cal falsehood, but if I can once fasten him to the ring of perjury, I will bait him at it until his testimony shall fail of producing a verdict, although human nature were as vile and monstrous in you as she is in him! He has made a mistake! But surely no man's life is safe if such evidence were admissible. What argument can be founded on his testimony, when he swears he has perjured himself, and that any thing he says must be false? I must not believe him at all, and by a paradoxical conclusion, suppose, against "the deep damnation" of his own testimony, that he is an honest man!

Another of the prisoner's counsel having here suggested something to Mr. Curran, he continued. My learned friend supposed me to be mistaken, and confounding the evidence of O'Brien and Clarke, but I am not; I advert to what O'Brien said to Lord Portarlington, respecting the attack on the arsenal Strongly as I feel my interests keep pace with those of my client, I would not defend him at the expense of truth; I seek not to make O'Brien worse than he is; whatever he may be, God Almighty convert his mind! May his reprobation-but, I beg his pardon, let your verdict stamp a due currency on his credit; that will have more force than any casual remarks of mine. How this contraIdiction in Mr. O'Brien's evidence occurred, I am at no loss to understand. He started with an intention of informing against some person, no matter whom, and whether he ever saw the prisoner at the time he gave the information to Lord Portarlington, is a question; but none, that he fabricated the story for the purpose of imposing on the honest zeal of the law officers of the crown.

Having now glanced at a part of this man's evidence, I do not mean to part with him entirely. I shall have occasion to visit him again, but before I do, let me, gentlemen,' impress upon your minds the observation which my colleague appli ed to the laws of high treason, that if they are not explain ed on the statute books, they are explained on the hearts of

all honest men; and, as St. Paul says, "though they know not the law, they obey the statutes thereof." The essence of the charge submitted to your consideration, tends to the dissolution of the connection between Ireland and Great Britain.

I own, it is with much warmth and self-gratulation, that I feel this calumny answered by the attachment of every good man to the British constitution. I feel, I embrace its principles; and when I look on you, the proudest benefit of that constitution, I am relieved from the fears of advocacy, since I place my client under its sacred shade. This is not the idle sycophancy of words. It is not crying "Lord! Lord! but doing the will of my Father who is in heaven." If my client were to be tried by a jury of Ludgate-hill shop-keepers, he would, ere now, be in his own house. The law of England would not suffer a man to be cruelly butchered in a court of justice. The law of England recognises -the possibility of villains thirsting for the blood of their fellowcreatures; and the people of Ireland have no cause to be incredulous of the fact. Thus it is, that in England two witnesses are essential to the proof of high treason; and the poorest wretch that crawls on British ground has this protection between him and those vampyres who crawl out of their graves in search of human blood. If there be but one witness, there is the less possibility of detecting him-he the less fears any detection of his murderous tale, having only infernal communication between him and the author of all evil; and, when on the table, which he makes the altar of his sacrifice, however common men may be affected at the sight of the innocent victim, it cannot be supposed that the prompter of his perjury will instigate him to retribution. This is the law in England, and God forbid that Irishmen should so differ, in the estimation of the law, from Englishmen, that their blood is not equaily worth preserving..

I do not, gentlemen, apply any part of this observation to you; you are Irishmen yourselves, and I know you will act

proudly and honestly. Why the law of England renders two witnesses necessary, and one witness insufficient, to take away the life of a man on a charge of high treason, is founded on the principles of common sense, and common justice; for, unless the subject were guarded by this wise prevention, every wretch who could so pervert the powers of invention, as to trump up a tale of treason and conspiracy, would have it in his power to defraud the crown into the most abominable and afflicting acts of cruelty and oppression.

