When Bryan Dillon and John Lynch were removed from the dock (Tuesday, December 19th), two men named Jeremiah Donovan and John Duggan were put forward, the former charged with having been a centre in the Fenian organization, and the latter with having sworn some soldiers into the society.  Both were found guilty.  Donovan made no remarks when called upon for what he had to say.  Duggan contradicted the evidence of the witnesses on several points, and said:—­

“I do not state those things in order to change the sentence I am about to receive.  I know your lordships’ minds are made up on that.  I state this merely to show what kind of tools the British government employ to procure those convictions.  I have only to say, and I appeal to any intelligent man for his opinion, that the manner in which the jury list was made out for these trials clearly shows that in this country political trials are a mere mockery.”

At this point the judge cut short the prisoner’s address, and the two men were sentenced, Donovan to five years and Duggan to ten years of penal servitude.

The trial of Underwood O’Connell was then proceeded with.  It concluded on December 21st, with a verdict of guilty.  In response to the question which was then addressed to him he spoke at considerable length, detailing the manner of his arrest, complaining of the horrible indignities to which he had been subjected in prison, and asserting that he had not received a fair and impartial trial.  He spoke amidst a running fire of interruptions from the court, and when he came to refer to his political opinions his discourse was peremptorily suppressed.  “The sentiments and hopes that animate me,” he said, “are well known.”  “Really we will not hear those observations,” interposed Mr. Justice Keogh.  “It has been brought forward here,” said the prisoner, “that I held a commission in the 99th regiment—­in Colonel O’Mahony’s regiment.  Proud as I am of having held a commission in the United States service, I am equally proud of holding command under a man—.”  Here his speech was stopped by the judges, and Mr. Justice Keogh proceeded to pass sentence.  In the course of his address his lordship made the following observations:—­

“You, it appears, went to America; you entered yourself in the American army, thus violating, to a certain extent, your allegiance as a British subject.  But that is not the offence you are charged with here to-day.  You say you swore allegiance to the American Republic, but no man by so doing can relieve himself from his allegiance to the British Crown.  From the moment a man is born in this country he owes allegiance, he is a subject.”

Hearing these words, and remembering the great outcry that was being made by the friends of the government against the Irish-American Fenians on the ground that they were “foreigners,” the prisoner interposed the apt remark on his lordship’s legal theory:—­