SUPREME COURT—WESTLAND CIRCUIT.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 255, 26 May 1868, Page 2

SUPREME COURT—WESTLAND CIRCUIT.

STATEMENTS OF THE DEPENDANTS LAEKIN AND MANNINGr. (Prom the Wcstland Observer) At the Supreme Court, Hokitika, on Wednesday, the defendants Larkiu and Manning, who had been arraigned the previous evening, and pleaded " Not Guilty " to the indictment of publishing certain seditious libels, were seated upon the same bench they had occupied the previous day when undergoing trial, together with the other five defendants, for unlawful assembly. Shortly after his Honor had taken his seat, Mr Ireland rose and said that, after the conclusion which had been come to by the jury on the previous evening in the trial which had then terminated, and the expression of opinion on the legal aspect of the case which had fallen from his Honor, the defendants did not deem it proper to offer any defence to the present indictment. They would each address the Court, and he (Mr Ireland) would not anticipate their observations. His Honor said, before calling on the defendants, he desired to express his own opinion that they had been exceedingly Well advised in the step they had just taken. The Registrar having then called upon the defendants severally. Defendant Larkin said—YourHonor, I have hailed with great pleasure your advent amongst us, and the high views you have expressed of the laws, and of their administration in a Court of Justice. On that account, I have resolved to bow to your decision, as it has fallen from you during the recent trial, and not occupy the Court with any defence to the present charge. With regard to the decision of the jury last night, and the proceedings at the trial, I have little to complain about, if I may except certain personalities which have been levelled against me, tending to bias and prejudice men's minds against me, respecting matters of which, as I live, I have not been guilty. (His Hono? here re* marked that if the matters to which the defendant referred did not relate to the case before the Court, he should strongly reommend him to abstain from alluding to them.) With regard to my character, I may say that I can refer to Sir George Bowen, now Governor of New Zealand) to whom I was known when he was Governor of Queensland, in which I was for two years laboring with God's help in my mission to civilise the aboriginals in those parts, and to bring them to a

knowledge of the means of salvation t caino hero at a time when the insti fcutlonof the Sisters of Charity wa in pecuniary difficulties, with th( intention of raising funds for its relief and it was the wish of tho Bishops o both Queensland ahd New Zealand that I should remain as a minister o the Church. I was subjected here t< remarks in the local press of a mos galling nature, and which were calcu lated to.lower mo in the estimation o my parishioners, and such, but fo their fidelity, WOuld have been the fesult. . I went to Stafford Town, anc in proof that I had not been discour teous, disloyal, or offensive to any clasi "Or creed, I may state that in the exertions which I made t6 build twe •churches in that district, I was as sisted by all denominations—Cath 'Olics, Protestants, Presbyterians, anc •even Jews. All sects helped me ir my work, and by their help my ex 'ertions became successful. I believe —and have reason to believe— 4 hal 3 Was esteemed by all sects ; and up tc the time of the Duke of Edinburgl demonstration I believed myseh 'without One enemy. Perhaps, howevei that expression is too strong a one There was a newspaper that had vilified me, and endeavored continually *to cast Odium upon mo. There car be no position more degraded in the Catholic body than that of a suspended priest. But I have never yet been made aWare that I was a suspended priest. My Bishop has not suspended me»j and as a fact it is not true. I have been callod not alone a suspended priesl. but a renegade priest, and a Fenian priest. But I have not been suspended; I am not a renegade and not a Fenian —I cannot be. It would not be consistent either with my duty or my functions, as a priest, that I, who, •ever at the celebration of high mass, have the Domine salvum fac regem sung in the churches in Stafford Town and at the Waimea, imploring the blessing of Cod upon the Queen and her family, should be a member of such an organisation. With regard to the procession, I must say that it is new to me that services for the dead of that nature are to be condemned. I have only seen an isolated passage from the pastoral of Bishop Moriarty, ttnd I should wish to see the whole of it before I Can bring myself to understand that such obsequies are open to Condemnation. To my knowledge, they are common on the continent of Europe, and have been practised in Wellington and Nelson. (The defendant then explained the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church respecting the eternal debt, and the temporal debt to be atoned for by acts of penance in life> or by purgatorial punishment after death.) In this sense was the Cross carried, in this sense every one knelt down in prayer for forgiveness for the shortcomings of those who have done with acts of penance in life. With respect to the speech I made in the cemetery, I desire to say that it was not my Intention to have spoken at all; another gentleman had been appointed to address the people-, but as he was not present; I addressed them myself hastily, and without preparation. So also at the meeting at the Munster Hotel. On both occasions I spoke on the spur of the moment, and I have now not the slightest recollection of what I said, or what words I used. I shall not, therefore, attempt to impugn the correctness of the words imputed to me; but if I said anything offensive in its nature, I humbly apologise. With respect to the proprietorship of the Celt newspaper, if my acts in that respect do constitute me a proprietor, I must abide the penalty. I most emphatically deny that it was ever my intention to become its proprietor ; what I did was with the view only of helping Manning in the establishment of a journal which I deem would be a recorder of information interesting to a great number of persons. I never entered into any partnership, nor derived any profit. I lent my name both to Mr Browne and Mr Dowling to secure payment to them of what might be due, but I never contemplated becoming proprietor of the paper, neither would it nave been becoming in me in my position as a priest. But if the law so interprets what I did, I must bow to the decision. I repeat that till the day of the Duke of Edinburgh procession, I was unaware that I had an enemy, for on that very day at Stafford Town, when I attended the meeting of sympathy for the Prince that was held there, I was voted to the chair, and put the resolutions to the meeting. I was on my horse, intending to come to Hokitika, to the meeting here, when to my astonishment, I Was hooted and cried down. It was not till then that I knew I had any enemies. Mr Larkin concluded his address by stating that he left himself to the wisdom and and justice of his Honor to deal with him as might be deemed necessary.

