A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and ...

647. Proceedings on the Trial of an Action in which Mr. JOHN HEVEY was Plaintiff, and CHARLES HENRY SIRR, Esq. was Defendant, for an Assault and false Imprisonment; tried at Dublin before the Right Hon. ARTHUR Lord Viscount Kilwarden, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench of Ireland, on Monday, May 17th: 42 GEORGE III. A. D. 1802.

Court of King's Bench, Dublin, Monday, May 17th, 1802.

Counsel for the Plaintiff.

He began by telling the jury, it was the most extraordinary action he had ever met with. It must have proceeded from the most unexampled impudence in the plaintiff,

Mr. Curran [afterwards Master of the if he has brought it wantonly; or the most

Rolls].

Mr. Barrington

Mr. J. Ball.

Mr. Mac Nally.

Mr. Orr.

Mr. Wallace.

Agent. Mr. A. Cooke.

Counsel for the Defendant.

unparalleled miscreancy in the defendant, if it shall appear supported by proof. And the event must stamp the most condign and indelible disgrace on the guilty defendant, unless an unworthy verdict should shift the scandal upon another quarter. On the record the action appeared short and simple; it was an action of trespass, vi et armis, for an assault, battery, and false imprisonment. But

Mr. Fletcher [afterwards a Judge of the the facts that led to it, that explain its nature,

Court of Common Pleas:]

Mr. Plunkett.

Mr. Jonas Greene.

Mr. Ridgeway.

Mr. Kemmis.

and its enormity, and of course that should measure the damages, were neither short nor simple; the novelty of them might surprise, the atrocity must shock their feelings, if they had feelings to be shocked :-but he did not mean to address himself to any of their proud

Agent.—Thomas Kemmis, Esq. Crown Soli- feelings of liberty; the season for that was

citor.

past. There was indeed a time when, in addressing a jury upon very inferior violations of human rights, he had felt his bosom glow and swell with the noble and elevating con sciousness of being a freeman, speaking to freemen, and in a free country; where, if he was not able to communicate the generous flame to their bosoms, he was not at least so cold as not to catch it from them. But that was a sympathy, which he was not now so foolish as to affect either to inspire or to participate. He would not insult them by the bitter mockery of such an affectation; buried B

as they were, he did not wish to conjure up the shades of departed freedom to flutter round their tomb, to haunt or to reproach them. Where freedom is no more, it is a mischievous profanation to use her language; because it tends to deceive the man who is no longer free, upon the most important of all points, that is, the nature of the situation to which he is reduced; and to make him confound the licentiousness of words with the real possession of freedom. He meant not therefore, to call for a haughty verdict, that might humble the insolence of oppression, or assert the fancied rights of independence. Far from it; he only asked for such a verdict, as might make some reparation for the most extreme and unmerited suffering, and might also tend to some probable mitigation of the public and general destiny.

For this purpose, said Mr. Curran, I must earry back your attention to the melancholy period of 1798. It was at that sad crisis, that the defendant, from an obscure individual, started into notice and consequence. It is in the hot-bed of public calamity, that such portentous and inauspicious products are accelerated without being matured. From being a town-major, a name scarcely legible in the list of public incumbrances, he became at once invested with all the real powers of the most absolute authority. The life and the liberty of every man seemed to be given up to his disposal.

With this gentleman's extraordinary elevation began the story of the sufferings and ruin of the plaintiff. It seems, a man of the name of M'Guire was prosecuted for some offence against the state. Mr. Hevey, the plaintiff, by accident was in court; he was then a citizen of wealth and credit, a brewer in the first line of that business. Unfortunately for him, he had theretofore employed the witness for the prosecution, and found him to be a man of infamous character. Unfortunately for himself he mentioned the circumstance in court. The counsel for the prisoner insisted on his being sworn; he was so. The jury were convinced, that no credit was due to the witness for the crown, and the prisoner was accordingly acquitted. In a day or two after, major Sirr met the plaintiff in the street, asked how he dared to interfere in his business, and swore, by God, he would teach him how to meddle with his people." Gentlemen, there are two classes of prophets, one that derive their predictions from real or fancied inspiration, and who are sometimes mistaken; and another, who prophecy what they are determined to bring about themselves. Of this second, and by far the most authentic elass, was the major; for heaven, you see, has no monopoly of prediction. On the following evening, poor Hevey was dogged in the dark into some lonely alley-there he was seized, he knew not by whom, nor by what authority-and became in a moment, to his family, and his friends, as if he had never

been. He was carried away in equal ignorance of his crime, and of his destiny; whether to be tortured, or hanged, or transported. His crime he soon learned; it was the treason he had committed against the majesty of major Sirr. He was immediately conducted to a new place of imprisonment in the castleyard, called the Provost. Of this mansion of misery, of which you have since heard so much, major Sandys was, and I believe yet is, the keeper: a gentleman of whom I know how dangerous it is to speak, and of whom every prudent man will think, and talk with all due reverence. He seemed a twin-star of the defendant-equal in honour, in confidence; equal also (for who could be superior?) in probity and humanity. To this gentleman was my client consigned, and in his custody he remained about seven weeks, unthought of by the world, as if he had never existed. The oblivion of the buried is as profound as the oblivion of the dead; his family may have mourned his absence or his probable death; but why should I mention so paltry a circumstance? The fears, or the sorrows of the wretched give no interruption to the general progress of things. The sun rose and the sun set just as it did before---the business of the government, the business of the castle, of the feast, of the torture, went on with their usual exactness and tranquillity. At last Mr. Hevey was discovered among the sweepings of the prison; and was at last to be disposed of. He was at last honoured with the personal notice of major Sandys."Hevey," said the major, "I have seen you ride, I think, a smart sort of a mare-you can't use her here-you had better give me an order for her." The plaintiff, you may well suppose, by this time had a tolerable idea of his situation; he thought he might have much to fear from a refusal, and something to hope from compliance; at all events, he saw it would be a mean of apprizing his family that he was not dead :-he instantly gave the order required. The major graciously accepted it, saying, "your courtesy will not cost you much-you are to be sent down to-morrow to Kilkenny, to be tried for your life-you will most certainly be hanged

