THE PRISONER'S DEFENCE.
Mr. O'Malley then rose, but before he began to cross-examine the
witness, he addressed the judge.
"There's a witness in court, my lord, whom I shall have to examine by
and by on the defence, and I must request that he may be directed to
absent himself during my examination of the witness now in the chair.
It is material that he should not hear the answers which this witness
may give, I mean Mr. Hyacinth Keegan, my lord, who is sitting beneath
me."
Keegan was sitting on the bench immediately under that of the
barrister, among the attorneys employed in court. When he heard Mr.
O'Malley's request to the judge, he rose up on his one leg, and the
judge having ordered him to leave the court, he hobbled out with the
assistance of his crutch.
"Your name is Pat Brady, I think," commenced Mr. O'Malley.
Pat did not reply.
"Why don't you answer my question, sir?" said the counsellor angrily.
"Why I towld what my name war afore. Thim gintlemen up there knows it
well enough, and yourself knows it; why'd I be saying it agin?"
"Well, my friend, I tell you to begin with, I shall ask you many
questions you'll find considerably more difficult to answer than
that, and you'd better make up your mind to answer them; for I mean
to get an answer to the questions I shall ask, and you'll sit in
that chair till you do answer them, unless you're moved from it into
gaol."
"Fire away, sir; I'm very well where I am, and I'm thinking I can
howld out agin the hunger longer nor yer honer."
"Your name is Pat Brady?"
"It is."
"Whose servant are you?"
"Whose servant?"
"Don't you understand what I say? whose servant are you?"
"Faix thin, I don't call myself a servant at all."
"Who's your master then?"
"Mr. Macdermot here was my masther afore this affair."
"I didn't ask who was your master; who is your master now?"
"Why, Mr. Keegan."
"Mr. Hyacinth Keegan, that's just gone out of court; he's your
master, eh?"
"He is."
"And a very good master--isn't he?"
"Betther, maybe, than yer honour'd be, and yet perhaps none of the
best."
"Answer my questions, sir; isn't he a good master?"
"Faix, he is so."
"How long have you been in his employment?"
"How long!"
"Yes, how long?"
"Why, I can't jist say how long."
"Have you been a year?"
"No."
"Six months?"
"No."
"Will you swear that you never were in Mr. Keegan's pay before six
months ago?"
"I will."
"You never received any money from Mr. Keegan before six months ago?"
"I did not say that."
"Why, if you received his money weren't you in his pay?"
"No; maybe he gave me a Christmas-box or so; he's very good to a poor
boy like me in that way, is Mr. Keegan."
"In whose employment were you six months ago?"
"In Mr. Macdermot's; yourself knows that well enough."
"And Mr. Macdermot and Mr. Keegan were great friends at that time;
weren't they?"
"Faix they were not; I never seed much frindship betwixt 'em."
"Did you ever see any enmity between them--any quarrelling--or what
you very properly call bad blood?"
"Indeed I did then."
"I b'lieve Mr. Macdermot--that's the prisoner--had great trust in
you; hadn't he?"
"I believe he had."
"You knew all the affairs about the estate?"
"I b'lieve I did."
"He told you all his troubles--all his money difficulties, didn't
he?"
"One way or other, I b'lieve I knew the most on 'em."
"Particularly as to the money due on his father's property, which
Keegan had to receive; he used to talk to you confidentially about
those things?"
"Well, and av he did?"
"But he did so; didn't he?"
"Faix, but I don't know what you're afther; I b'lieve he towld me all
about everything."
"I believe he did indeed; and now I'll tell you what I'm after. Mr.
Macdermot, unfortunately believing you to be an honest man, told you
all his plans and secrets, which you, in consideration of certain
pay, which you call Christmas-boxes, sold to the man whom you knew to
be your master's enemy; isn't that the fact now?"
"No, it a'nt."
"Ah, but I say it is the fact; and now do you suppose any jury will
believe a word you've said, after having shown yourself guilty of
such treachery as that. Do you expect the jury to believe you?"
"'Deed I do--every word; Lord bless you, they knows me."
"Now, then, tell me. Can you recall any conversation between yourself
and Mr. Keegan since the death of Captain Ussher, relative to this
trial?"
"I can."
"More than one, perhaps?"
