There has been, my
lords, a weight pressing on my mind from the first moment I heard the
indictment read upon which I was tried; but that weight has been more
peculiarly pressing upon my heart when I found the accusation in the
indictment enforced and supported upon the trial. That weight would
be left insupportable if it were not for this opportunity of
discharging it; I shall feel it to be insupportable since a verdict
of my country has stamped that evidence as well founded. Do not
think, my lords, that I am about to make a declaration against the
verdict of the jury or the persons concerned with the trial; I am
only about to call to your recollection a part of the charge at which
my soul shudders, and if I had no opportunity of renouncing it before
your lordships and this auditory, no courage would be sufficient to
support me. The accusation of which I speak, while I linger here yet
a minute, is that of holding out to the people of Ireland a direction
to give no quarter to the troops fighting for its defence! My lords,
let me say thus, that if there be any acquaintances in this crowded
court--I do not say my intimate friends, but acquaintances--who do
not know what I say is truth, I shall be reputed the wretch which I
am not; I say if any acquaintance of mine can believe that _I_ could
utter a recommendation of giving no quarter to a yielding and
unoffending foe, it is not the death which I am about to suffer that
I deserve--no punishment could be adequate to such a crime.
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