ment to the forms of the constitution, continued their sittings; but the strange aspect of senators and advocates transacting civil business in the garb of soldiers, reminded the spectator that the final dependance of the state was upon a power beyond the laws. In Dublin the domestics of the principal citizens had disappeared, and gone off to join the insurgents; while those, who could not be seduced to accompany them, became the more suspected, from this proof of their fidelity: they could have remained, it was apprehended, for the sole purpose of being spies upon their masters, and co-operators in their intended destruction; and thus, to the real dangers of a general design against the government, were added all the imaginary horrors of a project of individual vengeance. The vigorous precautions of the Administration, instead of inspiring confidence, kept alive the public terror and suspense. In every quarter of the kingdom the populace were sent in droves to the prisons, till the prisons could contain no more. The vessels in the several bays adjoining the scenes of disturbance were next converted into gaols. The law was put aside: a non-commissioned officer became the arbiter of life and death. The military were dispersed through every house: military visits were paid to every house in search of arms, or other evidence of treason. The dead were intercepted on their passage to the grave, and their coffins examined, lest they might contain rebellious weapons. Many of the conspirators were informally executed. Many persons who were innocent were arrested and abused. Many who might have been innocent, were suspected, and summarily put to death.

Upon the appointed day the explosion took place. The shock was dreadful. The imagination recoils from a detail of the scenes that followed. Every excess that could have been apprehended from a soldiery, whom General Abercrombie, in the language of

address to the Viceroy, expressing their fidelity and their reliance upon the vigilance and vigour of his government. In order to render the proceeding more imposing, all the members of that house, with the Speaker at their head, walked through the streets, two and two, and presented the address to his Excellency.-C.

manly reproof had declared to be in a state of licentiousness that rendered it formidable to all but the enemy; every act of furious retaliation to be expected from a peasantry inflamed by revenge and despair, and, in consequence of the loss of their leaders, surrendered to the auspices of their own impetuous passions, distinguished and disgraced this fatal conflict.* After a short and sanguinary struggle, the insurgents were crushed. The numbers of them who perished in the field, or on the scaffold, or were exiled, are said to have amounted to 50,000;—the losses upon the side of the crown have been computed at 20,000 lives;—a solemn and memorable fact:-70,000 subjects sacrificed in a single year, whose energies, had other maxims of government prevailed, might have been devoted to what it is equally the interest of subjects and governments to promote-the cause of rational freedom, the possession of which can alone inspire a manly and enlightened attachment to the laws and the state.

The high state of passion and resentment which prevailed at this unfortunate period may be collected from the single fact that in the House of Commons a member suggested that military executions should have a retrospective operation, and that the state priBoners, who had been for several weeks in the hands of government, should be summarily disposed of; but the secretary, Lord Castlereagh) with becoming dignity and humanity, vehemently discountenanced so shocking a proposal.-C. [There is something ludicrous in any one's gravely speaking of the "humanity" of Castlereagh !—M.]

TRIAL OF THE SHEARESES.

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CHAPTER XI.

Trial of Henry and John Sheares.

As soon as the public safety was secured (it was long before tranquillity was restored) by the defeat of the insurgents, a general amnesty was granted to all, except the actual leaders of the conspiracy, who should surrender their arms, and take the oath of allegiance to the King. Several of the leaders were in the hands of the Government, and it was now decided that the most conspicuous of them should be brought to immediate trial, in order that their fates should give a final blow to any still remaining hopes of their adherents.

*

The first of the persons thus selected were two young gentlemen, brothers, and members of the Irish bar, Henry and John Sheares. Their previous history contains nothing peculiar. They were both of respectable and amiable characters. The elder of them "had given many hostages to fortune;" but with the ardour incidental to their years, and to the times, they had been induced to look beyond those sources of private happiness which they appear to have abundantly enjoyed, and to engage in the political speculations that were now to be expiated with their lives. When the original members of the Irish executive were committed to prison, in the month of March, the Sheareses were among those who were chosen to supply their place, and they took a very active part in arranging the plan of the approaching insurrection.

The Sheareses were arrested on the 21st of May, 1798, two days before the rising of the people. They were two Cork gentlemen, "barristers by profession," says Davis, "both men of liberal education, but of very unequal characters. Henry, the oldest, was mild, changeful, weak: John was flery and firm, and of much greater abilities."—M.

