seldom--welcome. Of that, however, I do not complain. But to any man
whose heart glows with the warmest impulses and the most intense love
of freedom; strongly attached to kind friends, affectionate parents,
loving brother and sisters, and a devotedly fond and loving wife, the
contemplation of a long period of imprisonment must appear most
terrible and appalling. To me, however, viewing it from a purely
personal point of view, and considering the cause for which I am
about to suffer, far from being dismayed--far from its discouraging
me--it proves to me rather a source of joy and comfort. True, it is a
position not to be sought--not to be looked for--it is one which, for
many, very many reasons there is no occasion for me now to explain,
maybe thought to involve disgrace or discredit. But, so far from
viewing it in that light, I do not shrink from it, but accept it
readily, feeling proud and glad that it affords me an opportunity of
proving the sincerity of those soul-elevating principles of freedom
which a good old patriotic father instilled into my mind from my
earliest years, and which I still entertain with a strong love, whose
fervour and intensity are second only to the sacred homage which we
owe to God. If, having lost that freedom, I am to be deprived of all
those blessings--those glad and joyous years I should have spent
amongst loving friends--I shall not complain, I shall not murmur, but
with calm resignation and cheerful expectation, I shall joyfully
submit to God's blessed will, feeling confident that He will open the
strongly locked and barred doors of British prisons. Till that glad
time arrives, it is consolation and reward enough for me to know that
I have the fervent prayers, the sympathy and loving blessings of
Ireland's truly noble and generous people, and far easier, more
soothing and more comforting to me will it be to go back to my
cheerless cell, than it would be to live in slavish ease and
luxury--a witness to the cruel sufferings and terrible miseries of
this down-trodden people. Condemn me, then, my lord--condemn me to a
felon's doom. To-night I will sleep in a prison cell; to-morrow I
will wear a convict's dress; but to me it will be a far nobler garb
than the richest dress of slavery. Coward slaves they lie who think
the countless sufferings and degradation of prison life disgraces a
man