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the recollection of his own sulky submission to Mr Sheil still pinching his kidneys and his desire, very naturally, being to see a judge in the same abject condition before the House, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. But the cases are not parallel-if produced, they will not meet. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had behaved to Mr Sheil like an eavesdropper who had lost retention of matter; and was forced to apologize to that gentlemannot on his knees, for Mr Hill had done that already-but on all his four hoofs, and down to the very tip of his tail, that trembled with shame and anger. He was in an attitude of humiliation; but Baron Smith was exalted by the insult he forgave, and all the world felt that an apology was due to him by the Ministry, by offering which, in the way open to them, they might have raised themselves out of the mire.

Sir Robert Peel had well said "that he had that conviction of the learned Judge's integrity, that he hoped he would not demean himself by any thing which could be considered tantamount to an apology. The learned individual was far advanced in years, and the infirmities of age might have somewhat quenched the energy of character for which he was once so remarkable; but he hoped that the learned Baron would feel that in his person he was fighting the battle of the independence of the Judges, and if he were conscious that no public inconvenience had arisen from his late hours,-if he had continued to deliver political charges, partly because he thought he was maintaining the cause of good government, partly because he thought he was encouraged and sanctioned by Ministers, partly because he was proud of seeing the appendices to the reports of the House of Commons graced by the publication of his compositions, and by doing so should draw upon himself the wrath of that House, he trusted that, if fall he must, he would fall without having submitted to the voluntary degradation of an apology."

Such noble expression of such noble sentiments should-beg our reader's pardon-have muzzled the ox, even while he was treading out his neighbour's corn. But there are

animals who know not when to be mum. "If the learned Judge," said Althorp, "had authorized any member to state that he would not continue to pursue the course which had been complained of, he would not have been disposed to press for the enquiry; but, since it appeared, though Baron Smith had communicated with some honourable members, he had not autho rized them to hold out any hope that he would alter his conduct, he would not consent to the proposal to discharge the order for the appointment of the Committee." Baron Smith had indeed held out no hopes to the House that he would alter his conduct; he had left the House to despair; not one drop of comfort could he send to the unhappy House; and it was clear that he cared no more for Lord Althorp than for a kyloe. Yet he wished to hurry no man's cattle, and had no objection to see his Lordship grazing away on clover in the field, or munching turnips in the stall, till he was fit for a Smithfield show. Wherefore all this passion for apologies? No man would ask another man for an apology, except in such extreme case as made the demand necessary to his own honour. Here nobody's honour had been touched, but that of the Judge; and no high-minded man would have permitted sucha Judge to make any thing approaching to an apology had it been volunteered, even had he been of opinion that the charges in question had been too political; all his feelings would still have been for the venerable person who had been so brutally abused, and he would have rejoiced to sink all disapprobation" of the course complained of" in vehement indignation at the ruffianism of his calumniator.

Lord Althorp himself "was bound to say that the explanations given by the honourable member for the University of Dublin had entirely refuted the charge with respect to Baron Smith coming late into Court, and sitting to a late hour in Armagh.' Now that was in truth the whole gravamen of the charge. O'Connell himself malignantly dwelt on it as such-and that charge having been refuted to Lord Althorp's satisfaction, why did he not turn round

upon O'Connell like a Bull of Bashan, and toss him like a cur twenty feet up into the air?

What was the charge against Baron Smith at Armagh? Late hours -hurry-and all that was irregular and indecorous. Hear Mr Shaw, and remember that every man in the House was convinced by his statement that here he had been shamefully calumniated by O'Connell.

"He (Mr Shaw) had a letter from the High Sheriff of that county, stating that, when Baron Smith was at Monaghan, the writer, as bound in his capacity of High Sheriff, waited on him with the calendar, which then contained the names of but twenty-four persons for trial. (Hear, hear.) The Sheriff congratulated the Judge on the prospect of a light assizes, and as the calendar at Monaghan was heavy, Baron Smith said he would remain there to assist the Chief Justice, on the Thursday on which he (Baron Smith) was to open the commission at Armagh. He accordingly sat for some hours in Monaghan, and thence proceeded to Armagh, and at three o'clock took his seat on the bench, and sat till seven o'clock. The next and every morning he went into court at halfpast eleven; and here he (Mr S.) would observe, that there seemed to be some mistake about the hours at which courts in Ireland had been accustomed to sit. What he said on a former occasion was, that in Ireland, in the superior courts, it never had been the practice of the Judges to sit before eleven o'clock. Every day at the Armagh assizes, Baron Smith sat at half-past eleven o'clock; no complaint was made so far as regarded the sitting on the Friday. He (Mr S.) now entreated the attention of the House, and of the right hon. Secretary for the Colonies in particular, to what was to follow. He (Mr S.) knew that he (Mr Stanley) was incapable of wilfully misrepresenting a fact, but in this part of the case he fell into a great error, and he (Mr Shaw) was confident he could explain it to the right hon. gentleman's perfect satisfaction. Baron Smith sat again on Saturday, at half-past eleven; when he arrived at Armagh, the Sheriff informed him that during the four days which had intervened between his sitting

He

at Monaghan and his arrival at Armagh, the calendar had trebled (hear, hear, hear), which was occasioned by the circumstance of a number of persons who had been out on bail having unexpectedly come in to take their trials. consulted the convenience of the bar, and the gentlemen of the county, who were in attendance, and said he was willing to give up all his time and do all in his power to deliver the gaol of the prisoners, and allow all persons who had business at the assizes to return to their homes with all convenient expedition. Would it not be admitted by every hon. member, that sitting late at night was productive of much less mischief than it would be to leave a large number of prisoners over for trial at the next assizes? Baron Smith took the bench again on Saturday morning, and, owing to the great and unprecedented pressure of business, he sat until a quarter before twelve that night, which was as late as he possibly could sit without infringing on the Sabbath. He took the bench again on Monday at the same hour, half-past eleven, and he found the greatest difficulty in getting through the business-he sat for eighteen hours without moving off the bench. (Hear, hear.) Was this a mere whim or caprice? (Hear, hear.) Could this have been any enjoyment to an old man of nearly seventy-five years of age? (Cheers.) But, above all, was it a neglect of duty? (Loud cheers.) He then went to bed for five hours, and in five hours and a half he returned to the bench to perform his public duty (loud cheering for several minutes), and he sat from half-past eleven until seven that evening (hear, hear,) which was upwards of eight hours; and without taking rest or refreshment he got into his carriage, and that night he performed a journey of nearly fifty miles, for the purpose of being at his post at the next assizes town on the following morning. (Cheers.) And, good God! is this the neglect of duty (loud cheering) (for that is the only charge we are now upon) for which an aged judge is to fall under the censure of the House of Commons? (Cheers.) If it had suited the purpose of the hon. and learned gentleman-if this learn

ed Judge had been countenancing, in place of denouncing, agitation (cheers), what an excellent ground it would have been for a vote of thanks to have been moved to him by the hon. and learned gentleman. (Cheers.) The result of these extraordinary and most laudable exertions on the part of the learned judge was, that he had been confined to his bed by illness for a considerable time after his return to Dublin. (Hear.)"

It was this Armagh case that had staggered Mr Stanley; and yet, alas! after it had been thus disposed of, he persisted in supporting O'Connell against Baron Smith! The House, had it been pervaded by a spirit of common justice, such as actuates men in the ordinary affairs of life, would have scorned to pay the slightest attention to any other minor charges of the same kind, but taken it for granted that they were, one and all, odious excrescences sprouting from the body of this one big ugly lie.

But there was another separate and supplementary lie, which, after Baron Smith's triumph in the House, was cut down in the open day as by a scythe. O'Connell had insisted that Sir William did not go into Court, to try the police in the Castle Pollard affair, before half-past three o'clock; and farther imputed to him the having forced the Jury to continue the trial through the night, and coerced them into a verdict of acquit tal. It was chiefly-so we think they said, though we do not believe them upon this statement, that Mr Stanley and Lord Althorp opposed Sir Edward Knatchbull's motion. O'Connell made it on the authority of a Mr Patrick Egan of Moute. The Editor of the Standard from the first declared his disbelief in the exist ence of this pastoral swain. If there be such a person, we should like to see the inside of his tongue. For here is "The certificate of the petit Jury who tried the Castle Pollard

case.

"We, the jury who tried the Castle Pollard case, having seen the statement in the newspapers, that Baron Smith proceeded with the trial in that case against our will and desire, and coerced us by his charge to acquit the prisoners, declare, that nei

ther of the above statements are the facts, but quite the reverse; neither was it the case, that the trial was entered upon at half-past three o'clock. Baron Smith entered at about or before eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and the trial commenced almost immediately after, by calling the jurors; but so much time was taken up in putting jurors aside, and challenging and signing objections, that Sergeant Pennefather did not begin to state the case for the prosecution until about two o'clock in the after

noon.