"Oh, lor yes; twenty maybe."
"Will you tell us any particulars you may remember of the last?"
A long conversation then ensued, but Mr. O'Malley could only elicit
that Brady had, of his own accord, informed his master of all he knew
on the subject, and that he had done so because he thought it right.
He admitted, however, that Mr. Keegan had expressed a desire that the
prisoner might be hung. A great many questions were then asked as to
the present holding of Ballycloran, to which Brady answered, stating
with tolerable accuracy the manner in which Larry at present lived
on the property, and the hold which Keegan had upon it. He, moreover,
stated that the house was in a very bad state of repair, and that
most of the tenants who were left on the property were unable to
pay their rent. He then, after much hesitation, owned that he had
overheard what had taken place between Keegan and Thady in the
avenue, on the day when the attorney had called at Ballycloran--that
he had heard the name which Keegan had applied to Feemy, and that he
had seen the manner in which Thady had been struck.
He was then asked whether he himself had not cautioned Thady against
Ussher, telling him the reports that were going through the country
as to Ussher's treatment of his sister. This he denied, stating that
it wasn't probable that "the likes of him should go to speak to his
masther about such things as that." He was repeatedly questioned on
this point, but Mr. O'Malley could not shake his evidence. Brady,
however, owned that in talking to Thady about Ussher, he had called
the latter "a black Protestant," and that he had always spoken ill of
him; "and now," continued Mr. O'Malley, "I don't wish to ask you any
questions by answering which you will criminate yourself; but you
have already said that you have been a visitor at Mrs. Mulready's
shop?"
"Oh yes, I've been there."
"And you have been there when certain persons swore that before
twelve months were passed, Captain Ussher should be under the sod?"
"Yes; I swear I heard thim words, and saw the boys take the oath."
"But to the best of your belief the prisoner was never at this house
when such an oath was taken?"
"Is it Mr. Thady? He was niver at mother Mulready's at all."
"But he met the party who had taken this oath at your sister's
wedding?"
"He did."
"And the same subject was spoken of there; was it?"
"What subject?"
"The propriety of sodding Captain Ussher?"
"I don't know about propriety."
"Well, then, the advisability of doing so?"
"Oh, yer honer, I aint no scollard. I can't make nothin' of thim long
words."
"At any rate, they talked of sodding Captain Ussher at the
wedding--didn't they?"
"I niver said so."
"Well, but did they?"
"Talk of sodding him! Faix I don't know; I don't think they said
sodding."
"Did they say killing?"
"I won't say they did."
"Or murdering?"
"No; they did not say nothin' about murdher."
"Oh; they did not say anything about murder,--or doing for him?
perhaps the prisoner and the other boys agreed to do for him?"
"Maybe they did--maybe you were there; only if so I disremember you;
but thim's not the words I swore to."
"Well, they didn't agree to sod him, or kill him, or murder him, or
do for him; what was it they were to do for him?"
"They were to rid the counthry of him."
"What--make the country too hot to hold him? eh, is that what you
mean?"
"It don't matter what I mean; that warn't what they meant."
"And how do you know what they meant?"
"Why, they meant to kill the man; you know that as well as I."
"But I don't know it--nor do I think it; nor what is more, do you
think it; for you are sharp enough to know that where there are so
many figurative terms in use to signify murder, it is not probable
that had they, on this occasion, wished to signify murder, they would
have used a phrase which every one knows expresses an intention to
drive a man out of the country. Yes, sir, you know that not one of
the party would have dared to propose to Mr. Macdermot to have a
share in murder. You and they talked of murder at Mrs. Mulready's,
but you know that for your life you would not have dared to mention
it before Mr. Macdermot. Now tell me how long was the prisoner at the
wedding party?"
"Maybe three hours."
"Was he sober when he came in?"
"He war."
"Was he sober when he went out?"
"Sober when he went out?"
"Yes, sir; was he sober when he went out?"
"I don't think he war--not to say sober."
"Wasn't he mad drunk?"
"Mad dhrunk?"
"Don't repeat my words, sir; wasn't he mad drunk?"
"Faix, that's thrue for you, sir--they're not worth repeating; no, he
war not mad dhrunk."
