DARGAN'S EXHIBITION--A BELL AND KNOCKER--LORD GOUGH--FATHER PECHERINE'S
CASE--ASSAULTS AND THEFTS--THE CITY MILITIA--A SCALD QUICKLY
CURED--SAILORS LEAVING THEIR SHIP.
I returned to Dublin in 1853, on the 10th of May, and had the pleasure
of witnessing the opening of the Great Industrial Exhibition in Merrion
Square on the 12th. It was a great success, and caused a very
considerable influx of visitors to Dublin, not merely from other parts
of the United Kingdom, but also from the continent of Europe, and even
more distant regions. It is unnecessary to dilate on the beneficial
tendency of such displays to awaken tastes and excite emulation in
reference to artistic productions of beauty or utility, for it is almost
universally acknowledged; but I am convinced that they produce very
salutary effects by bringing each class of society into the view and
under the observation of the others, approximating without confounding
them, requiring no relinquishment of rank or undue familiarity. The
building in which the exhibition was held was erected at the personal
expense of William Dargan, and cost £26,000. A statue, on the pedestal
of which "Dargan" is inscribed, now stands upon the scene of his
patriotic liberality. No other inscription is requisite to have his
generosity acknowledged and his memory revered by his countrymen.
Previous to the opening in 1853, it was suggested in the public press
and at the sittings of the committee, that as the inauguration of the
English exhibition in 1851 had been accompanied by a prayer for the
occasion, offered by a prelate of the highest rank, a similar course
should be observed in Dublin. However, the opening here was not attended
by any ecclesiastical demonstration, and some few of the spectators
considered the omission culpable. At the close of the ceremony, three or
four young men passed out at the same time that my brother magistrate,
James Magee, and I were leaving. There was no indication as to the
religious denomination to which they belonged, but we were greatly
amused at the zealous and fervent piety of one who designated the
omission of prayer, on such an occasion, as "a d----d shame."
The Dublin Exhibition of 1853 continued open until the end of October,
and during that time there was only one charge brought for magisterial
investigation from within its limits, and it was preferred before me.
There was a portion of the building termed the "Medieval Court," and a
man was accused of stealing, in that place, a coat belonging to a person
employed on the premises. He confessed his guilt, and I awarded him two
months' imprisonment with hard labor for the unlawful possession of the
article. This solitary offence would, perhaps, have lapsed from my
memory but for the total ignorance of the term "medieval" evinced by the
parties concerned, for they all spoke of the transaction as having
occurred in the "_middle evil court_."
It may appear almost incredible to some of my readers that, during the
erection of the Exhibition building, and for upwards of five months in
which it was resorted to by thousands, and I may add the comparatively
short time subsequently occupied in taking down the structure and
removing the materials, there was no other infraction of the law brought
under magisterial cognizance than the petty larceny case which I have
mentioned. I hope that I shall not be considered too discursive if I
introduce here an extraordinary and very gratifying statement of an
anterior date. The Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland was
opened to Carlow in 1846. The splendid terminus at the King's Bridge and
several miles of the line are in the Dublin Metropolitan Police
district. The works on that portion included very extensive buildings
and deep excavations, and I have been credibly informed that they cost
upwards of fifty thousand pounds. A vast number of persons were
employed, comprising the various artisans, laborers, (commonly called
navvies,) and drivers. I was in office during the entire time of their
operations, and there was not even one complaint or charge preferred as
arising amongst any class or between individuals. Mr. Dargan, the
contractor, at a festive meeting jocularly congratulated me "on having a
sinecure, as far as regarded the people at the King's Bridge, where
there were no prosecutions required, except the prosecutions of the
works." I regret that at the present time such very gratifying qualities
could not be expected to a similar extent in similar undertakings.
Intemperance has become too prevalent, especially amongst the operative
portion of the community, to admit of large numbers being brought
together daily, without occasional, or perhaps frequent quarrels.
A BELL AND KNOCKER.
