The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

MR. SMITH O'BRIEN IN EXILE.

The Nation of Saturday publishes the subjoined ad-
dress from Mr. W. Smith O'Brien to the nobility, clergy,
members of Parliament, corporate bodies, and gentlemen
who have memorialised in favour of the Irish State pri-
soners now living in penal exile in Van Diemen's
Land :

"My Lords and Gentlemen,—During the last four
years I have been induced by various considerations to
abstain as much as possible from every sort of appeal to
public opinion ; but I feel that I should be justly charge-
able with ingratitude if I were now to refrain from offer-
ing my best acknowledgments for the generous sympathy
which has spontaneously prompted you to endeavour to
procure for the Irish State prisoners restoration to our
homes and families. Nor am I at liberty to leave wholly
unnoticed the language which has been applied to us by
the Viceroy of Ireland in answer to your memorial. It
is difficult for me at so great a distance to understand
fully the impulses of public feeling in Ireland ; but I
believe that I am not mistaken in supposing that the
memorialists may, for the most part, be divided into two
distinct classes of persons. The first is composed of
those who concurred in many of our sentiments with
respect to the grievances of our country, but thought
that a resort to arms for the purpose of obtaining redress
was either not justifiable or not expedient. It is not
unnatural that our lot should engage the sympathies of
this class of our fellow-countrymen. The second is com-
posed of persons who concurred neither with our senti-
ments respecting the wrongs of our country nor with our
opinions as to the best mode of vindicating its rights and
averting its ruin. These men, though they now seek to
mitigate our sufferings, would have boldly encountered
us in the field, but, with true magnanimity, they do not
shrink from an avowal of their belief that we were im-
pelled to our unsuccessful effort by pure and honourable
motives. Nor are they so distrustful of the strength of
the institutions which they uphold as to believe that the
return of five men to Ireland can endanger those institu-
tions. I know not which of these two classes is most
entitled to the tribute of thanks which I am now desir-
ous to offer. I can admire a brave and generous foe as
much as I love a faithful and attached friend—as much
as I scorn a mean and vindictive enemy ; and I am
proud of my countrymen when I contrast their noble
bearing towards us with the petty malignity which has
been displayed by those who claim to be exponents of
the sentiments of the English nation. From the hour
when I was arrested to that in which Lord Eglinton
delivered his answer to your memorial, English states-
men have laboured to blacken the character of the Irish
patriots of 1848, either by personally imputing to them
the most unworthy motives, or (as in the case of
Lord Clarendon and Birch) by hiring calumniators to
defame them. In this ignoble warfare against men who
can no longer defend themselves they have been well
supported by the English press ; but the manifestations
of sympathy which have recently taken place in America
as well as in Ireland—manifestations unequalled in
ex-
tent, and in some respects unprecedented in character in
the history of political offenders—signally evince that
they have utterly failed to accomplish their inglorious
design. Leaving unnoticed the indications of this spirit
which are to be found in the answer of Lord Eglin-
ton, I proceed to offer a few remarks upon the reasons
which his Excellency has urged as grounds for the refusal
of your request.
"'None of the persons,' he says, ' in whose behalf my

interference is solicited have expressed contrition for
their crimes, or manifested any sense of gratitude or
loyalty to the gracious Sovereign whom they have so
grievously offended, and to whose clemency some of them
are indebted for their lives.'

