YCOTTING BY "CROWNER'S QUEST LAW."

(Vol. ii. p. 312.)

The following circumstantial account of this deplorable case of Ellen
Gaffney preserved here, as I find it printed in the _Irish Times_ of
February 27, 1888.

"In the Court of Queen's Bench, on Saturday, the Lord Chief-Justice (Sir
Michael Morris, Bart.), Mr. Justice O'Brien, Mr. Justice Murphy, and Mr.
Justice Gibson presiding, judgment was delivered in the case of Ellen
Gaffney. The original motion was to quash the verdict of a coroner's
jury held at Philipstown on August 27th and September 1st last, on the
body of a child named Mary Anne Gaffney.

"The Lord Chief-Justice said it appeared that Mary Anne Gaffney, the
child on whose body the inquest was held, was born on the 23d July, and
that she died on the 25th August, 1887. A Dr. Clarke, who had been very
much referred to in the course of the proceedings, called upon the local
sergeant of the police, and directed his attention to the body, but the
sergeant having inspected the body, came to the conclusion that there
was no need for an inquest. The doctor considered differently, and the
sergeant communicated with the Coroner on the 26th August, and on the
next day that gentleman arrived in Philipstown. He had a conference
there with Dr. Clarke and with a reverend gentleman named Father Bergin,
and subsequently proceeded to hold an inquest upon the child in a
public-house--a most appropriate place apparently for the transactions
which afterwards occurred there. The investigation, if it might be so
called, was proceeded with upon that 27th of August. Very strong
affidavits had been made on the part of Mrs. Gaffney--who applied to
have the inquisition quashed--her husband, and some of the constabulary
authorities as to the line of conduct pursued upon that occasion. Ellen
Gaffney and her husband were taken into custody on the day the inquest
opened by the verbal direction of the Coroner, who refused to complete
the depositions given by the former on the ground that she was not
sworn. That did not take him out of the difficulty, for if she was not
sworn she had a right to be sworn, and the Coroner had no right to
prevent her. The inquest was resumed on the 1st September in the
court-house at Philipstown--the proper place--and a curious letter was
read from the Coroner, the effect of which was that he did not consider
that there was any ground for detaining the man Gaffney in custody, but
the woman was brought