THE SENTENCES.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 292, 17 March 1849, Page 3

THE SENTENCES.

Lord Chief Justice Doherty proceeded, amid the mobt profound silence,— to pass sentence upon the crimiuals. Prisoners at the bur — Terence Belle* M'Manusi Patrick O'Donoghue, and Thomas Francis Meagher, after deep consideration before entering this court it Wai my intention, in the performance of , the very painful duty which devolves upon me, not to have prolonged your stay at the bar by any length of oWrvation. You, and each of you, appear there, having been convicted by the verdict of three successive juries of the crime of high treaion— the crime of the greatest enormity known to our lavs. I feel bound to say this, that it i» the deliberate dispassionate, and calm opinion of the Court that the verdicts which were found by these juries, and the verdict which was found by a former jury, could not have been other than they were. That no honest, fair, impartial, and conscientious jurors, attending strictly to their oaths, and listening tn the evidence which was produced in this court in the course of these unusually protracted trials, could hive come to any other conclusion than that which they have done. They have pronounced you, one and all, guilty of the crime of high treason. The crime consists in having levied war in this country within and during (he last week of the month of July of having levied war for treasonable purposes — and that you and each of you more or less participated in, excited to, and prepared for, and were yourselves, some of you more, some less, actively engaged in the furtherance of that project. In order to constitute the crime of high treason by the levying of war, it is no ingredient that the means should be proportioned to > the end sought to be accomplished, or that there should be a rational prospect of success. The parties who engage in such transactions become responsible if they haveanayed, assembled, collected, drilled, and prepared i hose who. by force, endeavoured to accomplish that object— the common object that was in view. It is not, I am sorry to say, to any forbearance on your part, that that tebellion— (or such I terra it — which broke out in that week, was brought to a speedy conclusion. It is not due to you ; it is, under God, attributable to the fidelity and to the bravery of the police force. When I reflect upon what might have been the consequences if that police, force either se duced by promises or intimidated by threats which were made use of, had yielded to the advances that were made to them, if they had been overwhelmed by the congregated numbers that assembled and attempted their destruction, or if they had failed- in dispersing those bands of rebels who assembled around them on the hills, I think there is no fair man who, looking at and contemplating what the state of this couutry tnight have been, will not see how rapidly a temporary success might have added to the numbers of the insurgents, and how soon this country might be deluged in blood, and given over to all the horrors of n civil war. It is from thj-t we hive escaped by the; fidelity •nd by the bruveiy of the police force. I am very far, God knows, from wishing to say one word at this moment that can rise or enhance the- feelings which some of you may endure. But I cannot, in looking to what wai the st&te of the country in the month of May last, avoid adverting (without entering into the particulars ol it), to that authentic speech which was given in evidence upon the last trial— eloquent no doubt it is— but who can avoid seeing, in the perusal of that speech, delivered by you, Mr. Meagher, on June 6'th, a terrible picture of what was at that time the state of the country, and the calamities which were impending and meditated, and from which, by God's help, we have escaped. I have told you that it was my wish to abstain from enlarging or giving any details, and I shall do so. I shall merely add this observation, and from the commencement to the conclusion of this commission, which bus now extended to the fifth week, there has been a perfect coincidence in the views of every member of this bench as to the law ; and if the observations of the distinguished Judge who presides here did seem to you (and I can make every allowance for their doing so) to press and bear severely upon you, perhaps, in a calmer moment when you come to reflect upon it, you will see that it was from the very nature ol the transactions tbeuueives that those comments legitimately arose which appeared to you to preis with undue severity upon you. Perhaps, when you come to reflect dispassionately, you will see this in the sam? light, and I trust that you may be more reconciled than you appear at present to the justice of the unhappy fate which awaits you, and which there is not an individual with a heart to feel who must not deeply deplore. I shall not now detain you longer. I have merely to exhort ench of you to reflect onthe awful situation in which each of you at this mo-

ment stand, and to prepare for the drcadlul fate that impends over you. We have not failed to send, as was our duty, to the Lord Lieutenant the recommendations' with which tbe juries in your respective cases have accompanied the verdicts that have been found against you. But you must be well aware that it is with the Executive Government, and the Executive Government aione, thut the fate of these recommendations rests. And we, in the discharge of our most painful duty, have now only to proceed to pass upon you, and upon each of you» the awful lenience of the law, which is, that you Terence Bellew M'Manus, you Patiick O'Douoghue, and you Thomas Francis Meagher, he taken hence to the place whence you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and that each of you be hanged by the neck until you be dead, and that afterwards the head of each of you shall be severed from his body, and the body of each divided into four quarters, to be disposed of » s her Majesty ■hall think fit— and may the Almighty God have mercy on your souls. His Lordship, who raised up his hands to Heaven as he pronounced the last words of the sentence, left the bench immediately, followed by the Lord Chief Justice Blackburne and Mr. Justice Moore. The governor of the gaol and his assistant removed the prisoners, who bowed to the courc as they retired down the stepi of the dock, and shoo k hands with their friends. There was a dead silence in court for a short time ; when the noise of conveisation became louder and louder, and at last the persons who perhaps had wept at the address of Mr. Meagher forgot their sorrow, and testified the exibtducu ot very different feelings by laughter, which sounded harshly and gratingly- on the ear after the solemn words it hud recently listened to. The trial of the other prisoners was then poitponed to Tuesday, the sth of December next, to which day the special commission now stands adjourned.