Gentlemen of the jury, though from the evidence which has been adduced against the prisoner, they have lost their value, yet, had they been necessary, I must tell you that my client came forward under a disadvantage of great magnitude, the absence of two witnesses, very material to his defence. I am not now at liberty to say, what, I am instructed, would have been proved by May and Roberts. Why is not Mr. Roberts here? Recollect the admission of O'Brien, that he threatened to settle him, and you will cease to wonder at his absence, when, if he came, the dagger was in preparation to be plunged into his heart. I said Mr. Roberts was absent; I correct myself. No! in effect he is here; I appeal to the heart of that obdurate man, what would have been his testimony, if he had dared to venture a personal evidence on this trial? Gracious God! Is a tyranny like this to be borne with where law is said to exist! Shall the horrors which surround the informer, the ferocity of his countenance, and the terrors of his voice, cast such a wide and appalling influence, that none dare approach and save the victim which he marks for ignominy and death?

Now, gentlemen, be pleased to look at the rest of O'Brien's testimony; he tells you there are 111,000 men in one province, added to 10,000 of the inhabitants of the metropolis, ready to assist the object of an invasion. What! gentlemen, do you think there are so many in one province -so many in your city, combined against their country? At such a time as this do you think it a wise thing to say,

on the evidence of the abominable O'Brien, that if the enemy was to invade this country, there are 111,000 men ready to run to his standard? But this is not the most appalling view of the question. For its importance and its novelty, this is the most unprecedented trial in the annals of this country. I recollect none bearing any affinity to it, save that of the unhappy wanderer Jackson: and premising that I mean not the smallest allusion to the conduct of public measures in this country, are you-I ask you seriously, are you prepared to embark your respectable characters in the same bottom with this detestable informer? Are you ready, on such evidence, to take away, one by one, the lives of a hundred thousand men, by prosecutions in a court of justice? Are you prepared, when O'Brien shall come forward against 10,000 of your fellow-citizens, to assist him in digging the graves which he has destined to receive them one by one? No! could your hearts yield for a moment to the suggestion, your own reflections would vindicate the justice of God, and the insulted character of man; you would fly from the secrets of your chamber and take refuge in the multitude, from those "compunctious visitings," which meaner men could not look on without horror. Do not think I am speaking disrespectfully of you when I say, that while an O'Brien may be found, it may be the lot of the proudest among you, to be in the dock instead of the jury-box: How, then, on such an occasion, would any of you feel, if such evidence as has been heard this day were adduced against you?

The application affects you-you shrink from the imaginary situation-remember then the great mandate of your religion, and "do unto all men as you would they should do unto you." Why do you condescend to listen to me with such attention? Why so anxious, if even from me any thing should fall tending to enlighten you on the present awful occasion? It is because, bound by the sacred obligation of an oath, your hearts will not allow you to forfeit it. Have you

any doubt that it is the object of O'Brien to take down the prisoner for the reward that follows? Have you not seen with what more than instinctive keenness this blood-hound has pursued his victim? How he has kept him in view from place to place, until he hunts him through the avenues of the court to where the unhappy man stands now, hopeless of all succour, but that which your verdict shall afford. I have heard of assassination by sword, by pistol, and by dagger, but here is a wretch who would dip the Evangelists in blood -if he thinks he has not sworn his victim to death, he is ready to swear without mercy and without end; but oh! do not, I conjure you, suffer him to take an oath; the arm of the murderer should not pollute the purity of the gospel; if he will swear, let it be on the knife, the proper symbol of his profession! Gentlemen, I am reminded of the tissue of abomination with which this deadly calumniator, this O'Brien, has endeavoured to load so large a portion of your adult countrymen. He charges 100,000 Irishmen with the deliberate cruelty of depriving their fellow creatures of their eyes, tongues and hands! Do not believe the infamous slanderer. If I were told that there was in Ireland one man who could so debase human nature, I should hesitate to believe that even O'Brien were he.

I have heard the argument made use of, that, in cases of a very foul nature, witnesses cannot be found free from impu tation; this admitted in its full extent, it does not follow that such evidence is to be accredited without other support. In such cases, strong corroboration is necessary, and you would be the most helpless and unfortunate men in the world, if you were under the necessity of attending to the solitary testimony of such witnesses. In the present prosecution, two witnesses have been examined, for the respectable character of Lord Portarlington must not be polluted by a combination with O'Brien; if his lordship had told exactly the same story with O'Brien, it could not, however, be considered as corroborating O'Brien, who might as easily utter