TRIAL OF MR. MITCHELL.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 348, 4 November 1848, Page 144

TRIAL OF MR. MITCHELL.

" The trial of Mr. Mitchell, of the United Irishman, commenced on Thursday, May 25, in the Commission Court, Dublin, but the greater part of the day was taken up with technical objections on the part of the prisoner's counsel. The second day's trial proceeded, and in the evening, shortly after seven o'clock, Mr. Justice Moore entered the court, and the jury having been called, and asked whether they had agreed, the foreman, amidst breathless silence, handed down the verdict — " Guilty." Upon the announcement of the verdict, the psisoner's •wife threw herself on the shoulder of her husband, who stood near her in the dook, in an agony of grief. Several of the prisoner's most intimate friends, Messrs. T. F. Meagher, T. Devin Reilly, the Rev. Father Kenyon, Dr. Gray, Mr. Doheny, Mr. J. B. Dillon, &0., then came forward to the dock, and gave him a parting shake of the hand ; but, before these evidences of sympathy had been concluded, Mr. Baron Lefroy called on the police to clear the passage in front of the dock ; stating that the conduct of the prisoner's friends was calculated to disturb the order and propriety of the Court. He then directed that the prisoner should be removed and brought before the Court at eleven o'clock on Saturday morning, to hear his sentence pronounced. Baron Lefroy said, in passing sentence, We have with the utmost deliberation examined the matter, with an anxiety to duly discharge the duty which we owe the prisoner of not meting out the punishment beyond the just measure of the offence, and the duty we owe to the public that the degree of punishment should be such as to carry out the object of all punishment, which it not the mere infliction of the penalty npon the person convicted, but the prevention of crime : that that punishment should carry with it a security to the country as far a possible/ that one who has offended so peneveringly— - that so deliberate a violator of the law should not be permitted to continue his course of conduct to the disturbance of its peace and prosperity. We had to consider all this — to look at the magnitude of the crime, and to look also at the consideration that if this were not the first case brought under the act our Tluty might have obliged us to carry out the penalty it awards to the utmost extent; but taking into conridrration that this is the first conviction under the act — though the offence has been as clearly proved as any offence of the kind could be — the sentence ot the Court it, that you be transported beyond the seas for the term of 14 years. Mr. Mitchell said — The law has now done its part, and the Queen of England, her Crown, and Government in Ireland are now secure, pursuant to Act of Parliament. I have done my part also. Three months ago I promised Lord Clarindon, and his Government in the country, that I would provoke him into his Courts of justice, which places of this kind are called, and that I would force him publicly and notoriously to pack a jury against me to convict me, or else that I would walk a free man out of this Court, and provoke him to a contest in another field. My lord I knew that I was setting my life on that cast ; but I knew that in either event the victory should be with me, and it is with me. I presume neither the jury nor the judges, nor any other man in this Court presumes to imagine that it is a criminal who stands in this dock (Murmurs of applause, which the police endeavoured to repress). I have shown that her Majesty's Government sustains itself in Ireland by packed juries, by partizan judges, by perjured sheriffs. I have acted all through this business, from the first, under a strong sense of duty. I do not repent anything I have done, and I believe that the course which I have opened is only commenced. The Roman who saw his hand burning to ashes before the tyrant, promised that three hundred should follow out his enterprise. Can I not promise (looking at his friends who surrounded the dock) for one, for two, for three, aye for a hundred ? — A loud shout of exultation here rung through the Court, accompanied by immense cheering, clapping of hands, and great manifestations of excitement. Baron Lefroy — Officer, remove Mr. Mitchell. The shouts were here increased, and the clamour here became terrific, when two turnkeys laid hold of Mr. Mitchell to convey him to his cell. — Mr. Mitchell was sent from Newgate this day at half past, 4 o'clock to the North-wall, escorted by-^-Jarg*- force of cavalry, where he was put J o£ board the Shearwater Government packet, which forthwith set sail for Sfwke Island. There was a large crowd on th#%all, who loudly cheered him. He -was BQt clothed at a convict, but was ■trotfgly chained.