MARTIN

OHN MARTIN, an eminent Irish revolutionist, was born at Loughorne,

and linen-merchant. He was educated at Dr. Henderson's school at Newry and at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1832 he took his degree and began the study of medicine, which he relinquished in 1836 when he inherited the estates of his uncle at Loughorne. In 1839 he visited America and travelled widely over the United States and Canada. On his return he became a member of the Association of the Confederates, but was expelled because he demanded the publication of the accounts. He became a contributor to the " United Irishman," and when that was suppressed, he issued the Irish Felon from the same publishing rooms. Before his sixth number was out he was arrested for treason-felony. He was sentenced to be transported for ten years. He remained in Van Diemen's Land until 1854, when he was conditionally pardoned and returned to Paris, where he expected to live in exile, but the death of a relative in Ireland called him home in 1858. In January, 1864, he established in Dublin a Repeal associ ation called the "National League." When the famous public funeral procession was organized in Dublin in December, 1867, in memory of the three Irishmen executed in Manchester on the twenty-third of November, John Martin delivered the address at the cemetery, and, having been again arrested, was tried for sedition; but this time the jury disagreed and the prisoner was discharged.

THE NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE OF IRELAND

SPEECH DELIVERED FROM THE DOCK AT DUBLIN, AUGUST 18, 1849

MY

Y LORDS,—I have no imputation to cast upon the bench, neither have I anything to charge the jury with, of unfairness toward me. I think the judges desired to do their duty honestly, as upright judges and men, and that the twelve men who were put into the box, as I believe, not to try, but to convict me, voted honestly, according to their prejudices. I have no personal enmity against the sheriff, sub-sheriff, or any of the gentlemen connected with the arrangement of the jury-panel, nor against the attorneygeneral or any other person engaged in the proceedings called

(7235)

my trial; but, my lords, I consider that I have not been yet tried. There have been certain formalities carried on here for three days regarding me, ending in a verdict of guilty; but I have not been put upon my country, as the constitution said to exist in Ireland requires. Twelve of my countrymen, "indifferently chosen," have not been put into that jury-box to try me, but twelve men who, I believe, have been selected by the parties who represent the Crown, for the purpose of convicting and not of trying me.

I believe they were put into that box because the parties conducting the prosecution knew their political sentiments were hostile to mine, and because the matter at issue here is a political question,-a matter of opinion, and not a matter of fact. I have nothing more to say as to the trial, except to repeat that, having watched the conduct of the judges, I consider them upright and honest men. I have this to add, that as to the charge I make with respect to the constitution of the panel and the selection of the jury I have no legal evidence of the truth of my statement, but there is no one who has a moral doubt of it. Every person knows that what I have stated is the fact; and I would represent to the judges, most respectfully, that they, as upright and honorable men, and judges, and as citizens, ought to see that the administration of justice in this country is above suspicion. I have nothing more to say with regard to the trial; but I would be thankful to the court for permission to say a few words in vindication of my character and motives after sentence is passed.

[Baron Pennefather," No; we will not hear anything from you after sentence."

Chief Baron,-"We cannot hear anything from you after sentence has been pronounced."]

Then, my lords, permit me to say that, admitting the nar

row and confined constitutional doctrines which I have heard preached in this court to be right, I am not guilty of the charge, according to this act. I did not intend to devise or levy war against the Queen, or to depose the Queen. In the article of mine on which the jury framed their verdict of guilty, which was written in prison and published in the last number of my paper, what I desired to do was this,―to advise and encourage my countrymen to keep their arms, because that is their inalienable right, which no act of Parliament, no proclamation, can take away from them. It is, I repeat, their inalienable right. I advised them to keep their arms; and further, I advised them to use their arms in their own defence against all assailants, even assailants that might come to attack them unconstitutionally and improperly using the Queen's name as their sanction.

My object in all my proceedings has been simply to assist in establishing the national independence of Ireland, for the benefit of all the people of Ireland,-noblemen, clergymen, judges, professional men,-in fact, all Irishmen. I have sought that object, first, because I thought it was our right,— because I think national independence is the right of the people of this country; and, secondly, I admit that, being a man who loves retirement, I never would have engaged in politics did I not think it was necessary to do all in my power to make an end of the horrible scenes that this country presents the pauperism, starvation, and crime, and vice, and hatred of all classes against each other. I thought there should be an end to that horrible system, which, while it lasted, gave me no peace of mind; for I could not enjoy anything in my native country so long as I saw my countrymen forced to be vicious, forced to hate each other, and degraded to the level of paupers and brutes. That is the reason I engaged in politics. I ac

knowledge, as the solicitor-general has said, that I was but a weak assailant of the English power. I am not a good writer, and I am no orator. I had only two weeks' experience in conducting a newspaper until I was put into jail; but I am satisfied to direct the intention of my countrymen to everything I have written and said, and to rest my character on a fair and candid examination of what I have put forward as my opinions. I shall say nothing in vindication of my motives but this, that every fair and honest man, no matter how prejudiced he may be, if he calmly considers what I have written and said, will be satisfied that my motives were pure and honorable. I have nothing more to say.

THE IRISH MARTYRS

ADDRESS AT THE CEMETERY IN DUBLIN, DECEMBER 8, 1867

F

ELLOW COUNTRYMEN,--This is a strange kind of

funeral procession in which we are engaged to-day.

We are here, a vast multitude of men, women, and children, in a very inclement season of the year, under rain and through mud. We are here escorting three empty hearses to the consecrated last resting-place of those who die in the Lord. The three bodies that we would tenderly bear to the churchyard and would bury in consecrated ground with all the solemn rites of religion are not here. They are away in a foreign and hostile land, where they have been thrown into unconsecrated ground, branded by the triumphant hatred of our enemies as the vile remains of murderers. Those three men whose memories we are here to-day to honor—Allen, O'Brien, and Larkin-they were not murderers. These men were pious men, virtuous men, they were men who feared

God and loved their country. They sorrowed for the sorrows of the dear old native land of their love. They wished, if pos sible, to save her, and for that love and for that wish they were doomed to an ignominious death at the hands of the British hangman. It was as Irish patriots that these men were doomed to death, and it was as Irish patriots that they met their death.

For these reasons, my countrymen, we here to-day have joined in this solemn procession to honor their memories. For that reason we say from our hearts, "May their souls rest in peace." For that reason, my countrymen, we join in their last prayer, "God save Ireland."

The death of these men was an act of English policy, a legal murder, and that legal murder was an act of English policy, of the policy of that nation which, through jealousy and hatred of our nation, destroyed by fraud and force our just government sixty-seven years ago.

They have been sixty-seven sad years of insult and robbery of impoverishment of extermination-of suffering beyond what any other subject-people but ours have ever endured from the malignity of foreign masters. Nearly through all these years the Irish people continued to pray for the restoration of their Irish national rule. They offered their forgiveness to England. They offered even their friendship to England, if she would only give up her usurped power to tyrannize over us, and leave us to live in peace and as honorable neighbors. But in vain. England felt herself strong enough to continue to insult and rob us, and she was too greedy and too insolent to cease from robbing and insulting us.

Now it has come to pass, as a consequence of that malignant policy pursued for so many years,-it has come to pass that the great body of the Irish people despair of obtaining peace