Let them look at London,
and see the thousands that want bread there, while those
aristocrats are rioting in luxuries and crimes. Look to
Ireland; see the hundreds of thousands of its people in misery
and want. See the virtuous, beautiful, and industrious women
who only a few years ago--aye, and yet--are obliged to look at
their children dying for want of food. Look at what is called
the majesty of the law on one side, and the long deep misery
of a noble people on the other. Which are the young men of
Ireland to respect--the law that murders or banishes their
people, or the means to resist relentless tyranny and ending
their miseries for ever under a home government? I need not
answer that question here. I trust the Irish people will
answer it to their satisfaction soon. I am not astonished at
my conviction. The government of this country have the power
of convicting any person. They appoint the judge; they choose
the jury; and by means of what they call patronage (which is
the means of corruption) they have the power of making the
laws to suit their purposes. I am confident that my blood
will rise a hundredfold against the tyrants who think proper
to commit such an outrage. In the first place, I say I was
identified improperly, by having chains on my hands and feet
at the time of identification, and thus the witnesses who have
sworn to my throwing stones and firing a pistol have sworn to
what is false, for I was, as those ladies said, at the jail
gates.
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