"Was he drunk? and mind, sir, you are on your oath--and there were
many others present there who will prove whether you answer this
question truly or falsely; was he drunk when he left the wedding
party?"
"'Deed then I don't know; you can ask thim as war there besides me."
"But I choose to ask you, and I choose that you should answer me; was
he drunk?"
"Don't I tell you that I don't know?"
"On your oath you don't know whether he was drunk or not?"
"He war screwed; divil a doubt of that; but thin, he could walk--I
wouldn't call him dhrunk."
"Wasn't he nearer being so than you'd seen him for many months?"
"Faix, he war. I didn't see him so bad since Leitrim fair, two years
back."
"And now you say, that at the wedding, the prisoner promised in a
day or two to meet the same boys at Mrs. Mulready's, to settle their
plans of ridding the country of Ussher?"
"Yes; about that and other things."
"And the prisoner never kept that appointment?"
"No, Mr. Thady niver went there."
"Did you ever say anything to him about not going there?"
"Oh, I did; we were discoursing about it."
"And what did you say to him on the subject?"
"Why, I towld him av he guv the boys a promise, he oughts never to go
back from his word."
"That is to say, you endeavoured to persuade him to go?"
"By-dad, I don't know about persuading; it warn't for the likes of me
to persuade him."
"On your oath, sir, didn't you endeavour to induce the prisoner to go
to Mrs. Mulready's?"
"I towld him he ought to be as good as his word."
"Yes, you did; and you think he ought to have gone?"
"May be av he'd gone there, he'd never have stood here this day."
"You wanted him to go to Mrs. Mulready's, then?"
"Wanted! No, I didn't want nothing about it."
"You only asked him to go?"
"Jist as I towld you; I said av he guv the boys his word, as a man he
shouldn't go from it."
"Did you say anything to him about Mr. Jonas Brown?"
"Jonas Brown?"
"Yes, Mr. Jonas Brown, the magistrate?"
"Faix, I don't know. I can't rightly say."
"Think now, my man; when you were trying to persuade your master to
go to the widow Mulready's, did you mention Mr. Jonas Brown's name?"
"D'ye think I do be counting my words that way; how am I to say all
the names I mintioned four or five months back?"
"On your solemn oath don't you remember mentioning that gentleman's
name to the prisoner with reference to his visit to Mrs. Mulready's?"
"What, Jonas Brown's name?"
"Yes."
"Faix I may."
"Don't you know you did?"
"Faix I don't."
"Didn't you threaten your master, that if he did not attend the
meeting, some of the boys would swear against him, before Mr. Brown,
for having joined the party and taken the oath at the wedding?"
"What av I did?"
"But did you?"
"Maybe I did--maybe I didn't; I disremember thim little things."
The cross-examination continued for a considerable time; but nothing
further that was material could be drawn from Brady. He seemed even
more unwilling to answer Mr. O'Malley, than he had been in replying
to Mr. Allewinde, and at last he was sent off the table.
The next witness called was McGovery, who had been summoned on behalf
of the prosecution. He was asked whether he had not suspected that
some foul play was intended against Ussher, and he stated in what
manner he had, in the first place, cautioned Ussher himself--then
that he had told the same thing to Father John--and that after
overhearing a portion of the conversation at Mrs. Mehan's, he had
gone to Father Cullen, for the purpose of informing him that he
feared there was a conspiracy against Mr. Keegan. Little, however,
could be learnt from him, for he owned that he had no substantial
grounds for his suspicions in the first case, and that he had chiefly
been led to fear an attack upon Ussher, from knowing his unpopularity
and the bad character of many of the guests expected at the wedding.
Mr. O'Laugher tried to make him say that the conversation at Mrs.
Mehan's had been confined to Keegan, and the threats which he had
heard uttered against him; but McGovery would not say as much as
this; he stated positively that he had never heard Ussher's name
mentioned, but that during a considerable portion of the evening
he had been entirely unable to hear a word that the men said; he
declared, however, positively that Thady was drunk when he left the
room, and that it appeared to him that he, Thady, had taken very
little part in the conversation before he was drunk.
When this witness went off the table, Mr. Allewinde declared that the
case for the prosecution was finished--stating at the same time that
he abstained from feelings of delicacy and respect from putting the
prisoner's sister into the witness box; and that he should trouble
her with no questions unless she were placed there by the counsel for
the defence.
