ARRESTS FOR SEDITION IN IRELAND

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1839, 14 January 1880, Page 3

ARRESTS FOR SEDITION IN IRELAND

The Irish authorities have arrested three land agitators for using seditious language. The apprehensions were quietly made, two in Dublin, and one—Mr J. W. Daly, proprietor of the " Connaught Telegraph"—inOastlebar. Abont seven o'clock, Mr James Bryce Killen, barristor-at-law, of George's place, Clonliffe, Dublin, and Mr Michael Davitt, ex-Fenian prisoner, of 83, Amiens-street, Dublin, were arrested on a warrant issued upon the information of Sub-Inspector MoOlelland, of Tobbercurry, charging them with having, at the land meeting held at Q-urteen, county Sligo, used language calculated to lead the people to a breach of the peace. The officers who made the arrests were in plain clothes. All the prisoners were conveyed to Sligo, where, in the course of the evening, they were examined before the Resident Magistrate, Mr Molony. Mr Randal Peyton, J.P., Clerk of the Crown, appeared in support of the prosecution. At the outset Mr Killen requested that the representatives of the press should be admitted to the investigation. Ho saw a representative of the Dublin press outside, and as all the circumstances of tho arrest had been mode public he thought it only fair to the accused that the Press should be present. The Crown Solicitor said that was a matter entirely for the discretion of the Magistrate. Mr Molony said his duty on that occasion would be only ministerial. He understood the Crown was about to apply for a short remand, and in that case it would really serve no purpose to have the Press present, as the case would be gone into fully in a few days in open Oouit. Mr Killen pressed his right to have the Press admitted. They had been arrested on an ambiguous charge, and they desired that the fullest publicity should be given to the proceedings. If they had been arrested on public grounds what objection was thero to admit the Press. The Resident Magistrate distinctly refused to admit the Press. When the case came up on remand he would not have tho slightest objection to admit the Press if there was not a distinct order to the contrary. Davitt was quite as strong as Mr Killen in his demand that the reporters should be admitted. Both the accused Uen demanded to know the grounds of their arrest. The Crown Solicitor road the information of Sub Inspector McClelland, of Tubbercurry, charging the defendants with the offjnce complained of in tho warrant, the information of the shorthand writer employed by the Government to take notes of the speeches at the Gurteen meeting verifying the strong passages in the prisoners' observations, and lastly, the Crown Solicitor's own affidavit praying for a remand till Monday, on the ground that some important corroborative witnesses were not in town, including the constabulary detectrVe, who also took shorthand notes on the occasion. The prisoners vehemently denounced being arrested on a charge which the Crown Solicitor was not at that moment able to corroborate. They protested against the exclusion of the Press ; they ridiculed the idea of the absence of the Crown witnesses in a case where such arrangements had been made for perfecting the information, and both impugned tho accuracy of the shorthand writer's notes, alleging that their meaning had been totally ausrepre-

sented. Davitt throughout the proceedings took copious notes of what was occuring, and said that though the representatives of the Presß were then excluded, that fact would not prevent the occurrences in that room finding publicity on a future day. The Resident Magistrate said he would accede to the application of the Grown on the ground of the unavoidable absence of necessary witnesses, and would therefore remand the accused till Monday, at eleven o'clock. The prisoners requested to be supplied with copi°s of the informations, and the Grown Solicitor said their request should be granted. They then inquired whether bail would be accepted. The Grown Solicitor opposed this, and the Resident Magistrate refused to admit them to bail. They obtained permission to see their solicitors and to be supplied with writing material. They were allowed to remain in the County Inspector's room for an hour, writing to their friends. At 7 p.m. they were placed in a hired carriage, and, aocompanied by County Inspector Ross and Sub-Inspector Egon, and escorted by a dozen constabulary men, were driven to Sligo" Gaol, which is only about four hundred yards from the police barracks.