whose last charge, on leaving this earth, tended most sublimely and emphatically to enforce the obligation of mutual affection between man and man, and whose last awful and divine command was, that we should love one another.

It is not my custom, however, to say any thing that might embitter the voice of accusation. I know the unhappy circumstances under which the young man at the bar labours; and I have endeavoured, in the conduct of this prosecution, to take off the pressure of that peculiar predicament under which he unfortunately stands. But I cannot permit a relaxation of duty so flagrant, from any individual consideration, let the object of that consideration be what it may.

When I perceive those violent struggles to distort and tear asunder all the social ties which bind man to man-not by the wantonness of aggravating description, or offering of cruel taunts at the prisoner's situation-but by some system of conduct operating as a remote but sure cause of so lamentable an effect, I should think myself indeed an unworthy and unfeeling cooperator in the conduct every honest mind must reprobate, and an accessory to the consequences which flow from it, were I, from the affectation of false feelings of humanity, to sink parts of that detail, which it becomes my duty to disclose.

I understood that the conduct attributable, and perhaps justly so, to certain parties labouring under the present accusation, might have indicated something like an excuse under the unhappy pretext of intoxication. If any of you, gentlemen of the jury, have permitted an opinion to get hold of your understanding, that a voluntary privation of reason amounts to an extenuation of a crime committed, permit me to remove so egregious a mistake from your minds. It is the law of this country, touching the subject of intoxication as apology for crimes, that so far from contributing any excuse or apology for the perpetration of crimes, such state of mind is considered as a high aggravation of any offence committed under its influence. This being the law of the land, you are bound most solemnly on your oaths strictly to abide by it-in deciding by the same law, which unequivocally says, that intoxication is no excuse for or palliation of guilt. I am afraid that circumstances will come out in evidence of complicated aggravation in the offence charged against the

prisoner at the bar. It will appear that he ordered a party of the military under his command to fire into the windows of the prosecutor's bed-chamber, and that some of the bullets were found lodged in the walls of his apartment, while others passed through the curtains of his bed. It will also appear that other shots took effect in an adjacent apartment, where other lodgers were asleep. If it shall be suggested as a defence of the prisoner's conduct, that he acted, or thought he acted, under the orders of a magistrate, it is a weak pretext and a gross mistake, to suppose that the company even of a real magistrate, which it appears that Mr. Frizell, however qualified, is not, could give a man sanction to break into a habitation in order to commit a murder. On the contrary it is a most hideous aggravation of such offence. The system of our laws uniting a degree of wisdom and a principle of equity not to be equalled, or perhaps found, in the laws of any other country in the world, divides the criminal code into different branches, and on that principle it is left to the judge to expound the law, while the jury are confined to the investigation of facts, on which alone they must decide. There may be cases where a higher authority interferes,-cases for which a wise provision is also made by appealing to a branch of the judicial authority, invested with a power to turn off from a culprit, the bitter edge of the law. A portion of that power is delegated in the first instance to persons who soften the rigour of the law, by the emotions peculiar to kind and sympathetic hearts liberally imbued with the finer feelings of humanity. The judges of the land are therefore wisely permitted to exercise those principles of social affections and compassion towards proper objects, which will ultimately terminate with a higher power, who is bound to administer justice in mercy.

Gentlemen of the Jury, I have endeavoured to state to you those principles and maxims of the criminal laws of your country, by which you cannot fail to perceive the boundaries which the sound policy of our general law has affixed to each department. Finding the facts against the prisoner at the bar, according to the evidence which shall be laid before you, will not preclude him from mercy, should he be conceived a proper subject for it, a consideration which you, as honest and humane men, must feel a superior gratification in contemplating. But, on the other hand,

reflect that it is not because you suspect a culprit, that you must find him guilty; for the wise policy of the law itself has it, that the more hideous are the circumstances of the offence, so much the more shall christian charity induce you to be incredulous as to its perpetration. And, on that principle, the practice of the courts is grounded, which requires that solemn and pathetic appeal to God, from the officer, praying to send the culprit a good deliverance. Therefore, unless a true conviction shall remove all rational doubt from your minds before you take upon you to pass a verdict on the life or liberty of your fellowcreature, it will be, as I before have stated, your bounden duty unreservedly to acquit. But if conviction shall supersede all doubt, and clear up all embarrassment, you are equally bound to consider that pardon and mercy to the culprit are lodged in other breasts than yours. I shall conclude, gentlemen of the jury, with only one observation, that is, in your discussion of the several charges exhibited against the prisoner at the bar, you will not permit anything I have said, or any statement of the evidence I have laid before you, to make an exclusive impression on you.

The Rev. William Ledwich proved that on the 3rd of February he was lodging at Catherine Byrne's house at Rathfarnham, that about ten o'clock on that night Frizell and Costley, with a party of their yeomen, came to the house, and endeavoured to force him away to the guard-house; that he resisted, was struck at with a sword, and finally escaped over Lord Ely's wall at the back of the house. Other witnesses proved that the prisoner and his party fired into the house, and also broke the doors and windows to force their way in.

Mr. Egan opened the defence, using the cross-examination of the prosecutor's witnesses, to prove that Costley was only drunk and intemperate, and had got into a riot, and called Lord Erris and Colonel Caulfield to testify to his character. After a reply from Mr. M'Nally and a charge from Judge Day, the jury acquitted the prisoner on all the charges, except the assault. On that he was found Guilty, and for it he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and a trifling fine.

