On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
mismanagement of the revenues of that society , and a disregard of that moral conduct which ought to characterize the presiding guardian of a collegiate bod ^ .
Untitled Article
\ Judge Fletcher ' s Charge . The following admirable document , on the state of Ireland , was transmitted from Dublin , for insertion in The Morning Chronicle . It was delivered as a charge to the jury , at Woford , by Mr . Justice Fletcher , one of the judges
of the Common Pleas . Ireland owes this excellent Judge to Earl Fitzwilliarn , and the Duke of Bedford . He was appointed king ' s counsel in 1795 , and raised to the bench in I 8 o 6 « In parliament h $ was ever a steady Whig . In private life he has been the intimate of
Mr . Ponsonby , of Mr . Grattan , Mr . Bowes Daly , &c . On the bench he is learned , uptight , sagacious , and intel lfgent . Wholly intractable to ministerial influence , he possesses the genuine virtues of his famous ancestor , Fletcher of Saltoun , and is of course dreaded by the corrupt .
In this charge , the state of Ireland , the causes of its disorders , and their proper remedies , are displayed , in a style of manly and energetic eloquence , Whrch impresses conviction on the mind off the reader . It ought to be universally read .
CHARGE . Gentlemen of the Gran d Jury . It is with sincere pleasure I congra tnlate you upon the appearance of the state of your county— -I say appearance — -because I have no means "whatever of
knowing any tiling upon the subject , except from the calendar now before me . In that calendar I find very few numbers indeed—two , or three , or four fcrkrres , of general occurrence in the country : one homicide , which appears to have been committed certainly with
circumstances of atrocity ; but * as far as I carj collect from the examinations , originating in private tnalice and individual revenge ; and Dot connected with any © f those disturbances of which we have heard so much , in different parts or the kingdom . Cientrerncn , it is matter of great con gtt ** liftii > nj that « fter a period of thirty
Untitled Article
years ( at the commencement of whicj * I first knew the county of Wexford ) , I have reason to say > it is piecisely in the situation in which it was then , except as to an increase of wealth and population , and an improvement in agri . culture , which has ameliorated its
condition and multiplied its resources . The , county of We \ ford "was then a moral curiosity When other parts of the country were lawless and disturbed , this county had a peasantry , industrious in their habits , social in their disposition —satisfied with their state , and amenable to the laws—cultivating their
farms with an assiduity which insured a competency . Their conduct was peaceful ; their apparel whole ; their morals improved ; their lives spent in the frequent interchange of mutual good offices . It was a state of things which I reflect upon with pleasure . Each succeeding circuit shewed me wild
heaths and uncultivated tracts , brought under the dominion of the plough , and producing corn for the sustenance of man . As it was then , so it continued for many years ; until those unhappy disturbances , which burst put in this county with such a sudden and unexpected explosion . I knew what the
state of things was then , and how that explosion was produced . Professionally I knew it , because I enj yed peculiar advantages of knowledge , which other men did not enjoy . For several year * I conducted the prosecutions for the
crown at Wexford ; and hence 1 derived an intimate knowledge of those transactions . Besides , I was connected with no party—I was indifferent about party . But here I stop—I willingly draw a veil over the events of those days , and their causes , God forbid ! that I should tear
asunder wounds , which , I hope , arc completely and for ever closed ? I have now been absent from this county twelve years , ( with the exception of one assizes , when I came here in the king ' s commission , but upon that occasion I did not sit , as I now do , in the Crown Court ) . I can say ,
however , with the greatest truth , that at no period from my earliest acquain ,-tatice with your county , down to the present time , do I remember tp have seen it in more profound tranquillitymore perfect peace—more complete security than at present— a state of things indicating a 4 uc administration
Untitled Article
382 Judge Fletcher ' s Charge .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1814, page 582, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2444/page/58/
-