CHAPTER IX.

BEFORE we proceed further in the History of the Munster Circuit during the present century, it may be well to take a glance at the mode of travelling used formerly, and at the various towns visited by the judges of assize.

Previously to the year 1760 there was no conveyance open to public use between the cities and towns of Ireland. The country was so thickly wooded, the roads so badly made, travelling was very insecure; and this was rendered still more dangerous by the numbers of rogues and ruffians who infested any which promised a chance of plunder.

To

avert this last danger persons usually travelled in parties; and we are informed it was the custom for persons about to journey, say from Cork or Limerick to Dublin, to post in a conspicuous place, as over the mantelpiece of the principal inn, their names and the date of their intended departures. In Limerick this place of rendezvous was the Coffee Room in Quay Lane; and here the adventurous pilgrims met, taking care to be well armed for the road. The journey to Dublin usually occupied five days. The same horses went the whole way. The bar, on horseback, usually formed the escort of the judges, who were met on the confines of the

respective counties by the high sheriffs of each county, attended by a guard bearing javelins. A witty judge was once asked, "Of what use are these javelin men?" He replied, "I suppose they are to help me to charge the grand jury."

About the year 1760 a coach, called the "Fly," was started to run between Limerick and Dublin. It performed the journey, about 100 miles, in four days. The "Fly" was large and heavy in construction, which, indeed, was indispensable; as the roads were so uneven, a

lighter vehicle would be jolted to pieces. The road-makers, going on the axiom, a straight line is the shortest between two points, ran their roads as straight as an arrow, heedless of such impediments as hills or bogs; the traveller had no choice but to climb the one and to wade the other. As the strongbuilt coach required stout harness to move it, the accoutrements of the four sturdy horses were of a most elaborate and complicated character. We can well suppose the time it took to harness the relays of horses, from the circumstance that the same harness was used throughout the four days' journey. But time and the march of intellect worked changes for the better. The slowgoing "Fly" was replaced by a coach of lighter build, called the "Balloon," and it was a decided improvement to find the relays of horses

ready harnessed when the stage was reached. The "Balloon" reached Dublin from Limerick in three days, and some twenty years later the route was changed. Instead of proceeding over Thomond Bridge and by Killaloe, the coach went by Clare Street, and viá Nenagh, to Dublin. This shortened the journey to two days; and when I travelled by coach, before the railroads banished the stage, we reached Limerick from Dublin in a day. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the extent of the Munster Circuit was considerably changed. In 1796 the counties of Waterford and Tipperary were joined to the Leinster Circuit,and since then Clare, Limerick, Kerry, and Cork counties form the Munster. The usual route is for the judges of assize to open the commission first in Clare, then in Limerick, next in Kerry, and lastly in Cork; but this rule has been departed from, as in the year 1816, when the Summer Assizes commenced in Cork, whence the judges proceeded to Ennis, thence to Limerick and Tralee. Owing to the heavy criminal calendar, they had to return to discharge the gaol at Cork. Ennis, the assize town and capital of the county of Clare, at the commencement of the present century, presented a very different aspect to its present improved one. The streets were narrow, irregular, badly paved, and not over clean at

time. It is called Ennis from Inis, an island, being built on an insulated ground situate in the river Fergus. Two of the chief streets form a continuous line along the banks of the river, while a third branches off from the old courthouse towards Limerick. This court-house witnessed the displays of Curran, Hoare, Quin, and the other leaders of the Munster Circuit in olden times, and the old hostel of the "Gridiron" could tell, had it a

tongue, many amusing stories. The landlady, Honor O'Loghlan, must have had a ready wit. Happening to enter the bar-room after dinner, Curran proposed her health. "I give you, gentlemen," he said, "Honor and Honesty." Possibly the worthy landlady did not feel complimented, for she readily rejoined, "Your absent friends, Mr. Curran." Ennis College, at the time we refer to, was in great repute. It is one of the four classical schools of Erasmus Smith's foundation, and at this time accommodated a hundred boarders and about half the number of day pupils. The ruin of the Franciscan Abbey, where the Court of Assize was attempted to be held, mentioned in my first chapter, still forms a picturesque object near the town. This abbey owed its foundation to the kingly race of Thomond, and many of the descendants of Brian Borvichme tranquilly rest beneath its crumbling walls. The great eastern window, thirty feet in height, divided by five stone mullions, lancet-headed, display great beauty of design and skill in execution. The abbot's chair, in the chancel, and the high altar, are richly sculptured, and several ancient tombs show traces of pristine beauty, though now sadly defaced by time.

For many years the demon of discord lurked among the people of Clare, and faction fighting extensively prevailed. Scarcely an assize took place in which the calendar did not present an imposing array of names of prisoners indicted for assaults more or less murderous. These continued until the O'Connell election in 1828, when the Roman Catholic clergy prevailed on the heads of factions to become reconciled. John Banim wrote some spirited lines describing this event, which he recited to me, and I here present them to my readers under

the heading, "The Old Man at the Altar":

"An old man knelt at the altar,
His enemy's hand to take;
And at first his voice did falter,
And his feeble hands did shake.
For his only brave boy-his glory,

Had been stretch'd at the old man's feet,

A corpse, all so cold and gory,

By the hand that he now must greet.

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The old man soon stopp'd speaking, For rage, that had not gone by, From under his brows came breaking, Up into his enemy's eye.

And now his hands are not shaking, But, clench'd, on his breast are cross'd; And he looks a wild wish to be taking Revenge for the son he has lost.

"But the old man look'd around him, And thought of the place he was in, And thought of the vow that bound him,

And thought that revenge is sin;

And then, crying tears like a woman, "Your hand,' he cried-aye, that hand, And I do forgive you, foeman,

For the sake of our bleeding land.'

cating his brother judge, “may know all about them.'

