an Irish artist, who might have taken measure in the absence of the wearer, but, by a bill and receipt found in one of the pockets, it appears to have been made by the actual body tailor of her august highness the consort of the first consul. At present it is but poorly ornamented, but it is said the Irish Volunteers have entered into a subscription to trim it, if ever it shall be worn again."

Happy, most happy is it for these islands, that these rumours which are so maliciously invented and circulated to destroy our confidence in each other, to invite attack and dispirit resistance, turn out on inquiry to be so ludicrous and contemptible, that we cannot speak of them without laughter, or without wonder that they did not rather form the materials of a farce in a puppetshow, than of a grave prosecution in a court of justice.

Mr. Curran said there was still another topic, material to remind the jury of this was the first trial for treason that occurred since the union of these islands. He said no effectual union could be achieved by the mere letter of a statute; don't imagine, said he, that bigotry could blend with liberality, or barbarism with cultivation. If you wish to be really united with Great Britain, teach her to respect you, and do so by showing her that you are fit subjects of wholesome lawsby showing her that you are capable of rising to a proud equality with her in the exercise of social duties and civil virtues, as many parts of the globe has proved you to be in her fleets and her armies-show her that you can try this cause as she would try it; that you have too much sense and humanity to be borne away in your verdict by despicable panic or brutal fury-show her that in prosecutions by the state, you can even go a step beyond her, and that you can discover and act upon those eternal principles of justice, which it has been found necessary in that country to enforce by the coercion of law: you cannot, said he, but feel that I allude to their statute that requires two witnesses in treason. Our statute does not contain that provision; but if it was

wise to enact it there as a law, it cannot be other that wise to enact it here as a principle; unless you think it discreet to hold it out as your opinion, that the life of a man is not as valuable here, and ought not to be as secure, as in the other part of the empire; unless you wish to prove your incapability of equal rights and equal liberty with Britain, by consigning to the scaffold your miserable fellow subject, who, if tried in England on the same charge, and the same evidence, would be entitled to a verdict of acquittal. I trust you will not so blemish yourselves; I trust you will not be satisfied even with a cold imitation of her justice; but that, on this occasion, you will give her an example of magnanimity, by rising superior to the passion or the panic of the moment. If, in any ordinary case, or in any ordinary time, you have any reasonable doubt of guilt, you are bound by every prin ciple of law and justice to acquit. But I would advise you, at a time like this, rather to be lavish than parsimonious in the application of that principle; even though you had the strongest suspicion of his culpability, I would advise you to acquit. You would show your confidence in your strength, that you felt your situation too high to be affected in the smallest degree by the fate of so insignificant an individual. Turn to the miserable prisoner himself, tainted and blemished as he possibly may be, even him you may retrieve to his country and his duty, by a salutary effort of seasonable magnanimity. You will inspire him with reverence for that institution, which knows when to spare and when to inflict, and which, instead of sacrificing him to a suspicion of his criminality, is determined, not by the belief, but by the possibility of his innocence, and dismisses him with indignant and contemptuous mercy.

The prisoner's defence was weak and ineffectual—the jury found him guilty and the judge, Mr. Baron George, addressed him nearly as follows:

Owen Kirwan, after a full and patient hearing-after a most minute and impartial investigation of the charge preferred against you, you have been convicted of high treason,

.

It appears you were a dealer in old clothes, and used the semblance of industry to the most wicked and destructive purpose a purpose which, could you and your unprincipled and cruel associates effect, would dry up all the sources of industry, confound all order, destroy all security, and leave your country a hideous ruin. It appears that you were an active emissary of rebellion, and had obtained, by that activity, the rank of a leader. You were not of the multitude of devoted victims who are led to slaughter, and plunged in crime, by imposition on their ignorance and their passions. You seemed perfectly aware of what you were about, well acquainted with the plan and views of rebellion, and engaged in it with cool deliberation, and systematic wickedness.

You were coolly tried, and ably defended-that defence was heard with patience, and you have had every advantage possible to be derived from the laws, more tender of the life of the subject, and all the rights attached to society, than those of any other country upon the face of the earth; and surely, when the excellence of those laws are considered, the protection they afford, and the pure and rational freedom enjoyed under our unequalled constitution, it is truly astonishing how any man, or body of men, could be found, meditating or attempting the destruction of so beautiful a system! It would be incredible, if proofs the most melancholy were not furnished of the contrary, that such men could be found living under the dominion of a sovereign who has given to his people, and peculiarly the people of this country, fortythree years' experience of the most exalted virtues, and the most parental anxiety for their happiness and welfare. But if insensible to the beauties of our constitution, and the allegiance which wisdom and goodness should have endeared to you and your associates in crime, it is wonderful how you could be so insensible to your own safety-so wretchedly insane as to think, but for one moment, that you could seize upon a government fenced round by such impregnable support, such great wealth and power; such loyalty in the peo

ple; and such great armies, formidable in number, in discipline, and in bravery. How is it possible that you could be so mad as to think that any rabble insurrection could disturb a government not undefined, nor its members unknown? An amiable and virtuous viceroy, the faithful representative of his sovereign's goodness, is open to access, and visible to those he governs; every member of his administration is the same; none are ashamed or afraid to show their honest fronts to the mid-day sun.

Owen Kirwan, I most earnestly exhort you to use the time allotted to you in this world, in sincere and penitent endeavours to reconcile your soul to that God, before whose awful judgment-seat it is to appear so soon; think only of your salvation as a contrite christian should, and do not leave this world with a lie in your mouth, and go before your maker, swaggering in vain and boastful guilt. Believe me, unhappy man, that to disclose all you know, and thus make to your injured country and offended God all the atonement in your power, will prove an inexpressible consolation to you in your last moments, and infuse into your soul that sweet consciousness of right, which can alone qualify the bitter draught you are about to take, and justify a hope of future pardon and happiness.

Sentence of death was then passed on the prisoner, and he was accordingly executed the next day.

6

THE TRIAL

OF ROBERT EMMET, ESQ. FOR HIGH treason.

SPECIAL COMMISSION.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 14, 1805.

THIS day Mr. Emmet was put to the bar, and arraigned on the following

to wit,

INDICTMENT.

County of the City of Dublin, THE jurors for our lord the king, upon their oath, present that Robert Emmet, late of Thomas-street, in the city of Dublin, Esq. being a subject of our said lord the now king, not having the fear of God in his heart, nor weighing the duty of his allegiance, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil, as a false traitor against our said lord the now king, his supreme, true, lawful, and undoubted lord, the cordial love and true and due obedience which every true and dutiful subject of our said sovereign lord the king towards him our said lord the king should bear wholly withdrawing, and contriving and intending the peace and tranquillity of this kingdom to disquiet, molest, and disturb, and the government and constitution of this realm to change, subyert, and alter, and our said lord the king from the royal