aw. They, therefore, refused the motion.
Had it been granted--had judgment been arrested--all the proceedings
would have been set aside; but the defendants might have been indicted
afresh. Let us once more repeat here--what is, indeed, conspicuously
evident from what has gone before--that at the time when this motion in
arrest of judgment was discussed and decided in the court below, there
was no more doubt entertained by any criminal lawyer at the bar, or on
the bench, in Ireland or England, that if an indictment contained one
single good count it would sustain a general judgment, though there
might be fifty bad counts in it, than there is of doubt among
astronomers, or any one else, whether the earth goes round the sun, or
the sun round the earth. Had the Irish Court of Queen's Bench held the
contrary doctrine, it would have been universally scouted for its
imbecility and ignorance.

Having been called up for _judgment_ on the 30th May, in Trinity term
last, the defendants were respectively sentenced to fine and
imprisonment, and to give security to keep the peace, and be of good
behaviour for seven years; and were at once taken into custody, in
execution of the sentence. They immediately sued out writs of error,
_coram nobis_--(_i. e._ error _in fact_, on the ground that the
witnesses had not been duly sworn before the grand jury, nor their names
authenticated as required by statute.) The court thereupon formally
affirmed its judgments. On the 14th June 1844, the defendants (who
thereby became _plaintiffs_ in error) sued out of the "High Court of
Parliament" writs of error, to reverse the judgments of the court below.
On the writ of error being sued out, it became necessary, as already
intimated, to enter the findings of the jury, according to the true and
legal effect of such findings, upon the record, which was done
accordingly--the judges themselves, it should be observed, having
nothing whatever to do with that matter, which is not within their
province, but that of the proper officer of the court, who is aided, in
difficult cases, by the advice and assistance of counsel; and this
having been done, the following (_inter alia_) appeared upon the face of
the record:--The eleven counts of the indictment were set out
_verbatim_; then the findings of the jury, (in accordance with the
statement of them which will be found _ante_;) and then came the
following all-important paragraph--the entry of judgment--every word of