I have already observed on the contemptible smallness of the number a few drunken peasants assemble in the outlets; there, in the fury of intoxication they committed such atrocities as no man can be disposed to defend or to extenuate; and having done so, they fly before a few peace officers, aided by the gallantry of Mr. Justice Drury—who, even if he did retreat, as has been insinuated, has at least the merit of having no wish to shed the blood of his fellow christians, and is certainly entitled to the praise of preserving the life of a most valuable citizen and loyal subject.

In this whole transaction, no attempt, however feeble or illdirected, is made on any place belonging to or connected with the government. They never even approach the barrack, the castle, the magazines. No leader whatsoever appears; nothing that I can see to call for your verdict, except the finding the bill and the uncorroborated statement of the attorney-general. In that statement, too, I must beg leave to guard you against mistake in one or two particulars:- as to what he said of my lord Kilwarden, it was not unnatural to feel as he seemed to do, at the recollection, nor to have stated that sad event as a fact that took place on that occasion-but I am satisfied, he did not state it with the least intention of agitating your passions, or letting it have the smallest influence on your judgment in your inquiry into a charge of treason. I must beg leave also to say, that no recital in any statute, is any evidence whatsoever of the existence of any particular fact of treason or treasonable conspiracy. I must further desire you to blot completely from your minds the reference which he was pleased to make to the verdict of yesterday. And, in truth, when I see the evidence on which you are to decide reduced to what is legal or admissible, I don't wonder that Mr. Attorney-general himself should have treated this doughty rebellion with the laughter and contempt it deserved.

Where now is this providential escape of the government and the castle? Why simply in this, that nobody attacked either the one or the other; and that there were no persons that could have attacked either. It seems not unlike the escape which a young man had of being shot through the head at the battle of Dettingen, by the providential interference by which he was sent twenty miles off on a foraging party only ten days before the battle.

I wish from my heart that there may be now present some

worthy gentleman, who may transmit to Paris a faithful account of what has this day passed. If so, I think some loyal absentee may possibly find an account of it in the Publiciste or the Moniteur-and perhaps somewhat in this way-"On the 23d of Juk last, a most splendid rebellion displayed her standard in the me tropolis of Ireland, in a part of the city which in their language is called the Poddle. The band of heroes that came forth at the call of patriotism, capable of bearing arms, at the lowest calcu lation must have amounted to little less than two hundred persons, The rebellion advanced with most intrepid step till she came to the site of the old four courts, and tholsel. There she espied a decayed pillory, on which she mounted, in order to reconnoitre, but she found to her great mortification that the rebels had staid behind. She therefore judged it right to make her escape, which she effected in a masterly manner down Dirty lane. The rebels at the same time retiring in some disorder from the Poddle, being hard pressed by the poles and lanterns of the watchmen, and being additionally galled by Mr. Justice Drury, who came to a most unerring aim upon their rere, on which he played without any intermission, with a spy-glass, from his dining-room window→→ Raro antecedentem celestum deserit Panapede claudo. It is clearly ascertained that she did not appear in her own clothes, for she threw away her regimental jacket before she fled, which has been picked up, and is now to be seen at Mr. Carleton's, at six pence a head for grown persons, and three pence for a nurse and child. It was thought at first to be the work of an Irish artist, who might have taken measure in the absence of the wearer, but by a bill and receipt found in one of the pockets, it appears to have been made by the actual body tailor of her 'august highness the consort of the first consul. At present it is but poorly ornamented; but it is said that the Irish volunteers have entered into a subscription to trim it, if it shall be ever worn again."Happy, most happy, it is for these islands, said Mr. Curran, that those rumours which are so maliciously invented and circulated to destroy our confidence in each other, to invite attack and dispirit resistance, turn out on inquiry to be so ludicrous and contemptible, that we cannot speak of them without laughter, or without wonder that they did not rather form the materials of a farce in a puppet show, than of a grave prosecution in a court of justice.

