and he is hospitable. This sacrilegious intruder has profaned the religion of that sacred altar so elevated in our worship, so precious to our devotion; and it is our privilege to avenge the crime. You must either pull down the altar, and abolish the worship, or you must preserve its sanctity undebased. There is no alternative between the universal exclusion of all mankind from your threshold, and the most rigorous punishment of him who is admitted and betrays. This defendant has been so trusted, has so betrayed, and you ought to make him a most signal example.

Gentlemen, I am the more disposed to feel the strongest indignation and abhorrence at this odious conduct of the defendant, when I consider the deplorable condition to which he has reduced the plaintiff, and perhaps the still more deplorable one that he has in prospect before him. What a progress has he to travel through, before he can attain the peace and tranquillity which he has lost? How like the wounds of the body are those of the mind! how burning the fever! how painful the suppuration ! how slow, how hesitating, how relapsing the process to convalescence? Through what a variety of suffering, what new scenes and changes, must my unhappy client pass, ere he can reattain, should he ever re-attain, that health of soul of which he has been despoiled by the cold and deliberate machinations of this practised and gilded seducer? If, instead of drawing upon his incalculable wealth for a scanty retribution, you were to stop the progress of his despicable achievements by reducing him to actual poverty, you could not even so punish him beyond the scope of his offence, nor reprise the plaintiff beyond the measure of his suffering. Let me remind you, that in this action, the law not only empowers you, but that its policy commands you, to consider the public example, as well as the individual injury, when you adjust the amount of your verdict. I confess I am most anxious that you should acquit yourselves worthily upon. this important occasion. I am addressing you as fathers, husbands, brothers. I am anxious that a feeling of those high relations should enter into, and give dignity to your verdict. But I confess, I feel a tenfold solicitude when I remember that I am addressing you as my countrymen, as Irishmen, whose characters as jurors, as gentlemen, must find either honour or degradation in the result of your decision. Small as must be the distributive

share of that national estimation, that can belong to so unimportant an individual as myself, yet I do own I am tremblingly solicitous for his fate. Perhaps it appears of more value to me, because it is embarked on the same bottom with yours; perhaps the community of peril, of common safety, or common wreck, gives a consequence to my share of the risque, which I could not be vain enough to give it, if it were not raised to it by that mutuality. But why stoop to think at all of myself, when I know that you, gentlemen of the jury, when I know that our country itself are my clients on this day, and must abide the alternative of honour, or of infamy, as you shall decide. But I will not despond, I will not dare to despond. I have every trust, and hope, and confidence in you. And to that hope I will add my most fervent prayer to the God of all truth and justice, that you may so decide, as to preserve to yourselves while you live, the most delightful of all recollections, that of acting justly, and to transmit to your children the most precious of all inheritances, the memory of your virtue.

SPEECH OF MR. CURRAN,

IN THE CAUSE OF THE KING AGAINST THE
HON. MR. JUSTICE JOHNSON,

IN THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER, DUBLIN, FEBRUARY 4TH, 1805.

An act of Parliament was passed in England in the year 1804, which received the royal assent on the 20th July that year, which was entitled, to be an act to render more easy the apprehending and bringing to trial, offenders escaping from one part of the united kingdom to the other, and also from one country to another.

The fourth section of which is as follows, on the construction of which section the argument in the court of exchequer arose :

And, for remedy of the like inconveniency by the escape into Ireland of persons guilty of crimes in England or Scotland respectively, be it further enacted, that, from and after the 1st day of August, 1804, if any person or persons, against whom a warrant shall be issued by any of the judges of his majesty's court of king's bench, or of the courts of great sessions in Wales, or any justice of oyer and terminer or goal delivery, or any justice or justices of the peace of any county, stewartry, riding, division, city, liberty, town, or place, within England or Scotland respectively, or other persons having authority to issue the same within England or Scotland respectively, for any crime or offence against the laws of England or Scotland respectively, shall escape, go into, reside, or be in any place of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, it shall and may be lawful for any justice of the peace of the county or place in Ireland, whither or where such person or persons shall escape, go into, or reside, or be, to indorse his name on such warrant, which warrant so indorsed shall be a sufficient authority to the person or persons bringing such warrant, and to all persons to whom such warrant was originally directed, and also to all sheriff's officers constables, and other peace officers, of the county or place in Ireland where such warrant shall be so indorsed, to execute the said warrant in the county or place in Ireland where it is so indorsed, by apprehending the person or persons against whom such warrant may be granted, and to convey him, her, or them by the most direct way, into England or Scotland respectively, and before one of the justices of peace of the county or stewartry, in England or Scotland respectively, living nea the place and in the county where he, she, or they shall arrive and land, which jus tice of peace is hereby authorized and required to proceed with regard to such person or persons as if such person or persons had been legally apprehended in the said county or stewartry of England or Scotland respectively.

