THE GLASGOW DYNAMITE CONSPIRACY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1140, 7 March 1884, Page 3

THE GLASGOW DYNAMITE CONSPIRACY.

After a trial lasting some days, the jury returned a verd'et finding McDermott guilty, as libelled ; Devaney, Callaghan, McCann, McCullagh, guilty, as libelled; Kelly, McCabe, Donnally. Drum, and Casey guilty ty the majority under the first charge of conspiracy. The jnrv recommended Kelly, McCabe, Dunn, Donnally, and Casey, to the leniency of the court, as they were not aware of the extent of the operations of'he society. Lord Moncrieff, in passing sentence of penal servitude for life on McDermott, Devaney, Callaghan, and McCullagh, said he regretted that men should have brought themselves into such a position ; hut th-y must plainly see that the on’rage of which they had been gnilly might have ended in something more serious than what actually occurred. In sentencing the other five prisoners to seven years’ penal servitude, t e judge said the jury had taken a very merciful and discriminating view of tlie circumstances as regarded the respective case- of those men, hiving found them guilty of .the common law offence only and recommending them to leniency. The prisoners behaved with propriety in court, but their friends broke out into lon I expressions of grief. E.rly in the evening the prisoners were removed to the Gallon Gaol They were moulded and g nuped in tvo compani- s of five each 'I hey wore strongly protected by mounted pnlioi men and by constables in cabs. According to a contemporary the convicted men cannot possi-ly complain-of any want of patience and caution on the part of their t-c dch jury. Certainly no persons will find fault with the severe terms in which the Lord Justice Clerk, while carrying out ns Liras nossible the limited recommendation of the jury to mercy, spoke of the' de 1 estable and lespicable nature of the outrages themselves. It was certainly not the fault of the prisoners that these wore not infinitely more serious than they actually were. But the most important portion of ths summing up. and, therefore, of the consequent ver Hot, was the bearing of the law of conspiracy upon a case in which overt ac‘s were more difficult of proof than usual. Whether any of the prisoners took a direct and active pari: in the explns ons was doubtful throughout, and it remained questionable with the jury to the last wheti er five of the men were fully aware of the extent to which theii society intended to carry its operations. But they behaved the witness who swore to the discussions alleged to have taken place as to the manufacture of dynamite, and to the oath which the prisoners had taken to stand by each other. Believing thus much, it was clearly impossible to assume that any of the persons concerned ooukl have had an intention compatible with innocence ; and intending conspirators may take to heart the doctrine which leally governed the case—namely, that an agreement between two or more persons to carry an unlawful purpose ; ntn off -ct is of itself an overt act, rendering the conspirators more or less answerable for the consequences, even should these surpass the original intention. Members of secret societies must therefore understand that they cannot hope to he held wholly irresponsible for the acts of their leaders, and that guilty knowledge of a general intention may implicate persons in the results of special crimes. The doctrine has been enforced in an exemplary manner, but certainly not beyond the limits warranted by the uatur.i of the charge.”