king de facto; but here there is no such
forbearance—we who have lived under a king,
not only de facto, but de jure in possession of
the throne, are called upon to submit ourselvesto the prisoner, to Dowdall, the vagrant politician,
to the bricklayer, to the baker, the old-clothes-man,
the hodman, and the ostler. These
are the persons to whom this proclamation,
in its majesty and dignity, calls upon a great
people to yield obedience, and a powerful
government to give ' a prompt, manly, and
sagacious acquiescence to their just and unalterable
determination!' ' We call upon the British
government not to be so mad as to oppose us.'

"Gentlemen, I am anxious to suppose that
the mind of the prisoner recoiled at the scenes
of murder which he witnessed, and I mention
one circumstance with satisfaction—it appears
he saved the life of Farrell; and may the
recollection of that one good action cheer him in
his last moments. But though he may not
have planned individual murders, that is no
excuse to justify his embarking in treason,
which must be followed by every species of
crimes. It is supported by the rabble of the
country, while the rank, the wealth, and the
power of the country is opposed to it. Let
loose the rabble of the country from the salutary
restraints of the law, and who can take upon
him to limit their barbarities? Who can say
he will disturb the peace of the world, and
rule it when wildest? Let loose the winds of
heaven, and what power less than omnipotent
can control them?"

Emmet bowed to the court with perfect
calmness, and addressed it with fervid and
impetuous eloquence. He said:

"My lords,—What have I to say that
sentence of death should not be passed on me
according to law? I have nothing to say that
can alter your predetermination, nor that will
become me to say, with any view to the
mitigation of that sentence which you are here to
pronounce, and I must abide by. But I have
that to say which interests me more than life,
and which you have laboured (as was necessarily
your office in the present circumstances
of this oppressed country) to destroy—I have
much to say, why my reputation should be
rescued from the load of false accusation and
calumny which has been heaped upon it. I do
not imagine that, seated where you are, your
minds can be so free from impurity as to receive
the least impression from what I am going
to utter. I have no hopes that I can anchor
my character in the breast of a court constituted
and trammelled as this is. I only wish, and
that is the utmost I expect, that your lordships
may suffer it to float down your memories
untainted by the foul breath of prejudice, until it
finds some more hospitable harbour to shelter it
from the storm by which it is at present buffeted.

"Were I only to suffer death, after being
adjudged guilty by your tribunal, I should bow
in silence, and meet the fate that awaits me
without a murmur; but the sentence of the
law, which delivers my body to the executioner,
will, through the ministry of that law, labour, in
its own vindication, to consign my character to
obloquy; for there must be guilt somewhere,—
whether in the sentence of the court or in the
catastrophe, posterity must determine. A man
in my situation, my lords, has not only to
encounter the difficulties of fortune, and the
forces of power over minds which it has
corrupted or subjugated, but the difficulties of
established prejudice. The man dies, but his
memory lives; that mine may not perish—that
it may live in the memory of my countrymen
—I seize upon this opportunity to vindicate
myself from some of the charges alleged against
me. When my spirit shall be wafted to a more
friendly port—when my shade shall have joined
the bands of those martyred heroes who have
shed their blood on the scaffold and in the field,
in defence of their country and virtue, this is
my hope—I wish that my memory and name
may animate those who survive me, while I
look down with complacency on the destruction
of that perfidious government which upholds its
domination by blasphemy of the Most High;
which displays its power over man as over the
beasts of the forest; which sets man upon his
brother, and lifts his hand, in the name of God,
against the throat of his fellow who believes
or doubts a little more than the government
standard—a government steeled to barbarity by
the cries of the orphans and the tears of the
widows which it has made."

[Here Lord Norbury interrupted Mr. Emmet,
observing, that mean and wicked enthusiasts,
who felt as he did, were not equal to the
accomplishment of their wild designs.]

He then avowed his belief that there was still
union and strength enough left in Ireland to one
day accomplish her emancipation. He sternly
rebuked Lord Norbury for his cruel and unjust
efforts to silence him, and repudiated his calumnies.
He denied that he had sought aid from
the French except as from auxiliaries and allies,
not as from invaders or enemies.

"I have been charged," he said, " with that
importance in the efforts to emancipate my
countrymen as to be considered the keystone
of the combination of Irishmen, or, as your
lordship expressed it, ' the life and blood of the
conspiracy.' You do me honour over-much—
you have given to the subaltern all the credit of
a superior. There are men engaged in this
conspiracy who are not only superior to me, but
even to your own computation of yourself, my
lord; before the splendour of whose genius and
virtues I should bow with respectful deference,
and who would think themselves disgraced to be
called your friend, and who would not disgrace
themselves by shaking your blood-stained hand.
[Again the judge interrupted him.]

"What, my lord! shall you tell me on the
passage to that scaffold which that tyranny, of
which you are only the intermediary
executioner, has erected for my murder, that I am
accountable for all the blood that has and will
be shed in this struggle of the oppressed against
the oppressor; shall you tell me this, and shall
I be so very a slave as not to repel it?

"I do not fear to approach the Omnipotent