The defendant John Manning then addressed the Court. He said : I would crave permission, before addressing your Honor upon this subject, to say a few words in reference to a matter which has occurred since my imprisonment. (His Honor said that, while not wishing to confine the defendant too strictly in what he felt desirous of saying, he considered he ought at the outset to confine himself to the moral of the offence. He would not, however, interrupt him, if he should afterwards address himself to .some other matter germane to the subject.) I shall, your honor, accept your recommendation, and address myself at once to the point. First, with respect to the procession, I have certain ideas of freedom of discussion, and the expression of opinion, and I have always considered that so long as the opinions of an individual were expressed publicly and peaceably, there was no offence in their expression. In my view, there are three modes of expressing opinion, viz., by acts, by speech, and by writings. The procession, I consider as the expression of opinion by an act; and I believed at the time, that whatever might be the case in the old country, there was no wrong in a public expression of opinion by that mode. Your Honor will bear in mind that it was proved in evidence that the procession was as quiet as possible, and that it maintained throughout that peaceable demeandur which rendered it simply an expression of opinion by act. With respect to the seditious libels, I followed the same idea, that the articles in the Celt newspaper were merely the expression of opinion by writings, and could never amount to the taking up arms or the shedding of blood. No original article in the Celt advocated the shedding of blood or the taking of life. The extract matter which appears in the paper was inserted in order to give the condition of the country, whether it were one of discontent or of prosperity. Ireland being my country, 1 naturally gave extracts from the Irish newspapers as being most interesting to the readers of the Celt, not to excite them to any disloyal act, and not thinking for one moment that anything I could write or extract would possibly have the effect of rousing them to rebellion. It was impossible that here, at the distance of 16,000 miles, I could i incite a people to take up arms against so strong a Government, nor was it ever my intention. The Celt has been much • misrepresented. Never was any man '.' assailed in it in his private capacity. : (His Honor : That is not charged.) I " shall now accept the law as it has been laid down by your Honor; and before , concluding, I desire to express my grati tude to my countrymen for the princely defence fund which they so generously 3ontributed, and which enabled me to jbtain for my defence the services of the j nost eminent counsel in the Australian jolonies. I owe thanks, also, to i ;hose of my countrymen and women i .vho paid me so much attention during i ny imprisonment. To the gaoler, and 3olice in general, I express my thanks "or the respect and attention received < "rom them while in the camp. I now < submit myself to your Honor's judg- 1 nent. i

