Part 6 (1/2)
The CHIEF BARON--I will not allow you to proceed
HALPIN--Well, I cannot be prevented thinking it Noill refer to a subject which I may be allowed to speak upon You will recollect that I had addressed a letter to Mr Price, asking hi papers--the _Irish Times_ and _Freeman's Journal_ I believe they are both loyal papers; at least they claim to be loyal, and I have no doubt they are of the adistered in the principles of Dublin Castle The reason why I wanted these papers was, that I believed that the best reports of the trials since the opening of the Commission, would be found in them I said to Mr Price that it was iiven by the inforainst me, to enable me to make up my defence I was denied, even at my own expense, to be furnished with these papers, and that I cooverned by some rule of Kilmainham, for it appears that the rules of Kilmainham are often as far outside the law of the country as I have been said to be by the Attorney-General In fact, Mr Price stated when giving his testioverned by any law or rule, but that he was governed solely and entirely by his own imperial will
CHIEF BARON--That I cannot allow to be said without at once setting it right Mr Price said no such thing He said that with respect to one particularof prisoners' correspondence, he was bound to exercise his own discretion as to what he would send out of the gaol, and what he would hold This is the only matter in which Mr Price said he would exercise his own discretion
PRISONER--I think, o back to the cross-examination of Mr Price, and you will find that when I asked hiave the letters he suppressed into the hands of the Crown to be produced here, he stated he had no other authority than his oill for so doing
CHIEF BARON--You are quite right with respect to the correspondence
PRISONER--I say he violated the law of the land in so doing, and I claiht to use those letters written byfor advice and assistance, and the very first letter that he read was a letter written to a man named Byrne
That, you may recollect, was put into the hands of the Attorney-General--kept by him for four months That was the first intimation I had of its suppression or of its production here by the Crown Now, the letter was addressed to a friend in New York, asking him to look after my trunk, which had been taken aithout my consent by the captain of the vessel in which I was arrested Mr Price never toldfor a reply, which, of course, I did not receive, as the letter never went
Mr Price suppressed another letter yesterday It ritten to a friend of ton, in relation tohim to presentthe case as it proceeded in this court Mr Price thought proper to suppress that letter, and I ask that he be compelled to produce it, so that, if your lordshi+ps think fit, it may be read in court
THE CHIEF BARON--I cannot do that I cannot have a letter of that character read in open court
HALPIN--Aet the letter to have it destroyed, or is Price to have it, to do with it as he pleases?
THE CHIEF BARON--I can make no order in thelike Robinson Crusoe--”Monarch of all he surveys;” monarch of Kilmainham; and when I ask if he is to be controlled, I find there is no law to govern him
THE CHIEF BABON--you have now no property in these letters, being a convict