148 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



market, and lias no legal rights whatever. In my 

 memory there have been five actions tried against 

 it with a view to open the market. In every one the 

 Judge summed up strongly against it ; but a friend 

 on the jury (the market is very influential) refused 

 to agree to a verdict, and so the market went on 

 again as before, and does so still. 



It can be judged of from this, what are the chances 

 of a verdict in criminal cases in which religion or class 

 interests are concerned. The effect of the new Jury 

 Act is, that whilst in form promoting impartiality in 

 the selection of a jury, it really enables the criminal 

 to escape scatheless, whether he is guilty or not, be- 

 cause the jury is not impartial. 



As proofs of the effect of enforcing the law, I 

 would recall O'ConneU's trial after his agitation for 

 Eepeal. A conviction was got, he was put in prison, 

 but not long after escaped by a writ of error in the 

 House of Lords upon a technical fault in the proceed- 

 ings. Yet such was the effect of its being seen and 

 felt that the Government would put the law in force, 

 and no longer allow itself to be trifled with, that the 

 agitation collapsed, and he never again could recover 

 his influence. So in the Fenian scare, the same night 

 that it was announced in the House of Commons that 

 the Habeas Corpus would be suspended in Ireland, 

 the steamers to England were full of Fenians getting 

 out of reach of the expected Act ; they thought the 

 Standing Orders would be suspended, and the Act 



