< oc 03 CAUFOBte ^OF-CAIIF(% HONE'S CORRECT AND COMPLETE EDITION. THE ELOQUENT SPEECH OF CHARLES PHILLIPS, ESQ. at (Saltoap, IN THE CASE OF O'MULLAN o. M'KORKILL; EMBRACING, AMONGST OTHER TOPICS, EDUCATION, THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, AND TOLERATION: WITH A CORRECT COPY OF THE CELEBRATED TOAST " TO THE MEMORY OF KING WILLIAM." This Speech produced an effect upon the auditory equal to that of any other delivered by this celebrated Orator. At its conclusion the Court- House rung with applause. LONDON: PRINTED FOR W. HONE, 55, FLEET-STREET, AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS AND NEWS AGENTS. ASK FOR HONE'S EDITION, Price Sixpence. 1816. xauuv WS Stack Annex 5 . Uny and Turner, PrJBters,Jiewca*t)c-Strft, Strand. SPEECH * OF CHARLES PHILLIPS, ESQ. APRIL 1, 1816, IX O'MULLAN T. M'KORKILL. MY LORD AND GENTLEMEN, I AM instructed as of Counsel for the Plaintiff, to state to you r the circumstances in which this action has originated. It is a source to me, I will confess it, of much personal embarrassment* Feebly indeed, can I attempt to convey to you, the feelings with which a perusal of this brief has affected me painful to you must be my inefficient transcript painful to all who hare the common, feelings of country or of kind, must be this calamitous compen- dium of all that degrades our individual nature, and of all that has, for many an age of sorrow perpetuated a curse upon our national character. It is, perhaps, the misery of this profession, that every hour our vision may be blasted by some withering crime, and our hearts wrung with some agonizing recital ; there is no frightful form of vice, no disgusting phantom of infirmity, which guilt does not array in spectral train before us. Horrible is the assemblage ! humiliating the application ! But thank God, even amid those very scenes of disgrace and of debasement, occasions often arise for the redemption of our dignity ; occasions, on which the virtues breathed into us, by heavenly inspiration, walk abroad in the divinity of their exertion ; before whose beam the wintry robe falls from the form of virtue, and all the midnight images of horror vanish into nothing. Joyfully and piously do I recognise such an. occasion ; gladly do I invoke you to the generous participation : yet, Gentlemen, though you must prepare to hear much that de- grades our nature, much that distracts our country though all 1 .1.17007 that oppression could devise against the poor though all that per- secution could inflict upon the feeble though all that vice could wield against the pious, though all that the venom of a venal tur- pitude could pour upon the patriot, must with their alternate ap- parition afflict, affright, and humiliate you, still do I hope, that over this charnel-honse of crime over this very sepulchre, where corruption sits enthroned upon the mouldering merit it has mur- dered, that voice is at length about to be heard, at which the martyred victim -will arise to vindicate the ways of Providence, and prove that even in its worst adversity there is a might and im- mortality in virtue. The Plaintiff, Gentlemen, you have heard, is the Rev. Cou- NELIOUS p'JVIyi.LAN ; he is a Clergyman of the Church of Rome, and became invested with that venerable appellation, so far back as September 1804. It is a title which you know, in this country, no rank ennobles, no treasure enriches, no establishment supports ; its possessor stands undisguised by any rag of this world's deco- ration, resting all temporal, all eternal hope upon his toil, his talents, his attainments, and his piety doubtless after all, the highest honours, as well as the most imperishable treasures of the man of God. Year after year passed over my client, and each anniversary only gave him qn additional title to these qualifica- tions his precept was but the handmaid to his practice the sceptic heard him, and was convinced the ignorant attended him, and were taught he smoothed the death-bed of too heedless wealth he rocked the .cradle of the infant charity : oh no wonder he walked in the sunshine of the public eye no wonder he toiled thrpugh the pressure of the public benediction. This is not an idle declamation such was the result his ministry produced, that within five years from the date of its commencement, nearly 2000/. of voluntary subscription enlarged the temple where suc'l precepts were taught, and such piety exemplified. Such was the situation of Mr. O'Mui.LA.v, when a dissolution of Parliament took place, and an unexpected contest for the representation of Derry, threw that County into unusual commotion. One of the Candidates was of the PONSONBY family a family devoted to the interests, and dear to the heart of Ireland ; he naturally thought that his Parliamentary conduct entitled him to the ?ote of every Catholic in the land, and so it did, not only of every Ca- tholic, but of every Christian who preferred the diffusion of the. Gospel, to the ascendancy of a sect, and loved the principles of the Constitution, better than the pretensions of a party. Per- haps you will think with me, that there is a sort of posthumous interest