The Kellys and the OKellys | Page 8

favour of their own clients.
Sheil's speech was one of those numerous anomalies with which this
singular trial was crowded; and which, together, showed the great

difficulty of coming to a legal decision on a political question, in a
criminal court. Of this, the present day gave two specimens, which will
not be forgotten; when a Privy Councillor, a member of a former
government, whilst defending his client as a barrister, proposed in
Court a new form of legislation for Ireland, equally distant from that
adopted by Government, and that sought to be established by him
whom he was defending; and when the traverser on his trial rejected the
defence of his counsel, and declared aloud in Court, that he would not,
by his silence, appear to agree in the suggestions then made.
This spirit of turning the Court into a political debating arena extended
to all present. In spite of the vast efforts made by them all, only one of
the barristers employed has added much to his legal reputation by the
occasion. Imputations were made, such as I presume were never before
uttered by one lawyer against another in a court of law. An Attorney-
General sent a challenge from his very seat of office; and though that
challenge was read in Court, it was passed over by four judges with
hardly a reprimand. If any seditious speech was ever made by
O'Connell, that which he made in his defence was especially so, and he
was, without check, allowed to use his position as a traverser at the bar,
as a rostrum from which to fulminate more thoroughly and publicly
than ever, those doctrines for uttering which he was then being tried;
and, to crown it all, even the silent dignity of the bench was forgotten,
and the lawyers pleading against the Crown were unhappily alluded to
by the Chief Justice as the 'gentlemen on the other side.'
Martin and John patiently and enduringly remained standing the whole
day, till four o'clock; and then the latter had to effect his escape, in
order to keep an appointment which he had made to meet Lord
Ballindine.
As they walked along the quays they both discussed the proceedings of
the day, and both expressed themselves positively certain of the result
of the trial, and of the complete triumph of O'Connell and his party. To
these pleasant certainties Martin added his conviction, that Repeal must
soon follow so decided a victory, and that the hopes of Ireland would
be realised before. the close of 1844. John was neither so sanguine nor
so enthusiastic; it was the battle, rather than the thing battled for, that
was dear to him; the strife, rather than the result. He felt that it would
be dull times in Dublin, when they should have no usurping

Government to abuse, no Saxon Parliament to upbraid, no English laws
to ridicule, and no Established Church to curse.
The only thing which could reconcile him to immediate Repeal, would
be the probability of having then to contend for the election of an Irish
Sovereign, and the possible dear delight which might follow, of Ireland
going to war with England, in a national and becoming manner.
Discussing these important measures, they reached the Dublin brother's
lodgings, and Martin turned in to wash his face and hands, and put on
clean boots, before he presented himself to his landlord and patron, the
young Lord Ballindine.II
THE TWO HEIRESSES
Francis John Mountmorris O'Kelly, Lord Viscount Ballindine, was
twenty-four years of age when he came into possession of the
Ballindine property, and succeeded to an Irish peerage as the third
viscount; and he is now twenty- six, at this time of O'Connell's trial.
The head of the family had for many years back been styled 'The
O'Kelly', and had enjoyed much more local influence under that
denomination than their descendants had possessed, since they had
obtained a more substantial though not a more respected title. The
O'Kellys had possessed large tracts of not very good land, chiefly in
County Roscommon, but partly in Mayo and Galway. Their property
had extended from Dunmore nearly to Roscommon, and again on the
other side to Castlerea and Ballyhaunis. But this had been in their
palmy days, long, long ago. When the government, in consideration of
past services, in the year 1800, converted 'the O'Kelly' into Viscount
Ballindine, the family property consisted of the greater portion of the
land lying between the villages of Dunmore and Ballindine. Their old
residence, which the peer still kept up, was called Kelly's Court, and is
situated in that corner of County Roscommnon which runs up between
Mayo and Galway.
The first lord lived long enough to regret his change of title, and to
lament the increased expenditure with which he had thought it