Page:Life of John Boyle O'Reilly.djvu/72

38 heard any singing but on that occasion, and the prisoner took no part in it. I think it was before the night in January that Bergin spoke to me of being a Fenian, on the way to the barracks going home. We had been in Hoey's; the prisoner was there. Bergin had been speaking of Fenianism on the way to the barracks. He said there was such a thing "coming off."

President. What do you mean by "such a thing coming off"?

Witness. Like a rebellion breaking out.

Prisoner. When you say you since heard one of the civilians was called Devoy, when did you hear it, and who told you?

Witness. I cannot tell who told me; Bergin told me he was employed at Guiness's, but I cannot say who told me his name.

Prisoner. I respectfully submit that all evidence given by the last witness relative to Bergin should be expunged. I did not object during his examination, as the questions were put by the Court, but I do now.

The court did not accept this view of the case. In admitting the hearsay evidence it indorsed the following astounding propositions made by the Deputy Judge Advocate:

Deputy Judge Advocate:

It is too late to object. The prisoner should not have allowed the examination to go on and taken his chance of something favorable to him being elicited by it. For the rest, I submit that the acts or conversations of co-conspirators are admissible as evidence against each other, even though one of them on his trial was not present at those acts or conversations. All the matters of fact sworn to, show that the prisoner and Bergin were participators in the Fenian plot. Therefore the prisoner's objection is unsustainable, particularly after the examination of the witness.

Having thus summarily disposed of the prisoner's few nominal rights, the prosecution took hold of the case in the good old-fashioned way, by putting on the stand an informer of the regulation Irish character—one who had taken the Fenian oath in order to betray his comrades, and excused himself for the perjury by saying, that, although he had a Testament in his hand and went through the motion of kissing it, he had not really done so. The testimony of this peculiarly conscientious witness is interesting, because it is typical. He can juggle with the