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forth the energies of those he thus challenged, who, in succeeding years, were able so successfully to cast his argument to the winds.

For the time being, however, all the Catholics got by their motion was another suspension of habeas corpus, and increased harshness of various kinds; but they were so severely beaten in Parliament as to induce, for a time, apparent submission.

CHAPTER X.

CORRUPT PROSECUTIONS—JUSTICES FOX AND JOHNSON, COBBETT, ETC.

HE north-west of Ireland was populated in those days chiefly by

THE

Catholics, who were for the most part dominated over by a few great Orange magnates, who had the magistrates under their control, and the whole people under their dominion, which was not gentle, but, as some say, savagely tyrannical.

Soon after the escapade of Emmett, Mr. Justice Fox went the northwest circuit in the ordinary course of his duties. In his charge to several of the grand juries, he referred to the insurrection of Emmett, and exhorted his hearers, amongst other things, to forget their religious animosities, by which the country had been so long weakened and divided. To the Protestant jurymen thus addressed, those words were interpreted to be a reflection that threw upon Protestant animosities the responsibility of much of the mischief that had arisen and was still going on, and he was resentfully regarded accordingly. At Enniskillen, the judge found that there were two names returned to him, Breslin and Maguire, against whom there was said to be no charge. He required the production of the orders of commitment. They were signed by the Earl of Enniskillen, and no offence was specified in either case, but in one of them was an order to keep Breslin in solitary confinement. The judge ordered the prisoners to be placed at the bar, upon which he was informed that they had been taken out of the jailor's custody by a military guard sent for the purpose. The judge inquired for Lord Enniskillen, and, being told that he was at Florence Court, his seat, only a short distance off, he sent a friend of his lordship to invite him to appear and explain the circum

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stances. The judge did this in the most courteous terms, and in the most considerate manner. The next day being the last of that assize, and Lord Enniskillen not having appeared, the judge waited as late as his official engagements would permit, and then felt it to be his duty to fine Lord Enniskillen £100 for each case, making £200 in all. In Fermanagh, Justice Fox found that a certain Mr. Stewart had committed Neale Ford without any charge on oath being made against him, and had released him on the eve of the assize without bail. For this the judge fined him £50. In another case Mr. Pallas and Mr. Webster had released without bail a prisoner who was charged with a capital offence, and the judge fined them £20 each.

About the same time, Judge Johnson, being on circuit in Donegal, had presented to him at Lifford an order for levying upon occupiers of land for a very large sum, under pretence of repaying the government money advanced to pay bounties to three hundred and fifty men, as authorized by an Act then in force. In consideration of such advance having been made, it was the duty of Lord Abercorn to recruit for the number of men named, but the judge elicited the fact that not one enlistment had been effected, and therefore that a gross fraud had been committed. Whereupon Judge Johnson refused to issue his fiat for levying the money, and publicly censured Lord Abercorn for neglect of duty.

The subsequent history of Breslin and Maguire is that, when taken from prison by the military guard, Breslin was hurried off by soldiers to a military prison, where, after a long detention, he was tried by court-martial on the charge (presumably false) of trying to seduce a soldier to desert, upon which charge he was sentenced to be hanged. He cut his throat to avoid the execution of the sentence, but the wound was not mortal, and he was hanged near Enniskillen, the rope being forced into the bleeding gash. Maguire, after being carried off by the military guard, was never heard of again, and it is believed he was murdered. What the offences really were for which those two men suffered such a cruel fate are not recorded; it is supposed they were both simply matters of private revenge.

During the next session of Parliament, in May 1804, Lord Abercorn (the great patron and favourite of the Orange Society of the northwest of Ireland) laid before the House of Lords charges against Judge Fox arising out of the foregoing occurrences. The Prime Minister, it is asserted, was bribed to permit this, and a special Act of Parliament was consequently passed, which empowered the House of Lords to try the case, though it had not been referred to that tribunal in any legal way. The charges were, amongst others trumped up for the purpose, that Judge Fox had been guilty of inflicting unjust fines and excessive fines, of partiality, of seeking to bring Lord Abercorn into contempt, casting censure on Lord Enniskillen, etc. Under these disgraceful pretences, Judge Fox was required to attend the House of Lords at Westminster; the so-called prosecution was conducted at the public expense to the amount of £30,000; the evidence was very voluminous, but entirely ex parte, no defence or cross-examination being permitted; and the whole lasted, with intervals, for three years, at the end of which time, a majority of the House, wearied and disgusted with the case, quashed the proceedings without coming to any decision. Judge Fox was thus legally and morally acquitted, and more than acquitted, as it was proved that he was a just judge, and had been persecuted for being so. But, unfortunately, the object of his cowardly and barbarous persecutors was gained. He was ruined in health and fortune; a memorable instance of the brutal injustice that has so often characterized the British Parliament with reference to Ireland.

At the same time, the enemies of Judge Johnson were on the watch to trip him up, and eventually his time came. Cobbett's Political Register was then a notable publication, and during November 1803 there appeared in it a series of letters purporting to come from an Irishman, and signed "Juverna," and severely criticising the conduct of Lord Redesdale and Lord Hardwicke in relation to several matters of public notoriety. The first of these letters was avowedly sent to Cobbett because no printer in Dublin dared to print it, in consequence of the corruption and intimidation of the press indulged in there under the inspiration of Lord Hardwicke. William Cobbett inserted the

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letter without hesitation, and that and its successors so extremely exasperated Lord Hardwicke and the government that they twice prosecuted him for libel, and managed to inflict damages of £500. During the second trial a suspicion arose that the letters were written by Judge Johnson; but proceedings were difficult, because there was no law by which offenders could be transferred from Ireland to England for trial. The offence having been committed in London, a prosecution could only take place there; and, to meet the case, an ex post facto law was hurried through Parliament enabling the government to arrest Judge Johnson in Ireland and to bring him thence to London. Under the powers conferred by that Act he was arrested at his house near Dublin; but he got a writ of habeas corpus and other legal machinery into operation which prevented his transport for some time, while the case was before the Dublin courts. At length, after he had resorted to every possible court in vain, he was transferred to London, and there tried before Lord Ellenborough in November 1805. A conviction of guilty was obtained, but judgment was not applied for, as, in common with Judge Fox, Judge Johnson was by that time officially disgraced as a judge, which satisfied the vindictiveness of his enemies, who were then magnanimous enough to give him retirement on a pension.

Immediately after these trials, events of great political importance occurred. Lord Castlereagh was eligible for election to the House of Commons, and had sat there for some time. On receiving the appointment of Colonial and War Secretary, he had to resign his seat for Down county, and, upon seeking re-election, he was defeated by Colonel Meade, and Lord Castlereagh had to accept one of the English pocket boroughs in the control of the government. Pitt, whose health and power had been notoriously declining for some time, took the defeat of Lord Castlereagh as a direct censure upon himself, and as evidence of his own increasing political weakness; and it is believed that it assisted to hasten his death, which took place on the 23rd of January, 1806.

The immediately succeeding ministry was that of Fox and Lord