12 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE Mr. Does that memorial state any inconveniences connected with the present mode of John M'Mullen. ap,) 0jnt; tlg grand . juries ?— It does. f1 ,[ A Copy of the Memorial was delivered in, and read as follows :] " To His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, & c. & c. " The memorial of the householders of the parish of Saint Mary, in the city of Dublin, in public vestry assembled, on Monday nth January 1819; most humbly sheweth,— " That your memorialists beg leave to approach your Excellency with the warm- est sentiments of respect and confidence, and with the utmost deference to represent to your Excellency a great and increasing grievance under which they labour, in - common with all the other householders of this city. " Memorialists humbly submit to your Excellency, that one of the local taxes of this city, called " Grand Jury Cess," has progressively increased beyond w hat would be sufficient for all the necessary purposes which the law intended, and which impost, in addition to all the other local taxes, bears heavily and oppressively upon them. " That the manner in which the accounts of this tax have been kept, is irregular and unsatisfactory; that the system, as now practised, is not calculated to prevent frauds or to correct abuses ; and further, that part of the sums collected as grand jury cess, and brought to the treasurer's office, are constantly applied to purposes . neither sanctioned nor presented by such grand juries, or in any manner brought into the accounts. " That this exorbitant and illegal taxation is the result, as your memorialists humbly conceive, of the partial and unfair mode which invariably prevails in im- panelling the presenting grand juries, inasmuch as those juries are taken from a limited panel, composed exclusively of the leading members of the corporation of this city, many of whom occupy other public situations, as those of aldermen, mana gers of the Metal Main Tax, police magistrates, contractors with public establish- ments, commissioners of public boards, & c. and several of whom, in disclmrging the duties of grand jurors, thus sit in judgment on their own accounts as well as upon other accounts, and charges immediately connected with some of their permanent employments, for doing the duties of which they are amply compensated. " That however upright or exemplary the conduct of these persons might be, memorialists humbly submit that the important functions of grand jurors ought not to be monopolized by them or by any other class of persons; memorialists being humbly of opinion, that by the constitution, those functions should be occupied by persons indifferently taken from amongst all who are duly qualified, of which description there are in this city, as memorialists believe, some thousands. " Your memorialists would humbly submit to your Excellency, that this extensive power of taxation and patronage, ( for those juries have the appointment and removal of all persons employed in the collection of this tax), thus vested in the same men, term after term and year after year, must create in them an undue desire for its continuance, and prevent that wholesome circumspection and control which a suc- cession of different persons would insure. " Memorialists further submit, that this mode of forming the grand juries is not likely to be abandoned or altered so long as the sheriffs and the sub- sheriff, whose province it is to impanel all juries, are solely under the influence and control of the said corporation, consisting of about one hundred and fifty persons. " And memorialists humbly state to your Excellency, their serious apprehension, that this practice of selecting juries from amongst a few, who are thus considered a privileged class above their fellow citizens, may operate most materially to affect the impartial administration of public justice, and is considered by your memorialists as an alarming innovation. " May it therefore please your Excellency to take the matters herein into your early consideration, and to institute a commission solemnly to inquire into memorialists' humble complaint, on behalf of themselves and the other householders ot the city of Dublin, or to relieve your memorialists in such other manner as to your Excellency tfnay seem meet;—-. and they will pray." " Signed on behalf- of the said meeting, " Charles Thorp, " 1 rM , , " Richard Wright, / Churchwardens. Who