The life, trial and conversations of Robert Emmet, Esq., leader of the Irish insurrection of 1803 : $b also, the celebrated speech made by him on the occasionAnonymous
History
The life, trial and conversations of Robert Emmet, Esq., leader of the Irish insurrection of 1803 : $b also, the celebrated speech made by him on the occasion
Major Henry Charles Sirr, examined. Deposed to the arrest of the
prisoner as follows: “I went on the 25th of August, to the house of one
Palmer. I had heard there was a stranger in the back parlour. I rode,
accompanied by a man on foot: I desired the man to knock at the door—he
did, and it was opened by a girl. I alighted, and ran in directly to the
back parlour—I saw the prisoner sitting at dinner; the woman of the
house was there, and the girl who opened the door was the daughter of
the woman of the house. I desired them to withdraw. I asked the prisoner
his name, he told me his name was Cunningham. I gave him in charge to
the man who accompanied me, and went into the next room to ask the woman
and her daughter about him; they told me his name was Hewit; I went back
and asked him how long he had been there? He said he came that morning.
He had attempted to escape before I returned, for he was bloody and the
man said he knocked him down with a pistol. I then went to Mrs. Palmer,
who said he had lodged there for a month; I then judged he was some
person of importance. When I first went in, there was a paper on the
chair,[6] which I put into my pocket; I then went to the canal bridge
for a guard, having desired them to be in readiness as I passed; I
planted a sentry over him, and desired the non-commissioned officer to
surround the house with sentries, while I searched it; I then examined
Mrs. Palmer, and took down her account of the prisoner, during which
time I heard a noise as if an escape was attempted: I instantly ran to
the back part of the house, as the most likely part for him to get out
at. I saw him going off, and ordered a sentinel not to fire, and then
pursued myself; regardless of my order, the sentinel snapped, but his
musket did not go off. I overtook the prisoner and he said, “I
surrender.” I searched him, and found some papers upon him.
“On the witness expressing concern at the necessity of the prisoner’s
being treated so roughly, he (the prisoner) observed, that “All was fair
in war.” The prisoner, when brought to the castle, acknowledged that his
name was Emmet.”
Here the case closed on the part of the crown, and the prisoner having
declined to enter into any defence, either by witnesses or his counsel,
an argument arose between Mr. McNally and Mr. Plunket, as to the
latter’s right to reply to evidence, when no defence had been made. Lord
Norbury said, that the counsel for the prisoner could not by their
silence preclude the crown from that right, and, therefore, decided in
favour of Mr. Plunket.
Mr. Plunket then addressed the court to a considerable length, and spoke
to evidence in effect, the same as the Attorney General.
Lord Norbury charged the Jury, minutely recapitulating the whole of the
evidence, and explained the law.
The Jury, without leaving the box, pronounced the Prisoner—Guilty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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