Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)Hurlbert, William Henry
History
Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)
Hurlbert, William Henry
Ireland -- Description and travel; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901
second day upon which they could bring a verdict against Ellen Gaffney.
In regard to the recording and announcing of the verdict it appeared
that the jury were 19 in number, and after their deliberations the
foreman declared that 13 were for finding a verdict one way and 6 for
another; that Mr. Whyte dictated the verdict to the Coroner, and the
Coroner asked the 13 men if that was what they agreed to. Mr. Whyte's
statement was that the jury, through the foreman, stated what their
verdict was; that he wrote it down, and that the Coroner asked him for
what he had written, and used it himself. But in addition to that, when
the jury came in the Coroner and Mr. Whyte divided them--placed them
apart while the verdict was being written--and then said to the 13 men,
"Is that what you agree to?" Such apparent misconduct it was hardly
possible to conceive in anybody occupying a judicial position as did the
Coroner, and especially a Coroner who had an inquisition quashed before.
What he had mentioned was sufficient to call forth the emphatic decision
of the court quashing the proceedings, which, however, were also
impeached on the grounds of its insufficiency and irregularity, and of
the character of the finding itself. It was not until the Coroner had
been threatened with the consequences of his contempt that he made a
return to the visit of _certiorari_, and it was then found that out of
ten so-called depositions only one contained any signature--that of Dr.
Clarke's, which was one of those lost by the clergyman, and not before
the jury on the 1st September. He (the Lord Chief-Justice) had tried to
read the documents, but in vain--they were of such a scrawling and
scribbling character, but, as he had said, all were incomplete and
utterly worthless except the one which was not properly before the jury.
Then, what was the finding on this inquisition, which should have been
substantially as perfect as an indictment? "That Mary Anne Gaffney came
by her death, and that the mother of this child, Ellen Gaffney, is
guilty of wilful neglect by not supplying the necessary food and care to
sustain the life of this child." Upon what charge could the woman have
been implicated on that vague finding? He (his Lordship) could
understand its being contended that that amounted argumentatively to a
verdict of manslaughter; but the Coroner issued his warrant and sent
this woman to prison as being guilty of murder, and she remained in
custody, as he had already remarked, until discharged by the learned
judge who went the Winter Assizes in December. Upon all of these grounds
they were clearly of opinion that this inquisition should be quashed,
and Mr. Coroner Gowing having had the self-possession to come there to
show cause against the conditional order, under such circumstances, must
bear the costs of that argument.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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