Mr. Roberts was officially informed
that the sentence would infallibly be carried out. By this time barely
a few days remained of the interval previous to the date fixed for
the execution, and the strangest sensations swayed the public mind in
Ireland. Even still, no one would seriously credit that men would be
put to death on a verdict notoriously false. Some persons who proposed
memorials to the Queen were met on all hands with the answer that it
was all "acting" on the part of the government; that, even though it
should be at the foot of the scaffold, the men would be reprieved;
that the government would not--_dare not_--take away human life on a
verdict already vitiated and abandoned as a perjury or blunder.
The day of doom approached; and now, as it came nearer and nearer,
a painful and sickening alternation of incredulity and horror surged
through every Irish heart. Meanwhile, the Press of England, on
both sides of the Channel, kept up a ceaseless cry for blood. The
government were told that to let these men off, innocent or guilty,
would be "weakness." They were called upon to be "firm"--that is, to
hang first, and reflect afterwards. As the 23rd of November drew near,
the opinion began to gain ground, even in England, that things had
been too hastily done--that the whole trial bore all the traces of
panic--and that, if a few weeks were given for alarm and passion
to calm down, not a voice would approve the Manchester verdict.
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