There had been in 1852 a contested election for the city of Dublin, and
the defeated party, as is usual on such occasions, attributed their
failure to the use, on the part of their adversaries, of every unfair
stratagem and corrupt inducement. At the commencement of the Session of
Parliament in 1853, it was rumoured that a petition would be lodged to
invalidate the return, especially on the grounds of extensive bribery
amongst the freemen. It was alleged that a certain alderman was the
confidential treasurer of the funds appropriated for the venal voters,
and that a person named BELL had been employed to procure the men and
dispense the money. The alderman was one of my most intimate friends,
and I frequently enjoyed his hospitality. I was also acquainted with
several of the other party who were loud in their denunciations of the
corruption of which Bell was alleged to have been the instrument. When I
heard them speaking of the sums distributed amongst the freemen, I
contented myself by affecting to lament the injustice to which I was
individually subjected, that I was a freeman of my native city, and that
I might have participated in the distribution to which they referred,
were it not for an odious statutable enactment which prohibited a Dublin
Police magistrate from exercising the franchise, and realizing its
incidental advantages, whilst the English Metropolitan Magistrates were
subjected to no such disqualification. One of my friends who happened to
be the editor of a newspaper, remarked that I seemed disposed to treat
the recent bribery with levity, and to regard it as mere fun, and I
replied that he was not far wrong in his conjecture, and that I would
advise him to adopt a similar course. He asked me to commit my ideas to
writing and transmit them to him. I acceded to his request, and he
published my communication; but I feel confident that neither publicly
nor privately did he divulge the name of its author. No parliamentary
petition was presented; and the bountiful treatment of the freemen was
only noticed publicly in my poor production of--
THE MAGIC BELL,
My retrospection of that election
Accords perfection to the magic "Bell,"
Whose notes so soothing were felt each booth in
Where freemen voted so prompt and well.
That Bell so cheering, our hopes uprearing,
As Green Street nearing we came to poll,
With _notes_ persuasive, soft and adhesive,
And touch evasive of law's control.
There are joy-bells swinging, and sweetly ringing,
Their blithe sounds flinging from Christ Church high
And Father Yore has erected more
On the Liffey's shore to the Four Courts nigh.
But more sublime than their varied chime
Of a festal time or a funeral knell,
Was the Bell so soothing, felt every booth in
Where freemen voted so prompt and well.
From the gifted Prout, we derive no doubt,
Sweet strains about days of infancy,
When "The bells of Shandon did sound so grand on
The pleasant waters of the River Lee."
We may search in vain, we'll ne'er meet again
With a sweeter strain than Moore's "Evening Bell;"
But a Bell more soothing was felt each booth in
Where freemen voted so prompt and well.
The hermit lowly, whose thoughts are solely
On subjects holy, delights to hear,
When morn is shining or eve declining,
Sweet peals combining, his soul to cheer.
From far or near to his raptured ear
No sound so dear ever reach'd his cell
Like the Bell so soothing, felt every booth in
Where freemen voted so prompt and well.
In a few days after the publication of the foregoing lines, I dined at
his residence near Salthill, with my friend the alderman, and in the
course of the evening he mentioned that Bell was greatly annoyed by such
a production, and that he considered it libellous. I asked how could he
show that it applied to him. My worthy host said that it could not apply
to any other person, and I then remarked that it was not malicious or of
an injurious tendency, and that it had been written merely as an attempt
at harmless fun. This elicited the question of how I knew in what spirit
it had been written, to which I replied, that I had written it myself,
intending to be jocose; and that if my verses were not considered worthy
of laurel, they certainly did not deserve the application of birch. To
this expression I received a contradiction unanimous but good-humored;
and it was agreed that if the public whipping of a police magistrate
could be effected, it would be an interesting novelty and a general
gratification. There were two other aldermen present besides our host,
and they repeatedly assured me, even when shaking hands at the
conclusion of the entertainment, that they would provide some punishment
for my transgression. On the following evening I was at the house of a
friend on Merchant's Quay, and when I returned home, after midnight, I
found that the knocker of my hall-door had disappeared. My servant
stated that two gentlemen had called, one of whom expressed a wish to
see me, and on being informed that I was not at home, said that he would
write a note in my study and leave it for me. Whilst he was so employed,
the other remained in the hall. At their departure the servant did not
perceive that the knocker had been abstracted; but at my return I at
once observed the loss, and opening the note, which was written in a
hand manifestly disguised, I read the following communication:--
"Mr. Porter is so expert in the fabrication of a Bell, that he may
confine himself to ringing without knocking."