thrown about that event, when I tell you, that the Can- didate on that occasion, was the lamented Hero over whose tomb the tears not only of Ireland, but of Europe, have been so lately shed ; he who 'mid the blossom of the world's chivalry, died conquering a deathless name upon the field of Waterloo. lit: applied to Mr. O'Mui.LAN for his interest, and that interest was cheerfully given, the concurrence of his Bishop having been pre- viously obtained. Mr. PONSONBY succeeded, and a dinner, to which all parties were invited, and from which all party spirit was expected to absent itself, was given to commemorate one common triumph the purity and the privileges of Election. In other countries such an expectation might be natural ; the exercise of a noble constitutional privilege, the triumph of a great popular cause, might not unaptly expand itself in the intercourse of the board, aud unite all hearts in the natural bond of festive com- memoration. But, alas, gentlemen, in this unhappy land, such has been the result, whether of our faults, our tollies, or our misfortunes, that a detestable disunion converts the very balm of the Low! into poison, commissioning its vile and harpy offspring, to turn even our festivity into famine. My client was "at this din. ner. It was not to be endured that a Catholic should pollute with his presence the civic festivities of the loyal Londonderry '.Such an intrusion, even the acknowledged sanctity of his character could not excuse it became necessary to insult him. There is a toast which, perhaps, few in this united county are in the habit of hearing, but it is the invariable watch-word of the Orange orgies it is briefly entitled " The glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the great and good King WILIIAM !' I have no doubt, the simplicity of your understandings is puzzled hovf to discover any offence in the commemoration of the Revolution Hero. The loyalists of Derry are more wise in their generation. There, when some Bacchanalian bigots wish to avert the intrusive visitations of their own memory, they commence by violating the memory of King WILLIAM.* Those who happen to have shoes or silver in their fraternity (no very usual occurrence), thank his Majesty that the shoes are not wooden, and that the silver is not brass a commodity, by the bye, of which any legacy would have been quite superfluous, The Pope comes in tor a pious benediction ; and the toast concludes with a patriotic wish for all of his persuasion, by the consummation of which, there can be no doubt, the hempen manufactures of this country would ex. perience a, very considerable consumption. Such, Gentlemen s the enlightened, and liberal, and social sentiment, of which the first sentence, all that is usually given, forms the sugges- tion. I must not omit that it is generally taken standing ; B K ways, provided it be in the power of the company ! This toast ^.vas pointedly given to insult Mr. O'Mullan. Naturally averse to any altercation, his most obvious course was to quit the * This loyal toast handed down by Orange tradition, is literally as follow* vi e give it tor the edification of the English Reader i ' The glorious, pious, and immortal memory ot the great and good Kin* illiam, who saved us from Pope and Popery, Jame* and slavery brass H It is drank kneeling, if they cannot stand,-nine times nine : amid various mysteries which none but the elect can comprehend. 6 company, and this he did immediately. He was, however, as immediately recalled, by an intimation, thai " the CATHOLIC QUESTIOV, and might its claims be considered justly and liberally," had bi>en toasled as a peace-offering by Sir GEORGE HILL, the City Recorder. My client had no gall in his disposition he at onco clasped to his hrart the friendly overture, and in such phrase as his simplicity supplied, poured forth the gratitude of that heart to the liberal Recorder. Poor O'Mullan had the wisdom to ini;itfiiu\ that the politician's compliment was the man's conviction, and 'hat a able toast was the certain prelude to a parliamentary suffrage. Despising all experience, he applied the adage, " Coelum npn animum mutant qui trans mare currunt," to the Irish patriot. I nerd not paint to you the consternation of Sir George, at so unusual and so unparliamentary a construction. He indignantly disclaimed the intention imputed to him denied and deprecated the unfashionable inference and, acting on the broad scale of an impartial policy, gate to one party the weight of his vote, and to the other the, (no doubt in his opinion,) equally valuable ac- quisition of his eloquence : by the way, no unusual compromise amongst modern politicians. The proceedings of this dinner soon became public. Sir George, you may be sure, was little in love with his notoriety. However, Gentlemen, the sufferings of the powerful are seldom without sympathy ; if they receive not the solace of the disinterested, and the dear, they are at least sure to find a substitute in the miserable professions of an interested hypocrisy. Who could imagine, that Sir George, of all men, was to drink from the spring of Catholic consolation ? yet so