Mr. O'Malley then rose to address the jury on behalf of the prisoner,
and spoke to the following effect:--
"Gentlemen of the jury, it now becomes my duty to address to you
such words as may best suit to point out to you the weakness
of the evidence against the prisoner--to explain to you the
different objects we had in our lengthened cross-examination of the
witnesses--to inform you what we intend to prove on behalf of the
prisoner from further witnesses--and, in fact, to put the case before
you in a light, and point of view, differing as widely as I can make
it do from that in which my learned friend has presented it to you.
This you are aware is the general duty and constant object of a
counsel endeavouring to obtain a verdict of acquittal from a jury.
It is a duty in which long practice has made me familiar, if not
skilful; and I never undertook that duty with the same assurance
of its facility, as that which I now feel, after having heard the
evidence which has been brought forward on the prosecution. I knew
beforehand, as surely as one can trust to human knowledge, that the
evidence would fail; but knowing the acute legal abilities of my
learned friend, and the extraordinary avidity which exists among
a large class of men for a verdict against the prisoner in this
case,--remembering, I say, these things, I did not expect such a
total break down, such an exposure of weakness as that which has been
just made before you. Were my object merely to rescue the prisoner
from an ignominious death--had it been my mere duty on this occasion
to obtain an acquittal, I should feel no hesitation in requesting his
lordship at once to send the case before you, with such remarks as
the evidence would call forth from him; and I should consider that
I was only wasting the time of the court in pointing out to you the
insufficiency of the evidence, in which each of you must perceive
that nothing whatever is proved against the prisoner; but I have been
employed with another object; and I must own to you that so great is
my own personal anxiety--so terrible and so undeserved the present
position of that unfortunate young man, and so essentially necessary
is it for his future happiness, that I should effect my present
object;--I must own to you, I say, for these reasons, that from
the time when I first found myself standing in a crowded court to
address a jury, up to the present moment, I have never felt so little
self-confidence, or experienced so total a prostration of that
assurance, which is a lawyer's first requisite, as I do at present.
"I have said my object in addressing you is not merely that of
obtaining an acquittal; and I said so because a mere acquittal will
serve that unfortunate young man but little. Unless he can walk out
of this court with such a verdict as, damning as it may be to others,
will altogether cleanse his name from the stain of guilt in this
matter; unless he can, not only save his neck from the halter, but
also entirely clear his character from the gross charges which have
been brought against him,--he would as lief go back to the cell
whence he has come, as return to his father's house acquitted by the
voice of law, but condemned by that of opinion.
"On this account I am debarred from many of the usual resources of
counsel pleading for a prisoner; I am forbidden to make use of legal
points in his favour; I am forbidden to effect an escape by the
numerous weak points in the enemy's plan of attack; I am desired to
meet him face to face in the open field--to fight under no banner but
that of truth, and not to strike my adversary below the belt. You
are aware that this is a line of conduct as rare as it is difficult
in a criminal court--when an advocate has to contend for his client
against the law--where every possible means of success which legal
ingenuity can devise is taken in the prosecution, and where you are
accustomed to hear every legal technicality used in the defence.
"Had I not received instructions of so peculiar a nature, I should
point out to the jury that no proof has been given direct or
circumstantial, that the prisoner was the person by whose hands
Ussher fell; instead of doing so I am to declare that he did, as
he is supposed to have done, kill the deceased in the avenue of
Ballycloran, by striking him twice with his stick. I am to justify
that deed, and disprove the charge of his having entered into a
conspiracy to murder the man, whom he did kill.
"The prisoner, you have been told, and are probably all aware, is
above the rank of men whom you are mostly accustomed to see placed in
that dock. He is the only son of a gentleman, living on his own small
estate, and has for some years past acted as his father's sole agent
and manager.
"I must now tell you a few particulars respecting that estate; and
though, of course, you cannot receive as evidence what I tell you,
still this course will be necessary, as I shall thereby be enabled to
explain to you my object in obtaining answers to certain questions
which I have asked, or shall ask, the answers to which you will take
as evidence.
