At the same Commission, before the same judges who had tried the cases
of Colonel Warren and Augustine E. Costello, General William Halpin
was put on his trial for treason-felony. It was alleged that he was
one of the military officers of the Fenian organization, and, had been
appointed to take command, in the Dublin district, in the rising which
had taken place on the 5th of March; and this it was sought to prove
by the evidence of the informers, Massey, Corydon, Devany, and others.
General Halpin employed no counsel, and undertook the conduct of his
case himself. The considerations that had induced him to take this
course he thus explained to the jury:--
Two reasons operated on my mind, and induced me to forego
the advantage I would derive from having some of the able and
learned counsel that plead at this bar. The first reason is,
that if you, gentlemen, are a jury selected by the Crown,
as juries are known to be selected heretofore in political
cases--if you are, in fact, a jury selected with the express
purpose of finding a verdict for the Crown--then, gentlemen,
all the talent and ability that I could employ would avail
me nothing. If, on the other hand, by any chance the
Attorney-General permitted honest men to find their way into
the box, then, gentlemen, lawyers were equally unnecessary for
me.
Not an inaccurate view of the case, perhaps; the experience of the
Fenian trials, from first to last, certainly goes to support it.
The general set about his work of defending himself with infinite
coolness and self-possession. He was supplied with a chair, a small
table, and writing materials in the dock. When he had any notes to
make, he sat down, cleaned and adjusted his spectacles, and wrote out
what he wanted. When he wished to cross-examine a witness, he removed
his glasses, came to the front of the dock, and put his questions
steadily and quietly, without a trace of excitement in his manner,
but always with a close application to the subject in hand. One could
almost refuse to believe, while listening to him, that he had not been
educated and trained for the bar; and undoubtedly many of those who
wear wigs and gowns in her Majesty's courts, are far from exhibiting
the same degree of aptitude for the profession. But it was in his
address to the jury that the remarkable talents of the man were most
brilliantly revealed. It was an extraordinary piece of argument and
eloquence, seasoned occasionally with much quiet humour, and enriched
with many passages that showed a high and courageous spirit. His
scathing denunciations of the system of brutality practised towards
the political prisoners in Kilmainham gaol, and his picture of Mr.
Governor Price as "the old gorilla," will long be remembered. One
portion of his remarks ran as follows:--
The whole conduct of the Crown, since my arrest, has been such
as to warrant me in asserting that I have been treated
more like a beast of prey than a human being. If I had been
permitted to examine witnesses, I would have shown how the
case had been got up by the Crown. I would have shown them
how the Crown Solicitor, the gaolers, the head gaoler and the
deputy gaolers of Kilmainham, and the Protestant chaplain
of that institution, had gone in, day and night, to all\
the witnesses--to the cells of the prisoners--with a bribe
in one hand and a halter in the other. I would have shown
how political cases were got up by the Crown in Ireland. I
would have shown how there existed, under the authority of
the Castle, a triumvirate of the basest wretches that ever
conspired to take away the lives and liberties of men. One of
these represented the law, another the gibbet in front of
the gaol, and another was supposed to represent the Church
militant.
Here the Chief Baron interposed; but the prisoner soon after reverted
to the subject, and said that every opportunity was taken in that gaol
to wrong and torture the men incarcerated there on political charges.
Every petty breach of discipline was availed of to punish them,
by sending them down to work the crank, and reducing their scanty
rations. For the crime of not saluting Mr. Governor Price, they were
placed upon a dietary of seven ounces of what was called brown bread
and a pint of Anna Liffey, in the twenty-four hours. Brown, indeed,
the article was, but whether it deserved the name of bread, was quite
another question. The turf-mould taken from the Bog of Allen was the
nearest resemblance to it that he could think of. For his own part, he
did not mean to complain of his rations--he could take either rough
or smooth as well as most men; but what he would complain of was, the
system of petty insults and indignities offered by Mr. Price and his
warders to men of finer feelings than their own, and whom they knew to
be their superiors. He concluded his address in the following terms:--
I ask you if I have not thoroughly and sufficiently explained
away the terror, if I may use the term, of these papers, which
were taken from walls and other places, to be brought against
me here. 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. But, gentlemen of the
jury, it will be your fault if you make your shoulders the
stepping-stone for the Attorney-General to spring upon the
bench. I say these words to you in sober, solemn earnestness.
You are now trying a man who has lived all his life-time in
a country where freedom is venerated and adored. You may
believe, gentlemen, that you have the speech of freedom here;
but I claim, gentlemen, that the real spirit of freedom has
fled these shores many a century ago--has sped across the
Atlantic, and perched upon American soil; and, gentlemen, it
ought to be your wish and desire--as I am sure it is, for I am
unwilling to believe that you are the men the Attorney-General
deems you to be--to do me justice, and to prove that Dublin
juries do not on all occasions bring in a verdict at the
dictation of the Crown. Gentlemen, the principle of freedom
is at stake. Every man that is born into this world has a
right to freedom, unless he forfeits that right by his
own misdemeanour. Perhaps you have read the Declaration of
American Independence. In that declaration, drawn up by one
Thomas Jefferson, it is stated that every man born into this
world is born free and equal; that he has the right--the
inalienable right--to live in liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. These are the cardinal principles of liberty. I
claim these rights, unless I have forfeited them by my own
misconduct. I claim there is not one particle, one scintilla,
of evidence to warrant you in finding a verdict for the Crown.