it happened. Two men of that communion, had the hardihood, and the servility, to frame an Address to him, reflecting upon the Pastor, who was its pride, and its ornament. This address, with the most obnoxious commentaries, was in- stantly published by the Derry Journalist , who from that hour, down to the period of his ruin, has not ceased to persecute my client, with all that the most deliberate falsehood could invent, and all that the most infuriate bigotry could perpetrate. This Journal, I may as well now describe to you it is one of the numerous publications which the misfortunes of this unhappy land have generated, and which has grown into considerable affluence by tho sad contributions of the public calamity. There is not a provincial village in Ireland, which some such official fiend docs not infest ; fabricating a gazette of fraud and falsehood, upon all who presume to advocate her interests, or uphold the ancient re- ligion of her people. The worst foes of Government, under pretence of giving it assistance the deadliest enemies to the Irish name, under the mockery of supporting its character the most licentious, irreligious, illiterate banditti, that ever polluted the fair fields of literature, under the spoliated banner of the Press. Bloated with the public spoil, and blooded in the chase of character, no abilities can arrest no piety can awe no misfor- tunes affect no benevolence conciliate them ; the reputation of the living, and the memory of the dead, are equally plundered in their desolating progress: even the awful sepulchre affords not an asylum to their selected victim. Human Hyaenas they will rush into the sacred depositories of the departed, gorging their ravenous and irreverent! rapine, amid the mouldering memorials of man's last infirmity ! Such is a too true picture ot what I hope un- authorisedly mis-names itself the Ministerial Press of Ireland. Amid that polluted Press, it is for you to say, whether The Lon- donderry Journal stands on an infamous* elevation. When this Address was published in the name of the Catholics, that calum- niated body, as was naturally to be expected, became universally indignant. You may remember, Gentlemen, amongst the many expedients resorted to by Ireland, for the recovery of her rights, after she had knelt Session after Session at the bar of the Legislature, covered with the wounds of glory, and praying redemption from the Chains that rewarded them; you may remember, I say, amongst many vain expedients of supplication and remonstrance, her Catholic population delegated a Board to consult on their affairs, and forward their petition. Of that body, fashionable as the topic has now become, far be it from me to speak with dis- respect. It contained much talent much integrity, and it exhi- bited, what must ever be to me an interesting spectacle, a great body of my fellow-men and fellow-christians, claiming admission into that constitution which their ancestors had achieved by their valour, and to which they were entitled as their inheritance. This is no time, this is no place for the discussion of that ques- tion but since it does force itself incidentally upon me, I will say that, as on the one hand I cannot fancy a despotism more impious, or more inhuman, than the political debasement here, on account of that faith by which men hope to win an happy eternity hereafter; so on the other, 1 cannot fancy a vision in its aspect more divine, than the eternal Cross red with the martyr's blood, and radiant with the pilgrim's hope, reared by the patriot and the Christian hand, high in the v^n of universal liberty. Of this Board, the two volunteer framers of the address, happen- ed to be members. The body who deputed them, instantly as- sembled and declared their delegation void. You would sup- pose, Gentlemen, that after this decisive public brand of repro- bation, those officious meddlers would have avoided its recurrence, by retiring from scenes for which nature and education had totally unfitted them. Far, however, from acting under any sense of shame, those excluded outcasts even summoned a meeting to ap- peal from the sentence the public opinion had pronounced on them. The meeting assembled, and after almost the day's delibera- tion on their conduct, the former sentence was unanimously con- firmed. The men did not deem it prudent to attend themselves, but at a late hour, when the business was concluded when the resolutions had passed when the chair was vacated when the 8 multitude was dispersing they attempted with some Orange fol- lowers to obtrude into the Chapel, which in large cities, such as Deny, is the usual place of meeting. An angry spirit arose amongst the people. Mr. O'MulIan, as was his duty, locked the doors to preserve the house of God from profanation, and ad- dressed the crowd in such terms, as induced them to repair peace- ably to their respective habitations. I need not paint to you the bitter emotions with which these deservedly disappointed meii were agitated. AH hell was at work within them, and a con- sptracy was hatched against the peace of my client, the vilest, the foulest, the most infernal, that