"In the time of the prisoner's grandfather, a house was built on
this estate by a Mr. Flannelly, of this town, and the price of the
building not having been paid, this man, the builder, obtained a
mortgage on the estate for the amount of the debt. This is still due,
though the house, as you have heard, is falling to the ground; and it
has so been increased by interest not paid up and by legal charges,
that it has completely embarrassed the present proprietor, who is
even now unable to leave his house for fear of arrest. Mr. Keegan,
whose name has often come before you in the evidence, and who, by
and by, will be examined himself, is the son-in-law of this Mr.
Flannelly, and owns, as I have no doubt I shall be able to prove to
you, the whole interest in the estate of Ballycloran arising from
this mortgage.
"The prisoner's time, since he ceased to be a boy, has been employed
in futile endeavours to satisfy the legal claims of this man; and I
shall prove to you by most undoubtable evidence that his industry in
this object has been unceasing, and that his conduct as a son and a
brother has been beyond all praise. But he has failed--times have
been against him--legal costs have so swelled the legal interest
as to consume the whole rents--those rents he has been unable to
collect, and his life has been one manful struggle against poverty
and Mr. Keegan;--and I could not wish my worst foe two more
inveterate enemies.
"Some few days before Ussher's death--and now I am going to confine
myself to that which I am in a position to prove--Mr. Keegan called
on the Macdermots for the purpose of proposing certain terms for the
adjustment of the debt, which were neither more nor less than that
he should have the whole estate, paying a small weekly stipend for
life to the prisoner's father. The prisoner was willing to agree,
providing some provision should be made for his sister; but the
father indignantly spurned the offer, and turned Mr. Keegan out of
the house in no very gentle manner. The prisoner followed him into
the avenue--still wishing to come to some arrangement; but the
attorney was so enraged at the conduct of the father, that instead
of listening to the son, he began abusing the whole family, and,
as you have heard, applied the most shameful epithet to the sister
with which the tongue of a man can defile the name of a woman. He
afterwards struck the prisoner, who was unarmed, heavily with his
stick; and I have no hesitation in telling you, that that quarrel, in
which no blame appears to have been attributable to the young man,
placed him in that dock.
"Brady, the confidential servant of the prisoner, both saw and
overheard what took place at this interview, as he has told you,
and he afterwards,--as he will not deny, though he will not confess
it,--incited his master, during the period of his natural irritation,
to go down to the wedding party, to meet a number of his tenants who
would be willing to assist him in revenging himself against his enemy
Keegan, the attorney, if he would assist them against their enemy,
Ussher, the Revenue officer. And here my client made the one false
step--and the only one which I can trace to him--and committed that
folly from which this bitter foe has thought to ruin him. Irritated
by the blow--his ear still ringing with the infamous name applied
to his loved sister--full of his father's wrong, and his own hard
condition, he consented to meet men whose object he knew was illegal;
though what their plans were he was entirely ignorant.
"With reference to what took place at the wedding, I have, in the
first place, to remark that from the character of this man Brady, I
could confidently call upon you to reject every word of his evidence;
and I shall presently show you in what respects and why you are bound
to do so. But, in the present instance, I am satisfied to tell you
that my client did attend that meeting. But mind, that was no illegal
meeting--it was not secret; the door was not locked, nor even closed;
it was a party of men met at the wedding of one of their own station.
The woman to be married was a sister of the prisoner's servant, and
it was natural that he should be present. He directs me positively
to tell you that he did attend that meeting; though I also tell you,
with confidence, that he committed no crime in doing so, and his
lordship will corroborate what I tell you.
"It was, however, a part of the plan organised against the prisoner
that he should be induced to commit an illegal act, and he was,
as you have heard, brought when drunk to promise that he would go
down to Mrs. Mulready's, to take upon himself illegal oaths and
obligations.
"On the following day he was invited by this same Brady to come on a
certain evening; but Macdermot was no longer drunk; he was no longer
infuriated by the gross outrages he had received; and what did he
do then? Did he go to Mrs. Mulready's to settle the particulars
of this murder which he is said to have premeditated? Did he join
these outlaws of whom he is represented to have been the leader?
Did he even send them an encouraging message--a word of fellowship?
