I ask you, gentlemen, us reasonable men, if there
be a shadow of a case against me? I ask you if I have been
connected by an untainted witness with any act, in America or
Ireland, that would warrant you in deciding that I was guilty
of the charge with which I stand accused? Is there one single
overt act proved against me; or have I violated any law for
the violation of which I can be made amenable in this court?
I ask you if, in these letters which have been brought up
against me--one found in Thomas-street, another in the pocket
of a fellow-prisoner--there is anything that can affect me?
Recollect, gentlemen of the jury, that I speak to you now
as men imbued with a spirit of justice. I speak to you,
gentlemen, believing that you are honest, recognising your
intelligence, and confident that you will give in a verdict
in accordance with the dictates of your conscience. If you are
the jury that the Attorney-General hopes you are, gentlemen
of the jury, I am wasting time in speaking to you. If you are,
gentlemen, that jury which the Attorney-General hopes to make
the stepping-stone to the bench--for; gentlemen, I do not
accuse the Attorney-General of wishing to prosecute me for
the purpose of having me punished; I believe he is above any
paltry consideration of that sort--but, gentlemen, all men are
influenced by one motive or another, and the Attorney-General,
though he is the first law officer of the Crown in Ireland,
is human like ourselves; he is not above all human frailty,
but like other men, doubtless, likes office, and likes
the emolument which office brings.
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