ever vice devised, or demons exe- cuted. Restrained from exciting a riot by his interference, they actually swore a riot against him, prosecuted him to conviction worked on the decaying intellect of his Bishop to desert him, and, amid the savage war-hoop of this slanderous Journal, all along inflaming the public mind by libels the most atrocious, finally flung this poor, pious, peaceable, unoffending priest, into a damp and desolate dungeon, where the very iron that bound, had more of humanity than the despots that surrounded him. I am told, they triumph much in his conviction I seek not to impugn the verdict of that Jury I have no doubt they acted conscientiously it weighs not with me that every member of my client's creed was carefully excluded from that jury no doubt they acted con. scientionsly. It weighs not with me that every man impannelled on the trial of the Priest, was exclusively Protestant, and that too in a city so prejudiced, that not long ago, by their Corpora- tion law, no Catholic dare breathe the air of Heaven within its walls no doubt they acted conscientiously. It weighs not with me, that not three days previously, one of that Jury was heard publicly to declare, he wished he could prosecute the Papist to his death no doubt they acted conscientiously. It weighs not with me that the public mind had been so inflamed by the exaspe- ration of this libeller, that an impartial trial was utterly impos- sible. Let them enjoy their triumph. But for myself, knowing him as I do, here in the teeth of that conviction, I declare it, I would rather be that man-, so aspersed, so imprisoned, so perse, cuted, and have his consciousness, than stand the highest of the courtliest rabble that ever fawned before the foot of power or fed upon the people plundered alms of despotism. Oh, of short duration is such dsemoniac triumph. Oh, blind and baseless is the vaunt of vice, imagining its victory can be more than for the moment. This very day, I hope, will prove, that if virtue suffers, it is but for a season, and that sooner or later their patience tried, and their purity testified, prosperity will crown the interests of probity and worth. Perhaps you imagine, Gentlemen, that his person imprisoned his professkm gone hi* prospects ruined and what he held dearer than all his character defamed ;^-the malice of his wicmies might hare rested from persecution. " Thus bad' begins, but worse remains behind." Attend, I beseech you, to what now follows- because I have come in order to the particular libel, which we have selected from the crowded calumnies of this journal, and to which we call your peculiar consideration. Business of moment, to the nature of which I shall feel it my duty presently to advert, called Mr. O'MuiLAN to the metropolis. Through the libels of the De- fendant, he was at this timu in disfavour with his Bishop : and a rumour had gone abroad, that he was never again to revisit his ancient congregation. The Bishop, in the interim, returned to Derry, and, on the Sunday following, went to officiate at the pa- rish chapel. All ranks crowded tremulously round him the widow sought her guardian the orphan his protector the poor their patron the rich their guide the ignorant their pastor all, all, with one voice, demanded his recal, by whose absence the graces, the charities, the virtues of life, were left orphans in their communion. Can you imagine a more interesting spectacle? The human mind never conceived the human hand never de- .picted a more instructive or delightful picture. Yet, will you be- Here it, out of this very circumstance the Defendant fabricated the most audacious, and, if possible, the most cruel of libels. Hear his words : " O'MuLLAN," says he, " was convicted and degraded, for assaulting his own Bishop, and the Recorder ot Derry in the parish chapel !" Observe the disgusting malignity of the libel observe the crowded damnation which it accumulates on my client observe all the aggravated crime which it embraces. First, he as- saults his venerable Bishop the great ecclesiastical patron to whom he was sworn to be obedient, and against whom he never con- ceived or articulated irreverence. Next he assaults the Recorder of Derry, a Privy Councillor, the supreme judicial authority of the city. And where docs he do so ? Gracious God, in the very temple of thy worship! That is, says the inhuman libeller, he, a citizen he, a Clergyman insulted, not only the civil but the eccle- siastical authorities, in the face of man, and in the house of prayer; trampling contumcliously upon all human law, amid the sacred al- tars, where he believed the Almighty witnessed the profanation ! I am so horror-struck at this blasphemous and abominable turpi- tude, I can scarcely proceed. What will you say, Gentlemen, when I inform you, that at the very time this atrocity was imputed to him, he was in the city of Dublin, at a distance of 12(5 miles from the venue of its commission ! But oh ! when calumny once begins its work, how vain are the impediments of time and dis- tance. Before the sirocco of its breath all nature withers, and age, and sex, and innocence, and station, perish