No! Even by the testimony of this man, now so anxious to hang his
benefactor--this man, who by his own showing was at the same time
in the pay of the prisoner and of his enemy Keegan--he indignantly
repudiated the idea; he at once informed this wretch--equally a
traitor to his confederates and to his master--that he would have
nothing in common with them or their schemes; and although threatened
with the vengeance of the party, and with the authority of a
magistrate, steadily refused even to enter the house in which they
were accustomed to assemble. Why, from what I can learn of the young
man and of his daily habits, I do not conceive that there is one of
yourselves who would not be as likely to join an illegal society
as he would. Patient under poverty--industrious under accumulated
sufferings--he has led a life which would not have disgraced a
priest; he has been ever found sincere in his thoughts, moral in his
conduct, and most unselfish in his actions. Is this the man to join
a set of senseless rioters, furious at the imprisonment of their
relatives, and anxious only to protect their illicit stills? And this
is no empty praise. That what I have said of the prisoner is no more
than is his due, will be proved to you by evidence which I defy you
to doubt. Well, he did not go to Mrs. Mulready's; but he did go to
his friend and priest, Mr. Magrath; and not as a penitent to his
confessor, but as a friend to a friend, told him exactly what had
passed, lamented his indiscretion, and declared his determination
never to put himself in the way of repeating it.
"Up to this time my chief object has been to show to you the enmity
existing between Keegan and the prisoner,--the object which the
former had in view in ruining the prisoner, and that Brady was a paid
spy employed to entrap him.
"I shall now come to the deed itself, and I shall afterwards refer to
what absolutely did take place at the meeting at the wedding. I have
told you that young Macdermot did kill the deceased. He struck him
with the stick which has been shown to you in court, and as he was
rising from the blow he struck him again; and no doubt the medical
witness was right in his opinion that the second blow occasioned
instant death.
"You are, however, aware that circumstances might exist which
would justify any man in taking the life of another. If a man were
violently to attack you, and you were to strike him on the head and
kill him, you would be justified. If you were to kill a man in a
fray, in fair defence of a third party, you would be justified.
If you were to kill a man by a blow in the quarrel of a moment,
you would not be guilty of murder. But I can fancy no case in
which death, however much it may be lamented, can lay less of the
murderer's stain upon the hand that inflicts it, than one in which
a brother interferes to rescue a sister from the violent grasp of a
seducer. Such was precisely the case in the instance now before us.
My learned friend on the other side has truly told you that Miss
Macdermot, the prisoner's sister, had consented to elope with Captain
Ussher on the evening on which that man was killed. You have learnt,
from evidence which you have no reason to doubt, that she had
prepared to do so. In fact, you cannot doubt that she left the house
of Ballycloran for that purpose; this has been proved--but there are
circumstances beyond this on which it is essentially necessary that
you should have evidence, and this evidence can only be given by the
young lady herself. I shall therefore have to bring her before you.
When my learned friend told you that he would not call upon her, nor
question her unless placed in that chair by me, he forgot his usual
candour, and assumed to himself credit for humanity to which he has
no title. He himself has nothing to learn from her, as he will prove
to you if he attempts to cross-examine her. Moreover, he was as fully
aware as I am myself, that the prisoner must rely on her alone for
anything like a true account of the affray.
"The brother and the sister are the only living witnesses of that
scene. He has within him that high consciousness of innocence and
rectitude of intention which has enabled him to bear his sufferings,
his imprisonment, and the misery of his position, with a fortitude
which I not only admire, but envy. But that can avail nothing with
you; from the sister's lips you must hear the only account which you
can receive, and if we find that she has been unable to recall the
dreadful circumstances of that night, that fact will bear me out in
the history of the occurrence which I am now going to give you."
Mr. O'Malley then gave as exact an account of the occurrence as he
had been able to collect from Thady, from Feemy's evidence before the
coroner, and from such words as Mrs. McKeon had been able to extract
from Feemy on the subject. He then continued,
"When the prisoner struck Ussher, he had come to the knowledge of
what the burden was which this man was dragging, solely from the
words which the man had used. Miss Macdermot was lying senseless in
his arms, and, supporting her by her waist, he was forcing her down
the avenue. The words he used were, 'This is damned nonsense,--you
must come now.' Then the brother perceived the fate to which this man
was--not alluring--but forcing his sister. At that moment--and it was
the only one in which the prisoner had to judge of the circumstances
of the case--she was not in the act of eloping willingly; she had
seen her brother's form, and had refused, or been unable, to rise
from the timber on which she was seated. She was forced from thence
by this man, whose death protects him from the language in which his
name would otherwise be mentioned. She fainted in his arms, and only
came to her senses to find her lover dead, and her brother standing
beside her, red with his blood. Yes; he had avenged her!--he had
punished the ruffian for his barbarity towards her, and saved his
sister from the ignominy to which Mr. Frederick Brown told you with
so much flippancy that she had been doomed.