MASSY v. HEADFORT.

[FOR CRIMINAL CONVERSATION.]

ENNIS SUMMER ASSIZES.

July 27th, 1804.

THE Rev. Charles Massy, second son of Sir Hugh Massy, Bart., was a clergyman, deriving a large income from church livings. In March, 1796, he married, against his father's wish, a Miss Rosslewin, then eighteen years of age, and of remarkable beauty. By her he had one son. He was residing, in 1803, at Doonas, on the Clare bank of the Shannon, about five miles above Limerick. The Marquis of Headfort, with his regiment of Meath Militia, was then quartered in Limerick, his lordship residing in the Earl of Limerick's house. Mr. Massy, when at one time a rector in Meath, had known the dowager Lady Bective and the Headfort family; so, when his wife became acquainted with Lord Headfort in Limerick, he very naturally asked the Marquis to Doonas-his wife was rather fond of society and display, but, then, Lord Headfort was fifty years old.

The result of the visit was, that on a Sunday morning after the Christmas of 1803, while Mr. Massy was performing service in his church, Mrs. Massy eloped with Lord Headfort, and for this the action was brought. Damages were laid at £40,000, and the case was tried at the Clare Summer Assizes before Baron Smith and a special jury.

An immense bar was employed for the plaintiff; they were-John Philpot Curran, Bartholomew Hoare, Henry Deane Grady, Thomas Carey, John White, Amory Hawksworth, William O'Regan, Thomas Lloyd, William M‘Mahon, and George Bennet, Esqrs; agent, Anthony Hogan, Esq. The Counsel for the defence were George Ponsonby, Thomas Quin, Thomas Goold, John Francks, Charles Burton, Richard Pennefather, Esqrs. ; agent, James Simms, Esq.

Mr. George Bennet opened the pleadings. Mr. Hoare stated the case, describing Lord Headfort as "this hoary veteran in whom, like Etna, the snow above did not quench the flames below." His speech throughout is masculine, original, and to the point; while his Cornish plunderer has been cited as an instance of the highest eloquence. Here it is:

"The noble lord proceeded to the completion of his diabolical project, not with the rash precipitancy of youth, but with the most cool and deliberate consideration. The Cornish plunderer, intent on spoil, callous to every touch of humanity, shrouded in darkness, holds out false lights to the tempest-tossed vessel, and lures her and her pilot to that shore upon which she must be lost for ever, the rock unseen, the ruffian invisible, and nothing apparent but the treacherous signal of security and repose; so this prop of the throne, this pillar of the state, this stay of religion, the ornament of the peerage, this common protector of the people's privileges and of the crown's prerogatives, descends from these high grounds of character to muffle himself in the gloom of his own base and dark designs, to play before the eyes of the deluded wife and the deceived husband the falsest lights of love to the one, and of friendly and hospitable regards to the other, until she is at length dashed upon that hard bosom, where her honour

and happiness are wrecked and lost for ever; the agonized husband beholds the ruin with those sensations of misery and of horror which you can better feel than I describe; she, upon whom he had embarked all his hopes and all his happiness in this life, the treasure of all his earthly felicities, the rich fund of all his hoarded joys, sunk before his eyes into an abyss of infamy, or if any fragment escape, escaping to solace, to gratify, to enrich her vile destroyer."

Five witnesses proved the marriage and elopement, the happiness of Mr. Massy's home, and the fortune of Lord Headfort.

Mr. Quin opened the defence, not denying the fact, but the injury. He alleged that Mrs. Massy's character was so light that it was gross folly or worse of her husband, to have thrown her into Lord Headfort's way. To prove this he examined Colonel Pepper, Captain Charleton, and Mr. George Evans Bruce.* Mr. Ponsonby followed on the same side, with great skill, and then Curran said:

Never so clearly as in the present instance have I observed that safeguard of justice, which Providence hath placed in the nature of man. Such is the imperious dominion with which truth and reason wave their sceptre over the human intellect, that no solicitations, however artful, no talent, however commanding, can reduce it from its allegiance. In proportion to the humility of our submission to its rule, do we rise into some faint emulation of that ineffable and presiding divinity, whose characteristic attribute it is, to be coerced and bound by the inexorable laws of its own nature, so as to be all-wise and all-just from necessity, rather than election. You have seen it in the learned advocate,† who has preceded me, most peculiarly and strikingly illustrated. You have seen even his great talents, perhaps the first in any country, languishing under a cause too weak to carry him, and too heavy to be carried by him. He was forced to dismiss his natural candour and sincerity, and having no merits in his case, to substitute the dignity of his own manner, the resources of his own ingenuity, against the overwhelming difficulties with which he was surrounded. Wretched client! unhappy advocate! what a combination do you form! But such is the condition of guilt, its commission mean and tremulous, its defence artificial and insincere, its prosecution candid and simple, its condemnation dignified and austere. Such has been the defendant's guilt, such his defence, such shall be my address, and such, I trust, your verdict.

• Struck at for (amongst other things), his evidence in this case, by Harry Deane Grady in the " Nosegay," a once celebrated, but now happily forgotten satire.

† Mr. Ponsonby.