in the unseen, but cer- tain desolation of its progress! Do you wonder O'MULLAN sunk before these accumulated calumnies ? do you wonder the feebi,e were intimidated, the wavering decided, the prejudiced confirmed? He was forsaken by his Bishop ; he was denounced by his enemies his very friends fled in consternation from the " stricken deer ;" he was banished from the scenes of his childhood, from the ecu 10 dearment* of his youth, from the fieU of his fair and honourable ambition. In vaih did he resort to strangers for subsistence; on the very wings of the wind, the calumny preceded him, and from that hour to this a too true apostle he has been " a man of sorrows," u not knowing where to lay his head." - I will not ap- peal to your passions ; alas ! how inadequate am I to depict his suffering ; you must take them from the evidence. I have told you that at the time of those infernally fabricated libels, the Plaintiff was in Dublin, and I promised to advert to the cause by which his absence was occasioned. Observing, in the course of his parochial duties, the deplorable, I hid almost said, the organized ignorance of the Irish peasantry an ignorance whence all their crimes , and most of their Buffering!:, originate ; observing also, that there was' no publicly established Titcrary institution to relieve them, save only the Charter Schools, which tendered learning to the shivering child, as a bounty upon apostacy to the faith of his fathers ; he determined, if possible, to give them the lore of this world, without offering it as a mortgage upon the inheritance of the next. He framed the prospectus of a school, for the education of five hundred children, and went to the metropolis to obtain subscriptions for the purpose. I need not descant upon the great general advantage, or, to this country, the peculiarly patriotic purpose which the success of such a plan must have produced. No doubt, you have all personally considered no doubt you have all personally experienced, that of all the bless* ings which it has pleased Providence to allow us to cultivate, there is not one which breathes a purer fragrance, or bears an heavenlier aspect, than education. It is a companion which no misfortunes can depress no clime destroy no enemy alienate no despotism enslave at home a friend abroad an introduction in solitude a solace in society an ornament it chastens vice it guides virtue it gives at once a grace and government to genius. Without if, what is man ? a splendid slave! a reasoning savage! vacillating between the dignity of an intelligence derived from God, and the degradation of passions participated with brutes ; and, in the acci- dent of their alternate ascendancy, shuddering at the terrors of an hereafter, or hugging the horrid hope of annihilation. What is this wondrous world of his residence ! " A mighty mate, and alt without a plan." A dark, and desolate, and dreary cavern, without wealth, or ornament, or order but light up within it the torch of knowledge, and how wondrous the transition ! The seasons change the at- iftosphere breathes the landscape lives earth unfolds its fruits ocean rolls in its magnificence the heavens display their consteJ- latcd canopy and the grand animated spectacle of nature rise*, revealed before him, its varieties regulated, and its u ysteries rt- solved 1 The phenomena which bewilder the pwrjocMces which 11 debase the superstitions which enslave, vanish before Education. Like the holy symbol which blazed upon the cloud before the hesitating Coi.*>antine, if man follow but its precepts purely, it will nut >.!!) lead him to the victories of this world, but open the ver> p:rals of omnipotence for his admi-sson. Castyour eye over the monumental map of ancient grandeur, once studded with the stars of empire, and the splendours of philosophy. What erected the little state of Athens into a powerful commonwealth, placing in her hand the sceptre of legislation, and wreathing round her brow 'hi- imperishable chaplet of literary fame? What extended Rome, the haunt of a banditti, into universal empire? What ani- mated ^parta with the high, unbending, adamantine courage which conqiicted nature herself, and has fixed her in the sight of future ages, a model of public virtue, and a proverb of national mdepen- dencv ? What, but those wise public institutions, which strength- ened fhei; minds with early application, informed their infancy with the piinriple.s of action, and sent them into the world, to-) vigilant, to bi- d ce.v -d by its calms, and too vigorous to be shaken by its whirl* IKIS ! Bui surely if there be a people in the world, to whom the blessings of education are peculiarly applicable, it is the Irish peop'e. I think, I know my countrymen lively, ardent, intelli- gent, and sensitive ; nearly ail their acts spring from impulse, and, no mattei how that impulse be given, it is immediately adopted, and the adoption and the execution are identified. It is this prin- ciple, it principle it can becalled, which renders Ireland alternately he poorest and the proudest country in the world-~now chaining her in the very abyss of crime now lifting her to the very prin- ciple of glory -which, in the poor, prose, ibed, peasant Catholic, crowd.