"Charles Arabin, Foreman, Robert Matthews, John Thomson, R. H. Levinge, Christopher Adamson, John Smith, Robert M. Jameson, Peter Smith, Angier Brock, Peter Green.

"Captain Tennison Lyons, one of the jury, is dead above six months; and Mr John Black has since gone to reside in the county of Longford, but his signature is expected to be affixed to said certificate."

Sir James Grahame, before O'Connell's charges had been all thus refuted, torn to pieces, and trampled under foot, felt instinctively, and saw intuitively, that they were all false; but even if not all false, he nobly declared, "that as one who valued his own independence and charac ter, if the motion were acceded to, and an address to the Crown presented for the removal of Baron Smith from his judicial situation, (supposing all the alleged facts proved,) it would be highly inexpe dient, nay more, a most unjust proceeding. As an humble individual, whose character was dearer to him than any other consideration, he felt that he could not support his colleagues in the view they had adopted with regard to it. The present would be the most painful vote he had ever given, since he felt it incumbent upon him to draw himself from those friends with whom, during a life of some duration, he had had the honour of acting; but feeling, as he did, the proposition to be dangerous in itself, he conceived he should be betraying the trust committed to him by his constituents if he did not declare against it. He should never forgive himself were he to adopt a contrary line of conduct. He again professed his inability to argue the question; but felt he should not

discharge his duty to the satisfaction of his own mind unless he voted against the motion."

Sir James Grahame has already had his reward-the only reward he contemplated at the time he did his duty-the approbation of his own conscience and of his country. He has shewn that he is worthy of that esteem with which his character is generally regarded, and proved that he will never, by any weak or base act, under any temptation, sully that name to which he has in many ways given additional lustre. Three years of Whig rule may have deadened, but they have not extinguished the spirit of this once magnanimous nation; and though it gave him pain to sever himself, on this occasion, from his friends in the Ministry, he thereby gained a million friends, and if it be asked, "What will they say at Cockermouth?" it may be answered, "The same that they say all over Great Britain and Ireland the First Lord of the Admiralty is a man of honour."

We have purposely avoided saying one word about Baron Smith's charges; for we wished first to expose the falsehood of all the accusations the incendiary urged against his character and conduct as a Judge. Political charges they indeed are; and full of the humanest wisdom. Therefore by O'Connell are they abhorred; therefore to an infatuated Whig Ministry are they hateful; therefore was Baron Smith marked out as a victim; and therefore did the voice of the people for bid the sacrifice.

These charges ought to be collected, and widely diffused-they would make at once a statesman's and a subject's manual. The King's Speech was far from being a very bad one, though its composition was execrable; and the charge of Baron Smith chiefly complained of by Lord Althorp, was, from beginning to end, a fervid exhortation to the most influential classes in Ireland, to crush sedition and preserve order by all the means and appliances recommended to the lieges by their most gracious monarch. We dare say Lord Althorp does not admire the style of Baron Smith's charges, for it is classical; but, being classical, it is perspicuous; and these no

ble compositions must have made a powerful impression on all educated men in Ireland, be their politics or religion what they may, for they breathe in beautiful language the beautiful sentiments of Christian love and charity, and call on all brethren to dwell together in peace. There are not wanting flashes of indignation to wither the wicked; but their general character is gentle, and the law which this good and great man desires to see all-powerful, is the law not of fear but of love. What other sentiments could have been uttered by that Judge whose only fault is that he is too merciful-remembering ever that all men are criminals-and that pardon. may often do the work of punishmentat the expense of far other tears?

We have much more to say-but must reserve it for other occasions. Meanwhile, we conclude with the beautiful close of Mr Shaw's speech, to which the heart of Ireland has responded with a voice of blessing on the honoured head which the Ministry hoped to humiliate, and with a voice of ban against all his persecutors and slanderers.

