I hope the American people will notice that
part of the business. [The prisoner here commenced reading
from a paper he held in his hand.] The right of man is
freedom. The great God has endowed him with affections that
he may use, not smother them, and a world that may be enjoyed.
Once a man is satisfied he is doing right, and attempts to do
anything with that conviction, he must be willing to face all
the consequences. Ireland, with its beautiful scenery, its
delightful climate, its rich and productive lands, is capable
of supporting more than treble its population in ease and
comfort. Yet no man, except a paid official of the British
government, can say there is a shadow of liberty, that there
is a spark of glad life amongst its plundered and persecuted
inhabitants. It is to be hoped that its imbecile and
tyrannical rulers will be for ever driven from her soil,
amidst the execration of the world. How beautifully the
aristocrats of England moralise on the despotism of the
rulers of Italy and Dahomey--in the case of Naples with what
indignation did they speak of the ruin of families by the
detention of its head or some loved member in a prison. Who
have not heard their condemnations of the tyranny that would
compel honourable and good men to spend their useful lives in
hopeless banishment.
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