The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-03-28 00:00:00

" CAPTAIN" MACKAY AND HIS
POLITICAL OPINIONS.

The closing scene of the trial of " Captain" Mackay
deserves some notice on account of the incidents it
presented and the moral it enforced. Before the
sitting of the Judges at ten o'clock the court-house
was filled with spectators, of whom a large proportion
were of the gentler sex. Mackay's career had enough
of gallantry and romance about it to make him a
favourite of theirs, and the fact that he was only a few
months married to a fair maiden of Dublin increased
the sympathy which they felt for him. He was
brought down to the court-house in the police-van
with other prinoners, who shared with him the cheers
of a crowd which awaited their arrival- Mr. Justice
O'Hagan having taken his seat, Mackay was at
once put forward to receive sentence, and in answer
to the usual question whether he had anything to say,
proceeded to take advantage of the privilege,
and, following the example of other convicts, delivered
to the assembly a speech from the dock. As a specimen
of Fenian eloquence it would bear favourable com-
parison with other orations of the same class, and in
some respects, so far as it illustrated the character of
the speaker, it was very superior. There was a credit-
able absence of insolence or braggadocio, such as other
" captains" who made clumsy attempts to play the
hero exhibited. His bearing was respectful to the
Court, and he spoke with an earnestness which seemed
I to indicate that he was no selfish adventurer, but a
I rash enthusiast in what he believed to be a patriotic
cause. He commenced by qualifying his expression of
' satisfaction with the verdict by explaining that he
only considered it fair and just according to British
law, but it was not in accordance with his sense of
right and justice. He thanked the jury for their
recommendation to mercy, but said, with all respect,
that he felt the utmost indifference to it, and for this
reason, that he relied entirely upon the goodness of
God, and felt confident that He would so dispcse
events that he would not remain a prisoner so long as
his Lordship might be pleased to decree. He believed
from what he had seen and heard of his Lordship it
would be a painful duty for him to pronounce sentence,
but with respect to is effect upon himself, he ob.
served,—
- - • • • ••