To him the interrogatory was

put.

"They were all acquitted," replied Judge Crampton.

"Then, by the powers," shouted the countryman, "they must have had great interest intirely."

When the crowd were lost in the distance, the baron jocularly said, "Oh, Crampton, how well that fellow knew you."

Few men under a grave visage enjoyed a joke more than Baron Greene. He often entertained me with excellent anecdotes, especially of Lord Norbury. I dined with him one day, when we happened to speak of a breach of promise of marriage case on the list of records for trial, and he told the following of Lord Norbury: "When charging the jury in a breach case the letters of the faithless defendant had been so long in the plaintiff's pocket, or so often shown to her sympathizing friends, they were greatly frayed at the folds, and almost in tatters. 'Gentlemen,' said Lord Norbury, carefully holding up one of the epistles to the gaze of the jury, 'it's easy to see these are loveletters, because they're so mighty tender.' In a case wherein the plaintiff's attorney's name was Norman, he seemed quite jubilant, as though anticipating a verdict. The Chief Justice said, 'Take care, it is not the Norman conquest yet."

The baron's father, Sir Jonah Greene, had been recorder of Dublin. When sentencing for the tenth time some hardened female criminal he said, "There was no use in committing her to a prison in this country; he would transport her for seven years; and he hoped in a new country she would endeavour, with the blessing of God, to regain the character she had tarnished by her career of vice in this." Having ceased his admonition, he was

rather taken aback by the inquiry, “Ah thin, plase your lordship, whin do we sail?"

Clare has furnished many very eminent members to the Munster Circuit. Sir Michael O'Loghlen, late Master of the Rolls in Ireland, was a native of the county, and his distinguished sons, Sir Colman and Michael, are both at the bar. The present amiable Sir Colman Michael O'Loghlen, Bart., serjeant-at-law, represents his native county in the House of Commons. The Hon. Matthew Finucane, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1794, was also a Clare man, while the talented family the Henns, of Paradise, Kildysart, have furnished a number of eminent lawyers who have worthily sat upon the judgment seat. This family descend from Chief Baron Hene, whose patent bears date 11th March, 1679. This judge's great grandson, William Henn, second son of Thomas Henn, Esq., of Paradise, County Clare, was appointed one of the judges of the Court of King's Bench 1st August, 1768. The judge's only son, William, was born in Paradise, and was appointed a Master in Chancery. He married Miss Lovett, sister of Sir Jackson Lovett, of Lipscombe Park, Buckinghamshire, Bart. William, the eldest son of this marriage, was a member of the Munster bar, and continued so until he also became a Master in Chancery, when his brother, Jonathan Henn, joined the Munster Circuit. Perhaps no greater proof of the uncertainty of professional success at the bar can be given than in the career of Jonathan Henn, Q.C. He had joined the Connaught Circuit, and went its round for ten years without a brief. When his elder brother became Master Henn, Jonathan

changed from the Connaught to the Munster Circuit. He found a marked change in his professional prospects; briefs came in in shoals, and when I joined he was confessedly the foremost man on the Munster Circuit.

This family is now worthily represented on the Munster Circuit by my esteemed friend Thomas Rice Henn, Esq., Q.C., Chairman of Quarter Sessions for the County of Galway.

He

It is not only as a witty and genial member of the Irish bar that "pleasant Ned Lysaght" claims a place among Clare worthies in the history of the Munster Circuit. was born, as we have already mentioned, at Brickhill, in the county of Clare, and as early as his student days in Trinity College, Dublin, his poetic talents found vent. He entered college in 1779, being then in his sixteenth year; and it appears the fellow-commoners then considered themselves superior in rank to the pensioners. The latter were accustomed to amuse themselves playing football in the College Park; and this sport the fellow-commoners stigmatized as low and vulgar. A pensioner named Caulfield, who usually consorted with the fellowcommoners and avoided the football, on one evening was tempted to join the vulgar game. The opportunity for paying him off for his absurd exclusiveness was not lost. He soon was tripped up, and Ned Lysaght wrote the following impromptu :

"Dear C-lf-d, play football, no more, I intreat,

The amusement's too vulgar, fatigu ing, and rough;

Pursue the same conduct you've followed of late,

And I warrant ere long you'll get kicking enough."

This verse roused the wrath of Caulfield and his set. A reward was offered for information as to the author. Lysaght declared, "If the money was to be applied to purposes of charity he could give the required information." This was readily promised, and he then avowed it was his production. Being a native of gallant Clare, and noted for being a crack shot, no further stir was made in the matter. While at the bar his pen was often employed in electioneering squibs. We are told that "England loves not coalitions;" and the following lines were addressed by Lysaght to Charles James Fox:

"He sows no vile dissensions-goodwill to all he bears,

He knows no vain pretensions, no paltry fears or cares,

To Erin's, and to Britain's sons, his
worth his name endears,
They love the man who led the van of
Irish Volunteers.

"While other nations tremble, by proud oppressors gall'd,

On hustings we'll assemble, by Erin's welfare call'd;

Our GRATTAN, there we'll meet him, and
greet him with three cheers,
The gallant man who led the van of
Irish Volunteers."

are

Lysaght's poetical genius had a wide range, and his songs are yet prized by all capable of enjoying songs characteristic of the rollicking Irishman and the amatory swain. His "Donnybrook Fair" and the "Rakes of Mallow" very national, while his love-songs display much delicacy of sentiment. I give as a specimen his "Kate of Garnevilla," written in praise of a lady whom I had the pleasure of knowing, and with many members of whose family I have passed pleasant days. One of her sous is now a judge upon a colonial bench :

:

"Have you been in Garnevilla ? Have you seen, in Garnevilla, Beauty's train trip o'er the plain, With lovely Kate of Garnevilla.