The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1866-11-02
Sentence OF Col. Lynch IN Canada, and
his Address to the Court.

On the inside Of this paper will be found
an account of the trial and sentence of Col
| ROBERT B. LYNCH on the charge of being
a participant in the late Fenian Invasion of
Canada. Below we give farther particu-
lars, including the address of the prisoner
and sentence Of the judge. The defence
claimed that he was there merely as a cor
respondent, and did not go as an enemy
The defence fell through, however, and the
prisoner was found guilty of the offence
charged
The judge having granted the prisoner
liberty to speak, Mr.. LYNCH, with firm
voice, replied as follows:
Well my lord, you must be aware-you
| must have noticed-the inconvenience and
disadvantage my counsel labored under in
not being able to bring forward the evidence
of those who could have proved clearly that
| had no connection with the Fenian raids.
| state now that had neither hand. act or
part in the late invasion, and that / came
to Canada not in the capacity in which it
has been represented came, but simply as
the correspondent Of public journal. And
IN so doing, was not aware that | violated
either the laws of Canada or those Of my
adopted country. I was not aware there
could be any objection to a reporter follow
ing the army, and chronicling the incidents
and progress of the invasion. Had | known
this, | would have been careful to have re-
mained on the other side. With regard to
the manner in which the Crown had CON
Quoted the prosecution in my case, think
and must confess that have been very
fairly dealt with. Both the Crown Solici-
tor and Mr. Cameron have carried on the
prosecution In the most fair and impartial
manner; and | feel that it is but right in
me to make the statement.
HIS LORDsHIP-The object in a king you
to address the court was to give you an OPP
portunlty Of urging any legal objections, if
you had them 1t is toe late now to dis
cuss the facts of The case.
| PRIsONER-W ell, my lord you must be
aware, with regard to legal objections, that
L am not cOgnizant enough OF law to make
any. | only know that am innocent Of
the crime charged against me, and Of which
have been found guilty. And | here
pledge myself before that God in whose
presence | must appear some day, that am
wholly innocent Of the crimes io2 which |
was brought here; and that | never saw
Stevens until was arrested and brought
into his own house on the ID Of june. On
that occasion I saw him, when placed in his
house, for short time previous to being
brought up to the Court House.
The crier then made the usual proclama-
tiOn prior to passing the sentence Of death
HIS LORDsHIP, the Judge addressing the
prisoner, said-i am very sorry to find a
man Of your age and experience stand
where you do to-day. You are "A man who
must have seen a good deal Of the world
a man not without education and intelli-
gence The evidence brought before the
Court is perfectly clear and conclusive that
you were not IN Canada as reporter on the
occasion charged in the Indictment; but
that you were armed and in some kind of
command What that was does fot dis
tinctIy appear But even though You were
there only as q reporter. yCu ought to have
known that no war had been proclaimed ::
that those men with whom you were seen
were making an atrociOuS. almost unpar-
g aLicled, lnrOad on peaceful country, and
that under the circumstances you were
there to report the ravages Of these men to
others interested, in order that they might
gloat and glory over the stain. Whilst a
sirgIe word would have Influenced the case
TO your prcjudice, | carefully abstained
from anything against you. But now it
E does not lie on NE to extenuatc your fault,
or affect not to see it in It's darkest light. You
professcd, with others to redress the GREW
ances OF ceGturies-to write the wong of an
oppressed pcople-and to remove the iron
heel which you say the Saxon put on the
Celt centuries agoi ard yet you began by
intiicting on Us the very injuries of which
! you complained. Why should your irou
tread be forced on us? Why should our
| l.
be slain by you? VIII any man of sense
answer this plain question? Was it less
than murder fer you to come here IN the
dead Of night to ravage our country and
slay our people? And all this was d0ue
under the color Of relieving Ireland Could
any right you may have authorize you 10
commit such wrong as you then perpetra-
ted ? This is putting yourease IN very
clear light You stand here surrounded by
the friends and relatives Of the men YOU
slew on that OCCASION If you were there
as reporter even you were not gulltess -
\ our object was to encourage others TO
come if these men had been successful or
keep them away if the reverse had happen
ed. Looking at your conduct in tha, light,
you cannot be surprised that the law should
be enforced and that you should suffer the
dread penalty Of that law-as very much
tear YOU WliI-f0r now could we punlon tue
young, reckless, unthinking men to be
brought here for trial-who followed such
as you-if you were allowed to escape p
Could you see any Justice in Furnishing them
in such course? You complain unjustly
that those who were in command on that
occasion we're not allowed to come here to
give testimony in your behalf But | can
not pervert the law, and the Crown had
given any such pledge Of safe conduct as
has been spoken of, it could not be carried
out. You have had all the justice you could
get and have had every advantage of the
forms of law. Every one also a5stalned
from urging too hardly against you that
which might have been urged. But would
fail in my duty now if did not put your
crime in its true light when about to SEN
tence you to appear before that Judge VINO
sees things just as they are 1t IS very
painful thing, the most painful which man
can be called on to do, to doom fellow man
to death But the requirements of society
urge it on me- The law requires should
not shrink from it; if could would. As
the law now stands, you might be sentenced
to immediate execution. The law puts that
discretion in my hands. But inasmuch as
that law Is an erDOst fuctO one as to you, |