How Orangemen regard their Oaths

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 40, 7 December 1905, Page 3

How Orangemen regard their Oaths

Had the following, the report of which we take from the Dublin ' Weekly Freeman ' of October 21, occurred in any part of Munster, and had the reproof been addressed to Catholic jurors, the cable-crammer would be sure to have sent it, as a choice tit-bit, to these colonies .—. — On Tuesday at Monaghan Quarter Sessions his Honor Judge Craig, K.C., heard a case in which a great amount of interest was evinced, and during which his Honor expressed himself in a strong manner. Robert Wilson, a respectable-looking man, residing at Silverstream, near Monaghan, was charged with ha\ing unlawfully wounded one Robert Mayclim on the 13th July last. The jury retired, and after forty minutes' absence, returned, when the foreman announced they could not agree. His Honor (hotly)— You will have to go back, and if you don't agree then I will discharge you some time later, and then you will all have to come back to-mor-row, because I won't stand it. It is a most scandalous! proceeding ; it is utterly a disgrace to the county. Is it because you arc Orangemen of the county that you won't do your duty ? The Foreman— l don't think it is. His Honor— l think it is a discredit to the Orange Lodge and to the society generally to think that because a brother Orangeman is charged with committing this offence he is to get off scot free. If you respect yourselves and the county in which you live you will go back and find this man guilty. The foreman— l don't think there is any possibility of an agreement. Ilis Honor (hotly) — Then you will have to go back and sit there, and I will keep -you there as long as I can. I suppose some friends of these parties are among you, and I won't tolerate it. There must be an end to this sort of thing — disagreements in a plain case. If the prisoner is acquitted to-morrow I will send him to the Assizes, and possibly he will get a more severe sentence than I might pronounce. The jury then retired at five o'clock, and returned to court at ten minutes to six o'clock, when the foreman said they could not agree. His Honor — Go back again ; you will remain there. The jury again returned to Court, when the foreman announced they could not agree. His Honor (warmly)— Go back out of that. It is a shame. The jury were sent for at half-past six, when his Honor asked if they had agreed to their verdict. The foreman— No, sir ; we can't.

His Honor— lt is a scandal and an outrage. I will discharge you to-night. All the common jurors summoned for these sessions must come here to-morrow, (Wednesday) morning at half-past ten o'clock. I will call the list of names, and any juror not present will be fined £1. The prisoner was then put back. On the following day before Judge Craig, K.C., and a new jury, with William M'Adoo foreman, the hearing of the charge against Robert Wilson was resumed. When the court opened the jury panel was called, and five did not answer. His Honor mulcted them in £1 each. His Honor, addressing the jury, said that il any one of them came into the box that day with apprehension in his mind that the lesult of this case, whether there was a conviction or not, would aSect the Protestant good name of the County Monaghan or the Orange movement in County Monaghan, he appealed to them to dispel that apprehension. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty of wounding, with a strong recommendation to mercy on the ground that there had been" a lot of drinking going on on the occasion. His Honor thanked them for their verdict. Under the circumstances he would go to the extremest limit of consideration, and sentence him to one calendar montb, with hard labor.