Page images
PDF
EPUB

racter, which I unfeignedly feel, and which I shall not be restrained from expressing by the only thing which could restrain me, his presence: I know his private worth, and his public spirit; I have not the slightest doubt of his meaning well, and being actuated by pure and honorable motives in all that he has done, though he must allow me to say that I consider him as an instrument in the hands of others, as grievously mistaken, and as acting under a gross delusion; but he must permit me to express what I feel for his situation, and for the trial to which his noble heart has been exposed; when I see him now a second time condemned to sit by in a court of justice, and listen to advocates hired to deny within those walls, that conduct and those acts which he has been taught out of this court to glory in as patriotic and meritorious which he has sanctioned by his presence and authority, and to the public avowal of which, his title of honor stands pledged in every newspaper in the empire. Gentlemen of the jury, I say as long as lord Fingall sits silent in this court, it is an idle waste of time to cross-examine Mr. Huddleston-it is useless, if it were possible, to represent him as infidel or infamous. My lord Fingall, sits there his compurgator; his silence sets him up and supports his testimony even if it were other

D

[ocr errors]

wise exceptionable, and upon that testimony: : I shall not affront your feelings and your intellects, by making another observation: but let, me turn again to my learned friend Mr. Bur rowes, and ask him in this part of his case, how he has supported his claims to a national defence, and to a public cause; let me remind him, that it is now seven or eight months since the government of the country has been at issue with his client upon the one single question; whether a committee to be convened ander lord Fingall's proclamation, (for such I must call it,) of the resolutions, of the 9th of July, be lawful or not; and that up to this hour no man in any place has been candid or fair enough to admit those resolutions. I know what evasive circumlocutions may be contrived. as substitutes for this simple admission, I can suppose the noble lord to be taught to say in answer to any question, "that he is engaged in a lawful and constitutional pursuit;" but I know that up to this hour, that meeting and those resolutions have never been admitted, and that the allegation of their existence, has only been encountered by a cross-examination into Mr. Huddleston's religious opinions. I call therefore again, upon Mr. Burrowes, to weigh well his pretensions to the manly and dignified.

advocacy of a great national question. I call upon him to lower his tone-I say to him-Descend from your iambics.

Projice ampullas & sesquipedalia verba.

I come next to the evidence of John Sheppard, and shall in the first place, observe, that the gentleman who cross-examined him, must have considered his testimony as highly injurious to his client, if believed, or he never would have taken so much pains to discredit it; Upon the minute details of it, it is quite unnecessary that I should decsant; I defend it in the abstract by this general observation, that he has stated the occurrences of the 31st of July, in Liffey-street Chapel, to have occured in the presence of great multitudes, and has named several persons, all present during this trial, as having acted in the election of that day, not one of whom has been produced to contradict. kim. One of those gentlemen sat in the gallery while he gave his testimony:-I mean Dr. Sheridan, the person alledged to have been most active in the proceedings, and a person whose production could not have subjected him to any risque, for he is now an acquitted Delegate: he is a gentleman of profession and character; and if Sheppard either swore falsely or inaccu

rately, could easily have contradicted him :a different line of impeachment however, was adopted with this witness, and as no one else would contradict him, an experiment was made to make him contradict himself: whether that experiment was successful or not, I frankly own that I am unable to assert; I should rather suppose that it has failed, because Mr. Burrowes in his address to you, made no observations upon his evidence, nor did he pretend that he had contradicted himself.-Let it not, however, be supposed that I pledge myself for his not having done so you gentlemen, must judge for yourselves, as to the effects of his cross-examination, and if you are able to form any opinion upon it, your heads and mine must be made of very different materials. My learned friend, Mr. Burne, must not suppose me to insinuate, that his discharge of that duty was unnecessary or prolix; he must permit me, however, to say, that it was somewhat prolonged. No one discharges his professional duty with more ability and effect than he does; but he will remember, (I am sure, I shall never forget it,) that he cross-examined John Sheppard for three hours and a half, by Shrewsbury clock-there are limits to the human faculties, and I must confess, that at last mine were so exhausted by this process, that I was unable to carry away a definite idea, or

even a distinct sentence:-the victim on the table at last swam before my eyes, and some confused buzzing sounds like the repetition of a catch word in the examination; notes, drafts, copies, informations, etcetera ; etcetera, rung discordantly in my dizzy head, and tingled in my ears.-Gentlemen, if such were the effects produced upon a mere suffering auditor, what must have been the sensations of the witness himself, and let me ask you, if the man had fallen into contradictions and inconsistencies, who could have been surprised at it? who has sufficient confidence in his own memory or nerves, in his own strength of body or of mind, to suppose that he could come out from such an ordeal more than alive-let me put it to the candor of my learned and ingenious friend, Mr. Burne, how does he suppose that he would have endured such a peine forte & dure himself? let him imagine himself nailed to that chair, and that chair fastened to that table, and another Mr. Burne, if another could be procured, sitting down in regular assault before him, and for three hours and a half battering and beleaguering him like a besieged town? let me ask him how he thinks he would feel about the time that his adversary be-came tired of the attack: really gentlemen, nothing is so unfair as to judge rashly of a man's credit who has been exposed to such a trial. I

« PreviousContinue »