be but little fear of that now, for a jury
has been found to convict me of this conspiracy upon the evidence.
Mr. Luby admitted that he was technically guilty according to British
law; but I say that it is only by the most torturing interpretation
that these men could make out their case against me. With reference
to this conspiracy there has been much misapprehension in Ireland,
and serious misapprehension. Mr. Justice Keogh said in his charge
against Mr. Luby that men would be always found ready for money, or
for some other motive, to place themselves at the disposal of the
government; but I think the men who have been generally bought in
this way, and who certainly made the best of the bargain, were
agitators and not rebels. I have to say one word in reference to the
foul charge upon which that miserable man, Barry, has made me
responsible."

Mr. Justice Fitzgerald--"We cannot allow that tone of observation."

Mr. O'Leary continued--"That man has charged me--I need not defend
myself or my friends from the charge. I shall merely denounce the
moral assassin. Mr. Justice Keogh the other day spoke of revolutions,
and administered a lecture to Mr. Luby. He spoke of cattle being
driven away, and of houses being burned down, that men would be
killed, and so on. I would like to know if all that does not apply to
war as well as to revolution? One word more, and I shall have done. I
have been found guilty of treason or treason-felony. Treason is a
foul crime. The poet Dante consigned traitors to, I believe, the
ninth circle of hell; but what kind of traitors? Traitors against
king, against country, against friends and benefactors. England is
not my country; I have betrayed no friend, no benefactor. Sidney and
Emmet were legal traitors, Jeffreys was a loyal man, and so was
Norbury. I leave the matter there."

One hour after the utterance of these words John O'Leary, dressed in
convict garb, his hair clipped, and his beard shaved off, was the
occupant of a cell in Mountjoy prison, commencing his long term of
suffering in expiation of the crime of having sought to obtain
self-government for his native land.

* * * * *

JEREMIAH O'DONOVAN (ROSSA).

In one of the preceding pages we have mentioned the fact that at the
Cork Summer Assizes of 1859, a conviction was recorded against Jeremiah
O'Donovan