The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-05 00:00:00

It now remains for me to say but a few words in re-
ference to the particular acts charged against my client,
Mr. Duffy. Gentlemen, lat once admit that he is a
Repealer—that he is of opinion that the union
ought to be repealed ; but he never attended any one
of those meetings. His state of health did not per-
mit him ; his inclination did not permit him ; his
business did not permit him ; and the only occasion on
which he attended a meeting of the Repeal Association
he handed in some subscriptions, and did nothing
more. You are yet called upon to hold - him re-
sponsible for everything that was said and done at those
meetings—for the speech Imade at Clifden, as well as
that at Mullaghinast, Mr. Duffy is to be held accountable.
What, then, is the separate evidence against him ? I
shall apply • myself very briefly to it. The publication
of a song has been charged against him, and anything
more monstrous than the manner in which
that part of the charge is introduced into
the indictment it is scarcely possible to con-
ceive. The charge against Mr. Duffy, I should
observe, is under two distinct heads—the publica-
tion of reports of speeches, and the original articles and
observations upon them. With respect to the reports I
apprehend that you cannot find him guilty of any charge
of conspiracy. He reprinted in his weekly paper, though
not at such a length, the reports of proceedings for the
previous week, compiled from perhaps ten or a dozen
other journals in which they originally appeared. The
remaining question, then, is as to the original publica-
tions, which, I admit, suggest other considerations,
which I shall take the liberty of bringing under your
notice. The Attorney-General proposes to establish the
crime of conspiracy, by picking out three or four articles,
published at different periods, and suggested by passing
events, culled from the publications in a weekly newspa-
per, extending over a period of nine months, and read to
the Court as being calculated to prejudice the minds of the
people against the Government of England; and, observe,
that all the intervening quotations, which might qualify
or explain them, are passed over, although the Learned
Gentleman ferretted out everything else that could serve
his purposes, whether in large type or in small. The
song on which they rely is entitled " The Memory of
the Dead," and was published in the Nation on the Ist
of April, 1843—a very 'proper day for the publication
of that which is now selected by the Crown as evidence
of a conspiracy. Are you to visit this act of Mr.
Duffy's on Mr. O'Connell, or to presume that it was
published in pursuance of a common plan between the
traversers? That song was written by some clever
young man, and I took the liberty of reading to you
another song published in the same paper on the same
day, and which it was certainly as agreeable to
hear as many of Mr. Attorney-General's state-
ments. These very sweet, agreeable verses were read
from the very same paper. Are you to be
asked to believe that Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Steele
knew beforehand that some young man, perhaps within
the walls of Trinity College, animated with that poetic
fire which illumined his imaginative soul, would write
that song and send it to the proprietor of the Nation
to fill up a corner in his paper ? Are you to believe
that all this was done in pursuance of a common object,
and in furtherance of a conspiracy ? Is it come to this,
that the Government of England is not safe—that the
constitution of England is in danger, because some
young men, gifted as the writer of that song un-
questionably was, adverted, in poetic language,
to the mistaken views of men who lived in former
days ?—or will any twelve honest, or intelligent,
or experienced men, he asked to found a verdict
on such grounds ? Gentlemen, it is not fair—it is
not chivalrous—it is not'generous thus to take a young
man to ask for the ardent and warm-hearted effu-
sions of his early youth. The writer whom, of all
others, I most admire—the writer who, in my opinion,
has, by his writings, done more than any other author
to uphold our social system—to mend the morals and
improve the mind—Robert Southey himself, commenced
his career by writing that memorable work, " Wat
Tyler," but the tone and temper of his mind were
changed when a sounder judgment and more extensive
knowledge of the world taught him to view men and
manners by the calm light of cool, dispassionate reason.
Alas ! Mr. Solicitor, am Ito be told that it is worthy of
a wise and enlightened Government to bear down
with the full current of a State prosecution upon
the writer of that enthusiastic little song, writ-
ten with the ardour of thoughtless youth, and
that, too, after the lapse of nine months from
the time of its .composition? Gentlemen, in the
disastrous and criminal movement of '9B, amongst the
most prominent of the leaders were two ill-fated mem- i
bers of my own profession—Henry and John Shears.
In a review which recently appeared in a re-
spectable literary publication, the Atheneum, of
the- "Life and Writings of the late William
Taylor, of Norwich," I find this remarkable fact noticed,
that the first letter of a long correspondence between
Taylor and Southey transmits an elegy on the fate of
those, unhappy young men. I will read for you an ex-
tract from the review in the Athenceum:—"ln 1798
William Taylor became acquainted with Robert Southey,
then rising into fame, and a correspondence ensued be-
tween them which extended for many years. It is sin-
gular that Taylor's first letter should transmit an elegy
on the fate . of Henry and John Shears, who had just
been executed for high treason in Dublin ; Taylor cele-
brates them as martyred patriots. The passage in which
their mother, is introduced, bidding them farewell in the
dungeon, will give a general notion of the spirit which
pervades the whole
, Sons, 'twas for this I bore you--die as men,
• ,To whom your father's country and your offspring
Deserved to owe the good
Ye struggled to obtain.
Thy wife, son, cannot speak— she loves thy children ;
And in her poverty shall thank her CO
That thou hest boldly dared
Devote them for thy country.
Than needest,lohn, thy mother's counsel not.
*lf the few weeks that ere we meet, roll by,
Worthy of thee" spend,
Well pleased mine eyes shall close.
And, Gentlemen, am I to be told that the man who
penned that touching verse is to be brandedfor ever more
as a conspirator, because he commisserated, the unhappy
end of any ardent and misguided men who loved their
country, " not too wisely, but too well ?" No, Gen-
tlemen, such a proceeding would be scandalous and
disgraceful ; and equally unworthy is it of the great
and distinguished Government which prosecutes in the
present instance, to direct the thunders of their indig-
nation against the enthusiastic young author of the
" Memory of the Dead." Let the Solicitor-General tell
how the Government of England punished Mr. Moore
for poems not a whit more indicative of conspiracy (if
conspiracy indeed there be) than the stanzas which have
been read to you. Let him tell you how Moore was
punished for writing such lines as these in the " La-
mentation of Aughrim" :
Could the chain for an instant be riven
Which tyranny flung round us then,
Oh ! 'tis not in man nor in heaven
To let Tyranny bind it again.
But 'tis past ; and though blazoned in story
The name of our victor may be,
Accursed is the march of the glory
Which treads o'er the hearts of the free.

