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struments with a long C without any deviation; and from 1829 he adopted the small C.

George Filliter.-I am a solicitor at Wareham, and manager of the bank there. I was acquainted with the handwriting of Mr. Clavell. I believe this signature to the will is not his.

Cross-examined.—I think this is (the instructions). I have heard the witnesses say what they had been examined to. I am inclined to think this is his (a lease); I think this is more like his writing than the other (the lease).

Mr. Bartlett re-called.-There is invariably a dot put between the J. and the C.

Lord Denman.But I don't see it.

Witness. Oh, I see it's put in the wrong place here. I am sure he was agitated at the time. This is his handwriting, but there is not the dot, nor is the C made in the same way. I went to the house the morning after his death. Mrs. Churchill told me that if I had not made the will, she did not think he had made one. I found in the small box an old 50l. note and some shillings, which, with what I received from Mrs. Churchill, made 75., and that of a man of 3,000l.

a-year.

George Coulson.-I am a clergyman. Mr. Clavell was not a man of splendid capacity. He was inferior to most men. I should say he was not of a capacity to dictate such a will. The signature to this will is not his writing.

Cross-examined. I have seen him write. I believe this to be his writing (the instructions). I

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Witchell, clerk to the late Mr. Pike, a coal-merchant. I paid money to Mr. Clavell for tithes. I believe this signature to the will is not his.

Cross-examined. I went to London to see it before. I believe this is not his handwriting (the instructions). I cannot say this is (other instructions). I believe this is (a lease). I believe this is (the instructions he had first said he did not believe was his). I believe this is his (this was the will folded up in a different way).

Several letters were read which had been written by Mr. Clavell to some members of his family, couched in the kindest manner.

Lord Denman summed up. The question for the consideration of the jury was-whether they be lieved the four witnesses for the defendant. If they were speaking that which was untrue, they were not only guilty of forgery, but guilty of a capital crime-of forging a will; and there must also have been a great deal of conspiracy. They were to deliberate upon this; and he would not pay the jury so bad a compliment as to suppose any warning was necessary to discharge from their minds any wishes or feelings, but they would apply their judgment to the evidence that had been laid before them. His lordship then read over the whole of the evidence, and at 11 o'clock on Thursday night the jury retired. At halfpast 4 on Friday morning they, returned a verdict for the plaintiff, thus invalidating the will."

PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

I. DOMESTIC.

DISPATCHES from the LORD LIEUTENANT of IRELAND relative to the state of IRELAND, and the renewal of the COERCION BILL.

EXTRACT from a dispatch from the Lord Lieutenant to Lord Melbourne, dated Dublin Castle, April 15, 1834.

My Lord,-The abstract of the reports for the month of March, 1834, from the four chief inspectors of police has been submitted to your lordship and his Majesty's government, and the detailed reports are now forwarded to the Irish office, for reference to the particular condition of each province and county.

These documents are calculated to exhibit a view of the comparative state of crime in the months of January and February, 1834, and also of March 1834, and the corresponding months in 1833.

There is a distinct statement of the class of crimes of an insurrectionary, political, or intimidating character for the same period of time.

Although these papers, with the daily reports transmitted to your lordship, and with the observations of the sub-inspectors, and the chief inspectors, might be deemed to furnish his Majesty's government with a sufficient view of the general state of Ireland,

your Lordship will probably expect from me, at the present season, the addition of my remarks and opinion.

The province of Ulster, upon the whole, is in a tranquil and even a flourishing condition; and although a large increase of crime (104 under the general class, including twenty-two under that of insurrectionary character) appears on comparion with the corresponding month in 1833, the heavier crimes have diminished on the same comparison. No general combination for purposes of insurrection, intimidation, or assumption. of legislative or executive powers, is to be discovered in this province.

A part of the county of Monaghan requires vigilant observation; but I trust it may be restored to tranquillity by the ordinary employment of the magistracy, police, and military.

Agriculture and internal trade are all in an improving state in this province, and (with the exceptions already stated) there is no cause to apprehend any interruption of peace or good order in Ulster.

The province of Connaught may be considered generally in a state

of tranquillity with the exceptions of parts of Galway, especially those bordering on the baronies of Garrycastle and Eglish, in the King's County. Those parts of Galway (although proclaimed under the Peace Preservation Act) may require the application of stronger powers.

The crimes under the general head in the province of Connaught, as compared with the corresponding month of March, in the year 1833, are increased eighty-eight; but the crimesof an insurrectionary, &c., character, for the same period of time, are decreased fifty-seven. The general aversion to the payment of the tithe and the resistance to it have been strongly marked in this province; and the spirit of the people is certainly of a discontented, disorderly, and turbulent character. Secret combination, concealed organization, intimidation, suppression of all evidence of crime, and the ambition of usurping the government, of ruling society by the authority of the common people, and of superseding the law by the decrees of illegal associations-all these have prevailed to a great extent in Connaught, especially in Galway, and the people are easily excited to mischief.

Your lordship will observe a considerable variation in the condition of the different counties in this province. Leitrim, Mayo, and Clare are nearly in a state of positive tranquillity, while Galway, Roscommon, and Sligo have been the scenes of all the evils which I have described.

These disturbances have been in every instance excited and inflamed by the agitation of the combined projects for the abolition of tithes and the destruction of the union

of Great Britain. I cannot employ words of sufficient strength to express my solicitude that his Majesty's government should fix the deepest attention on the intimate connexion marked by the strongest characters in all these transactions between the system of agitation and its inevitable consequence, the system of combination, leading to violence and outrage; they are, inseparably, cause and effect; nor can I (after the most attentive consideration of the dreadful scenes passing under my view), by any effort of my understanding, separate one from the other in that unbroken chain of indissoluble connexion.

