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The Green Bag.

acquainted with usfiaticee, but soon became harrowed with rage and chagrin at the grow ing intimacy which sprang up between them. One night, in a fit of jealous passion, he stabbed the Spaniard to the heart and threw his body into the sea. The crime was quickly discovered, and, says the chroni cle. " In a few days the trial of Walter Lynch took place; a father was beheld sitting in judgment, like another Lucius Junius Brutus, on his only son; and, like him, too, con demning that son to die as a sacrifice to public justice." Though public sympathy had now turned in favor of the son, and every effort was tumult, to made, effect even his pardon, to popular the father clamor" and un . dauntedly declared that the law should take its course." The mayor assisted the execu tioner to lead the culprit toward the place of punishment, but they were impeded by the appearance of a mob, led by members of the mother's family, demanding mercy. Find ing that he could not " accomplish the ends of justice at the accustomed place and by the usual hands, he, by a desperate victory over parental feeling, resolved to perform the sacrifice which he had vowed to pay on its altar. Still retaining a hold on his unfortu nate son, he mounted with him by a winding stair within the building that led to an arched window overlooking the street, which he saw filled with the populace. Here he secured the end of a rope, which had been previously fixed around the neck of his son, to an iron staple which projected from the wall, and, after taking from him a last embrace, he launched him into eternity." The people, "overawed by the magnanimous act, retired slowly and peaceably to their several dwel lings." The house is said to be yet standing in Lombard Street, which is now known by the name of " Dead Map's Lane." " Over the front door are to be seen a skull and cross-bones, executed in black marble," with the motto, " Remember Deathe; Vanitie of .Vanitie, and all is but Vanitie."

It will be readily observed that this just act of the severely honest old Mayor of Galway furnishes no example of, nor pre cedent for, mob violence, and no reason for bestowing upon it any name, and more par ticularly his name. He was the acknowl edged and legally constituted authority presiding over the tribunal in which his son had had, presumably, a fair, regular, and impartial trial, and had been thereupon condemned to death. He was guilty of no act in derogation of the established laws of the land, but, on the contrary, persisted in executing those laws in the face of popular opposition and tumult, insisting that " the law should take its course." His act was totally without any definition ever attached to the term " lynch law," and was, in fact, directly in the face of that so-called law, and everything tending in its direction. No definition has ever been attached to " lynch law " that does not plainly indicate that its operation is wholly without, and, indeed, in opposition to, the established laws of gov ernment. On the face of the proposition, therefore, it would seem evident that the name is not derived from a man whose most noteworthy act was in direct repugnance to its every principle. And, too, had it originated then, it would surely have been heard of during the three succeeding cen turies, and not have appeared for the first time, at the expiration of that great period, stamped in both America and England as of American origin. (See "Harper's Maga zine" for May, 1859, p. 794.; Although the term did not .become a part of the English language in consequence of the act of the distinguished and fanatically law-abiding Galway mayor, it does owe its genesis, some three centuries later (Howe's "History of Virginia," edition 1845, p. 212), to a scion of the same stock. According to Hardiman, D'Alton, and other historians, the Lynches came to Ireland with the first English invaders over seven hundred years ago. The family is supposed to have orig

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