Although I felt considerable annoyance at such an unwarrantable trespass
whereby I lost a very handsome and expensive brass knocker, I did not
indulge in resentful expressions or state the suspicions which I
entertained. The door remained without a knocker, as if I intended to
acquiesce in the suggestion of only using a bell. The door had not been
injured or defaced, for the knocker had not been wrenched away, but had
been unscrewed by the person who remained in the hall whilst the other
was penning the note to me. I was repeatedly quizzed, and subjected to
mock condolence, but I treated the matter as a practical joke, and
ascribed the disappearance of my knocker to aldermanic influence. In
about a fortnight I was invited to another dinner at Salthill, and met
there the same parties who had been at the previous entertainment.
Amongst the various pleasantries of the evening, my knocker was not
forgotten, and my health was drank, accompanied by what I considered a
bantering wish for the restitution of the brazen appendage to my
hall-door. On my return home I was surprised to find the door furnished
with a knocker, which I soon recognized as my own. It appeared that
almost immediately after I had left home, a man came to my house,
stating that I had ordered the article at Bryan's ironmongery warehouse
in Bride Street, and he proceeded to fix it on. I have never since that
time meddled with any "Bell," and my door has not been interfered with
in any disagreeable manner.
LORD GOUGH.
About the end of 1853, I was for a few weeks engaged in magisterial
duties at Kingstown, and on one occasion I observed the late Viscount
Gough entering the police-court, and taking a seat in the part to which
the public were indiscriminately admitted. There was some case pending,
at the hearing of which he wished to be present, and I immediately
requested his Lordship to honor me by occupying a seat beside me, adding
that I could not consent to a person of his high rank and illustrious
character remaining in any position inferior to my own. He declined my
proposal, but consented to take a chair between the bench and the
right-hand side of the court. His chair was rather close to the grate,
which was full of fuel, only a few minutes previously kindled. The
court was crowded, and soon became very warm, but his Lordship's
proximity to the grate almost immediately compelled him to change his
position. Apologizing for the interruption, he asked me to direct the
office constable to remove his chair to the left side of the court, and
to place it near a window. Acceding at once to the request of the noble,
illustrious, and worthy old warrior, I ordered his seat to be moved to
the place which he preferred, adding, that I hoped the gentlemen of the
press would report the remarkable fact, that Lord Gough retreated from
the fire of the police, although he never had shrank from any other
fire, however hot it might have been. A member of his family told me, in
a few days after, that his Lordship considered my observation as most
complimentary and gratifying.
FATHER PECHERINE'S CASE.
In the discharge of my magisterial duties at Kingstown, I had to dispose
of a charge against a Roman Catholic clergyman named Pecherine, for
publicly burning a copy of the Bible. The accused party was a foreigner,
who had become a member of the order of Redemptorists, and joined a
number of that community in holding "a mission" at Kingstown, in
November, 1855.
He preached very frequently to numerous congregations, and excited great
admiration and even surprise by the fluency of his language and
correctness of diction. Finding that many books and tracts had been
distributed, in Kingstown and its vicinity, containing doctrines or
controversial arguments of which he and his religious associates
disapproved, he exhorted his hearers to bring all such publications to
him, and having received a considerable quantity, he burned them in a
large fire lighted within the precincts of the church where the mission
was held, and between the building and the exterior railing. It was
alleged that amongst the articles thus consumed, there was a copy of the
Scriptures. A prosecution was instituted before me, which was met by a
denial that any perfect copy of the Bible had been burned; and that if
even a portion of one had been thus destroyed it was by mere mischance,
and without his knowledge, intention, or approval. The proceedings
before me produced intense excitement, and great manifestation,
especially amongst the humbler classes, of the asperities usually
incident to indications of religious differences. I sent the case for
trial to the ensuing commission of _Oyer et Terminer_ for the County of
Dublin, and the result was an acquittal; but I refer to the occasion as
having produced some very striking instances of the most inconsiderate
and rash violence, committed without any provocation whatever on the
part of those assailed, and in the supposition that they had been
concerned in a proceeding with which they were totally unconnected.