In this (certainly awful and alarming) state of the popular temper, there is, however, no appearance of any settled plot or conspiracy against the state which menaces approaching convulsion; but while these pernicious habits of nocturnal assemblages and secret councils of the people, for planning the execution of schemes of outrage, plunder, and murder, shall prevail under the action of the most powerful incentives, any government must be lost to all sense of prudence which should not feel hourly apprehension of danger.

This province generally is stated to be well supplied with food; the apprehensions respecting the failure of the crop of potatoes here, as well as in other parts of Ireland, have disappeared; agriculture also appears to be making progress, and there is no complaint of any failure of internal trade.

To the province of Munster most of the observations which I have submitted to your lordship with regard to that of Connaught may be applied with equal force; the offences committed during the

month of March, 1834, under the general head, exceeded those in the corresponding month, 1833, by the number of ninety-one; the outrages of an insurrectionary character upon the same comparison are increased only to the extent of thirteen. It is to be observed, that the amount of outrages in the month of March, 1834, appears to be greater, the county of the city of Cork having been recently brought under the operation of the constabulary system, and inserted for the first time in the inspector's report.

In a general view, the state of the province of Munster affords no ground for the apprehension of immediate insurrectionary move

ment.

There has been no disturbance of any serious nature in the county of Kerry, the state of which continues to afford grounds of satisfaction. In Limerick, the principal outrage which will require your lordship's notice was that committed on the 13th of March at Rathkeale. On that occasion the assistant barrister applied to me to adjourn the session (for the purpose of obtaining better protection) to the city of Limerick; I rejected this application, and directed that the session should be resumed with all possible expedition at Rathkeale, the spot of the original riot, under the protection of such a force of police and military as should prevent similar outrages.

In the meanwhile many of those concerned in the original riot were apprehended and brought to justice at Limerick.

The session at Rathkeale has since been resumed by the same assistant barrister; and the proceedings under an adequate protection of police and military, have

been continued and terminated without any interruption of the public peace.

I request your lordship's particular attention to the report of the sub-inspector, and the observations of Major Miller of the 5th and 7th of April. It is with regret that I state my concurrence in the view taken by the sub-inspector of the temper and opinions of the peasantry, which he describes. However absurd and exaggerated those opinions may appear to be, they are the natural and necessary consequences of that agitation which is continually applied to disturb and distract the minds of the people, to excite their hatred of every institution of law and government, and to inspire a confident expectation of speedy success in the destruction of both.

In the county of Tipperary the greater number of districts is, comparatively speaking, in a tranquil state; in some few disorders of an insurrectionary nature have prevailed, which may require the application of stronger executive powers.

The prevailing mischief in this district are riots at fairs and the contests of factions, which often produce bloodshed.

The county of Cork is in a tranquil state, and the people disposed to industry and labour when not excited by political agitation, and I have already observed the addition of the county of the city of Cork, to the reports of the last month has increased the apparent general amount of crimes; it is, however, to be remarked, that within the limits of that district the amount of crimes bears a small proportion to the number of inhabitants, and that political agita

tion has not recently prevailed to any considerable extent.

With respect to agriculture and other evidences of improvement, I have received no complaints from the province of Munster; and I am disposed to believe that if the causes of mischief, to which I have adverted, were removed, it would present a most cheerful prospect of. peace, happiness, and prosperity.

Although the decrease under the general head of crime in the province of Leinster is 150, and under the head of insurrectionary offences 176, that circumstance is to be ascribed to the operation of the recent act applied by proclamation to the county of Kilkenny. The condition of this province is far from satisfactory in any county, and in some has compelled me to call forth the powers vested in my station by the act for the more effectual suppression of local disturbances. The cases of crime are so numerous, and marked by so many circumstances of aggravation, that I must request your lordship's most minute attention to the detailed reports of the inspector-general, wherein a full account is given of these barbarous outrages and of their systematic origin. Lawless combinations, secret councils, and nightly outrages are here exhibited in full force. A complete system of legislation, with the most prompt, vigorous, and severe executive power, sworn, equipped, and armed for all excesses of savage punishment, is established in almost every district. On this subject I cannot express my opinions more clearly, nor with more force nor justice, than your lordship will find employed in a letter addressed by lord Oxmantown, lieutenant of the King's county, to Mr. Little

ton, of which a copy was submitted to your lordship in my last despatch.

Lord Oxmantown truly observes, that the combination established surpasses the law in vigour, promptitude, and efficacy, and that it is more safe to violate the law than to obey it.

Although these observations are too true with respect to the general condition of the province of Leinster, I am happy to be able to except the city and district of Dublin, of which a separate report is forwarded to your lordship.

Your lordship will have observed that the efforts of agitation have been most actively employed in the province of Leinster with great effect as far as inflammation of the public mind, but with little success in the great ostensible object of procuring signatures to petitions for the repeal of the Union. In Dublin these efforts have been attended with no success in either object; the city was never more tranquil nor less disturbed by political or party discussions.

The general state of agricultural and improvement of every description is progressive in the province, but whatever can be attempted to promote its prosperity must be frustrated as long as the present agitations and their consequence shall remain in activity. It has been with considerable regret that I have felt it my duty to submit to his majesty's government a representation of the state of Ireland so unfavourable in many points of view.

I am not unapprised that this despatch contains but an imperfect statement of this interesting subject, nor is it indeed intended to bring under your lordship's consideration more than my necessary

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