The simplest and most usual facilities accorded to murderers and pickpockets on their trial were rudely denied the counsel for the defence.

The principles of law, recognised in England as sacred, were scouted from the bench, and the farce of trial proceeded through its different stages to the final _denouement_ with perfect regularity, every one performing the part assigned him with unerring accuracy.
Of the intrepid ability which struggled against this fearful combination of bigotry, prejudice and passion, at the bar, on the bench and in the box, I do not purpose to speak here.

But I would be unfaithful to my trust, and unjust to the rarest heroism, if I did not record the fortitude and fidelity of O'Donnell, from whom the menaces of the crown, or the frown of the bench, could not wring one word of evidence.

In an ordinary man, this would be singular intrepidity; but circumstanced as O'Donnell was, it amounted to a Roman virtue.

One brother of his, a doctor, was in jail at Liverpool, charged with political felony; another was hunted through the country, and another was in irons, involved in the same charge as the illustrious accused; for them all he could command his own terms, for much depended on his testimony; but though doom were upon them, and a word of his could avert it, he refused to speak.