Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844   By: Various

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CCCXLIX. NOVEMBER, 1844. VOL. LVI.

CONTENTS

THE O'CONNELL CASE, 539

MY COLLEGE FRIENDS. NO. 1. JOHN BROWN, 569

THE TOMBLESS MAN. BY DELTA, 583

FRENCH SOCIALISTS, 588

MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XIV., 601

SONNET TO CLARKSON, 619

LETTER FROM THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES HOPE, 620

POEMS BY ELIZABETH B. BARRETT, 621

UP STREAM; OR, STEAM BOAT REMINISCENCES, 640

WESTMINSTER HALL AND THE WORKS OF ART, 652

LINES ON THE LANDING OF HIS MAJESTY KING LOUIS PHILIPPE, 654

LAMARTINE, 657

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BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

No. CCCXLIX NOVEMBER, 1844. VOL. LVI.

THE O'CONNELL CASE WAS THE JUDGMENT RIGHTLY REVERSED?

The astounding issue of the Irish State trials will constitute a conspicuous and mortifying event in the history of the times. A gigantic conspiracy for the dismemberment of the empire was boldly encountered at its highest point of development by the energy of the common law of the land, as administered in the ordinary courts of justice. That law, itself certainly intricate and involved, had to deal with facts of almost unprecedented complication and difficulty; but after a long and desperate struggle, the law triumphed over every obstacle that could be opposed to it by tortuous and pertinacious ingenuity: the case was correctly charged before the jury; most clearly established in evidence, so as to satisfy not them only, but all mankind; the jury returned a just verdict of guilty against all the parties charged the court passed judgment in conformity with that verdict, awarding to the offenders a serious but temperate measure of punishment imprisonment, fine, and security for good behaviour. The sentence was instantly carried into effect

"And Justice said I'm satisfied."

But, behold! a last desperate throw of the dice from the prison house a speculative and desponding appeal to the proverbial uncertainty of the law; and, to the unspeakable amazement and disgust of the country, an alleged technical slip in the conduct of the proceedings, not touching or even approaching, the established MERITS of the case either in fact or law, has been held, by the highest tribunal in the land, sufficient to nullify the whole which had been done, and to restore to liberty the dangerous delinquents, reveling in misrepresentation and falsehood concerning the grounds of their escape on punishment in their delirium of delight and triumph, even threatening an IMPEACHMENT against the officers of the crown, against even the judges of the land, for the part they have borne in these reversed proceedings!