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by its example, would be as important as its valour, disciplined, gallant, pregnant with science and experience; who would perceive the good, and polish the rough points of our character; they would come to us as strangers, and leave us as friends, after sharing in our perils and elevating our destiny. These were my objects; not to receive new task-masters, but to expel old tyrants, these were my views, and these only became Irishmen. It was for these ends I sought aid from France, because France, even as an enemy, could not be more implacable than the enemy already in the bosom of my country.

[Here he was interrupted by the court.]

I have been charged with that importance in the efforts to emancipate my country, as to be considered the key-stone of the combination of Irishmen; or, as your lordship expressed it, "the life and blood of conspiracy." You do me honour over-much. You have given to the subaltern all the credit of a superior. There are men engaged in this conspiracy, who are not only superior to me, but even to your own conceptions of yourself, my lord; men. before the splendor of whose genuis and virtues, I should bow with respectful deference, and who would think themselves dishonoured to be called your friend-who would not disgrace themselves by shaking your blood stained hand

[Here he was interrupted.]

What, my lord, shall you tell me, on the passage to that scaffold, which that tyranny, of which you are only the intermediary executioner, has erected for my murder, that I am accountable for all the blood that has, and will be shed in this struggle of the oppressed against the oppressor?-shall you tell me this--and must I be so very a slave as not to repel it?

I do not fear to approach the omnipotent Judge, to answer for the conduct of my whole life; and am I to be appalled and falsified by a mere remnant of mortality here? By you too, who, if it were possible to collect all the innocent blood that you have shed in your unhallowed ministry, ip one great reservoir, your lodship might swim in it.

[Here the Judge interfered.]

Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge me with dishonour; let no man attaint my memory by believing that I could have engaged in any cause but that of my country's liberty and independence; or that I could have become the pliant minion of

power in the oppression or the miseries of my countrymen. The proclamation of the provisional government speaks for our views; no inference can be tortured from it to countenance barbarity or debasement at home, or subjection, humiliation, or treachery from abroad; I would not have submitted to a foreign oppressor for the same reason that I would resist the foreign and domestic oppressor; in the dignity of freedom I would have fought upon the threshold of my country, and its enemy should enter only by passing over my lifeless corpse. Am who lived but for my country, and who have subjected myself to the dangers of the jealous and watchful oppressor, and the bondage of the grave, only to give my countrymen their rights, and my country her independence, and am I to be loaded with alumny, and not suffered to resent or repel it--No, God forbid '

If the spirits of the ilustrious dead participate in the concerns and cares of those who are dear to them in this transitory lifeO ever dear and venerated shade of my departed father, look down with scrutiny upon the conduct of your suffering son; and see if I have even for a moment deviated from those principles of morality and patriotism which it was your care to instil into my youthful mind; and for which I am now to offer up my life..

My lords, you are impatient for the sacrifice the blood which you seek, is not congealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim; it circulates warmly and unruffled, through the channels which God created for, noble purposes, but which you are bent to destroy, for purposes so grievous, that they cry to heaven.-Be yet patient! I have but a few words more to say. I am going to my cold and silent grave my lamp of life is nearly extinguished: my race is run: the grave opens to receive me, and I sink into its bosom! I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world,—it is the charity of its silence — Let no man write my epitaph: for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and ime repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character; when my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written.--I have done.

THE END.

لز

CONTENTS TO PHILLIPS' SPEECHES.

PREFACE, by Mr. Finlay

Page


Speech delivered at a Public Dinner given to Mr. Finlay by the Roman Catholics of
the Town and County of Sligo

9

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20

Speech delivered at an Aggregate Meeting of the Roman Catholics of Cork
Speech delivered at a Dinner given on Dinas Island, in the Lake of Killarney, on
Mr. Phillips's health being given, together with that of Mr. Payne, a young Ame-
rican

Speech delivered at an aggregate Meeting of the Roman Catholics of the county and
city of Dublin

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Petition referred to in the preceding Speech, drawn by Mr. Phillips at the request
of the Roman Catholics of Ireland

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The Address to H. R. H. the Princess of Wales, drawn by Mr. Philips at the re-
quest of the Roman Catholics of Ireland

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54

Speech delivered by Mr. Phillips at a public dinner given to him by the Friends of
Civil and Religious liberty, in Liverpool

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Speech of Mr. Phillips in the case of Guthrie v. Sterne, delivered in the Court of
Common Pleas, Dublin

66

Speech of Mr. Phillips in the case of O'Mullan v. M'Korkill, delivered at the County
Court-house, Galway

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83

Speech in the case of Connaghton v. Dillon delivered in the County Court-house of
Roscommon

: 100

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Speech of Mr. Phillips in the case of Creighton v. Townsend, delivered in the Court
of Common Pleas, Lublin
- 110
Speech in the case of Blake v. Wilkins, delivered in the County Court-house, Galway 121
A Character of Napoleon Buonaparte, down to the period of his Exile to Elba - 134
Speech of Mr. Phillips in the case of Browne v. Blake, for crim. con. delivered in
Dublin, on the 9th July, 1817.

- 138
Speech of Mr Phillips at a meeting of the gentlemen, clergy, freeholders, and other
inhabitants of the County of Sligo, for the purpose of taking into consideration an
Address of Condolence to the King on the Death of his Royal father, and of Con-
gratulation to his Majesty on his Accession to the Throne

Speech of Mr. Phillips delivered at the Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign
Auxiliary Bible Society, London

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Letter of Mr. Phillips to George IV. October 6th, 1820.

153

159

- 165

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