The following appeared in The Referee, in 1882:—
"Chief Justice May has scandalously prejudged the Land League case, and in common decency he should not be allowed to try it. A fair trial is impossible after the partisanship which in the vilest possible taste this person has displayed. It is not the practice even now in Ireland to hang people first and try them afterwards, and May may congratulate himself upon having done the very worst thing in his power for the Government brief, which, sitting in judgment, he had the effrontery to flaunt in the face of the accused."
THE MAY OF THE QUEEN.
(The Land League Boy to his Mother).
You must wake and call me early; call me early, mother dear;
To-morrow will be the saddest time of Ireland's sad new year.
Of all this threat'ning year, mother, the blackest, foulest, day,
For I'm to be tried by Judge May, mother, I'm to be tried by Judge May.
There's many a black, black crime, mother, they charge against your lad;