- the gaol and feeds the gibbet which, in the mo/fe fortu- nate, because mure educated Protesiants, Jeads victory adaptive at her car, and holds echo mute fit her eloquence ; making a national monopolv of fame, and, as it were, attempting to naturalize- the achie eatei.ts or' the universe ! In order that this libel m^y want no possible aggravation, tke Defendant published it when my client was ab-rnt on thi> work of patriotism rhe published it when he *fas iib'/nt he published it when he was absent on a work of vir-, tue, and he published it on all the authority of his local knowledge, when that very local knowledge must have told him, that it was destituie of the shadow of a foundation. Canyon imagine a more odious complication of all that is deliberate in malignity, and all that is depraved in crime ? I promised, Gentlemen, that I would not harrow )our hearts, by exposing all that agonizes mine, in the contempia ion of individual suffering. There is, however, one sub- ject, connected iih this trial, public in its nature, and universal in its int.T.-st, which imperiously calls for an exemplary verdict; I mean the Liberty of the l j re*s a theme which I approach with mingled sensations of awe, and agony, and admiration. Consider- iag all that we too fatally have seen all that, perhaps, too fear- fully we may have cause to apprehend, I feel myself cling to that residuary safeguard with an affection no temptations can seduce with a suspicion no anodyne can lull with a fortitude that peril but enfuriates. In the direful retrospect of experimental despo- tism, and the hideous prospect of its possible re-animation, I clasp it with the desperation of a M idowed female, who, in the desola- tion of her house, nnd the destruction of her household, hurries the last of her offspring through the tlames, at once the relic of her joy, the depository of her wealth, and the remembrancer of her happiness. It is the duty of us all to guard strictly this ines- timable privilege a privilgc which can never be destroyed, save by the licentiousness of those who wilfully abuse it. No, it is not in the arrogance of power no, it is not in the artifices of law no, it is not in the fatuity of princes no, it is not in the venality of Parliament, to crush this mighty, this majestic privilege. Reviled, it will remonstrate murdered, it will revive buried, it will re- ascend. The very attempt at its oppression, will prove the truth, of its immortality, and the atom that presumed to spurn, will fade away before the trumpet of its retribution ! Man holds it on the same principle that he does his soul the powers of this world cannot prevail against it it can only perish through its own de- pravity. What then shall be his fate, through whose instrument- ality it is sacrificed ? Nay, more what shall be his fate, who en- trusted with the guardianship of its security, becomes the traitor- ous accessary to its ruin ? Nay, more what shall be his fate by whom its powers, delegated for the public good, are converted into the calamities of private virtue ? Against whom industry denounced, merit undermined, morals calumniated, piety aspersed, all through the very means confided for their protection, cry aloud for ven- geanpe ? W hat shall be his fate ? Oh ! I would hold such a monster, so shielded, so sanctified, and so sinning, as I would some daemon, who, going forth consecrated, in the name of the deity, the book of life on his lips, and the dagger of death beneath his robe, awaits the sigh of piety as the signal of plunder, and unveins the heart's blood of confiding adoration! Should not such a case as this re- quire some palliation ? Is there any ? Perhaps the Defendant might have been misled as to circumstances ! No; he lived upon the spot, and had the best possible information. Do you think he be- lieved in the truth of the publication ? No, he knew that in every syllable it was as false as perjury. Do you think that an anxiety forthe Catholic community might haveinliamed him against the ima- ginary dereliction of its advocate ,? No, the very essence of his journal is prejudice. Do you think that in the ardour of liberty he might have venially transgressed its boundaries? No, in every line, he licks the sores, and pampers the pestilence of authority. I .do not ask youto be stoics in your investigation if you can dis- cover in this libel, one motive inferentially moral one single vir- tue, which he has plundered and misapplied, give him its benefit. I will not demand such an effort of your faith as to imagine, that his northern-constitution couH, by any miracle, be fired into the admir- 13 able but mistaken energy of enthusiasm ; that he could for one mo- ment have felt the inspired frenzy of those loftier spirits, who, urfder some dai ing, but divine delusion, rise into the arch of an ambition, so bright, so baneful, yet so beauteous, as leaves the world in won- der \\ he her it should admire or mourn whether it should weep or worship ! No ; you will not only search in vain for such a palliative, but you will find this