"If this was the young man's conduct, was there anything in it that
you can even blame? Which of you would have done otherwise? Which of
you will tell me that in avenging the wrongs of a sister, or of a
daughter, he would pause to measure the weight of his stick, or the
number of his blows. Fancy each of you that you see the form of her
you love best in the rough grasp of a violent seducer! Endeavour to
bring home to yourselves the feelings to which such a sight would
give rise within you! and then, if you can, find that young man
guilty of murder, because his heart was warm to feel his sister's
wrongs and his hand was strong to avenge them.
"But you have been told that as the prisoner had met certain
persons for the purpose of entering into a conspiracy of murdering
Ussher--and that that fact would be proved to you--you are bound to
consider that his coming across Ussher was not accidental, and that
the manner in which he attacked that man whilst carrying off his
sister was a part of his preconcerted plan. I first of all deny that
any credible evidence, any evidence worthy of the slightest belief,
has been brought before you to induce you to suppose that the
prisoner had even joined any such conspiracy; instead of which you
have strong circumstantial evidence that he had never done so.
"You have most of you, no doubt, heard, on various occasions,
from different learned judges seated on that bench, that a crown
approver's evidence is to be taken with the greatest caution, and
only to be believed in detail, when corroborated by other evidence or
by circumstances. Now this man, Brady, on whose sole evidence you are
desired to convict the prisoner, has shown himself an approver of
the very worst description. You are aware that he was the prisoner's
servant; that he is now Mr. Keegan's; that there has been long enmity
between these men; that the former has been an oppressed debtor--the
latter a most oppressive creditor. Mr. Keegan's spirit towards the
prisoner's family you may learn from the scandalous and unwarrantable
language which has been proved to you to have been used by him
towards them. Mr. Keegan's acerbity has been increased by the
mutilation he has undergone, and which he conceives he owes to his
interference with the Ballycloran property. This man and the witness
Brady have, as you have heard, constantly been talking over this
trial, and the attorney, it seems, has repeatedly expressed to his
servant his ardent wish that the prisoner might be hung. This is his
expressed eager desire; and then this new servant, but long-used spy,
comes forward boldly to swear away the prisoner's life! Why it would
be ridiculing you to suppose you could believe him. Then look at the
man's character. He was a constant attendant at that scene of villany
into which he vainly endeavoured to seduce the prisoner at Mrs.
Mulready's. It is plain enough that Ussher's death was a constant
theme of discourse at that haunt; it is plain enough that a project
did exist there to accomplish his murder; and is it not plain enough
that this man was one of the conspirators--one of the murderers?
Would he have been admitted to their counsels--to their dangerous
secrets--unless he had been an active participator in their plans?
Would they have taken in his presence a solemn oath to put this
unfortunate Revenue officer under the sod, unless he had joined in
that oath? Of course they would not! And this is the man whom they
expect you to believe with such confidence, that on his unsupported
evidence you should condemn the prisoner! What I have said to you
respecting this respectable witness, and his not less respectable
master, will perhaps be made somewhat plainer to you when you shall
have heard the evidence which I hope to extract from the latter. Now,
as to the meeting at Mrs. Mehan's, even were you to believe Brady, I
maintain that nothing whatever has been proved against the prisoner.
Brady states that at Mrs. Mulready's certain men swore together that
at a certain period Captain Ussher should be under the sod. This
phrase brings to the mind of every one the conviction that they meant
to express murder. The man could not be under the sod unless he were
dead.
"But at the wedding, when young Macdermot was present, even by the
showing of Brady himself, the men were afraid to use any such phrase.
They implored their landlord's assistance to help them to rid the
country of him; to frighten him off; to make the place too hot to
hold him. As I told that wretched reptile, whilst in the chair, they
would have no more dared to propose a scheme of murder to young
Macdermot, even in his drunkenness, than they would have to you or to
me.