"To you, my lords and gentlemen, I have no hesita-
tion in admitting that the effort which I made in 1848
to excite an insurrection in Ireland was rash and inexpe-
dient. Events prove that I had miscalculated the
chances of success. I regret that effort, not so much on
acccount of the consequences which it has entailed upon
myself, as because Ihelieve it to have been disastrous to
my country ; but, until my sentiments of patriotic duty
shall undergo such a change as I do not now contem-
plate, I never can be brought to express of it contrition
as for a crime. lam contented to rest the vindication
of my design upon the revelations of the census of 1851.
I have read in history of desolation occasioned by con-
quest, pestilence, famine, and civil war, but I can find
r.o case in which 2,000,000 of human beings have been
swept from their native soil, or consigned to a premature
grave, within a period of five years through the conduct
of their rulers. I conscientiously believe that this ap-
palling sacrifice of one-fourth cf the Irish nation, as well
as general suffering with which it has been accom-
panied, might have been altogether prevented by wise
and benificent government Under these circumstances
I may acknowledge that I committed a mistake
in supposing that I should be supported by the
Irish people in the attempt to resist unconstitu-
tional legislation, and to avert national ruin by
an appeal to arms ; but I cannot express contrition
for such an attempt as if it were a crime. If it be a
crime to have loved the land of my fathers with fana-
tic affection—then lam a criminal. If it be a crime to
have devoted to the welfare of that land a life of unre-
mitting toil —than lam a criminal. If it be a crime to
have foregone for its sake every object of personal am-
bition, and, what I prize still more, the endearments of
domestic association in the happiest of homes—then I
am a criminal. If it be a crime to have encountered for
its sake every sort of obloquy and danger—then I am a
criminal. If it be a crime to have humbled myself for'its
sake to political adversaries, beseeching them to unite
with me in a common effort to save our common coun-
try—then lam a criminal. If it be a crime to have
stooped for its sake to solicitations from the British
Parliament, galling alike to personal and national pride
—then lam a criminal. If it he a crime, when I fodnd
peaceful remonstrance unavailing, to have incited illy
countrymen to appeal to that fial arbitrament which
even England can honour in Hungarian failure and in
American success—then lam a criminal. If it be a
crime to have desired to win the freedom and indepen-
dence of my country with the least possible amount of
bloodshed, and with total abstinence from revolutionary
excesses—then lam a criminal. Were lin the pre-
sence of my Maker, I could not acknowledge as a crime
this devotion to Ireland. How, then, can I expiess
contrition for it to that Government which has been,
both direetly and indirectly, both in times far remote
and in the days of its recent calamity, the agen to
which it owes its oppression and desolation ? Compared
with the calamities of my beloved country, my own
own personal suffering is a matter of insignificance even
to myself. Yet I cannot find in the treatment which I
have experienced any grounds for that gratitude which
the Irish exiles are reproached for withholding. Wien
convicted at Clonmel, by a species of trial upon which I
am not now disposed to animadvert, I prepared myself
to expect that the sentence of death recorded against
me would be executed. I will not say that there might
have been some hazard in attempting to carry into effect
that sentence ; but it will not be forgotten that even the
British public was shocked at the idea that we should be
put to death by the same men who had invited Sir Wm.
Napier to take command of a rebel force for the purposb of
coercing an adverse party to pass the Reform Bill, and Who,
at the verymoment when we were convicted, were relying
upon the support of the Canadian rebels for the mainte-
nance of their influence in North America. Yet I was
prepared for this result. As the law then stood, the alter-
native
penalty which I incurred was death or imprigon-
ment in Ireland during the pleasure of the Queen.
Neither of these alternatives was applied in my case ; but,
by ex post facto legislation, I was consigned, as a tran-
sported convict, to perpetual separation from my ceun-
try and my family—a punishment which I then consi-
dered, and still consider, worse than death. I refused,
in 1849, to accept such an ex post facto enactment as a
mitigation of my sentence, and my experience during
the last three years still forbids me to consider this cbm-
mutation as an act of clemency. How, then, can I tes-
tify gratitude for what I deem to be wrong l Neither
can I find any cause for gratitude in the treatment which
the Irish State prisoners have experienced in Van Die-
men's Laud. It has been exceptional ; but it would
not be difficult to show that it has been exceptional
against us rather than in our favour. The efforts which
have been made by the local Government to annoy and
humililiate us evince a spirit which I can characterise
only as dastard spite ; and, the proceedings of Sir Wm.
Denison having been sanctioned by the home Govern-
ment, it deserves to share the praise which he may claim.
Rulers may brand and punish patriotism as a crime, but
it is not in their power to induce mankind to "shrink
with abhorrence" from those who have been condemned,
because unsuccessful, for the exercise of this virtue.
Had we been treated as ordinary felons, such treatment
would, even in this country, have irritated public feel-
ing without withdrawing from us the sympathy of one
generous mind. I shall not waste your time nor my
own by recapitulating the various circumstances which
justify me in holding this language. It is sufficient
that I should say, at this moment, after we have' en•
