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Mhich qualify a prosecutor to be as a witness in his oivn cause . If he feared not the consequences of perjury , he gained the suit , and put the money into his pocket . Hence , a kind of bounty was necessarily tendered to false swearing ; and , we all know , the revenue folk are not very remarkable for a
scrupulous feeling in such cases . These oaths were anwered again by the oaths of tbe parties charged , who , in order to avoid tine fine , denied the existence of any still upon their lands . Thus have I witnessed trials , wheie , in my judgment , the revenue officer , who came to impose the fine , was perjured—the
witnesses who came to avert it , perjured —and the petty jury , who tried the cause , perjured , for they declined to do their duty , because they were , or might be ^ interested in the event . or because the easy procurement of ' those illicit spirits produced an increased consumption of grain for their benefit . The
resident gentry of the county , generally , winked with both their eyes at this practice , —and why ? because it brought home to the doors of the tenantry a market for their corn- and consequently increased the rents of their lands—besides they were themselves consumers of those liquors , and
in every town and village there was an unlicensed house for retailing them . This consumption of spirits produced such pernicious effects that at length the executive powers deemed it high time to put an end to the system . The
consequence was , that the people , rendered ferocious by the use of those liquors , and accustomed to lawless habits , resorted to force , resisted the laws , opposed the military , and hence have resulted riots , assaults and murders .
Can you wonder , that , in such an immoral state of things , all tranquillity and obedience to the law were banished from those counties ? Absentees , too , have increased : disgusted with the state of things , they desert their post in the time of peril : but ; yet , should
a farm happen to fall out of lease , keeping strict eye that it be set up to the highest bidder . These things have produced disturbances every where ; but , Gentlemen , whether they apply to your county , to any extent , or at all , is for your consideration . I have thought it right from the false
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colouring that has been given to these things , to remove all 9 uch illusion * , and to state the plain facts . Gentlemen—1 have heretofore , with good success , called upon the Grand Jury of a great northern county ( Donegal ) where private distillation had reached to an intolerable excess , to shew some sense of their own interests
by the suppression of that practice ; and I am happy to say , ( hat call was attended to > , and produced useful public resolutions . I am glad to hear that thir mischief is a stranger in your county , guard against its introduction , it is one of the greatest practical mischiefsthe revenue is plundered by it—the morals of the people depraved—and their conduct rendered riotous and
savage : establish , in the room of whiskey % a wholesome malt liquor , and you will keep your peasantry , in peace , in health , and in vigour . Having thus given you a sort of sketch of what 1 have seen upon other circuits , I shall advert to what I have
observed upon the present circuit . The first caunty of this circuit , which was the object of his Majesty ' s Commission , was Kilkenny . The country had been previously alarmed with such rumours and stories from thatj quarter , that the order of this circuit was
inverted , for the express purpose , ai was alleged ., of meeting % he supposed exigencies of that county by an early assizes . I did not preside in the criminal court there ; but I have been informed by my brother judge ( Day ) of what passed . Four capital convictions took place ; of which the subject matter arose from two transactions
only . One of those transactions , comr prising two of those convictions , vris of no recent date—it occuned early in 1813 ; and had been already tried at the Summer Assizes of Kilkenny in that year . At that assizes , the two
criminals had been found guilty of an attempt at assassination- ^ -a most atfO * - cious outrage indeed . Their execution was suspended by an argument upon the legality of their conviction—the conviction was proved illegal : and ' or course they were , for the second time , tried and convicted at the late assizes .
But how such a case could warrantfthc extraordinary colouring which wa » given to the alleged disturbances ot that county , or cailed for any parade
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SS 6 Judge Fletcher ' s Charge .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1814, page 586, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2444/page/62/
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