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.  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 to have divided the lands of Ireland amongst themselves in the event of success.  Though an humble member of the organization, I have the honour and satisfaction of being acquainted with the great majority of the leaders of Fenianism on both