Mr. Curran said, there was still another topic material to remind the jury of: this was the first trial for treason that occurred since the union of these islands. He said no effectual union could be achieved by the mere letter of statute; don't imagine (said he) that bigotry could blend with liberality, or barbarism with civilization. If you wish to be really united with Great Britain, teach her to respect you, and do so by showing her that you are fit objects of wholesome laws; by showing that you are capable of rising to a proud equality with her in the exercise of social duties and civil virtues, as many parts of the globe have proved you to be in her fleets and her armies;-show her that you can try this cause as she would try it; that you have too much sense and humanity to be borne away in your verdict by despicable panic or brutal fury;-show her that in prosecutions by the state, you can even go a step beyond her, and that you can discover and act upon those eternal principles of justice, which it has been found necessary in that country to enforce by the coercion of law you cannot, said he, but feel that I allude to their statute that requires two witnesses in treason. Our statute does not contain that provision; but if it was wise to enact it there as a law, it cannot be other than wise to adopt it here as a principle: unless you think it discreet to hold it out as your opinion, that the life of a man is not as valuable here, and ought not to be as secure, as in the other part of the empire; unless you wish to prove your capability of equal rights and equal l'erty with Britain, by consigning to the scaffold your miserable fellow subject, who, if tried in England on the same charg; and the same evidence, would by law be entitled to a verdict of acquittal. I trust you will not so blemish yourselves; I trust you will not be satisfied even with a cold imitation of her justice; but that on this occasion you will give her an example of magnanimity by rising superior to the passion or the panic of the moment. If in any ordinary case, in any ordinary time, you have any reasonable doubt of guilt, you are bound by every principle of law and justice to acquit. But I would advise you, at a time like this. rather to be lavish than parsimonious in the application of that principle-even though you had the strongest suspicion of his culpability I would advise you to acquit-you would show your confidence in your own strength, that you felt your situation too high to be affected in the smallest degree by the fate of so insig

nificant an individual; turn to the miserable prisoner himselftainted and blemished, as he possibly may be-even him you may retrieve to his country and his duty by a salutary effort of seasonable magnanimity. You will inspire him with reverence for that institution, which knows when to spare, as well as when to inflict and which, instead of sacrificing him to a strong suspicion of his criminality, is determined, not by the belief, but by the possibility of his innocence, and dismisses him with indignation and contemptuous mercy.

MR. KIRWAN was found guilty.

3 G

SPEECH OF MR. CURRAN,

IN BEHALF OF

THE REV. CHARLES MASSY,

AGAINST THE MARQUIS OF HEADFORD, FOR CRIMINAL CONVERSATION WITH PLAINTIFF'S WIFE.

AT ENNIS ASSIZES, Co. CLARE, ON THE 27TH OF JULY, 1804.

Damages laid at 40,000l.-Verdict, 10,000l.

MR. CURRAN.-Never so clearly as in the present instance have I observed that safeguard of justice, which providence hath placed in the nature of man. Such is the imperious dominion with which truth and reason wave their sceptre over the human intellect, that no solicitations however artful, no talent however commanding, can reduce it from its allegiance. In proportion to the humility of our submission to its rule do we rise into some faint emulation of that ineffable and presiding divinity, whose characteristic attribute it is—to be coerced and bound by the inexorable laws of his own nature, so as to be all-wise and all-just from necessity, rather than election. You have seen it in the learned advocate who has preceded me most peculiarly and strikingly illustrated-you have seen even his great talents, perhaps the first in any country, languishing under a cause too weak to carry him, and too heavy to be carried by him. He was forced to dismiss his natural candour and sincerity, and having no merits in his case, to substitute the dignity of his own manner, the resources of his own ingenuity, over the overwhelming difficulties with which he was surrounded. Wretched client! unhappy advocate! what a combination do you form! But such is the condition of guilt-its commission mean and tremulous-its defence artificial and insincere-its prosecution candid and simple