London, Saturday, April 3...
'l he Irish papers give the particulars of an impressive, and, wc trust in GoD, a useful trial, which took place o01 the 25th bult., at the Queen's County Ass.ze.!. It wvas a prosecution for murder: thedeceased, by name AI'DANIET., was a peasant.; the offenders were police-men, paid and armned to protect the KING's subjects, not to murdler them. We have never heard of any action more execrable or atro- cious than this, as it was proa-ye in evidence on the trial- more inanifestly the result of habitual despotism, of prompt and eager inhumanity, of base and brutal cow- erdsice. Ten me in attacked with mortal wveapons a sinigle irdividu,i, naked and unarned; they stabbed him through the 'oody-they stabbed him into the brain-they inflicted a;0 him fourteen wounds; and atter they had left hirm dead, they came back to the house where this foul deed had been perpetrated, seized three other peaceable country- mnen, who had been sitting in a different apartment from the deceased, put them in irons, and dragged them before a magistrate; no doubt in the hope that by an accusation of misconduct, they might throw some stigma upon the testimony of those who had witnessedl the concluding scene of the outrage, anml the mangled body of their neiglhbour. It appears, that an or(er had been issued bv certain MAaeistrates to the policemcn,to clear the public- hnusms b 10 o'clock at night-an order which, however doubtful its legality, wve admit that it might be a hardl -neasurc to panisb the policemen for obeyinz,subservient as they are made by law to the Magistracy. Nevertheless, in executing this order, be it legal or not, it is obvious that the anned servants of the State were bound to abstain from all waaton violence or aggression. They had no right to resort to force, so long as, by any means but force, they Could' effectually discharge their duty: they had no shadow of'justification for taking away life, but in defence of life. 'Yet how did these ruffians demean themselves ? The ser- geant (KNSM1aCLa) addressed a young mnan (the person who was slain), desiring him to quit. the house. There were only two women, and a lad about to be married to one of them, in company. The answer was, " I will, the moment my friends "in the inner room come out." Now the sergeant had alreadv seen that shese men were in the act of cominng: but he re: 'plied, " You shall not wait for them," and instantly seized him by the collar, in whieh, as appears by the wvitnesses, -ethers of thc policemen joined their leader. "Don't drag "me," was the natural remonstrance of the assaultedl per- son ; upon which the sergeant knocked him down with the but of his firelock, and on his atttempting to rise and to lay hold of the gun, the companions of the assailamit plunged their bayonets int4 him.-being ten to one, and that one, as we have said, unarmed. These are the facts attested on the trial. The prisoners, six in number, were found guilty of manslaughtcr-the sergeant anl two others 'were sentenced to transportatioii for life, two for four- teen years, and one for seven years. Lenientt as this puni?hlrnent may well be considered, still it is a punishment, and as such may do good. Long impunity, or worse than impunity, had made the subordinate minis- ters of the lanw in Ireland. more dangerous than any ether class of offenders: the people dreadedl their fury the more, because they despaired of justice aeainst them from the Government; a striking proof of which is furnished by the circumsLance, that the mother of the deceased on the pre- sent occasion rcf used to commit thc prosectntion to the Crown kw,yers, and employe.l a counsel of her own. If the exist- ing Administration should succeed in eradicating this dis- trust from the minds of the Irish people, it will erect for itself no dislinourable and no fragile monument. L(NDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 3, I24.