Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
We, the undersigned magistrates of the County of Tipperary, this day
assembled at Cashel, at a very short notice, beg leave respectfully
to state to your Excellency, that it is with feelings of the deepest
horror we communicate to your Excellency the dreadful and atrocious
attack made by some villains upon the lives of Samuel Cooper, Esq.,
J.P., Austin Cooper, Esq., and Francis Wayland, Esq., on the 5th day of
April.
It appears that these gentlemen were proceeding to the fair of
Tipperary on that day, the two Mr. Coopers in a gig, and Mr. Wayland on
horseback, when they were fired upon by four men. Mr. Samuel Cooper and
Mr. Wayland returned the fire, but it is horrifying to relate that Mr.
Austin Cooper was shot dead by a ball passing through his head, and Mr.
Wayland was severely wounded in the hip....
We, the undersigned, declare that in that district neither life nor
property is safe. We therefore respectfully trust that your Excellency
will put in force the strongest powers which the laws of the land
permit in those districts.
We consider it our duty to state to your Excellency that we believe the
result of the late assizes for this county has proved how terrible is
the state of intimidation which exists, or seems to exist, among the
juries of this county....
We beg leave respectfully to hope that Her Majesty’s Government will
bring in a Bill to Parliament for the purpose of inflicting a heavier
penalty than that now in force on persons for having unregistered arms
or ammunition in their possession.
B.—_Drummond to the Tipperary Magistrates. Dublin Castle, May 22,
1838._
My lord,—In the communication of the 18th of April, which I had the
honour to make to your Lordship by command of the Lord Lieutenant, your
Lordship was informed that His Excellency considered it necessary to
institute an immediate and careful inquiry....
His Excellency deemed it his duty to direct, among other inquiries,
letters to be addressed to the several stipendiary magistrates of the
county, calling upon them to state whether any and what instances
of injury to the persons or property of jurors had come under their
observation, which could be distinctly attributed to the verdicts given
by such jurors. In the answers received from all these gentlemen, they
uniformly declare that not a single instance of the kind has ever
occurred to their knowledge....
His Excellency has also obtained a return of the several juries at
the last assizes of Tipperary, and he finds that the great majority
of jurors resided in towns, chiefly in Clonmel, and therefore were
not likely to be influenced by apprehensions of danger to person or
property; and further, on examining the list, it has been found that,
of the hundred jurors who constituted the juries in the several cases
of homicide, fifty-two served both on convicting and acquitting juries,
thirty on convicting juries only, and eighteen only on acquitting
juries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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