Of all these proceedings the Government obtained accurate infor mation through a Captain Armstrong, an officer of the Irish militia, who had succeeded in insinuating himself into their confidence, for the purpose of discovery.* They were accordingly arrested two days previous to the explosion, and were now summoned to abide their trial for high treason.

Mr. Curran's defence of these unfortunate brothers was suppressed at the period, and is generally supposed to have altogether perished. A report of the trial has, however, been preserved, from which an account of the share that he bore in it shall now be given.t

The prisoners were brought to the bar, and arraigned, on the 4th of July, 1798. In this stage of the proceedings, a very interesting and important discussion took place. Their counsel having discovered that one of the grand jury, who had found the bill of indictment, was a naturalized Frenchman,§ pleaded that

*Of Captain Armstrong, Davis says, "This frightful wretch had sought the acquaintance of the Sheareses-made it-encouraged their prospects-assisted them with military hints-professed tender love for them-mixed with their family, and used to dandle Henry Sheares's children. *** He shared their hospitality-urged on their schemes-came to condole with them in prison-and then assassinated them with his oath." John Warneford Armstrong was Captain in the King's County Militia. He made the acquaintance of the Sheareses to get them into his clutches, and dined with John the day before the arrest. He had actually known them only ten days before that. Barrington says that Henry Sheares "was a participator in the treason, and aided in procuring emissaries to seduce the troops at Loughlinston. There Captain Armstrong became acquainted with the two brothers-pledged to them his friendship-persuaded them he would seduce his regiment-gained their implicit confidence-faithfully fulfilled the counter-plot-devised several secret meetings-and worked up sufficient guilt to sacrifice the lives of both."-M. The father of the Sheareses, a Banker in Cork, had been a member of the Irish Parliament, and in that capacity had succeeded in carrying an act (5th George III.) by which was conceded to prisoners the right to have counsel assigned them by the Court and to have a copy of the indictment. Under this statute, Mr. Curran and Mr. McNally were assigned as counsel to John Sheares, and Mr. Plunket for Henry Sheares.-M.

The trial took place before Lord Carleton, Barons Smith and George, and Justice Daly.-M.

§ It was McNally who filed the plea that John Decluzeau, one of the jurors who found the bills, for High Treason, against the Sheareses and for others, was an alien, not naturalised. The Crown lawyers argued against this plea, and then, in reply, Curran spoke in its support.-M.

TRIAL OF THE SHEARSESES.

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The following are parts of Mr. Curran's

fact against its legality. argument upon the occasion: *

"My lords; the law of this country has declared, that in order to the conviction of any man, not only of any charge of the higher species of criminal offences, but of any criminal charge whatsoever, he must be convicted upon the finding of two juries; first, of the grand jury, who determine upon the guilt in one point of view; and, secondly, by the corroborative finding of the petty jury, who establish that guilt in a more direct manner; and it is the law of this country, that the jurors, who shall so find, whether upon the grand or upon the petty inquest, shall be probi et legales homines omni exceptione majores. They must be open to no legal objection of personal incompetence; they must be capable of having freehold property, and in order to have freehold property, they must not be open to the objection of being born under the jurisdiction of a foreign prince, or owing allegiance to any foreign power. Because the law of this country, and indeed the law of every country in Europe, has thought it an indispensable precaution, to trust no man with the weight or influence which territorial possession may give him contrary to that allegiance which ought to flow from such possession of property in the country. This observation is emphatically forcible in every branch of the criminal law; but in the law of treason, it has a degree of force and cogency that fails in every inferior class of offence; because the very point to be inquired into in treason is the nature of allegiance. The general nature of allegiance may be pretty clear to every man. Every man, however unlearned he may be, can easily acquire such a notion of allegiance, whether natural and born with him, or whether it be temporary and contracted by emigration into another country; he may acquire a vague, untechnical

*Different statutes of Charles II. Geo. I. and Geo. III. enact, that naturalized aliens, performing certain specified conditions, "shall be deemed liege, free, and natural subjects, to all intents and purposes;" with a proviso "that they shall not be enabled to serve in Parliament, nor to be of his majesty's privy council, nor to hold any office of trust, civil or military, in the kingdom.-C.