Irish Legal Repartees. A very notorious Whiteboy, named Grey, whose depredations ranged over the whole province of Munster, was caught at last. O'Connell was retained to defend him at the Cork Assizes. While the trial was pro ceeding in the criminal court, a heavy civil case, in which O'Connell was also counsel, was proceeding in the record court. O'Con nell, notwithstanding pressing messages re questing his attendance in the civil court, refused to leave the crown court till he heard the verdict — which was one of ac quittal — in Grey's case, when he instantly rushed to the record court. " O'Connell," said Mr. Serjeant (afterwards Judge) Jack son, "why have you been so long away?" in rather an irritated tone; " why have you been so long away?" "I could not leave Grey while his case was on," replied O'Con nell. " What was the verdict? " " Acquit tal." "Then you have got off a wretch who was unfit to live," said Jackson. The serjeant was remarkable for his piety, so O'Connell replied, " I am sure, my dear friend, you will agree with me that a man whom you regard as unfit to live would be still more unfit to die." O'Connell defended a man named Hogan, charged with murder. A hat believed to be the prisoner's was found close to the body of the murdered man, and this was the principal ground for supposing Hogan to be the murderer. The Crown counsel made a strong point on the hat, which was pro duced in court. O'Connell cross-examined the neighbor of the prisoner who identified it. " It is not different from other hats," said O'Connell. " Well, seemingly, but I know the hat." " Are you perfectly sure that this was the hat found near the body?" "Sartin sure." O'Connell proceeded to in spect the hat, and turned up the lining, peer ing very carefully into the interior. " Was the prisoner's name, P-A-T H-O-G-A-N (he spelled each letter slowly) in it at the time you found it?" " 'T was of coorse." "You could not be mistaken." " No, sir." " And
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all you swore is as true as that? " " Quite." "Then go off the table this minute," cried O'Connell. Addressing the judge, he said, "My Lord, there can be no conviction here. There is no name in the hat." The prisoner was at once acquitted. O'Connell was endeavoring to change the venue in an action from Dublin to Kerry. The motion was resisted by a Mr. Scriven, a gentleman strongly opposed to O'Connell in politics, and of a somewhat forbidding countenance. He stated that he had never been in Kerry, and had no knowledge of that part of Ireland. " Oh," replied O'Con nell, " I will be very glad to welcome my learned friend and show him the lovely lakes of Killarney." " Yes," growled Mr. Scriven, " I suppose the bottom of them." "No, no," retorted O'Connell, " I would not frighten the fish." A Mr. Bennett, a leader on the Munster circuit, was of a somewhat morose temper. On one occasion, Mr. Bennett, having to go from one court to another and fearful of the draught in the corridor, asked O'Connell to lend him his fur cap which was then lying on the seat beside him. " You may take it with pleasure," replied O'Connell, " only as this is the cap of good humor, I fear it will not fit you." O'Connell did not confine his witticisms to members of the bar. When Serjeant Lefroy, who was afterwards Chief Justice of Ireland, went to the Munster circuit as Commissioner of Assize, he had recently been taking a very active part in advocacy of the Society for the Conversion of the Jews, while O'Connell was, at the same time, agitating for the Roman Catholic emancipa tion. Amongst the criminal cases tried by the serjeant at Cork was one for the larceny of several ancient coins, some of the Hebrew kings and others of the Caesars. O'Connell was engaged to defend the accused, and when the coins were produced in court Ser jeant Lefroy expressed a desire to inspect them. O'Connell, laying stress on the words