publication, springing from the most odioni origin, and disfigured b> the most foul accompaniments, founded in a biffotry at which Nell rejoices crouching with a sycophancy at which flattery blushes deformed by a falsehood, at which per- jury would hesitate and, to crown the climax of its crowded in- famies, committed under the sacred shelter of the press : as if this false, slanderous, sycophantic slave could not assassinate private worth, without polluting public privilege as if he could not sa- rrifice the character of the pious, without profaning the protection of the free as if he could no: poison learning, liberty, and reli- gion, unless he filled I. is chalice from ths very font, whence they might have expected to derive the Avaters of their salvation ! Now, Gentlemen, as to the measure of your damages. Yon are the best judges on that subject ; though, indeed, I have been asked, and 1 he;ird the question with some surprise, why it is that we have brought this case at all to be tried before you ? To that I might give at once an unobjectionable answer namely, that the la allowed us. But I will deal much more candidly with you. We brought it here, because it was as far as possible from the scene of prejudice because no possible partiality could exist because in this happy and united county, less of the bigotry, which distracts the rest of Ireland exists, than in any other with which we are acquainted because the nature of the action, which we have mercifully brought, in place of a criminal prosecution, (the usual course pursued in the present day, at least against the independent Press of Ireland) gives them, if they have it, the power of proving a justification, and I perceive they have emptied half the nonh here for the purpose. But I cannet anticipate an objection, wich no doubt shall not be made. If this habitual libeller should characteristically instruct his Counsel to hazard it, that Learned Gentleman is much too wise to adopt it, and must know you much too well, to insult yon by its utterance. What damages, then, Gentlemen, can you give ? I am content to leave the Defendant's crimes altogether out of the question ; but how can you recompense the sufferings of my client ? Who shall estimate he cost of priceless reputation that impress which giref this human dross its currency, without which we stand d'S|.ised, debased, depreciated ? Who shall repair it injured ? Who can redeem it lost ? Oh ! well and truly does the great philosopher of poetry, esteem the world's wealth as " trash" in the compa- risonwithout it, gold has no ralue birth no dihtinct.on station no dignity beauty no charm age no reverence or should I not rather say, without it, every treasure impoverishes 14 every grace deforms every dignity degrades and all the arts, the decorations, the accomplishments of life, stand like the beacon blaze upon a rock, warning the world that its approach is danger that its contact is death. The Avretch without it, is under an eternal quarantine no friend to greet no home to harbour him ; the voyage of his life becomes a joyless peril, and in the midst of all ambition can achieve, or avarice amass, or rapacity plunder, he tosses on the surge; a buoyant pestilence! But, Gentlemen, let me not degrade into the selfishness of individual safety or individual exposure, this universal principle it testifies an higher, a more ennobling origin it is this, which, consecrating the humble circle of the hearth, will at times extend itself to the circumference of the horizon which nerves the arm of the patriot to save country which lights the lamp of the philosopher to amend man which, if it does not inspire, will yet invigorate the martyr to merit immortality which, when one world's agony is passed, and the jilory of another is dawning, will prompt the prophet even in his chariot of fire, and in his vision of heaven, to bequeath to mankind the mantle of his memory ! Oh, divine oh, delightful legacy of a spotless reputation ! Rich is the inhe- ritance it leaves pious the example it testifies pure, precious, and imperishable the hope which it inspires. Can you conceive a more atrocious injury than to filch from its possessor this ines- timable benefit ? to rob society of its charm and solitude of its solace ; not only to outlaw life, but to attaint death, con- verting the very grave, the refuge of the sufferer, into the gate of infamy and of shame ! I can conceive very few crimes beyond it. He who plunders my property, takes from me that which can be repaired by time. But what period can repair a ruined reputation ! He who maims my person, affects that which me- dicine may remedy But what herb has sovereignty over the wounds of slander ? He who ridicules my poverty, or reproaches my profession, upbraids me with that which industry maj retrieve, and integrity may purify ; but what riches shall redeem the bankrupt -fame ! what power shall blanch the sullied snow of character ! Can there be an injury more deadly ! Can there be a crime, more cruel ! It is without remedy it is without an- tidote it is without evasion. The reptile calumny is ever on the watch from the fascination of its eye, no