ASSAULTS AND THEFTS.
Previous to the investigation of the complaints preferred on summons and
information, the custody cases were, as usual, disposed of, and I had
nine prisoners brought before me for having been drunk on the public
thoroughfare. Some had been quiet and submissive, and they were fined
one shilling each. Others who had been noisy or disorderly had fines of
half-a-crown or a crown inflicted. Amongst the former was a newsboy, of
about nineteen years of age, who had only one hand. Having paid his
fine, he was liberated, and passed out into Georges Street, where a
crowd had collected to get the earliest intelligence as to the progress
and result of Father Pecherine's case. When the newsboy appeared a girl
in the crowd exclaimed, "There's the horrid villain that is just after
swearing against the priest." Immediately he was seized, violently
beaten, and dashed through a large plate-glass window in the front of a
shop. Some police constables were close at hand, and saw the sudden
attack on the poor lad. They rushed forward and arrested four men who
had been prominent in assaulting the newsboy, and one of them was fully
identified as the person who had first laid hands on him and incited the
others. I do not recollect the names of the delinquents, nor is it
material to the narrative that I should, but when I asked if they had
any defence, or if they wished to make any statement, the ringleader
addressed me to the following effect--
"I thought, your worship, that he was after swearing against the priest,
or I wouldn't have laid a finger on him. It was all a mistake, and we
never intended to break the shop window. Indeed he broke that himself
trying to get away. Moreover, if what was done was wrong, I have been
well punished for it already."
I immediately designated the excuse alleged by the prisoner as an
aggravation of his offence, for if the person attacked had been a
witness, the violence used towards him tended to defeat public justice,
and to substitute might for right, making anarchy predominant. I added
that I did not understand the allegation of the prisoner, that he had
been already punished for his gross misconduct, and I wished him to
explain.
"Your worship," he replied, "I am a carpenter, and I was going to buy
some timber for repairs to a house at Sandycove. I had two sovereigns
and a half in a little leather purse in my waistcoat pocket. As soon as
I was brought into the police-station, I missed the money, and I have no
doubt but my pockets were picked in the crowd, and during the
confusion."
Wishing to take a short interval for considering whether I should
adjudicate summarily, or send the case for trial at the Quarter
Sessions, I postponed it for a week, urging the police to detect, if
possible, the girl who had caused the tumult and assault, and I allowed
the prisoners to be discharged from custody on giving ample bail for
their re-appearance, and proceeded to take the evidence adduced on the
summons against the priest. When the business of the day was nearly
concluded, two women were brought in, having been taken in the act of
assaulting a young woman at the market, which, at the time, was rather
crowded. The violence inflicted was very severe, and it appeared that
as the injured party was approaching the place where the others were
standing, a girl, described as being about twenty years of age,
explained, "Here she comes, the ---- ---- that has been swearing Father
Pecherine's life away." Immediately a scene similar to the one in the
morning was acted by female performers, the foremost being a large
powerful woman, the wife of a publican in a neighbouring village. The
supposed witness had been struck, kicked, and scratched; her hair
pulled, and her clothes torn, and the similarity of the two zealous
manifestations was fully evinced by the publican's wife, declaring that
"she thought" the suffering party had been swearing against the priest,
and she bitterly deplored the loss of three pounds of which her pocket
had been picked in the "scrimmage." Two other women were subsequently
arrested who _thought_ too hastily and acted too violently, but the
inciter had managed to elude detection, and it was believed that
immediately after her second exploit, she had hurried off to the railway
and gone up to Dublin with her booty. I dealt summarily with the female
prisoners, as the young woman whom they attacked was obliged to leave
immediately for Manchester, where she had procured some engagement as a
domestic. I indicted the very trifling penalty of sixpence on each
delinquent for the assault, but supplemented each conviction with two
pounds costs to the party assailed. This decision, in reference to the
costs, was extremely repugnant to the feelings of those against whom it
was awarded. It was at once pronounced to be hard, and they declared
their total inability to pay so much for a "little mistake," and their
disapproval of my judgment was greatly augmented by the alternative
which was left to their option of two months' imprisonment with hard
labor.