,
To one clinging so much to the worldwnil its joys, to its
fond ties and pleasant associations, as I naturally do, re-
tirement into banishment is seldom—very seldom—welcome.
Of that, however, Ido not complain, hilt to auy man
whose heart glows with the warmest impulse ant the most
intense love of freedom, strously attached to kind friends,
affectionate parents, loving brothers and sisters, and a de-
votedly fond and loving wife, the contentplation id a long
period of imprisonment must appear most terrible and
appalling. To me, however, viewing it from a purely per-
sonal point, mid considering the cease for which I sin
about to suffer, far from being dismayed—far from its die-
ceureging me—it proves to me rather a source of joy and
comfort.
He admitted that his was not a desirable position,
but he repudiated the notion that there was any dis-
grace attached to it. So far from thinking it dis-
creditable, he felt proud and glad that it afforded him
" an opportunity of proving the sincerity of those
soul-elevating principles of freedom which a good old
patriotic father instilled" into his mind, and which he
still entertained "with a strong love whose fervour
and intenaity are second only to the sacred homage
which we owe to God." If he was to be deprived of
the glad and joyous years which he should have spent
among loving friends, he would not complain, but
"joyfully accept God's blessed will, feeling confident
that He will open the strongly-locked and barred
doors of British prisons." Till then it was consolation
and reward enough for him to know that he had "the
fervent prayers, the sympathy, and loving blessings of
Ireland's truly noble and generous people," and far
more comforting to him to go back to his cheerless cell
than to live in slavish ease and luxury, " a witness to
the cruel sufferings and terrible miseries of this down-
trodden people." lie then exclaimed :
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 boa far nobler
garb than the richest dress of slavery. Coward slaves they
be who think the countless eufferities and degradation of
prison life digraces a Mall. I feel etherwise. It is as Im-
possible to subdue the soul animated with freedom as it will
be for England to crush the resolute will of this station,
determined as it is tithe free, or perish in the attempt.
The facts which hail been fairly proved against him,
he gala, though crimes according to British law, were
morally, in the sight of freemen and of God, more
ennobling than disgraceful. It was no crime to assist
our fellow-men to acquire their Gad-given rights,
which no nation could justly deprive them of. If
devotion to Ireland and its faithful, its honest, its
kind people was a crime, he proudly acknowledged
his guilt ; if it was a disgrace he gloried in the shame;
and, with all respect for the Court, he held in therough
contempt the worst punishment that could be inflicted
upon him. "England," he added, "will most miser-
ably fail if she expects by force and oppression to
stamp out this glorious longing for national life and
independence which now tills the breasts of millions of
Irishmen, who only require a little patience and the
opportunity of effecting their purpose." In this im-
passioned strain he continued to address the Court.
He vindicated Fenianism from the imputation of
selfishness, declaring that very few persons, except
such contemptible wretches as Corydon, have profited
by their connexi in with it. His best fliencls hail lost
all they hail ever possessed by it. He denied the truth
of the statement tnade by Corydon and Talbot that
the Fenians intended to divide the land of Ireland
among themselves, and said that he had the honour of
being acquainted with the great majority of the
leaders, and he "never knew one of them to have ex-
hibited a desire other than to have the proud satisfacs
tion of freeing Ireland." As for himself, when he
came to Ireland in 1803 it was to assist an enslaved
people, and he knew that the greatest sacrifices would
have to be endured before they raised the conntry to
the proud position described by the national poet :
"Great, glorious, and free,
"First flower of the earth, first gem of the sea."
Liberty, he remarked, if worth possessing, is surely
worth fighting for, and he felt that enormous sacrifices
mast lie made in the struggle, of which he told the
Crown lawyers and Government of England they had
not yet seen the commencement. He was ready to
meet his fate with the approval of his own conacience,
hoping for God's forgiveness for anything he might
have done to displease Him, and relying upon His
sustaining grace to enable hint to bear any punishment,
no matter bow severe, so long as it was for " glorious
old Ireland." Ile then entered into a long explanation
to show that he did not memorialise the Lord'
Lieutenant to be released from custody, or violate the
condition upon which he was liberated in 1867. He
charged Corydon with having concocted a story as to
his proceedings in Liverpool. In conclusion, he
thanked his Lordship for his fair and impartial conduct
during the trial, observing that if there was anything
not impartial in it at all, it was in his favour and not
in favour of the Crown, and that he thought was the
duty of a judge, because the prisoner is always on the
weak side and the Crown has all the power and in-
fluence that the law and a full exchequer can give it.
Adopting the last words of Larkin, "the martyr of
Manchester," and of his old friend Condon, he ex-
claimed "God gave Ireland ! God be with you, Irish
men and women! God save you God bless Ireland!
and God grant nte strength to bear my task for
Ireland as; becomes a man ! Farewell." Observing
that some of the audience evinced emotion at this
period, he repudiated any feeling of despair, and said
he felt "confident that there is a glorious future in
store for Ireland, and that, with a little patience, a
little organisation, and a full trust in God on the part
of the Irish people, they will be enabled to obtain it at
no distant date." He resumed his Beat amid a sup-
pressed murmur of applause, and remained sitting
until the learned judge came to the passage in deliver-
ing the sentence in which the punishment was
announced.
Mr. Justice O'Hagan addressed the prisoner in
terms which were calculated to produce a deep im-
pression upon all in court and to correct the erroneous
teaching of the prisoner. His observations in con-
demnation of such an insane enterprise as that in which
Mackay had engaged came with not the less weight
that they were accompanied by expressions of com-
passion, and were uttered by one who is ardently at-
tached to his country and cordially esteemed by the
people. Having referred to the charge of murder
upon which the prisoner had first been tried, and de-
clared his approval of the verdict, his Lordship said he
equally approved the verdict in this case, and it be-
came his painful duty, as the prisoner rightly contem-
plated he would feel it to be, to pronounce what must,
however mitigated, be still a heavy sentence. From
whatever motive the prisoner had acted— and the
Court attributed to him none of a mean or sordid
character—whether from the love of adventure
fostered on the battle-fields of the great nation of which
be claimed to be a citizen, or, EM would appear from
his address, from misguided political enthusiasm, he
had broken the peace and defied the lawn of this
country by deeds of reckless daring, and it was neces-
sary that by his punishment others sheuld be deterred
from disturbing that peace and outraging that law.
There were circumstances in his pesttion and there
were qualities in his conduct entitling him to all the
consideration which would be given to the merciful
intervention of the jury in his behalf. Having alluded
to the prisoner's young wife, and to the evidence that
he possessed a humane and generous nature, his Lord-
ship proceeded to express sympathy for his fate, and
to point out the lemon to be drawn for it as follows t
I am very sorry for you and for the poor girl who must
suffer in your suffering; and I shall not aggravate the pain
of your position by any harsh words of mine, or attempt, by
useless arguments, to alter the opinions you have avowed to-
day. You will have time en.mgh in tile dreary hours of your
inevitable seclusion to reconsider those opinions, and modify
them by calm reflection ; and I have no doubt you will yet
mourn the misspent energy and the criminal folly of the past.
hall would say a word to those with whom you have been
Immolated, or who may be disposed to imitate your conduct,
to their own destruction, and to the great detrintent of the
country to which many of them, I doubt not, have a sincere

