The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 221, 16 April 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1868.

Yesterday morning, the trial of the two men, Duffy and O'Brien, who were charged with assaulting one Thomas Naysmith, with intent to do him grievous bodily harm, was resumed, and as the magistrates thought there was not sufficient evidence to sustain the criminal charge, O'Brien was discharged, and Duffy was arraigned under another indictment, preferred as a civil action for a common assault, the result of which charge will not be known until to-day. Several causes have led to this result, and as it is a most unsatisfactory one, we will review the reasons which have chiefly led to a miscarriage of justice. There is not the slightest doubt that an attack was made upon the returning loyal procession, and but for the fact that the men composing it, thought " discretion the better part of valour" and ran away, there is no saying what might have been the result. When the few men who were actually wounded applied to the representative of Her Majesty for protection, a difficulty arose in the matter of identification, and much as many desired to follow up with the law, the assaulting parties, they could only obtain warrants against such men as they could actually -•-i._.!._• A A ,-,„,„,-» r»r. Q T'V.r.Tnoc. TVn.y. smith, after all was the only man who actually laid a specific charge, and he could only identify two of the mob, the two men against whom the evidence was considered defective, by our chief magistrate. The inspector of police stated that although he could have subpoenaed twenty witnesses who could prove the assault by the mob, he could not produce any more than Naysmith and Hooker who could swear distinctly to O'Brien and Duffy. This is all very well, but we aver that it does not meet the requirements of the case. The root of the evil lies deeper, and should have been grappled with at the commencement, and already our Victorian neighbors are chiding us, and when the affair is known in England, we shall also be held up to scorn by our fellows at home. On St. Patrick's Day, a procession having for its object a display of morbid sympathy with murderers, assembled at Addison's, marched down to "Westport, celebrated obsequies, delivered treasonable speeches, and returned home un-

molested and unpunished by the Powers that he. A few days after came the news from Sydney of the attempted assassination of our young and amiable Sailor Duke by a. man who is connected with the same gang of murderers for whom so much sympathy was shown at "Westport. On this a loyal demonstration was got up, and one portion of it returning homo were assaulted and dispersed, and the crown and union-jack of England, which had been carried in the procession, were ignominiously trodden on. The case that came on for hearing, detailed above and reported in another column, arose out of this, and owing to the absence of identification justice has failed. The Commissioner, Mr Kynnersley, ' in giving judgment in the case, remarked that a miserable little street row had been magnified into a serious riot. Was this a miserable street row.—We think not. The counsel for the prisoners attempted to show that party songs were sung by the processionists, and the inference he wished to be drawn, of course, was, that this naturally infuriated the mob. This attempt signally failed, and only the song of the "lied, White, and Blue" was proved to have been sung. Surely this is a glorious country to live in, where treason and sedition are pandered to. and an attack made by the seditious body on unoffending men, is stigmatised as a miserable street row ! The facts however, are worse than were proved. Several people are yet unable to return home, and we are informed that those who could give pointed

evidence against the rioters, are too engrossed in digging, to risk losing a payable claim, to appear in court, knowing that their life afterwards at Addison's would be, to say the least, a most miserable one. The treasonable resolution passed at a meeting of the Celtic Committee, held at Addison's, and published in the Evening Star, at which Messrs Gallagher, Donovan, O'Connell, Dillon, Broderick, and Dully were present, and in which open defiance is hurled at the authorities, should have induced our magistrate to have taken action, and we do most distinctly state that the policy pursued by our Commissioner here has been throughout one of pander. The two females, Newton and M'Norton, who were witnesses for the prosecution, but whoso evidence was really in favor of the prisoners, were, if we are rightly informed, forcibly removed from their horses, whatever they may say to the contrary, and the windows of Isabella Newton's house were not only broken, but all her grog and stock-in-trade was either spoilt or drank ; yet we find them selected as witnesses for the prosecution, when by their letters which appeared in our paper, the policy of soft soap they meant to adopt was well known. Quietness reigns at Addison's, and Captain Cunvmings no doubt would see quiet yesterday, when he went to Addison's, but we do believe that the quiet is like that of the " frozen adder," which on regaining warmth stung the hand that saved. The wish is certainly not father to the thought, but we trust our Commissioner and his confreres may not have an exemplification of the fable.

Mr Commissioner Kynnersley, in the course of his remarks to the deputation who waited upon him yesterday afternoon, requesting him to allow the body of armed constabulary to remain for a time longer in Westport, took occasion to reprobate the tone adopted by the press of Westport in dealing with the subject of Fenian disaffection in the district, and his (the Commissioner's) action, or rather inaction, in the matter. The Commissioner is said to have stated that if auy disturbance arose he would attribute it mainly to thfi inflomm-ifnT*y sAnHmonto r>YpT>f>«sed by the press. In reply to our share of the accusation, we only deem it necessary to remark, that had the Commissioner done his duty, and adopted such a course as his position of chief Magistrate demaudcd, the language, which (naturally enough) he regards as offensive, would never have been made use of, and we fearlessly assert, that should any future disturbance take place, the blame will rest entirely at the door of the Commissioner, who has adopted so supine and pandering a policy. The only charitable view we can take of Mr Kynnersley's conduct is, that it is attributable to a constitutional indecision and vaccilation.