"Now as to the probability of the prisoner's having been aware of his
sister's project for eloping, and having made use of that opportunity
for the safe execution of a scheme of murder,--and this perhaps
is the most material point of all; for were there good grounds to
suppose that he knew that this elopement was to take place--that
he took no precautionary steps to prevent it--but that having this
previous knowledge, he rushed out at the time, and killed the man, I
should be very far from telling you that he was perfectly justified,
as I do now. But I must positively maintain that you cannot come to
such a conclusion. It has, to a degree, been proved to you, and will
be so more clearly, that the prisoner had all along shown himself
averse to the intimacy which existed between Ussher and his sister;
it is therefore to be presumed that both of them took every means in
their power to prevent the prisoner from learning their intention;
and there is every reason to suppose they were successful.
"Two persons appear to have been told, as their services were
required, both of whom have been examined before you--the servant
girl and Mr. Frederick Brown. The former has sworn that she mentioned
it to no one, and there is no reason to disbelieve her. The latter
proved himself not so trustworthy. It seems that with that foolish
flippancy which distinguishes him he told his friend's secret to
other friends of his as a good joke. But you must remember that Mr.
Brown's friends were not the prisoner's friends--that they rather
were in such different circles, that what was said in one, would be
very little likely to find its way into the other; and above all,
that those to whom Mr. Brown or his friends communicated it, would
think that the brother was the last person who should be told of it.
Again, had the prisoner known the projected elopement, and intended
to make use of it for the perpetration of a preconcerted murder,
would he--could he have acted as he did? Could he have waited for
such an unexpected accident as his sister's fainting before he drew
near to his victim. His sister had walked down the avenue, and after
waiting some time in the road, returned and sat down upon a fallen
tree; it was whilst so seated that she heard the brother open the
hall-door; had she, as she expected, met her lover at the hour
appointed, they would have been far beyond the prisoner's reach
before he had left the house;--would he have allowed this to be the
case, had it been his intention to take advantage of the opportunity?
It is absurd to argue on such a point. It is unnecessary almost
to call your attention to things which must so manifestly present
themselves to you. The whole of this case has received additional
weight and importance from official authority. It has been considered
worthy of especial government interference. My learned friend has
come express from the metropolis for the purpose of conducting it;--a
rumour has been spread abroad that most conclusive evidence would be
produced to prove that a prisoner from the better orders of society
had joined, and headed one of those illegal bodies of men whose
existence is supposed to be the cause of the troubles of this
distracted country; and that he had, in unison with these schemes,
committed a foul and deliberate murder; and my learned friend has
not hesitated to tell you that it is essentially necessary to use
the utmost extent of legal severity, that an end may be put to the
agrarian outrages which are now becoming so frightfully prevalent
in the country. Has anything been proved to warrant this official
zeal--this government interference? No, nothing; not one iota;
but still these paraphernalia of office, this more than ordinary
anxiety to obtain a verdict, may have an effect upon your minds most
prejudicial to my client. I have no doubt as to your actual verdict.
I have no doubt that you will--nay, I know that you must--acquit that
young man of murder. But I beseech you to remember that, though in
the indictment he has been charged with murder only, he has been by
the servant of government, by my learned friend on the other side,
accused of other grievous crimes; and I implore you by your verdict,
to purge his character of the stain which has been so unjustly
attached to it, if you find, on examination of the evidence, no cause
to suppose that he had been a participator in the councils of such
societies. I beseech you to do him that justice, which can now only
be done by the strong expression of your unanimous assurance of
absolute innocence. I beseech you to reject from your minds those
pre-conceived opinions so injurious to the prisoner, with which the
present unfortunate state of your country may so naturally have
influenced you, and to remember that it is your duty, as jurors, to
confine yourself to the individual case before you; and that the
doctrine laid down by my learned friend, that you should make an
example in one case for the sake of prevention of crimes in others,
is most unconstitutional, and would imply, that whilst the solemn
oath you have taken is still vibrating in your ears, your object
should be far wide from that for which you have been assembled--that
of making a fair and true trial between your sovereign and the
prisoner. I shall now call a few witnesses, and then leave the case,
with confidence, in your hands."