he Catholic Attorney-General. So far were their
lordships swayed by the spirit of imitativeness, that the most polished
speakers, mistaking the incoherent jargon of the official for the broken
utterance of overwrought zeal and shocked loyalty, mimicked his
distempered language as the only befitting medium of expression for
disturbed feelings such as theirs. The simplest and most usual
facilities accorded to murderers and pickpockets on their trial were
rudely denied the counsel for the defence. The principles of law,
recognised in England as sacred, were scouted from the bench, and the
farce of trial proceeded through its different stages to the final
_denouement_ with perfect regularity, every one performing the part
assigned him with unerring accuracy.

Of the intrepid ability which struggled against this fearful combination
of bigotry, prejudice and passion, at the bar, on the bench and in the
box, I do not purpose to speak here. But I would be unfaithful to my
trust, and unjust to the rarest heroism, if I did not record the
fortitude and fidelity of O'Donnell, from whom the menaces of the crown,
or the frown of the bench, could not wring one word of evidence. In an
ordinary man, this would be singular intrepidity; but circumstanced
as O'Donnell was, it amounted to a Roman virtue. One brother of his, a
doctor, was in jail at Liverpool, charged with political felony; another
was hunted through the country, and another was in irons, involved in
the same charge as the illustrious accused; for them all he could
command his own terms, for much depended on his testimony; but though
doom were upon them, and a word of his could avert it, he refused to
speak. Honour be his. His integrity almost cancelled the shame and
darkness of those disastrous times.

[Illustration: The Widow McCormack's House, near Ballingarry]

I can add nothing to the testimony that established the fortitude,
manliness and dignity of the prisoners, as beyond precedent or example.
That their bearing, one and all, was truly noble, friends and foes took
pride in attesting.[11] It was a solemn and a glorious sight; and men,
through all time, will turn to that Clonmel dock to learn the
inestimable and imperishable value of sincere and lofty convictions and
a truly heroic soul.

Of the speeches that follow, it will be observed that Mr. O'Brien's was
delivered before the fate of his comrades was known. No man had ever
greater need of vindicating others if