se murderous falsehoods;
and in the excitement and trouble of those critical moments, it is all
that some men can venture to do. Such criticisms of the prosecution are
often valuable to the prisoner from a moral point of view, but rarely
have they any influence upon the result of the trial. All things
considered, it must be allowed that they act best who do not forget to
speak the words of patriotism, according to the measure of their
abilities, before the judge's fiat has sealed their lips, and the hand
of British law has swept them away to the dungeon or the scaffold.

"Guilty" was the verdict returned by the jury against Bryan Dillon and
John Lynch. The evidence against them indeed was strong, but its chief
strength lay in the swearing of an approver named Warner, a callous and
unscrupulous wretch, from whose mind the idea of conscience seemed to
have perished utterly. If there was any check upon the testimony of this
depraved creature, it existed only in some prudential instinct,
suggesting to him that even in such cases as these a witness might
possibly overdo his work, and perhaps in a caution or two given him in a
private and confidential manner by some of the managers of the
prosecution. Warner's evidence in this case was conclusive to the minds
of all who chose to believe it; and therefore it was that those
prisoners had not long been occupants of the dock when the question was
put to them what they had to say why sentence should not be passed on
them. In reply Bryan Dillon said:--

"My lords, I never was for one minute in Warner's company. What
Warner swore about me was totally untrue. I never was at a meeting at
Geary's house. The existence of the Fenian organization has been
proved sufficiently to your lordships. I was a centre in that
organization; but it does not follow that I had to take the chair at
any meeting, as it was a military organization. I do not want to
conceal anything. Warner had no connexion with me whatever. With
respect to the observation of the Attorney-General, which pained me
very much, that it was intended to seize property, it does not follow
because of my social station that I intended to seize the property of
others. My belief in the ultimate independence of Ireland is as fixed
as my religious belief--"

At this point he was interrupted by Judge Keogh, who declared he could
not listen to words that were, in fact, a repetition of the prisoner's