Irish agitation to stand forward before
"I challenge the boldest adventurer.in
an assembly of English gentlemen, and
partiality, oppression, or any other spe-
bring a charge of the slightest corruption,
cies of criminality against Baron Smith.
Let them betake themselves to the ve-
riest haunts of faction, turbulence, sedi-
tion, and cater in the fetid atmosphere
of the most squalid misery and vice-let.
them include, nay, I should wish they
would, every criminal that learned Judge
(who, if he had a fault, it was that he
was too humane) has ever tried, and I
defy them to carry thence one single
breath wherewith to sully the pure and
untarnished reputation of that distin
guished man. Has one individual dared,
throughout the two nights of this discus-
sion, to cast the shadow of an improper

path of his judicial life?

motive across the long and honourable What then! Will this House-the question is not whether they approve or disapprove of some particular phrase or figure, or some imputation of a crime-without the trifling unpunctuality-but without the charge of an offence-drag that venerable man-the father of the Irish bench

the head and ornament of Irish society-the pride of Irish literaturehim who in the days of his youth, his

vigour, his health, had illumined the brightest pages of Irish history; nowwhen the brightness of his former fame and great attainments was sinking into the peacefulness of retirement, full of years, covered with the honour, respect, and esteem of his entire country, and place him a criminal at that bar? Forbid it justice, honour, truth! Is there a generous mind, a feeling heart, a noble sentiment in Ireland, that would not revolt against an act of such grievous injury-such wanton, crying, cruel, unprecedented injustice? And who is his accuser? who is it-that asks you without evidence, and upon his mere statement, to condemn that aged and venerated Judge? The factious-turbulent-and seditious agitator; the man who caused the passing of a special act of Parliament against illegal associations-violated its provisions, and escaped its penalties by its accidental expiration-who is at this moment vicariously suffering in the person of another the punishment of that sedi. tion of which he is this night the advocate-and whom you, this very Parliament, are now only holding within the bounds of allegiance and the limits of the law, by the provisions of an extreme and extra-constitutional statute. Is this the man at whose feet you will prostrate the laws of the land, and in place of their mild and salutary sway, set up the iron rule of his dictation? Will you subvert the judicial bench, and for it substitute

the arbitrary will of one despotic tyrant? Will you render insecure our persons, our properties, and our lives? Will you, at his bidding, drive peace and safety from our homes, and leave us, our wives and children, at the mercy of the lawless agitator-a prey to the midnight murderer and the voluptuous assassin? Will you overturn the altars of our holy religion? I speak this in no spirit of religious or sectarian bigotry-I was myself friendly to the concession of political equality to my Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen-I thought they would have then been content, but I was grievously mistaken. They cry aloud for the destruction of our Church; and if this policy be continued, it will but inflame the infuriate zeal, with which the Irish agitator thirsts for the life's blood of Protestantism. I speak not personally of Protestants, but religiously of Protestantism. If you confirm the vote, you set the most fatal precedent that ever was established in a British House of Commons. You abrogate the boasted charter of judicial independence, passed not to uphold the personal rank and dignity of the Judge, but as the best security of the rights and liberties of the subject.

And

as to Ireland-you will stab to the heart her laws, her liberties, her peace, and her prosperity; and with them will fall withered to the ground every hope of amelioration in the unhappy condition of that unhappiest of countries."

A STORY WITHOUT A TAIL.
CHAP. I.

HOW WE WEnt to dine AT JACK GINGER'S.

So it was finally agreed upon that we should dine at Jack Ginger's chambers in the Temple, seated in a lofty story in Essex Court. There was, besides our host, Tom Meggot, Joe Macgillicuddy, Humpy Harlow, Bob Burke, Antony Harrison, and myself. As Jack Ginger had little coin and no credit, we contributed each our share to the dinner. He himself provided room, fire, candle, tables, chairs, tablecloth, napkinsno, not napkins; on second thoughts we did not bother ourselves with napkins-plates, dishes, knives, forks, spoons, (which he borrowed from the wig-maker,) tumblers, lemons, sugar, water, glasses, decanters -by the by, I am not sure that there were decanters-salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard, bread, butter, (plain

and melted,) cheese, radishes, potatoes, and cookery. Tom Meggot was a cod's head and shoulders, and oysters to match-Joe Macgillicuddy, a boiled leg of pork, with peas-pudding-Humpy Harlow, a sirloin of beef roast, with horseradish-Bob Burke, a gallon of half-and-half, and four bottles of whisky, of prime quality ("Potteen," wrote the Whiskyman, "I say, by Jupiter, but of which many-facture He alone knows")Antony Harrison, half-a-dozen of Port, he having tick to that extent at some unfortunate wine-merchant'sand I supplied cigars à discretion, and a bottle of rum, which I borrowed from a West Indian friend of mine as I passed by. So that, on the whole, we were in no danger of suffering from any of the extremes of

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