y, the 21st
of Sept., when the bills were found, but six days were allowed to Mr.
O'Brien and the rest of the prisoners to peruse the indictment, with
copies of which they were respectively furnished. On Thursday, the 28th,
the trial of Mr. O'Brien commenced; that of Mr. MacManus on the 9th of
October; that of Mr. O'Donohoe on the 13th, and that of Mr. Meagher on
the 16th.

Juries were empanelled in each case, from whose prejudice and bad faith
verdicts for high treason were expected, even though the evidence only
sustained a charge of common assault. Roman Catholics were, in the first
instance, scrupulously excluded; but after the first two verdicts one or
two were admitted, upon whose weakness of character, or genteel
aspirations, the Government might safely rely. It is but justice to say
that, according to the law expounded by the Bench, and the evidence
given on the table, any other verdict was not to be expected. But a jury
differently composed, a jury of Englishmen, with their country, their
liberties and their lives perilled to the last extremity by
misgovernment and maladministration of law, would have spurned the law
and the evidence, and relied on the great fundamental rights of humanity
so flagrantly outraged by the Government that then appeared as
prosecutors.

The scene presented by Clonmel excited much public surprise. Newspaper
correspondents magnified the sullen gloom that prevailed into popular
apathy or national cowardice, as suited the bent or purpose of their
employers. The truth was, the people exhibited during the trial a decent
and respectful forbearance. Empty parade or vociferous sorrow would only
mock the lofty purpose of the sufferers; and besides, the mortification
which rankled in the public heart was too deep for utterance. The hopes
of the people had been dashed, and they were stunned and stupefied by
their fall. But so far from being apathetic, nightly assemblages were
held to consider if, even in that extremity, something was not yet
possible to be done.

But, if there were a show of popular indifference on the streets, the
courthouse presented a very different spectacle. There everything
manifested an intense bitterness of purpose; the court, composed of the
two most unscrupulous partisans, Chief Justices Blackbourne and Doherty,
and the weakest or falsest political convert, Mr. Justice Moore,
simulated the uncontrollable emotions which an overweening loyalty awoke
in the bosom of t