attachment. I would appeal to them to be warned by your
example, that they may avoid your fate ; I would ask
them to be instructed by the lesson of your trial, repeated
for the thousandth time, that secret conspiracy brings
ruin, swift and sure, on all who engage in it—that the in
former and the spy will ever be found dogging treason to its
doom—that the law is strong enough to assert its mastery,
and political improvements are vainly sought by violence
and bloodshed-1 would oak them to listen to the warning
voice which has come to them across the Atlantic, the voice
of a Man of high ability, to whom they should Surely
hearken, with the trust which he must have earned from
them by lengthened exile and its sufferings and sacrifices
for principles like their own, aid in a cause as desperate
as theirs. And when they hear John Mitchel expose, with
courageous truthfulness, the gigantic delusion by which they
have been fooled, the fatuity with which they have obeyed
leaders luring them to destruction, the vanity of their fantastic
hopes, and the utter impotence of their weak endeavours in
the circumstances in which they stand, they should respect
his counsel and abandon their evilmovement. Atid, for myself,
as one who is not less a lover of his country and of its
generous and kindly people because he wears the ermine of
a Judge—as one who knows that loyalty to the Sovereign
and reverence for the law are perfectly compatible with the
deepest devotion to 'the real interests of Ireland—l would
entreat men of honest minds and pure intention, of whom I
believe you to be one, who have been wretchedly misled, to
relinquish an insane struggle ageing the irresistible power
of a mighty empire, which I. an issue only in disaster to them-
selves. I would implore them to ab index the hopeless
efforts which, en far as they have had effect at all, have tilled
th.s island with terror and unrest—have obstructed its Indus-
t ial progress, poi,oned the sources of its national prosperity,
and brought sorrow and desolation to the homes of men endur-
ing imw the living death of pond servitude, and who were en-
dowed, like you, with faculties, and feelings, which should
have won for them a better fate. I would tell them that,
under the shadow of the freest Constitution which belongs
toasty European land, within the limits of the law which,
fairly and honestly administered, secures to the subjects of
this realm all legitimate privileges and all reasonable
liberties—the Irish people, without blood or crime, by
united, energetic, and persevering action, can achieve the
redress of every grievance and the concession of every right.
That they have power to do cola vouched by the peaceful
frdimphe of the past; anti sure I am there never was a
period in which the Imperial Legislature was more disposed
to entertain the just clainis of Ireland, or the British nation
were more willing to allow them. It will be her own fault
if, with full power of self-assertion, walking in the safe and
open ways of the Constitution, she does not gain all that she
can rightfully demand. And it is enrol the deadliest sins
against God and man to seek what can be so accomplished
through the unspeakable horrors and crimes of sanguinary
revolution. I have thought it not unfit to say so much iii
this occasion in the hope that my words may not be wholly
without effect. They are at least the utterance of honest
feeling, and they should not have less influence because they
are spoken from the judicial seat, which makes its occupant
equally and absolutely independent of the Crown and the
people, and lifts him above the disturbing influences of hope
and fear.

His Lordship then observed that he bad measured
carefrilly, after the most anxious consideration, the
sentence which he should pronounce. He had taken
into account the recommendation of the jury, which
enabled him to make it less severe then it otherwise
would have been, but the interests of society and the
requirements of the law limited his power to mitigate
its severity. It was most painful to have to send the
prisoner in the flush and vigour of his young existence
to penal incarceration for a lengthened period, but he
might return from it to his home a sadder but a wiser
man. The sentence was that he be kept in penal
servitude for twelve years.
The prisoner attempted to make some further ob-
servations, but was not allowed. He then kissed
hands to his female friends in the gallery with a
nonchalant air and withdrew.