I asked him if he was in any personal danger at the time of the French Revolution? "Not except once. I was always in terror lest the scoundrels should cut our throats. On one occasion a waggoner of Dumouriez' army scared me and a set of my fellow-collegians, who had walked out from Douay, crying Voilà les jeunes jesuites! les capucins! les recolets!'-so we ran back to our college as fast as we could, and luckily the vagabond did not follow us." 6 We slept at Maryborough, in the Queen's county. Ere we retired to bed, something led to the subject of trial by jury. I asked him if it was not absurd to require unanimity in a jury?—if the plan of the old Scotch criminal juries—namely, that of deciding by the majority, was not the more rational mode? "In theory it is," he answered; "but there are great practical advantages in the plan that requires unanimity. To be sure there is this disadvantage— that one obstinate fellow may knock up a good verdict in spite of eleven clear-headed jurors—but that does not happen once in a hundred cases. And the necessity for a unanimous verdict may be a vast protection for a person unjustly charged with an offence. I remember a case in which eleven jurors found a man guilty of murder, while the twelfth-a gawky fellow, who had never before been on a jury—said he thought the deceased died by a fall from his horse. The dissident juror persisted;-the case was accordingly held over till the next assizes, and in the mean time evidence came out that most clearly confirmed the surmise of the gawky juror. Here, then, if the majority of jurors had been able to return a verdict, an innocent man had suffered death." O'Connell had strong convictions against the law of punishment by death. His own professional experience furnished him with a multitude of reasons for its abolition. He told me an instance where an innocent life was all but lost; the prosecutrix (a woman whose house had been attacked) having erroneously sworn to the identity of a prisoner who was totally guiltless of the offence. The man was found guilty and sentenced to death on her evidence. He bore a considerable personal resemblance to the real criminal. The latter having been arrested and confronted with the prosecutrix, she fainted with horror at her mistake, which had been so nearly fatal in its consequences. By the prompt interference of Judge Burton (then at the bar) and O'Connell, the government were induced to discharge the unoffending individual, who had the narrowest possible escape of a rope. But a far worse case than this was recorded by O'Connell. I give the narrative in his own words, extracted from a speech he delivered at a meeting held in London: "I, myself," said he, "defended three brothers, of the name of Cremin. They were indicted for murder. The evidence was most unsatisfactory. The judge had a leaning in favour of the crown prosecution, and he almost compelled the jury to convict them. I sat at my window as they passed by after sentence of death had been pronounced; there was a large military guard taking them back to gaol, positively forbidden to allow any communication with the three unfortunate youths. But their mother was there; and she, armed in the strength of her affection, broke through the guard. I saw her clasp her eldest son, who was but twenty-two years of age; I saw her hang on the second, who was not twenty; I saw her faint when she clung to the neck of the youngest boy, who was but eighteenand I ask, what recompense could be made for such agony? They were executed, and innocent!" they were CHAPTER XI. Death of Brennan, the Robber-Leonard M'Nally and Parsons -Local Rhymes-Roscrea Castle-O'Connell King of Belgium-Sir Jonah Barrington and Stevenson the Pawnbroker -Curious Escape from Gaol-Project to re-organise the Volunteers. NEXT morning, the 10th of October, we rose at seven o'clock, and resumed our route to Dublin. * Passing a gravel pit, O'Connell said, "That is the spot where Brennan, the robber, was killed. Jerry Connor was going from Dublin to Kerry, and was attacked by Brennan at that spot. Brennan presented his pistol, crying 'Stand!'-' Hold!' cried Jerry Connor, don't fire-here's my purse.' The robber, thrown off his guard by these words, lowered his weapon, and Jerry, instead of a purse, drew a pistol from his pocket and shot Brennan in the chest. Brennan's back was supported at the time against the ditch, so he did not fall. He took deliberate aim at Jerry, but feeling himself mor * Of Tralee, an attorney. tally wounded, dropped his pistol, crawled over the ditch, and walked slowly along, keeping parallel with the road. He then crept over another ditch, under which he was found dead the next morning." sum. At a part of the road between Kildare and Rathcoole, O'Connell pointed out the place where Leonard M'Nally, the attorney, son to the barrister of the same name, alleged he had been robbed of a large To indemnify himself for his alleged loss, he tried to levy the money off the county. "A pair of greater rogues than father and son never lived," said O'Connell; "and the father was busily endeavourng to impress upon every person he knew a belief that his son had been really robbed. Among others, he accosted Parsons, then M.P. for the King's County, in the hall of the Four Courts. 'Parsons! Parsons, my dear fellow!' said old Leonard, did you hear of my son's robbery!''No,' answered Parsons, quietly, 'I did not—Who did he rob?'" We dined at Roscrea. The old castle of the Damers is nearly opposite the inn. Its founder made a fortune from very small beginnings. O'Connell repeated the epitaph Dean Swift composed for one of its proprietors: "Beneath this verdant hillock lies, |