o be a material witness for his defence, he directed his
lawyers to abandon the case, and contented himself with reading to the
court some remarks on the evidence which had been offered against him.
The chief feature in this address was his denial of all knowledge of the
"executive document." He had never seen or heard of it until it turned
up in connexion with those trials. Referring to one of the articles with
the authorship of which he was charged, he said he wondered how any
Irishman, taking into consideration what had occurred in Ireland during
the last eighty-four years, could hesitate to say to the enemy--"Give us
our country to ourselves and let us see what we can do with it."
Alluding to a report that the government contemplated making some
concession to the claims of the Catholic bishops, he remarked that
concessions to Ireland had always been a result of Fenianism in one
shape or another, and that he believed the present manifestation of the
national spirit would have weight, as former ones had, with the rulers
of the country. As regards the landed class in Ireland, the _Irish
People_, he contended, had said nothing more than was said by Thomas
Davis, whose works every one admired. That eminent Irishman, afflicted
and stung to the heart by witnessing the system of depopulation which
was going on throughout the country, had written these words:--

"God of Justice, I sighed, send your Spirit down
On those lords so cruel and proud,
And soften their hearts, and relax their frown,
Or else, I cried aloud,
Vouchsafe Thy strength to the peasant's hand
To drive them at length from out the land."

He had not gone farther than the writer of these lines, and now, he
said, they might send him to a felon's doom if they liked.

And they did send him to it. Judge Keogh, before passing sentence, asked
him if he had any further remarks to make in reference to his case. Mr.
Kickham briefly replied:--

"I believe, my lords, I have said enough already. I will only add
that I am convicted for doing nothing but my duty. I have endeavoured
to serve Ireland, and now I am prepared to suffer for Ireland."

Then the judge, with many expressions of sympathy for the prisoner, and
many compliments in reference to his intellectual attainments, sentenced
him to kept in penal servitude for fourteen years. His solicitor, Mr.
John Lawless, announced the fact to him through his ear trumpet. Charles
J. Kickham