ere discovered. Nine years after this event,
when Mr. O'Brien as a pardoned convict was permitted to return to his
country, he had the puerility to complain of this act in a letter to the
public. The man who could fail to see the justice and propriety of
such a step on the part of the government, was so far beyond reason on
political matters, that all astonishment at the impracticability of his
insurrectionary attempts during the autumn of 1848 ceases.

On the 28th of September Mr. O'Brien was put upon his trial at Clonmel.
The trial lasted until the 9th of October, when a verdict of guilty was
returned, and a strong recommendation for mercy, the jury stating that,
on many grounds, they were of opinion that Mr. O'Brien's life should
be spared. Probably every impartial person in the kingdom snared their
views. The judges, however, recorded sentence of death.

The trials of MacManus, Meagher, and O'Donoghue resulted in verdicts of
guilty, and sentence of death was recorded in each case. When they were
brought to the court for that purpose, and asked what they had to say
why sentence of death should not be passed upon them, Mr. MacManus
delivered a manly and sensible speech, in a tone and with a manner
so frank and direct, as to produce a strong impression in his favour
throughout the court, as it did throughout the country, by all who
perused it. The speech of Meagher was an eloquent failure; it appeared
as if he had kept the noble and unfortunate Emmet before him as a model.
He addressed the judges as if he were about to expiate his error upon
the scaffold, whereas he knew, as all Ireland knew, that it was not the
intention of government to put the sentence of the law in force. This
circumstance gave an air of display and bombast to a speech that, if the
realities of the speaker's position had corresponded with it, would have
been thrillingly effective.

Soon after these events, a number of other participants in the revolt
were put upon their trial for their connection with it, or for seditious
writings. The following notices, under the head of "State Trials,"
appeared in the papers of the day, and will sufficiently exemplify the
general character of such proceedings and their results:--"The trial
of Mr. Williams was closed on Friday se'nnight, by the acquittal of the
accused. It appeared that he could not be fixed upon as the author of
any of the articles indicted. Those which were most violent had been
published duri