HIGH TREASON (IRELAND)—THE CONVICTED FENIANS.—PETITION. (Hansard, 17 May 1867)

VISCOUNT LIFFORD

presented a Petition from the inhabitants of Glasnevin and Neighbourhood, praying that an Address may be presented to Her Majesty in favour of sparing the lives of Prisoners convicted of treason in Ireland. He trusted he should not be deemed either presumptuous or premature in doing so, believing it to be the duty of every Member of that House to present whatever petitions were intrusted to him, provided they contained nothing libellous or disloyal. The Petition came from a suburb of Dublin, two or three miles from the city, called Glasnevin, and, with their Lordships' kind permission, he would read an extract from a letter addressed to him, which accompanied it, in which the writer said— Your Lordship will understand the part we took in keeping guard with our rifles and revolvers in the cause of law and order, and we trust that it will be considered worthy of consideration. Of course, the Petition could have been more 690 numerously signed, but we have confined it exclusively to the members of the Defence Association. The Petitioners stated their belief that the lives of those recently convicted had justly been forfeited to the law—that they regarded with feelings of the deepest condemnation any attempt to disturb the Government of the Queen in Ireland, being devotedly attached to the Throne, and grateful for the blessings they enjoyed under Her Majesty's reign; but they believed that by extending the gracious prerogative of mercy to these convicts Her Majesty would be doing an act pleasing to her loyal Irish subjects and which would under all circumstances be alike merciful and expedient. He (Viscount Lifford) entirely concurred in the prayer of the Petition. It was true that these men fully deserved their sentences. They had rebelled against a Throne established for 700 years; they had thrown back the material prosperity of their country for fifty or 100 years; they had driven away thousands of their fellow-countrymen, who might have remained had English capital been allowed to be introduced under a peaceful state of things. But there were some peculiar features connected with the late outbreak which distinguished it from preceding attempts of this kind. In the first place, only one man lost his life, and it was to be hoped that those connected with that offence would yet be brought to justice. In the next place, when the Fenians went to the houses of the gentry, they behaved even with courtesy; and he trusted their Lordships would not consider that the late rebellion should be put in the same category as that of 1798. But more than this—many of those who took a lead in the Fenian conspiracy were swindlers, not amenable to the law, many of them were mere dupes, and some few were acting from mistaken affection for their country. It was hardly possible to conceive how any man in his senses could suppose that the welfare of Ireland could consist otherwise than in an intimate union with this country—sharing her freedom, her colonies, her wealth, her power, and her European influence. It was hardly possible that any one in his senses could suppose that Ireland, if she could be separated from England, would be anything better, if not worse than Mexico—a country without a navy, without an army, except by forced conscription, without 691 power, without European influence, and likely to become the battle-ground of hostile sects and infuriated factions—stirred up by the emissaries of England or France, or America, whenever it might suit their purposes. Yet it appeared there were such persons to be found—men carried away by an extraordinary feeling of affection for their country which they thought would be best displayed by fighting for its independence. He would, with their Lordships' permission, read the words of one of the convicted prisoners. He said— Thus it is, my Lord, I accept the verdict. Of course my acceptance is not necessary, but I am satisfied with it. And now I close. Many feelings agitate my mind which cannot be expressed by a few incoherent words. I have of course ties that bind me to life and to this world; but I remember the words of my aged mother, 'Go, my boy, return with your shield, or upon it.' I submit, my Lord, to my doom, and I hope that as God has preserved Ireland during 700 years she will yet retrieve her fallen fortunes, and rise again the sister of Columbia, the peer of any nation in the world. Saving that these words were somewhat grandiloquent and American, they were very noble words, and they were evidently uttered by a man who valued his life very little and posthumous fame a great deal. If that man were hanged his name would be sent down to posterity as a patriot and a martyr, and his picture would be displayed in every cabin in Ireland. All experience proved that it would be an unfortunate step to make political martyrs in such a case; and though it could not be denied that these men deserved their punishment, still he trusted for the sake of Ireland their sentences would not be carried out. If they were it would aggravate the sores of Ireland; if commuted it would heal those sores. He would go further and say, if at some future time the loyalty, peaceful condition, and consequent wealth and prosperity of Ireland showed that the seeds which these men had endeavoured to sow had not fallen on congenial ground—he trusted that then, but never till then, the question of pardon would be considered.