carnival of blood; and so it was settled that, instead of being tried
at the ordinary Commission, in December, a Special Commission should
be issued on the spot for the trial of the accused.

On Thursday, the 25th of October, the prisoners were brought up
for committal, before Mr. Fowler, R.M., and a bench of brother
magistrates. Some of the Irishmen arrested in the first instance had
been discharged--not that no one could be found to swear against them
(a difficulty which never seems to have arisen in these cases) but
that the number of witnesses who could swear to their innocence was so
great, that an attempt to press for convictions in their cases would
be pertain to jeopardize the whole proceedings. The following is a
list of the prisoners put forward, the names being, as afterwards
appeared, in many cases fictitious:--

William O'Mara Allen, Edward Shore, Henry Wilson, William
Gould, Michael Larkin, Patrick Kelly, Charles Moorhouse, John
Brennan, John Bacon, William Martin, John F. Nugent, James
Sherry, Robert McWilliams, Michael Maguire, Thomas Maguire,
Michael Morris, Michael Bryan, Michael Corcoran, Thomas Ryan,
John Carroll, John Cleeson, Michael Kennedy, John Morris,
Patrick Kelly, Hugh Foley, Patrick Coffey, Thomas Kelly, and
Thomas Scally.

It forms no part of our purpose to follow out the history of the
proceedings in the Manchester court on the 25th of September and the
following days: but there are some circumstances in connection with
that investigation which it would be impossible to pass over without
comment. It was on this occasion that the extraordinary sight of men
being tried in chains was witnessed, and that the representatives of