and you can scarcely think that your journey to the other world will be performed on horseback." The humane and honourable major was equally a prophet with his compeer. The plaintiff, on the next day took leave of his prison, as he supposed for the last time, and was sent under a guard to Kilkenny, then the head quarters of sir Charles Asgil, there to be tried by court-martial for such crime as might chance to be alleged against him. In any other country the scene which took place on that occasion might excite no little horror and astonishment; but with us, these sensations have become extinguished by frequency of repetition. I am instructed, that a proclamation was sent forth, offering a reward to any man, who would

come forward, and give any evidence against | shan't get possession of the beast, which you the traitor Hevey. An unhappy wretch, who have forfeited by your treason; nor can I had been shortly before condemned to die, suppose, that a noble animal, that had been and was then lying ready for execution, was honoured with conveying the weight of duty allured by the proposal. His integrity was and allegiance, could condescend to load her not firm enough to hesitate long between the loyal loins with the vile burden of a convicted alternative proposed; pardon, favour, and re- traitor." As to the major, I am not surprised ward, with perjury, on one side; the rope that he spoke and acted as he did. He was and the gibbet on the other. His loyalty de- no doubt astonished at the impudence and cided the question against his soul. He was novelty of calling the privileges of official examined, and Hevey was appointed by the plunder into question. Hardened by the sentence of a mild, and, no doubt, enlighten-numberless instances of that mode of unpu

nished acquisition, he had erected the frequency of impunity into a sort of warrant of spoil and rapine. One of these instances, I feel, I am now bringing to the memory of your lordship. A learned and respected brother barrister had a silver cup; the major heard that for many years it had borne an inscription of "Erin go brach" which meant "Ireland for ever." The major considered this perseverance in guilt for such a length of years as a forfeiture of the delinquent vessel. My poor friend was accordingly robbed of his cup. But upon writing to the then attorneygeneral, that excellent officer felt the outrage, as it was his nature to feel every thing that was barbarous or base; and the major's loyal sideboard was condemned to the grief of restitution. And here let me say, in my own defence, that this is the only occasion upon which I have ever mentioned this circumstance with the least appearance of lightness. I have often told the story in a way in which it would not become me to tell it here,-I have told it in the spirit of those feelings, which were excited at seeing, that one man could be sober and humane, at a crisis, when

ed court-martial, to take the place of the witness, and succeeded to the vacant halter. Hevey, you may suppose, now thought his labours at at end; but he was mistaken: his hour was not yet come. You are probably, gentlemen, or you, my lords, are accounting for his escape, by the fortunate recollection of some early circumstances that might have smote upon the sensibility of sir Charles Asgil, and made him believe, that he was in debt to Providence for the life of one innocent though convicted victim. But it was not so; his escape was purely accidental. The proceedings upon this trial happened to meet the eye of lord Cornwallis. The freaks of fortune are not always cruel in the bitterness of her jocularity, you see she can adorn the miscreancy of the slave, in the trappings of power, and rank, and wealth; but her playfulness is not always inhuman; she will sometimes, in her gambols, fling oil upon the wounds of the sufferer; she will sometimes save the captive from the dungeon and the grave, were it not only, that she might afterwards re-consign him to his destiny, by the reprisal of capricious cruelty upon fantastic commiseration. Lord Cornwallis read the transmiss of Hevey's condemnation—his heart recoiled from the detail of stupidity and barbarity. He dashed his pen across the odious" record, and ordered that Hevey should be forthwith liberated. I cannot but highly honour him for his conduct in this instance; nor, when I recollect his peculiar situation at that disastrous period, can I much blame him for not having acted towards that court with the same vigour and indignation, which he hath since shown with respect to those abominable jurisdictions. Hevey was now a man again he shook the dust off his feet against his prison gate: his heart beat the response to the anticipated embrace of his family and peared the serjeant returned with a body his friends, and he returned to Dublin. On "of soldiers, who paraded before Mr. Mac his arrival here, one of the first persons he "Nally's door, and were under orders to promet with was his old friend, major Sandys."ceed to extremities if the cup was not deliIn the eye of pour Hevey, justice and huma-"vered up. Upon Mr. Mac Nally's acquaintnity had shorn the major of his beams-he❝ing lord Kilwarden with the outrage, the no longer regarded him with respect or terror. "latter burst into tears, and exclaiming that He demanded his mare; observing, that "his own sideboard might be the next object though he might have travelled to heaven on "❝of plunder, if such atrocious practices were foot, he thought it more comfortable to per- "not checked,' lost not an instant in procurform his earthly journies on horseback: ing a restitution of the property. The cup "Ungrateful villain," said the major; "is" was accordingly sent back with the inscripthis the gratitude you show to his majesty ❝tion erased."2 Life of Curran by his Son, and to me, for our clemency to you? You 147 note.

"The gentleman in question was Mr. "Mac Nally. The manner of the robbery is characteristic of the times: a serjeant "waited upon him, and delivered a verbal "command from Major Sandys to surrender "the cup; Mr. Mac Nally refused, and con"missioned the messenger to carry back such an answer as so daring a requisition sug"gested. The serjeant, a decent, humane "Englishman, and who felt an honest awk"wardness at being employed on such a ser"vice, complied; but respectfully remon"strated upon the imprudence of provoking "major Sandys. The consequences soon ap

« Zurück Weiter »

Books

A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High ..., Band 28