A GRAVE CHARGE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1839, 14 November 1884, Page 2

A GRAVE CHARGE.

A London cable special on September 10 saya: When the Imperial Parliaraen.&iconvenes next month it will not be' the Franchise .Bill," nor the future of the House of Lords, nor even the Egyptian crisis which will excite the deepest feeling within St. Stephen's andenvoke the wildest, attention it, Instead of these trophies the Hapless end of a poor'wretched old peasaht on a wild mountain side in. Conneraara, as ignorant of the English language as a Soudan savage, promises to be the most striking uubjeot of discussion and revelation in the session. The. hanging of Miles Joyce in Galway, in December 1882, attracted more than usual attention in Amerioa, not only because of the hideous bungling of Marwood, but because of the persistent and repeated declaration of his innocence which Joyce made up to the last. The two other, persons-banged at the same time, in dying depositions admitted their guilt, aud swore to the innocence of Joy ce, The telegraph offices kept open all night in the belief that Lord Spencer would interfere on the strength of these statements, but he refused.

The crime was the butchery of John Joyce, hia wife, and three children. In all, ten men were arrested, the relatives of the victims. One of tho arrested persons, Anthony Philbin, knew nothing of the murder, but, terrified at the danger and dazzled at the reward offered, turned informer and made up a story, giving some names at random. One of the guilty men who had been arrested, Thomas Casey, also turned informer, and gave the real names, but Bolton, the prosecutor, refused to accept him as a witness until he consented to make his evidence correspond with Philbin's, Bolton put the two men together in the prison yard to arrange their story, and he deliberately suppressed much evidence of an unanswerable aorfc, showing the innocence of Miles Joyce. The first' inkling of this conduot come out a few weeks ago, when Thomas Casey, attending confession for the first kime since the murder, revealed the facts to a priest, with the results that they were disclosed to the Archbishop., Philbin ajso made a confession. In Parliament the Irish members extracted a promise from. the Government that a full inquiry should be made into the matter, as there were lour men in prison who also are said to be inuocent. But all this amounted to was a curt note from the Castle in Dublin that sufficient inquiry , had been already made. The inquiry which the Giiatle refused Timothy Harrington, a member of Parliament for Weatmeath has been made on his own responsibility. He inteviewed everybody in the district, with results which prove to be startling. He says:—" The evidence which I have got is enough to put Spencer in the dock forconspiracy to murder. It will open the eyes of the whole world to the systematic wrongs committed in the name of justice under the English rule in Ireland.