Every schoolboy, any footboy (such have held commissions in our
service), any footboy who can exchange his shoulder-knot for an
epaulette, may perform all this and more against the Catholic by virtue
of that very authority delegated to him by his sovereign for the express
purpose of defending his fellow-subjects to the last drop of his blood,
without discrimination or distinction between Catholic and Protestant.
Have the Irish Catholics the full benefit of trial by jury? They have
not; they never can have until they are permitted to share the privilege
of serving as sheriffs and under-sheriffs. Of this a striking example
occurred at the last Enniskillen assizes. A yeoman was arraigned for the
murder of a Catholic named Macvournagh; three respectable,
uncontradicted witnesses, deposed that they saw the prisoner load, take
aim, fire at, and kill the said Macvournagh. This was properly commented
on by the judge; but, to the astonishment of the bar, and indignation of
the court, the Protestant jury acquitted the accused. So glaring was the
partiality, that Mr. Justice Osborne felt it his duty to bind over the
acquitted, but not absolved assassin, in large recognizances; thus for a
time taking away his licence to kill Catholics.
Are the very laws passed in their favour observed? They are rendered
nugatory in trivial as in serious cases. By a late Act, Catholic
chaplains are permitted in gaols; but in Fermanagh county the grand jury
lately persisted in presenting a suspended clergyman for the office,
thereby evading the statute, notwithstanding the most pressing
remonstrances of a most respectable magistrate named Fletcher to the
contrary.
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