MY LORDS,-It has fallen to my lot, either fortunately, or unfortunately, as the event may be, to rise as counsel for my client

on this most important and momentous occasion. I appear before you, my lords, in consequence of a writ issued by his majesty, commanding that cause be shown to this his court, why his subject has been deprived of his liberty; and upon the cause shown in obedience to this writ, it is my duty to address you on the most awful question, if awfulness is to be judged by consequences and events, on which you have been ever called upon to decide. Sorry am I that the task has not been confided to more adequate powers; but feeble as they are, they will at least not shrink from it. I move you therefore that Mr. Justice Johnston be released from illegal imprisonment.

I cannot but observe the sort of scenic preparation with which this sad drama is sought to be brought forward. In part I approve it; in part it excites my disgust and indignation. I am glad to find that the attorney and solicitor general, the natural and official prosecutors for the state, do not appear; and I infer from their absence, that his excellency the lord lieutenant disclaims any personal concern in this execrable transaction. I think it does him much honour; it is a conduct that equally agrees with the dignity of his character and the feelings of his heart. To his private virtues, whenever he is left to their influence, I willingly concur in giving the most unqualified tribute of respect. And I do firmly believe, it is with no small regret that he suffers his name to be even formally made use of, in avowing for a return of one of the judges of the land, with as much indifference and nonchalance as if he were a beast of the plough. I observe too, the dead silence into which the public is frowned by authority for the sad occasion. No man dares to mutter; no newspaper dares to whisper that such a question is afloat. It seems an inquiry among the tombs, or rather in the shades beyond them.

Ibant sola sub nocte per umbram.

I am glad it is so-I am glad of this factitious dumbness; for if murmurs dared to become audible, my voice would be too feeble to drown them; but when all is hushed-when nature sleeps

Cum quies mortalibus ægris,

the weakest voice is heard-the shepherd's whistle shoots across the listening darkness of the interminable heath, and gives notice that the wolf is upon his walk; and the same gloom and stillness

that tempt the monster to come abroad, facilitate the communication of the warning to beware. Yes, through that silence the voice shall be heard; yes, through that silence the shepherd shall be put upon his guard; yes, through that silence shall the felon savage be chased into the toil. Yes, my lords, I feel myself cheered and impressed by the composed and dignified attention with which I see you are disposed to hear me on the most important question that has ever been subjected to your consideration; the most important to the dearest rights of the human being; the most deeply interesting and animating that can beat in his heart, or burn upon his tongue-O! how recreating is it to feel that occasions may arise in which the soul of man may resume her pretensions; in which she hears the voice of nature whisper to her, os homini sublime dedi cœlumque tueri; in which even I can look up with calm security to the court, and down with the most profound contempt upon the reptile I mean to tread upon! I say, reptile; because, when the proudest man in society becomes so the dupe of his childish malice, as to wish to inflict on the object of his vengeance the poison of his sting, to do a reptile's work he must shrink into a reptile's dimension; and so shrunk, the only way to assail him is to tread upon him. But to the subject:—this writ of habeas corpus has had a return. That return states, that lord Ellenborough, chief justice of England, issued a warrant reciting the foundation of this dismal transaction that one of the clerks of the crown-office had certified to him, that an indictment had been found at Westminster, charging the hon. Robert Johnson, late of Westminster, one of the justices of his majesty's court of common pleas in Ireland, with the publication of certain slanderous libels against the government of that country; against the person of his excellency lord Hardwicke, lord lieutenant of that country; against the person of lord Redesdale, the chancellor of Ireland; and against the person of Mr. Justice Osborne, one of the justices of the court of king's bench in Ireland. One of the clerks of the crown-office, it seems, certified all this to his lordship. How many of those there are, or who they are, or which of them so certified, we cannot presume to guess, because the learned and noble lord is silent as to those circumstances. We are only informed that one of them made that important communication to his lordship. It puts me in mind of the information given to one of Fielding's justices: