direct attention to Mr. O* Council's negociation with Joseph Sturge—a m< nsiire big with very important consequences, b> cause it will compel Hie Government to look at home. A movement of the Chartists just at present might be no very desirealile c>>nt n»ency. Half the army in Ireland ; more than the due proportion of regiments in the East and the colonies; rumours of ibe necessity of draining even London of the Household troops —and then tor the Chartists to take this opportunity to disouas their ** five points** in groups at the corner of every street —indeed, this would have a very serious look J and Ibis is on Itecatds