uffy was placed at the bar, on an information
or indictment setting forth the entire of the obnoxious article. The
Government was vehement and imperative, and the Bench constitutionally
jealous of the law. The prosecution was conducted with malevolent
ability, and the court charged, with pious zeal, for the crown. Robert
Holmes was counsel for the accused and, in an impassioned speech, on
every word of which was stamped the impress of originality, vigour and
beauty, vindicated not the "liberty of the press," but the truth of the
startling propositions Mr. Mitchel had propounded.

In the Hall, the speech was regarded as triumphant for the country, but
conclusive against Mr. Duffy. It was said that for sake of his client he
should confuse, confound and deny. The fact, however, justified the
advocate. When Mr. Mitchel first promulgated his principles, they grated
strongly on the public ear. Men openly pronounced the doctrines
pernicious and bloody. But the veteran of the bar, speaking in the
spirit of the more glorious times he remembered, denounced as a slave
and a toward any one who thought them too strong for the occasion on
which they were used, and the provocation to which they applied. For a
brief moment he awoke in other hearts the spirit that lived in his own.
The jury refused to convict, and were discharged. But the prosecution in
which the Attorney-General failed, was transferred before a more loyal
tribunal, and Mr. Duffy was condemned by the judgment of _Conciliation_
Hall; a judgment of which something remains to be said hereafter.

It has been stated that the subject of testifying the respect of the
_Nation_ for its chivalrous advocate, after his release from the prison
of the House of Commons--he was discharged without compromise or
submission on the 26th of May--was under discussion.

A public and triumphal entry was determined on. But Mr. Smith O'Brien,
desirous that the State prisoners of 1844 should be participators in
any tribute of respect offered to him, requested that the 6th of
September, the day of their release from prison, should be fixed on for
a public triumph, in which all alike could share.

[Illustration: John Mitchell]

Mr. O'Brien passed through the metropolis quietly on his way home; but
in Limerick and Newcastle was received by hundreds of thousands with
boundless joy. When he returned to town, it was to be expelled from that
body to which he, of all living men, gave most firmness, a