dured four years of imprisonment, no convict.,who holds
a " ticket of leave" is subject to the restrictions which,
notwithstanding the exaction from us of a parole, have
been imposed upon all the State prisoners except Mr.
Mitchel. The case of Mr. Mitchel is also exceptionnl,
and affords a striking illustration of the vindicative spirit
by which the British Government has been animated
towards the Irish exiles. In consideration of the
hardships which the convicts brought from Ber-
muda along with Mr. Mitchel, underwent while de-
tained on board the Neptune at the Cape of Good Hope
and on the voyage ,a conditional pardon was granted to
all on board, whatever might be their crimes, with the
single exception of the Irish patriot. In proceedings
such as these I can find no cause for gratitude. Lord
Eglinton proceeds to reproach us with having made no
professions of loyalty to the Queen. Had we expressed
respect for her Majesty we should probably have been
rewarded with banter and contempt. In my case, such
professions are as needless as they are unavailing. I
cannot remember that I ever in my life uttered a word
disrespectful to Queen Victoria. I never conspired
against her person ; nor, except inferentially, can it be
said that I conspired against her crown. Yet one of the
most prominent of modern British statesmen condes-
cended, for the purpose of raising a prejudice against me,
to allege, upon no better authority than a story invented
by a hostile journalist, that I aspired to revive in my
own person that native royalty which was, during many
centuries, hereditary in my family. While I regarded
the inteference of the British Parliament in the affairs of
Ireland as a usurpation, I was willing to acknowledge
the Queen of Great Britain as both de jure and de facto
Sovereign of Ireland. Until the hour at which I insti-
gated the people of Ireland to take up arms in resistance
to an unconstitutional enactment of the British Parlia-
ment, I was prepared to adopt the ancient constitution
of my country. impersonated in ' The Queen, Lords, and
Commons of Ireland,' as the legitimate authority to
which I owed subjection. Had the abortive insurrection
which was occasioned by the misgovernment of the Bri-
tish Parliament been successful, a republic would pro-
bably have been established in Ireland ; but with me at
least such a result would have been a matter of necessity
rather than of choice. I admire the republican institu-
tions of America, but I am by no means convinced that
a republic is the only form of government under which
nations can be free, prosperous, and happy. I have now
no new professions of loyalty to offer. I conceive that
allegiance is an obligation reciprocal with, and condi-
tional upon, good government. I conceive that re-
gard for the rights and welfare of our country is a
duty paramount to the respect which we owe to its chief
magistarate. Such are the principles to the maintenance
of which the family of Brunswick owes its seat upon the
throne of England, and by the due observance of which
the crown may be best preserved for its present possessor
and her descendants. In concluding this address, I will
not conceal from you that I have been disappointed in
the result of your intervention in our favour. Though I
expected little from the magnanimity of English politi-
cians, I yet thought that motives of expediency would
probably lead to compliance with your request. Be-
lieving that a general and unconditional amnesty in re-
gard to the insurrectionary% proceedings of 1848 is dic-
tated not less by policy than by generous feeling, I
thought it probable that Lord Derby's Administration
would have made a graceful concession to the wishes of
the most high-minded portion of the Irish nation and to
the universal voice of North America. I was the more
inclined to indulge this belief when I found that three of
the most eminent of my counsel—Mr. Whiteside, Mr.
Napier, and Sir F. Kelly—have become law advisers of
the Crown under the new Ministerial arrangements. As
these functionaries, not only in their professional capa-
city, bat also as private gentlemen (and in the case of
Sir F. Kelly by an extra-forensic proceeding which is, I
believe, without precedent), protested that I was not
tried according to law, I thought that, unless they
be the most contemptible of mercenaries, they would, as
Government officials, maintain the same opinion which
they had delivered in the proceedings connected with my
defence. 'These expectations!have been disappointed. If
I were disposed to cherish resentment against England,
I should console myself with anaassnuoar seenc
e it,tah
whent th e day
e
will arrive, though perhaps
British Government will regret that they refused your
repuest. But I find a purer source of consolation in the
consciousness that the penalties which have been in-
flicted upor me by British legislation have been merited
only by my devotion and fidelity to the land of my
birth.

OJAL ...•
" I have the honour to remain, your obliged and
faithful servant,

" WILLIAM S. O'BRIEN.
"New Norfolk, Van Diemen's Land, Sept. 14, 1852."

THE LONGWOODS OF THE GRANGE—A Novel,
the
Author of "Adelaide Lindsay. "—The g woodsyare a
family group in the story of whose life, as told by the
successful delineator of "Adelaide Lindsay," even blaze
romance readers will find a charm and an interest simi-
lar to that which attends the annals of the " Vicar of
Wakefield"—arising from the homeliness of the scenes,
the reality of the type of character and the clear possi-
ble plot. In the very simplicity of the story, and the
characters contriving to sustain eager reading to the
end—and, at the end, to live as familiar acquaintances.
The test of the novel writer's creative capacity, will be
perceived proof that the writer is an artist—and artistic
conception and consistent finish are the traits of the
sketch. Our readers will find in " The Longwoods" a
novel worth reading and worth remembering.—Daily
Nam