ant.

"With reference to what took place at the wedding, I have, in the
first place, to remark that from the character of this man Brady, I
could confidently call upon you to reject every word of his evidence;
and I shall presently show you in what respects and why you are bound
to do so. But, in the present instance, I am satisfied to tell you
that my client did attend that meeting. But mind, that was no illegal
meeting--it was not secret; the door was not locked, nor even closed;
it was a party of men met at the wedding of one of their own station.
The woman to be married was a sister of the prisoner's servant, and
it was natural that he should be present. He directs me positively
to tell you that he did attend that meeting; though I also tell you,
with confidence, that he committed no crime in doing so, and his
lordship will corroborate what I tell you.

"It was, however, a part of the plan organised against the prisoner
that he should be induced to commit an illegal act, and he was,
as you have heard, brought when drunk to promise that he would go
down to Mrs. Mulready's, to take upon himself illegal oaths and
obligations.

"On the following day he was invited by this same Brady to come on a
certain evening; but Macdermot was no longer drunk; he was no longer
infuriated by the gross outrages he had received; and what did he
do then? Did he go to Mrs. Mulready's to settle the particulars
of this murder which he is said to have premeditated? Did he join
these outlaws of whom he is represented to have been the leader?
Did he even send them an encouraging message--a word of fellowship?
No! Even by the testimony of this man, now so anxious to hang his
benefactor--this man, who by his own showing was at the same time
in the pay of the prisoner and of his enemy Keegan--he indignantly
repudiated the idea; he at once informed this wretch--equally a
traitor to his confederates and to his master--that he would have
nothing in common with them or their schemes; and although threatened
with the vengeance of the party, and with the authority of a
magistrate, steadily refused even to enter the house in which they
were accustomed to assemble. Why, from what I can learn of the young
man and of his daily habits, I do not conceive that there is one of
yourselves who would not be as likely to join an illegal society
as he would. Patient under poverty--industrious under accumulated
sufferings--he has led a life which would not have