heard and necessarily acquiesced in by
every member of the court:--

"The whole of the learned judges with one voice declare, that on the
merits, at any rate, they have no doubt at all--that on the great merits
and substance of the case they are unanimously agreed. That a great
offence has been committed, and an offence known to and recognisable by
the law; that a grave offence and crime has been perpetrated, and an
offence and crime punishable by the admitted and undoubted law of the
land, none of the learned judges do deny; that counts in the indictment
to bring the offenders, the criminals, to punishment, are to be found,
against which no possible exception, technical or substantial, can be
urged, all are agreed; that these counts, if they stood alone, would be
amply sufficient to support the sentence of the court below, and that
that sentence in one which the law warrants, justifies, nay, I will even
say commands, they all admit. _On these, the great features, the leading
points, the substance, the very essence of the case, all the learned
judges without exception, entertain and express one clear, unanimous,
and unhesitating opinion._" And yet all the proceedings have been
annulled, and the perpetrators of these great crimes and offences let
loose again upon society! How comes this to pass? is asked with
astonishment wherever it is heard of, both in this country--and abroad.

The enquiry we propose is due with reference to the conduct and
reputation of three great judicial classes--the judges of the Irish
Queen's Bench: the judges of England: and the judges of the court of
appeal in the House of Lords. Familiar as the public has been for the
last twelve months with the Irish State Trials, the proceedings have
been reported at such great length--in such different forms, and various
stages--that it is probable that very few except professional readers
have at this moment a distinct idea of the real nature of the case, as
from time to time developed before the various tribunals through whose
ordeal it has passed. We shall endeavour now to extricate the legal
merits of the case from the meshes of complicated technicalities in
which they have hitherto been involved, and give an even _elementary_
exposition of such portions of the proceedings as must be distinctly
understood, before attempting to form a sound opinion upon the validity
or invalidity of the grounds upon which alone the judgment has been
reversed.

The t