MISCELLANIES. 



<52/5 



rated ; and he starts out into acts 

 of riot and disturbance, like a fu- 

 rious wild beast, let loose upon 

 the community. I took the free- 

 dom to add, " Reform the ma- 

 gistracy of Ireland, my Lord. 

 You have the power to do this ; 

 and until you do it, in vain will 

 you expect tranquillity or content 

 in the country." His Lordship 

 was pleased to lend a courteous 

 attention to these opinions, and I 

 do believe, that his own natural 

 judgment and good inclination 

 would have prompted him to mea- 

 sures, beneficial to Ireland, and 

 honourable to his fame. 



Gentlemen, this subject brings 

 me to a consideration of the ma- 

 gistracy of the country. Of these 

 I must say, that some are over 

 zealous, others too supine : dis- 

 tracted into parties, they are too 

 often governed by their private 

 passions, to the disgrace of public 

 justice, and the frequent disturb- 

 ance of the country. 



Here let me solicit your parti- 

 cular attention to some of the 

 grievous mischiefs, flowing from 

 the misconduct of certain magis- 

 trates. One is occasioned by an 

 excessive eagerness to crowd the 

 gaols with prisoners, and to swell 

 the calendars with crimes. Hence 

 the amazing disproportion between 

 the number of the committals and 

 of the convictions, between accu- 

 sation and evidence, between hasty 

 susjiicion and actual guilt. Com- 

 mittals have been too frequently 

 made out (in other counties) upon 

 light and trivial grounds, without 

 reflecting upon the evil conse- 

 quence of wresting a peasant (pro- 

 bably innocent) from the bosom 

 of his family, . immuring him for 

 weeks or months in a noisome 



gaol, amongst vicious companions. 

 He is afterwards acquitted or not 

 prosecuted ; and returns a lost 

 man, in health and morals, to his 

 ruined and beggared family. This 

 is a hideous, but common picture. 



Again, fines and forfeited re- 

 cognizancesare multiplied, through 

 the misconduct of a magistrate. 

 He binds over a prosecutor, under 

 a heavy recognizance, to attend at 

 a distant Assizes, where it is pro- 

 bable that the man's poverty or 

 private necessities must prevent 

 his attending. The man makes 

 defaidt, his recognizance is for- 

 feited, he is committed to the 

 county gaol upon a green wax 

 process, and, after long confine- 

 ment, he is finally discharged at 

 the Assizes, pursuant to the sta- 

 tute ; and from an industrious 

 cottier he is degraded, from thence- 

 forth, into a beggar and a vagrant. 

 Other magistrates presume to 

 make out vague committals, with- 

 out specifying the day of the 

 off"ence charged, the place, or any 

 other particular, from which the 

 unfortunate prisoner could have 

 notice to pref)are his defence. 

 This suppression is highly inde- 

 corous, unfeeling, and unjust: 

 and it deserves, upon every occa- 

 sion, a severe reprobation of the 

 magistrate, who thus deprives his 

 fellow-subject of his rightful op- 

 portunity of defence. 



There are parts of Ireland, 

 where, from the absence of the 

 gentlemen of the county, a race of 

 magistrates has sprung up, who 

 ought never to have borne the 

 King's Commission. The vast 

 powers entrusted to those officers 

 call for an upright, zealous, and 

 conscientious discharge of their 

 duty. 



