ment of the cause of Roman Catholic Emancipation, a topic, certainly, not very closely connected with the invasion of Spain); and, finally, the motion was negatived without a division.

There can be no doubt, but that the policy of ministers on this great question was generally approved by the country. Some, indeed, wished, that, at Verona, if we were unable to prevent the. allied sovereigns from promulgating their formal denunciation of the constitutional system of Spain, we might at least have counteracted their proceeding by declaring our opinion with equal boldness on the other side. And so, it is true, we might have done, had the notes of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, proclaimed or recommended war. But they did no such thing; they merely condemned, though with improper officiousness and considerable harshness of language, a system which it was impossible to praise, and of which, considered with reference to its own intrinsic demerits, and the mode of its administration, it was not easy to speak with too much reprobation. It was therefore impossible that we could have met these diplomatic notes by an eulogy of that state of things, which they sought to bring into disrepute. What, then, would have been the nature of our counter-manifesto? Should its object have been to deprecate war, and to express our disapprobation of any armed aggression against Spain? To have done so would have been consistent with our principles, but would not have been suitable to the occasion; for there was no mention, no threat of war in the notes which were issued from Verona, and therefore for us to have sent forth to the

world a protest against war, which the allies had neither announced nor applauded, would have been altogether out of place, and would have been much more likely to accelerate than to avert the apprehended evil.

But the people, though they applauded the moderation and prudence of our ministers, were not the less zealous in their wishes for the success of the Spaniards; and the ardour of these wishes produced a corresponding alacrity of hope. The arrival of the French in Madrid did not excite much surprize; for it was not expected, that any strong resistance would be made to them, till the extended length of their line and the multiplication of their communications had weakened them upon particular points. The treachery of D'Abisbal excited serious fears, which acquired new strength, when the invaders were allowed to remain tranquil in Madrid, without any serious attempt to molest them in their rear, or to interrupt their intercourse with the frontier. When they began to move forward from Madrid, it was hoped that they would be enveloped on either side by Morillo and Ballasteros, and that their further progress, at least, would be arrested. These anticipations, likewise, proved empty dreams. The armies of Spain disappeared; her patriot chiefs deserted to the foe; and Cadiz was once more beleaguered by a French army. Even, under these circumstances, we were unwilling to despair of the cause of freedom. Cadiz, we knew, had all the physical means of resistance; and we could not suppose, that courage to make these means available, would be wanting. The siege, we flattered ourselves, would

be protracted, till the resources of the assailants would begin to be exhausted, and the approaching inclemency of the season would compel them to retreat. At last the sad reality dissipated delusion, and forced upon the public mind truer ideas of the state of Spain

than had hitherto been received: and men, at the same time that they deplored the fate and degradation of a people that might have been great, found, in the result of the war, additional reason for congratulating themselves on the prudence of their own rulers.

sons only cannot be guilty of a riot, this indictment in effect failed: the other was ignored. When these proceedings were announced to the Court on the 2nd of January, the attorney-general expressed his surprise at the result, in language not very temperate. "It is needless to observe to the Court," said he, "that, according to the technicalities of our law, a riot cannot be committed by only two persons; had even the bills been found for a riot only against all the parties, I would have still felt it to be my duty to adopt the line of conduct I am about to intimate in the presence of the Court. I will not arrogate to myself the office of arraigning the grand jury of the city of Dublin; they have discharged their functions in the presence of their God; under the sanction of a solemn oath, taken in the face of their country; to that God alone are they accountable. But I have also a duty to perform-I will, without anticipating the guilt of any individual, state solemnly, in the presence of this crowded audience, that in all my readings-in all my experience-in all the annals of this unfortunate country I never did find a case so fully demonstrated, of the foulest conspiracy to riot, of so much atrocity as scarcely to be heightened by the aggravation, that its object was, to insult and outrage the representative of the king's majesty in the public theatre. I will exercise the

cond it was charged, that they had com. Imitted it with each other, leaving out

the cum multis aliis. It was on this second count that the grand jury found the defendants guilty; but as they had not found them guilty cum multis aliis, and as two persons could not in law be guilty of a riot, the finding was not one on which any proceedings could take place.

prerogative, that the law and constitution bave given to my office; I will discharge that duty honestly, and with the blessing of God, fearlessly, unintimidated by that gang which have formed themselves into a faction to beard the king's government, to overturn the laws of the country, and even to insult and outrage the very person of the king's representative in Ireland, pursuing the course of outrage and violence from the hostility that they had taken up against that venerated nobleman, for his zeal and firmness in carrying into effect the king's intentions towards Ireland, of allaying the dissentions, and healing the wounds that have afflicted this unhappy country. The course of conduct that my duty directs me to pursue, will be, in the execution of the prerogative annexed to my office, to file ex officio informations, and speedily to bring before the country all the parties charged in these indictments." In the mean time, till the informations could be filed, he held the accused to bail.

On the following day, the judge likewise expressed his surprise at the fate of the indictments: and on the 6th of January, the grand jury, by their foreman, Sir George Whiteford, presented to the Court a strong remonstrance against the insinuations which had been thrown out respecting their conduct. This remonstrance concluded with the following words: "It must be recollected, that to us exclusively is the evidence known on which our judgment was founded, and we therefore trust, that this high Court will receive the declaration which we now solemnly and unanimously make, that our decision was the result of a laborious scrutiny of the evi

*

dence, of a conscientious consideration of its weight, and of a sincere anxiety to adhere to the direction of the learned judge, who so fully and clearly detailed to us the nature of our duties, and the principles by which we were bound to be regulated in discharging them." In the ensuing Hilary term, informations ex officio were filed, and the rioters were put upon their trial in the beginning of February. The proceedings lasted several days, but were ultimately ineffectual: for the jury, after being shut up from the afternoon of Friday to the noon of Saturday, and having been several times summoned into court by the judge, were unable to agree, and were discharged without having returned any verdict. The attorney-general, being thus once more baffled, intimated, that he would not be de terred by what had happened from bringing the accused again to trial, if he should deem such a course advisable. Subsequently, however, it was not thought prudent to carry the contest with the Orange party any further; and a nolle prosequi was entered the informations.

upon

from the gallery, but there was no reason for believing that it was aimed at lord Wellesley; and though a fragment of a wooden rattle hit the front of his box, the missile, even supposing its direction to have been the result of design and not of accident, was of too contemptible a kind to permit the use of it to be ascribed to a deadly purpose. In bringing forward the accusation of a plot to take away the life of the representative of majesty, the attorney-general exceeded the bounds both of justice and of prudence: and the undue violence, with which he commenced his proceedings, excited a spirit of resistance, which baffled him in his attempts to convict the accused even of that degree and species of guilt, which he brought home to them by satisfactory proof.

A public man, who deserves some blame, generally meets with more than he deserves. Such was the fortune of Mr. Plunkett; who, on this occasion, was assailed with loud clamour, for having filed ex officio informations, after the grand jury had in substance ignored the bills of indictment. The legality of the proceeding was unquestionable: what then was there to blame in it? Was it harsh to the accused? No: he had not exerted against them the full powers of his office, and he had recourse to it, only when the more ordinary means failed. Was it unjust? Justice and injustice have a reference to the community at large; and surely it was no more than he owed to society, as a principal guardian of the laws, to bring to trial, before the eyes of the whole world, individuals against whom there existed the strongest proof of very grave criminality. In the privacy of a grand jury, that proof had