exaggerate upon Mr. Barry’s original statement.  Now, with respect to those charges—­in justice to my character—­I must say that in this court, there is not a man more incapable of anything like massacre or assassination than I am.  I really believe that the gentlemen who have shown so much ability in persecuting me, in the bottom of their hearts believe me incapable of an act of assassination or massacre.  I don’t see that there is the smallest amount of evidence to show that I ever entertained the notion of a massacre of landlords and priests.  I forget whether the advisers of the crown said I intended the massacre of the Protestant clergymen.  Some of the writers of our enlightened press said that I did.  Now, with respect to the charge of assassinating the landlords, the only thing that gives even the shadow of a colour to that charge is the letter signed—­alleged to be signed—­by Mr. O’Keefe.  Now, assuming—­but by no means admitting, of course—­that the letter was written by Mr. O’Keefe, let me make a statement about it.  I know the facts that I am about to state are of no practical utility to me now, at least with respect to the judges.  I know it is of no practical utility to me, because I cannot give evidence on my own behalf, but it may be of practical utility to others with whom I wish to stand well.  I believe my words will carry conviction—­and carry much more conviction than any words of the legal advisers of the crown can—­to more than 300,000 of the Irish race in Ireland, England, and America.  Well, I deny absolutely, that I ever entertained any idea of assassinating the landlords, and the letter of Mr. O’Keefe—­assuming it to be his letter—­is the only evidence on the subject.  My acquaintance with Mr. O’Keefe was of the slightest nature.  I did not even know of his existence when the Irish People was started.  He came, after that paper was established a few months, to the office, and offered some articles—­some were rejected, some we inserted, and I call the attention of the legal advisers of the Crown to this fact, that amongst the papers which they got, those that were Mr. O’Keefe’s articles had many paragraphs scored out; in fact we put in no article of his without a great deal of what is technically called ‘cutting down.’  Now, that letter of his to me was simply a private document.  It contained the mere private views of the writer; and I pledge this to the court as a man of honour—­and I believe in spite of the position in which I stand, amongst my countrymen I am believed to be a man of honour, and that if my life depended on it, I would not speak falsely about the thing—­when I read that letter, and the first to whom I gave it was my wife, I remember we read it with fits of laughter at its ridiculous ideas.  My wife at the moment said—­’Had I not better burn the letter?’ ‘Oh no,’ I said, looking upon it as a most ridiculous thing, and never dreaming for a moment that such a document would ever turn up against me, and produce