The fines and costs were almost immediately paid, and I believe they
were defrayed by a subscription. On the newsboy's case being resumed, he
declined all further prosecution, and declared that he had been
sufficiently remunerated. The girl who had incited the attacks was
detected in the act of picking a pocket in a place of worship at
Kingstown, about a fortnight after the occurrence which I have detailed.
She was not brought before me, but having been committed for trial by
Mr. Wyse, her delinquencies procured her "a complete retirement from
business" for seven years. She was not an un-thrifty thief, for it
appeared at her trial that a savings' bank book was found on searching
her lodgings, in which £37 were entered to her credit. It occurs to me
that the name of this culprit was Catherine Gaffney. Dishonesty is very
seldom associated with frugality. I have heard, during my magisterial
experience, of only two instances of the union of such tendencies. I
have already mentioned one. The other was a man named John Donohoe, a
shop porter in the employment of the late Alderman Butler, in Christ
Church Place. He was convicted, in February, 1853, of five distinct
larcenies on his master's premises; and whilst he was robbing on every
possible opportunity, he had £64 in a savings' bank.
THE CITY MILITIA.
At the commencement of the Crimean War, the militia regiments of the
United Kingdom were embodied. The City of Dublin Light Infantry and
Artillery and the County regiment were almost entirely raised in the
metropolitan district. Recruiting for the line was also very briskly
pursued here, and I can safely and deliberately state, that the military
enrolments relieved our district of a great number of loose characters,
whose abstraction was very salutary to our community. When the city
militia became sufficiently strong for active service, they were
embarked at Kingstown for Liverpool in a large steamer. I was on the
jetty, and I do not think the English language could supply any
opprobrious term that was not loudly ventilated in reference to me. The
copious application of every variety of invective was really amusing to
me, and it was only noticed by a frequent smile or an occasional laugh.
It was remarked by one, that "if the d----l didn't take owld Porter, we
might as well be without a d----l at all;" but another expressed his
opinion, "that the d----l was in no hurry to grip the owld rascal, as he
was certain to get him at last." I am sure, however, that if another
police magistrate had been also present, he would have been considered
fully entitled to participate equally in the compliments which I
monopolized, and which I only notice in the hope that some remarks which
I intend to submit to my readers in a subsequent page may be considered
interesting, and perhaps, I may add, important.
A SCALD QUICKLY CURED.
An infantry regiment of the line was embarked at Kingstown in a very
capacious steamer, I believe the Medusa, for Gibraltar or Malta. There
was a large quantity of baggage which the men were actively engaged in
conveying on board and stowing away. I was sauntering on the jetty when,
at one o'clock, they were directed "to knock off for dinner." The meal
was served on deck, and consisted of soup, bread, and meat, and the
recipients availed themselves of every position in which they could
speedily enjoy their repast. The circular seat around the window on the
quarter-deck was fully occupied. The soup was brought up in large tin
basins, and the bread was amply supplied, ready cut, from wicker
baskets. One of the men who occupied the circular seat, seeing a basket
of bread placed almost within his reach, stood up, advanced about a
yard, and having procured what he required, stepped backward to resume
his place. Meanwhile, one of the attendants had placed a large vessel of
soup on the portion of the bench apparently vacant, and the soldier sat
down in it. With a loud scream, indicative of acute pain, he rushed to
the tafferel, and plunged into the sea. He was immediately rescued from
the risk of drowning, and having been brought on board, was sent below
for medical treatment, and to get his wet clothes changed. I saw him on
deck in the course of the afternoon, and he stated that he was
suffering very little, and that he would be "all right" very soon.
