with the Irish people or any other people who may please to revolt against that form of government by which they believe they are governed tyrannically.  England sympathised with America.  She not only sympathised, but she gave her support to both parties; but who ever heard of an Englishman having been arrested by the United States government for having given his support to the Confederate States of America and placed on his trial for high treason against the government?  No such case ever has been.  I do not deny that I have sympathised with the Irish people—­I love Ireland—­I love the Irish people.  And, if I were free to-morrow, and the Irish people were to take the field for independence, my sympathy would be with them; I would join them if they had any prospect whatever of independence, but I would not give my sanction to the useless effusion of blood, however done; and I state distinctly that I had nothing whatever to do, directly or indirectly, with the movement that took place in the county of Dublin.  I make that statement on the brink of my grave.  Again, I claim that I have a right to be discharged of the charge against me by the language of the law by which I have been tried.  That law states that you must have two independent witnesses to prove the overt act against the prisoner.  That is the only complaint I have to make, and I make that aloud.  I find no fault with the jury, no complaint against the judges.  I have been tried and found guilty.  I am perfectly satisfied that I will go to my grave.  I will go to my grave like a gentleman and a Christian, although I regret that I should be cut off at this stage of my life—­still many an noble Irishman fell in defence of the rights of my southern clime.  I do not wish to make any flowery speech to win sympathy in the court of justice.  Without any further remarks I will now accept the sentence of the court.”

Mr. Justice Fitzgerald then in the “solemn tone of voice” adopted on such occasions proceeded to pass sentence in the usual form, fixing the 12th day of June as the date on which the execution should take place.

The prisoner heard the sentence without giving the slightest symptoms of emotion, and then spoke as follows:—­

“I will accept my sentence as becomes a gentleman and a Christian.  I have but one request to ask of the tribunal, and that is that after the execution of the sentence my remains shall be turned over to Mr. Lawless to be by him interred in consecrated ground as quietly as he possibly can.  I have now, previous to leaving the dock, once more to return my grateful and sincere thanks to Mr. Butt, the star of the Irish bar, for his able and devoted defence on behalf of me and my friends.  Mr. Butt, I thank you.  I also return the same token of esteem to Mr. Dowse, for the kind and feeling manner in which he alluded to the scenes in my former life.  Those kind allusions recall to my mind many moments—­some bright, beautiful, and glorious—­and yet some