I thank my counsel for their able defence, and also Mr.
Roberts, for his attention to my case."
Edward Maguire spoke next. He might well have felt bewildered at
the situation in which he found himself, but he spoke earnestly and
collectedly, nevertheless. He had had an experience of British law
which, if not without precedent, was still extraordinary enough to
create amazement. He knew that he had never been a Fenian; he knew
that he never saw Colonel Kelly--never heard of him until arrested
for assisting in his liberation; he knew that while the van was being
attacked at Bellevue, he was sitting in his own home, miles away; and
he knew that he had never in his life placed his foot in the scene of
the rescue; yet there he found himself convicted by regular process
of law, of the murder of Constable Brett. He had seen witness after
witness enter the box, and deliberately swear they saw him take a
prominent part in the rescue. He saw policemen and civilians coolly
identify him as a ringleader in the affair; he had heard the Crown
lawyers weave round him the subtle meshes of their logic; and now
he found himself pronounced guilty by the jury, in the teeth of the
overwhelming array of unimpeachable evidence brought forward in his
defence. What "the safeguards of the Constitution" mean--what "the
bulwark of English freedom," and "the Palladium of British freedom"
are worth, when Englishmen fill the jury-box and an Irishman stands in
the dock, Maguire had had a fair opportunity of judging.
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