Unless the temperature of the soup was below scalding heat, the
instantaneous application of the cold water, although of a saline
character, must have been extremely efficacious.
SAILORS LEAVING THEIR SHIP.
A large ship was quartered to convey the head-quarters of the 11th
hussars from Kingstown to Balaklava. A considerable number of horses
were embarked, and there were slings fastened to the roof and passing
under each animal's body, which supported him whilst sleeping, but
without allowing him to lie down. All arrangements for sailing had been
completed. A steamer was provided to tow the vessel to the outside of
the Kish Bank, and the wind was as favorable as possible for proceeding
down the Channel. The captain announced, about ten o'clock, a.m., that
he would leave at noon, whereupon three of his crew asked him to defer
his departure until the next day, and to allow them to spend the
intermediate time ashore. On his refusal, they required him to hoist a
signal, which, to the best of my recollection, was _a blue shirt_, at
the foretop, and he complied with their demand, inasmuch as, according
to his statement to me, his refusal would subject him to most severe
penal consequences. The signal denoted that there were persons on board
willing to serve in the Royal Navy; and as soon as it was displayed, a
lieutenant who was stationed at Kingstown, on the duty of naval
recruiting, went on board, and was informed by the three sailors that
they were desirous of joining his service. He acceded to their
application, and the captain found himself unable to put to sea for want
of sufficient hands, and without any expectation of being able to supply
the deficiency for some days. In this emergency, he applied to me to
have the men treated as wilful absconders, and to send them back to the
ship. I had a communication with the lieutenant, whose name, I think,
was Henderson; and whilst he fully admitted the hardship of which the
captain complained, he declared that his orders were so stringently
imperative that he could exercise no discretion, and had no alternative
course to adopt. I observed that by retaining the men there would be a
serious injury inflicted by one department of the public service on
another, and that it amounted to military exertion being paralyzed by
naval interference. He agreed with me as to the injurious effect of
having the ship detained, but declared that he was unable to prevent it.
I said that under the circumstances, I was inclined to have the men
taken and sent back to the vessel from which they had virtually
absconded. To this he replied, that he would offer no resistance to the
execution of any warrant or order that I might issue, but that he would
report the proceeding to the Admiralty. Thereupon, I suggested to the
captain to have the ship taken from alongside the jetty to the centre of
the harbour, and to stop any further communication with the shore. This
was immediately done, and I then sent a warrant for the seamen, and had
them conveyed on board, having previously advised them to go of their
own accord, which they declined doing, with the intimation that if they
ever returned to Ireland, they would smash every bone in my body, even
if they were to be hanged the next minute for killing such a d----d old
scoundrel. When they arrived at the ship, they told the captain that
they would not do any duty, to which he replied that, whilst they
refused to work, they need not expect to get any rations. The rest of
the crew disapproved of their conduct, and I believe that they soon
became reconciled to a resumption of duty. The lieutenant informed me,
in a few days after the transaction, that he had fully reported the
circumstances to the Admiralty, and that they approved of the course I
had adopted, and exonerated him from any censure. I was subsequently
informed by him, that on the arrival of the ship at Balaklava, she was
boarded by a party from the flag-ship, and the officer in command
produced the documents incident to the enlistment of the three men at
Kingstown, and claimed them as belonging to the naval service. They
had, however, the advantage of being allowed their pay, as seamen in the
Queen's service, from the date of their enrolment at Kingstown, and they
also had their wages from the vessel in which they had been employed
during the voyage to the Crimea. None of them have returned as yet to
realize their fearful intention on him whom they designated "a d----d
old scoundrel;" and he never entertained the slightest apprehensions of
any violent commentary on the course he adopted towards them.