John Manning—the course you have taken, under the judicious advice of your counsel, bappily enables me to deal leniently with you. Had you made a display of contumacy—had you instructed your counsel to take a defiant position on this charge, the case would have been different. You say that no original article in the Celt newspaper advocates the shedding of blood or the taking of life. I cannot say what may be the original matter, but on a cursory view of the articles impugned, it seems to me that very many, not to say all, are of what I must call a truculent character. As to what you have said about " extract matter," as editors call it, it is clearly the law that for matters extracted from other papers the re-publisher is answerable. I agree with you that nothing you have published could possibly rouse an intelligent people. But such publications do undoubtedly act upon unintelligent individuals they are capable of acting especially on moody, half-sane minds: brooding, as one such lately expressed it, on the wrongs, or fancied wrongs, of Ireland. A recent lamentable occurrence in a neighboring colony has shown this. I take no notice of what you have said respecting the limits of fair discussion. I feel it needless to add anything'to what has been already been said upon the subject at this Circuit Court; and if I wished to add anything, this is not the proper time to do so. I understand that you undertake to act hereafter upon the law, as it has been laid down at this assize. (The defendant bowed assent.) That being so, I shall not call upon you to enter into recognisances. I take your pledge made thus publicly, as a better guarantee than the coarse method of subjecting you to pecuniary liability. Your writings (if I may take the leading

articles as from your pen) display considerable literary ability—considerable powers of reasoning and also of imagination. I trust you will for th'e future employ your talents to better purpose. The object of the penal law is mainly td protect the public ; neither the court, nor, I am sure, the Government has any desire to inflict unnecessary suffering. Looking to the course you have taken, I am able to inflict a very lenient sentence, bein~, that you be imprisoned in the Hokitika lower gaol for one calendar month.

William Joseph Larkin.—Before delivering the judgment of the Court upon you, for the offence charged in the indictment, in which you have today pleaded guilty, I have a word to say in reference to the other indictment (for the procession). The offence there charged was not that you have celebrated masses for the three men as private persons; nor is the charge that any rite of the Eoman Catholic Church has been celebrated with the same publicity as is used in any other towns of this colony. The offence consists in the celebration of the obsequies of these men as public characters entitled to veneration. The court abstains from all moral comment upon the part you have taken in these matters. It leaves you to the admonitions of your own conscience, and of those to whom you owe obedience in spiritual things. The judgment of the court upon you is, that you be imprisoned in the Hokitika lower gaol for the term of one calendar month. Had your attitude before the court been different—had you not dutifully submitted to the law of the land, I must have required from you heavy recognizances for future good behaviour. With them I can now dispense ; trusting, as I do, in your present professions, and that you will go out again amongst your fellow-subjects in a truly Catholic spirit—in that spirit of Christian charity which tran scends the narrow bounds of mere national and clannish feeling^. The defendant Larkin being called upon the other indictment) His Honor said—Upon this indictment the court will make no difference between you and your co-defendants who received judgment last night. The necessary difference is already sufficiently marked by the judgment just now pronounced upon you. The judgment of the Court is, that you do forfeit and pay forthwith, to her Majesty, the sum of £2O. The defendant Manning was then called on the indictment for the procession, and fined £2O. The prisoners were then removed.

On January 1, all Germany, including the north and the south, and Austria, adopted the groschen postage for letters under half an ounce in weight. A groschen is equal to about a penny farthing. War is an expensive luxury. The Debuts estimates the united land force of Europe at 72,000,000 men, and their daily, cost at £BOO,OOO, or nearly three hundred million pounds sterling per annum.