le will tell you how the bard was punished for penning
he song of "Rourke, Prince of Breffny," and of in-
serting in it such lines as these --
Already the curse is upon her,
And strangers her valleys profane;
They come to divide—to dishonour ;
And tyrants they long will remain.
But onward I—the green banner rearing,
Go flesh every sword to the hilt :
On our side is Virtue and Erin;
On theirs is the Saxon and Guilt.
Yes, gentlemen, the author of the "Adventures of an
Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion," and of the
" Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald," was punished.
But how was he punished ? He was punished by a
pension from the English. Government—yes, Moore
was punished with a pension for his sedition; and you,
Gentlemen' of the jury, are now solicited to bring a
verdict of "guilty" against the writer of this song, and
to declare your conviction that the emanation of a mind,
young, ardent, poetical, and imaginative, though mis-
taken, was written in furtherance of a common plan and'
design of the most infamous nature! However ardent
the youth of Ireland may be, it should never be forgotten
of them that they never forgot their loyalty to their
Sovereign—even when in 1715 and 1745 the best blood
of England and of Scotland bedewed the scaffold, in con-
sequence of the mad, and well-nigh successful attempt
to dislodge the present Royal family from the throne
of these countries, the Irish were faithful even to the
death. Are not the free subjects of a free state to be
permitted to raise their voices in constitutional protes-
tation and remonstrance, when they think that their
interests are endangered or injured ? Scott, the most
cautious of writers, was once called upon to decide
between his attachment to his party and his love of
Scotland. The British Ministry declared their inten-
tion to introduce—regardless of the feelings of the
Scottish people, who considered that their. interests
were vitally concerned—a Bill in reference to the joint-
stock banks of Scotland. The Scotch thought that
they would be injured by the contemplated Bill ;
and Sir Walter Scott, fired with indignation at the idea
that, the Act should be introduced without con-
sulting the, wishes and feelings of his countrymen,
wrote under the signature of "Malachi Malagrouther"
a series of letters which excited such a flame of indig-
nation in the country, from north to south, from east to
west, that the Minister of the Crown was obliged to fly
away with his obnoxious Bill under his arm, just as
the Attorney-General would be forced to fly off with his
monster indictment on his shoulder, for it would not fit
under any man's arm.---,(Laughter.) The British Mi-
nister failed, for the Seotch said, "we must get our
joint-stock banks"—aye, and they did succeed in getting
them; and are we not a country as good as Scotland,
that succeeded in wringing from the, British Minister
their rights in what they considered a mercantile point
of view? Was that to be done in a cold and servile man-
ner? Do you think Scott did it in that cold and mawkish
manner, and said, as we lawyers say, "Oh! I respect-
fully submit?" Not he; he too well knew that he might
as well be whistling. jigs to a milestone—(Laughter)--
and, therefore, he went boldly about the task, and Sir.
Waiter Scott succeeded in making his country—which
contained about one quarter of the number of inhabitants
that Ireland did—he succeeded, I say, in making her
happy, respectable, and great, while we remain a poor,
pitiful, pelting province. lam not ashamed to say this.
I hope that the people of Ireland will combine in the
one cause, and that is the cause of their common coun-

try—for the common good of that country—for the good
of this ancient kingdom; that she may once again
flourish in the world's history. There .is one
article more I shall trouble you with; but I
must remark that I cannot approve of the unjust and
intemperate observations which were sometimes made
upon. the English nation—for they are a great, free, and
magnanimous people. I object to reviving the, recollec-
tions of past struggles and contentions. They can only
be usefully recalled for one purpose, and I hope and be-
lieve it was for that purpose—to show the people the