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ordnance stores full three weeks before he had obtained the information through moral agency. O honest James O'Brien !--honest James O'Brien ! Let others vainly argue on logical truth and ethical falsehood, but if I can once fasten him to the ring of perjury, I will bait him at it until his testimony shall fail of producing a verdict, although human nature were as vile and monstrous in you as she is in him! He has made a mistake! But surely no man's life is safe if such evidence were admissible. What argument can be founded on his testimony, when he swears he has perjured himself, and that any thing he says must be false? I must not believe him at all, and by a paradoxical conclusion, suppose, against the deep damnation' of his own testimony, that he is an honest man!

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Another of the prisoner's counsel having here suggested something to Mr. Curran, he continued. My learned friend supposed me to be mistaken, and confounding the evidence of O'Brien and Clarke, but I am not; I advert to what O'Brien said to lord Portarlington, respecting the attack on the arsenal. Strongly as I feel my interests keep peace with those of my client, I would not defend him at the expense of truth; I seek not to make O'Brien worse than he is; whatever he may be, God Almighty convert his mind! May his reprobation--but, I beg his pardon, let your verdict stamp a due currency on his credit; that will have more force than any casual remarks of mine. How this contradiction in Mr. O'Brien's evidence occurred, I am at no loss to understand? He started with an intention of inform

ing against some person, no matter whom, and whether he ever saw the prisoner at the time he gave the information to Lord Portarlington, is a question; but none, that he fabricated the story for the purpose of imposing on the honest zeal of the law officers of the

crown.

Now, gentlemen, be pleased to look at the rest of O'Brien's testimony he tells you there are 111,000 men in one province, added to 10,000 of the inhabitants of the metropolis, ready to assist the object of an invasion. What! gentlemen, do you think there are so many in one province--so many in your city, combined against their coun try? At such a time as this, do you think it a wise thing to say, on the evidence of the abominable O'Brien, that if the enemy was to invade this country, there are 111,000 men ready to run to his standard? But this is not the most appalling view of the question. For its im portance and its novelty, this is the most unprecedented trial in the annals of this country. I recollect none bearing any affinity to it, save that of the unhappy wanderer Jackson: and premising that I mean not the smallest allusion to the conduct of public measures in this country, are you--I ask you seriously, are you prepared to embark your respectable characters in the same bottom with this detestable informer ? Are you ready, on such evidence, to take away, one by one, the lives of a hundred thousand men, by prosecutions in a court of justice? Are vou prepared, when O'Brien shall come forward against 10,000 of your fellow-citizens, to assist him in digging the graves which he has destined to receive them one by one? No! could your hearts yield for a moment to the suggestion, your own retions would vindicate the justice of God, and the insulted character

of man ; you would fly from the secrets of your chamber and take refuge in the multitude, from those "compunctious visitings," which meaner men could not look on without horror. Do not think I am speaking disrespectfully of you, when I say, that while an O'Brien may be found, it may be the lot of the proudest among you, to be in the dock instead of the jury-box: How. then on such an occasion, would any of you feel, if such evidence as has been heard this day were adduced against you ?

The application affects you-you shrink from the imaginary situation-remember then the great mandate of your religion, and " do unto all men as you would they should do unto you." Why do you condescend to listen to me with such attention? Why so anxious, if even from me any thing should fall tending to enlighten you on the present awful occasion? It is because, bound by the sacred obligation of an oath, your hearts will not allow you to forfeit it. Have you any doubt that it is the object of O'Brien to take down the prisoner for the reward that follows? Have you not seen with what more than instinctive keenness this blood-hound has pursued his victim? How he has kept him in view, from place to place, until he hunts him through the avenues of the court to where the unhappy man stands now, hopeless of all succour, but that which your verdict shall afford. I have heard of assassination by sword, by pistol, and by dagger, but here is a wretch who would dip the Evangelists in bloodif he thinks he has not sworn his victim to death, he is ready to swear without mercy and without end; but oh! do not, I conjure you, suffer him to take an oath; the arm of the murderer should not pollute the purity of the gospel; if he will swear, let it be on the knife, the proper symbol of his profession! Gentlemen, I am reminded of the tissue of abomination with which this deadly cslumniator, this O'Brien, has endeavoured to load so large a portion of your adult countrymen. He charges 100,000 Irishmen with the deliberate cruelty of depriving their fellow creatures of their eyes, tongues and hands! Do not believe the infamous slanderer. If I were told that there was in Ire land one man who could so debase human nature, I should hesitate to believe that even O'Brien were he.

