handling the telegraph and the press. John F. Beggs had said
that Cronin was not dead and would turn up all right, and if the
scheme of disposing of Dr. Cronin's body on the night of May 4th
had not been frought with some misadventure, some miscarriage of
judgment, the public, not understanding the motive which underlied
the occasion, would probably have believed that what Beggs said was
correct. If all the marks of the crime had been obliterated, if the
body had not been found, if it had been disposed of, the murderers,
and those behind the murderers would have continued to charge that
Dr. Patrick H. Cronin was a British spy, and that his disappearance
was to be accounted for upon the hypothesis that he had gone to
England to testify against Parnell. This would have been the claim.
It was to confirm the impression made upon the minds of some of the
"dupes" of the triangle, that the disappearance, as well as all
traces of the crime were to be wiped out, so that the story would
be accepted that Cronin was a spy, and a traitor to the cause to
which he had always allied himself and which he had sworn to
defend, and that he had violated his oath and crossed the broad
Atlantic in order to testify against his own country and in behalf
of England.

The speaker proceeded to dissect the evidence at length. He paid
particular attention to the testimony of the medical witnesses for
the State, urging that it was entitled to full credence, and that
the prosecution received all the aid of science that was possible.
Continuing, Mr. Hynes said:

THE DEFENSE OF THE PRISONERS.

"Now what sort of a defense--because I propose to deal with that
first--what kind of a defense is made by these five prisoners? A
defense that is not a defense is worse than no defense at all. A
defense that utterly fails, as this defense in my judgment has
utterly failed, leaves the case of the prisoners stronger against
them than it was when the State rested. You expect some defense
when an accusation of this kind is brought against men. You are
looking for explanations. You are hoping, like merciful men, that
every circumstance and every word will find an explanation
consistent with innocence, and when the defense fails to meet the
accusation and to furnish an explanation, then it