not himself. No man ever possessed
in a higher degree the capacity and strength to do so. He was satisfied
it was the last opportunity he would ever have on earth for
explanation. Yet, lest any sentiment of his might injuriously affect
those that were then, or might thereafter be on their trial, he forebore
to assert the principles of which he was there the martyr, and of which
he was more than ever proud. It was to the same unselfish sentiment he
yielded, when consenting to say, "Not guilty," to a charge he would have
felt the greatest glory in avowing.

I despair of conveying to my readers an adequate idea of the gloom and
horror of the scene in which those immortal words were spoken. Death,
near and terrible, was in the future. The recollection of ten days'
infamy peopled the present with ghastly images of evil. Vindictiveness
inexorable glared from the bench. The dust around the feet of the
speakers was laden with guilt. It would not rise to the briskest breeze,
beneath the clearest sky, in light summer air, so heavy had the tread of
murder been upon it. And oh, to think when they closed their eyes upon
this world, what deeper death they left their country ... Will no day of
vengeance come, O God! . . .

One of those benefits of the British constitution, which excites the
mortal envy of benighted "surrounding nations," is this, that the law
lies to the face of death, in the usual question addressed to the
condemned: "Whether he had anything to say why sentence of death and
execution should not be passed upon him?" when the most conclusive
reasons that ever innocence had to offer would be worse than vain. On
the morning of the 9th of October, 1848, this barbarous mockery was
addressed to William Smith O'Brien, and he answered thus:--

MR. O'BRIEN.--"My lords, it is not my intention to enter into
any vindication of my conduct, however much I might have desired
to avail myself of this opportunity of so doing. I am perfectly
satisfied with the consciousness that I have performed my duty
to my country--that I have done only that which, in my opinion,
it was the duty of every Irishman to have done, and I am now
prepared to abide the consequences of having performed my duty
to my native land. Proceed with your sentence." (Cheers in the
gallery.)

On the morning of the 23rd of the same month, the same formula was
repeated to Terence Bellew MacManus, Patrick O'Donohoe, and Thomas
Fran