activity can escape from the venom of its fang, no sanity can recover it has no en- joymeni but crime it has no prey but virtue it has no interval from the restlessness of its malice, save when bloated with its victims, it grovels to disgorge them at the withered shrine, where envy idolizes her own infirmities. Under such a visitation how dreadful would, bd the destiny of the virtuous and the good, if the providence of our constitution had not given vou the power, as I trust you will have the principle, to bruise the head of the serpent, aud crush and crumble the altar of its idolatry ! And now, Gentlemen, having toiled through this narrative of If 5 unprovoked and pitiless persecution, I should, -with pleasure, consign my client to your hand, if a more imperative duty did Hot still remain to me, and that is, to acquit him of every personal motive in the prosecution of this action. No, in the midst of slander and suffering, and severities unexampled, he has had no thought, but, that as his enemies evinced how malice could per. secute, he should exemplify how religion could endure that if his piety failed to affect the oppressor, his patience might at least avail to fortify the afflicted. He was as the rock of scripture be- fore the face of infidelity the rain of the deluge had fallen, it only smoothed his asperities the wind of the tempest beat, it only blanched his brow the rod, not of prophecy, but ol per- secution smote him, and the desert glittering with the Gospel dew, becajne a miracle of the faith it would have tempted! No, Gen. tlemen, not selfishly has he appealed to this tribunal ; but the ve- nerable religion, wounded in his character but the august priest- hood, vilified in his person but the doubts or' the sceptical, har- dened by his acquiescence but the fidelity of the feeble, hazarded by his forbearance, compelled him from the profaned privacy of the cloister into this repulsive scene of public accusation. In him this reluctance springs from a most natural and characteristic delicacy, in us it would become a most overstrained injustice. No, Gentlemen, though with him we must remember morals out- raged religion assailed law violated the priesthood scandalized the press betrayed, and all the disgusting calendar of abstract evil ; yet, with him, we must not reject the injuries of the indivi- dual sufferer. We must picture to ourselves a young man, partly by the self-denial of parental love, partly by the energies of per- sonal exertion, struggling into a profession, where, by (he pious exercise of his talents, he may make the fame, the wealth, the flatteries of this world, so many angel heralds to the happiness of the next. His precept is a treasure to the poor his practice a model to the rich when he reproves, sorrow seeks his presence as a sanctuary, and in his path of peace, should he pause by the death-bed of despairing sin, the soul becomes iinparadiscd in the light of his benediction! Imagine, Gentlemen, you see him thus, and then, if you can, imagine vice so desperate as to defraud the world of so fair a vision. Anticipate for a moment the melan- choly evidence we must too soon adduce to you behold him, by foul, and false, and fraudulent calumny, robbed of the profession he had so struggled to obtain swindled from the flock he had so laboured to ameliorate torn from the school where infant virtue tainly mourns an artificial orphanage hunted from the home of his youth from the friends of his heart a hopeless, fortuneless, cooipanionless exile hanging in some stranger scene, on he pre- carious pity of the few, whose charity might induce their compas- sion to bestow, what this remorseless slanderer would compel their justice to withhold! I will not pursue this picture I will not detain you from the pleasure of your possible compensation for, 16 oh ! divine is the pleasure you are destined to experience dearer to your hearts shall be the sensation, than to your pride shall be the dignity it will give you. What ! though the people will hail the saviours of their pastor what ! though the jmi^thond will hallow the guardians of their brother though many a peasant heart will leap at your name, and many an infant rye will em- balm their fame, who restored to life, to station, to dignity, to character, the venerable friend, who taught (heir trembling tongues to lisp the rudiments of virtue and religion, still dearer than all will be the consciousness of the deed. Nor, believe me, countrynu-n, will it rest here Oh, no! if there be light in in- itinct, or truth in revelation, believe me, at that awful hour, when you shall await the last inevitable verdict, the eye of your hope will not be the less bright, nor the agony of your ordeal the more acute, because you shall have, by this day's deed, redeemed the Almighty's persecuted Apostle, from the grasp of an insatiate malice from the fang of a worse than Philistine persecutiou. [At the conclusion of this Speech, Mr. Phillips was greeted with the universal applause of his auditory.] VERDICT FOR THE PLAINTIFF. THE Hay and Tfcnw, Printers, frriccastle Street, Strand. SUIBRARY0* OF-CAUFOI?^ slOS ANGELA A 000 055 625 8