. I feel otherwise. It is as impossible to subdue the soul
animated with freedom as it will be for England to crush the resolute
will of this nation, determined as it is to be free, or perish in the
attempt. According to British law, those acts proved against
me--fairly proved against me I acknowledge--maybe crimes, but
morally, in the eyes of freemen and the sight of God, they are more
ennobling than disgraceful. Shame is only a connexion with guilt. It
is surely not a crime to obey God's law, or to assist our fellow-men
to acquire those God-given rights which no men--no nation--can justly
deprive them of. If love of freedom and a desire to extend its
unspeakable blessings to all God's creatures, irrespective of race,
creed, or colour, be a crime--if devotion to Ireland, and love of its
faithful, its honest, its kindly people be a crime, then I say I
proudly and gladly acknowledge my guilt. If it is a disgrace, all I
can say is I glory in such shame and dishonour; and, with all respect
for the court, I hold in thorough and utmost contempt the worst
punishment that can be inflicted upon me, so far as it is intended to
deprive me of this feeling, and degrade me in the eyes of my
fellow-men. Oh, no, it is impossible, my lord; the freeman's soul can
never be dismayed. England will most miserably fail if she expects by
force and oppression to crush out--to stamp out, as the _Times_
exclaimed--this glorious longing for national life and independence
which now fills the breasts of millions of Irishmen, and which only
requires a little patience and the opportunity to effect its purpose.
Much has been said on these trials, on the objects and intentions of
Fenianism. I feel confidently, my lord, as to my own motives. I shall
not be guilty of the egotism to say whether they are pure or
otherwise. I shall leave that to others to judge. I am not qualified
to judge that myself; but I know in my soul that the motives which
prompted me were pure, patriotic, and unselfish. I know the motives
that actuate the most active members of the Fenian organization; and
I know that very few persons, except such contemptible wretches as
Corridon, have profited by their connexion with Fenianism. My best
friends lost all they ever possessed by it. Talbot and Corridon, I
believe, have sworn on previous trials that it was the intention of
the Fenians