Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 1.djvu/171

, and was to preside. John O'Hagan wrote me from London:—

"Your health is reasonably good, you say. That won't do at all; you must make it. unreasonably good. As there is a chance of your going into jail, do, I conjure you, endeavour, during the time you have to get strong, that you may despise bolts and bars. &hellip; I think they will put you in jail (dissentiente Pigoto,. i.e., dissentient from my opinion), but depend upon it, if you take care of yourself it will do you no harm. &hellip; It will be such a comfort that you will not be up for the fourth time before your friend Pennefather; but then, to be sure, both Tom Smith and Blackburne are acquaintances of yours. Happy to have such a circle of friends! I'm sorry I'm not over there to be your junior counsel; but never mind, there's a good time coming. With the help of God, this won't be the last prosecution against you! "

Denny Lane wrote to me at the same time in the pleasant badinage of which he was master:—

"You ought to give yourself as much relaxation as possible at present. You are greatly in want of physical exercise. Your amusements are too intellectual; you ought to ride, play billiards, hunt, shoot, and kick up shindies. Cultivate the society of O'Gorman: he has what you want the intense enjoyment of physical existence. He would want, as I told him, to be put upon Tennyson and soda- water for half a year, while on the other hand your regimen ought to be beefsteaks and porter, fox-hunting and a main of cocks. Make yourself more of a brute without delay. Acquire low tastes and gratify them, and you may defy Blackburne and all his works."

Mr. Smith, the Attorney-General, prosecuted; the defence was entrusted to Robert Holmes. Mr. Holmes was approaching his eightieth year—he was Father of the Bar, and leader of the North-East circuit, and a trusted adviser in all difficulties of the opulent bleachers of Ulster and merchants of Belfast. He had refused a silk gown, refused to be a judge, and held jealously aloof from both parties in politics. Forty years before, he had been a State prisoner, having excited the suspicion of Government as brother-in-law of Robert Emmet. In recent times he had taken no part in Irish politics, except to rebuke O'Connell somewhat contemptuously for his dis-