I have not conspired with General Roberts or any of these
other generals. There is no evidence to show you anything
about any such conspiracy, as far as I am concerned. With
these facts before you, I ask you, as reasonable men, is
there one particle of evidence to show that I am guilty of
the charges preferred against me? I shall simply conclude
by repeating the words with which I commenced--that I leave
it between your conscience and your God to find a verdict
according to the evidence and, the truth. I leave it to you
in the name of that sacred justice which we all profess to
venerate, and I ask you not to allow your passion or your
prejudices to cloud your judgments--not to allow the country
to say that the Dublin juries are in the breeches-pocket of
the Attorney-General. Never let it be said that a prisoner,
forced into your country, carried off from the steamer which
was bearing him away from yours to his own, has been found
guilty on the evidence of perjured witnesses. Never let the
world say that a Dublin jury are not as honest as any other.
Do not allow those acrimonious feelings which unfortunately in
this country difference of sect engenders, to have anything to
with your verdict. As far as I am concerned, I ask no favour
from you. I ask no favour from any man that lives in the
world. I have always, gentlemen, adhered to my own principles,
and will do so while I am able. If you consent to send me
for my life to a penitentiary you will not make the slightest
impression on me. I am pleading for life and liberty--I am
pleading in the cause of justice, and I leave it in your
hands. I demand that you should exercise your best judgement
to render a verdict before the Omnipotent Creator of the
universe, who is looking into your hearts as well as mine--to
render a verdict for which you will be sorry--to render a
verdict that your countrymen will cheer--to render a verdict
that will make you venerated and admired im the land of your
birth while you live on this earth.
The jury, however, found not for the prisoner, but for the Crown.
When General Halpin took his place in the dock with, his fellow
"convicts," Colonel Warren and Augustine E. Costello, to receive his
sentence, he appeared calm and uuimpassioned as ever. The question why
sentence should not be passed on him having been put--
The Prisoner said that before he spoke to the question put
him by the Clerk of the Crown, he wished to say a few words on
another topic. The day before yesterday he was handed by the
governor of Kilmainham a letter which had come from America,
and enclosed a draft. The draft the governor refused to give
up, and also refused to state what disposition he intended
to make of it. The deputy governor had other moneys of his,
and he requested that those, as well as the draft, should be
restored to him.
The Attorney-General, in an undertone, having addressed some
observations to the bench.
The Lord Chief Baron said that the prisoner, having been
convicted of felony, his property was at the disposal of the
authorities, and that any representation he had to make on the
subject should be made to the government.
Halpin said he wished that the money might be transferred to
the governor of whatever gaol he was to be imprisoned in,
so that he might have the use of it to purchase necessaries
should he require them.
LORD CHIEF BARON--If you desire to make any representation it
must be through the government.
PRISONER--I don't wish to make any representation to the
government on the subject. I will permit the government to add
robbery to perjury.
The Prisoner, in reply to a question asked by the Clerk of the Crown,
said that justice had not been dealt out to him as he thought it might
have been. He had been prevented by the Crown from getting witnesses
for his defence, and from seeing his witnesses, while the Crown had
taken four months to get their witnesses properly trained, and to
ransack all the Orange lodges of Dublin for jurors. He complained of
the rules of the gaol, and of the law that permitted them to be in
force, and said:--
I deny the jurisdiction of this court in common with Colonel
Warren. I owe no allegiance to this country, and were I a
free man to-morrow I would sooner swear allegiance to the
King of Abyssinia than give half-an-hour's allegiance to the
government of this country--a government that has blasted
the hopes of half the world and disgusted it all. I am not, I
suppose, permitted to speak of the verdict given against me by
the jury. It was entirely unnecessary for the Crown to produce
one single witness against me. The jury had their lesson
before they came to the box.
THE CHIEF BARON--It is impossible for me to allow you to
proceed with this line of observation.
HALPIN--I wish to simply say that the jury exhibited an
extreme anxiety to find a verdict against me before I had
even said a word to them. I saw their anxiety. I knew from
the moment they were put into the box that a verdict of guilty
would be returned against me. I knew it from looking at the
conduct of the jury in the box.--I knew it from the way the
jury were empanelled, and I knew the Attorney-General relied
upon the jury for a verdict when he set three citizens aside.
I therefore conclude, and rightly, that all the eloquent
talent that ever pleaded at this bar would be entirely useless
to me whilst such a jury was in the box. The Crown, in order
to give some colour to the proceedings, thought proper to
produce several witnesses against me. Eleven witnesses
were examined, and out of these no less than nine committed
absolute, diabolical, and egregious perjury.
THE CHIEF BARON--You are transcending the limit within which
the law confines you.
HALPIN--I do not blame you for enforcing the law us it stands.
By no means. I have to thank your lordship for your kindness
during the progress of my trial. I do not blame you, because
the law stands as it does, but what I say is--that the law is
absurd in taking me and trying me as a British subject whilst
I am a citizen of the United States, without a particle of
evidence to show that I was born under the jurisdiction of
the British Crown. I must say that I look to another place,
another government, and another people to see that justice
shall be done me.
THE CHIEF BARON--Here again you are transcending the limits
which the law allows. We could not deal with any consideration
connected with what any government will do.
HALPIN--I am aware that it is not within your province to deal
with the acts of another government, but I may be permitted to
say this--that the outrages offered me and those gentlemen who
claim, like me, to be citizens of the United States will be
gladly submitted to if they only have the effect of making the
sword of Brother Jonathan spring from its scabbard.
THE CHIEF BARON--I cannot suffer you to proceed with this line
of observation. I cannot suffer to make this a place of appeal
to persons in this country or in America.
HALPIN--I am not making any appeal to any man. Although I was
found guilty by a jury of this court I deem my conduct above
reproach. I know how I have been convicted, and will still
assert that the first gun fired in anger between this country
and America will be a knell of comfort to my ears.
THE CHIEF BARON--I will be compelled to remove you from where
you are now if you proceed with this line of observation.