the national self-government of my country be first restored, there appears to me to be no place, no locus standi (as lawyers say), for any other Irish political question, and I consider it to be my duty as a patriotic and loyal citizen, to endeavour by all honourable and prudent means to procure the Repeal of the Act of the Union, and the restoration of the independent Irish government, of which my country was (as I have said in my prosecuted speech), “by fraud and force,” and against the will of the vast majority of its people of every race, creed, and class, though under false form of law, deprived sixty-seven years ago.  Certainly, I do not dispute the right of you, gentlemen, or of any man in this court, or in all Ireland, to approve of the Union, to praise it, if you think right, as being wise and beneficent, and to advocate its continuance openly by act, speech, and writing.  But I naturally think that my convictions in this matter of the Union ought to be shared by you also, gentlemen, and by the learned judges, and the lawyers, both crown lawyers and all others, and by the policemen and soldiers, and all faithful subjects of her Majesty in Ireland.  Now, gentlemen, such being my convictions, were I to entrust my defence in this court to a lawyer, he must speak as a Repealer, not only for me, but for himself, not only as a professional advocate, but as a man, and from the heart.  I cannot doubt but that there are very many Irish lawyers who privately share my convictions about Repeal.  Believing as I do in my heart and conscience, and with all the force of the mind that God has given me, that Repeal is the right and the only right policy for Ireland—­for healing all the wounds of our community, all our sectarian feuds, all our national shame, suffering, and peril—­for making our country peaceful, industrious, prosperous, respectable, and happy—­I cannot doubt but that in the enlightened profession of the bar there must be very many Irishmen who, like me, consider Repeal to be right, and best, and necessary for the public good.  But, gentlemen, ever since the Union, by fraud and force and against the will of the Irish people, was enacted—­ever since that act of usurpation by the English parliament of the sovereign rights of the queen, lords, and commons of Ireland—­ever since this country was thereby rendered the subject instead of the sister of England—­ever since the Union, but especially for about twenty years past, it has been the policy of those who got possession of the sovereign rights of the Irish crown to appoint to all places of public trust, emolument, or honour in Ireland only such as would submit, whether by parole or by tacit understanding, to suppress all public utterance of their desire for the Repeal of the Union such as has been the persistent policy towards this country of those who command all the patronage of Irish offices, paid and unpaid—­the policy of all English ministers, whether Whig or Tory, combined with the disposal of the public forces—­such