If you should ever be assailed by the hand of the informer, may you find an all-powerful refuge in the example which you shall set this day; earnestly do I pray that you may never experience what it is to count the tedious hours in captivity, pining in the damps and gloom of the dungeon, while the wicked one is going about at large,' seeking whom he may devour.' There is another than a human tribunal, where the best of us all will have occasion to look back on the little good we have done. In that awful trial, O! may your verdict this day assure your hopes, and give you strength and consolation in the presence of an ADJUDGING GOD.

Mr. Finney was acquitted.

EXTRACT

FROM

THE SPEECH OF

MR. CURRAN,

IN DEFENCE OF

Archibald Hamilton Rowan,

ON A CHARGE OF HAVING PUBLISHED A LIBEL.

If

This paper, gentlemen, insists upon the necessity of emancipating the catholics of Ireland, and that is charged as a part of the libel. they had kept this prosecution impending for another year, how much would remain for a jury to decide upon, I should be at a loss to disco. ver. It seems as if the progress of public reformation was eating away the ground of the prosecution. Since the commencement of the prosecution, this part of the libel has unluckily received the sanction of the legislature. In that interval, our catholic brethren have obtained that admission, which it seems it was a libel to propose-in what way to account for this, I am really at a loss. Have any alarms been occasioned by the emancipation of our catholic brethren? Has the bigoted malignity of any individuals been crushed? Or, has the stability of the government, or has that of the country been weakened? Or, is one million of subjects stronger than three millions? Do you think that the benefit they received should be poisoned by the stings of vengeance? If you think so, you must say to them, You have demanded your emancipation, and you have got it; but we abhor your persons, we are outraged at your success; and we will stigmatize, by a criminal prosecution, the relief which you have obtained from the voice of your country.' I ask you, gentlemen, do you think

as honest men, anxious for the public tranquillity, conscious that there' are wounds not yet completely cicatrized, that you ought to speak this language at this time, to men who are too much disposed to think that in this very emancipation they have been saved from their own parliament by the humanity of their sovereign? Or, do you wish to prepare them for the revocation of these improvident concessions? Do you think it wise or humane, at this moment, to insult them, by sticking up in a pillory the man who dared to stand forth their advocate? I put it to your oaths, do you think that a blessing of that kind, that a victory obtained by justice over bigotry and oppression, should have a stigma cast upon it by an ignominious sentence upon men bold and honest enough to propose that measure; to propose the redeeming of religion from the abuses of the church-the reclaiming of three millions of men from bondage, and giving liberty to all who had a right to demand it-giving, I say, in the so much censured words of this paper, Universal Emancipation!' I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes liberty commensurate with, and inseparable from, the British soil-which proclaims, even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of Universal Emancipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery; the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains, that burst from around him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of Universal Emancipation.

[Here Mr. Curran was interrupted by a sudden burst of applause from the court and hall. After some time, siience was restored by the authority of lord Clonmel, who acknowledged the pleasure which he felt at the brilliant display of professional talent, but disaproved of any intemperate expressions of applause in a court of justice.]

POETRY.

The Harp of Tara.

BY THOMAS MOORE.

TUNE-"Gramachree."

The harp that once through Tara's hall's
The soul of music shed,

Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls,
As if that soul were fled.

So sleeps the pride of former days,
So glory's thrill is o'er

And hearts that once beat high for praise,
Now feel that pulse no more.

No more to chiefs and ladies bright,
The harp of Tara swells

The chord alone that breathes at night,
Its tale of ruin tells.

Then freedom now so seldom wakes,
The only throb she gives,

Is when some heart indignant breaks,
To show that still she lives.

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