Note 6 — THE TRIAL OF ROBERT EMMET, UPON AN INDICTMENT FOR HIGH TREASON, Held, under a Special Commission, at the Sessions House, Green Street, on Monday, 19th of September, 1803.
Reading edition
That paper was as follows:
“It may appear strange, that a person avowing himself to be an enemy of the present Government, and engaged in a conspiracy for its overthrow, should presume to suggest an opinion to that Government on any part of its conduct, or could hope that advice coming from such authority, might be received with attention. The writer of this, however, does not mean to offer an opinion on any point, on which he must of necessity, feel differently from any of those whom he addresses, and on which therefore his conduct might be doubted. His intention is to confine himself entirely to those points on which, however widely he may differ from them in others, he has no hesitation in declaring, that, as a man, he feels the same interest with the merciful part, and as an Irishman, with at least the English part of the present administration: and at the same time to communicate to them in the most precise terms, that line of conduct which he may hereafter be compelled to adopt, and which, however painful it must, under any circumstances be, would become doubly so if he was not conscious of having tried to avoid it by the most distinct notification. On the two first of these points, it is not the intention of the undersigned, for the reason he has already mentioned, to do more than state, what government itself must acknowledge—that of the present conspiracy it knows (comparatively speaking) nothing. That instead of creating terror in its enemies, or confidence in its friends, it will only serve by the scantiness of its information, to furnish additional grounds of invective to those who are but too ready to censure it for a want of intelligence, which no sagacity could have enabled them to obtain. That if it is not able to terrify by a display of its discoveries, it cannot hope to crush by the weight of its punishments. Is it only now we are to learn, that entering into conspiracy exposes us to be hanged?—Are the scattered instances which will now be brought forward necessary to exemplify the statute? If the numerous and striking examples which have already preceded, were insufficient,—if government can neither by novelty of punishment, nor the multitude of its victims, impress us with terror, can it hope to injure the body of a conspiracy so impenetrably woven as the present, by cutting off a few threads from the end of it.
“That with respect to the second point, no system however it may change the nature, can affect the period of the contest that is to take place; as to which the exertions of United Irishmen will be guided only by their own opinion of the eligibility of the moment for effecting the emancipation of their country.
“That administration....”
The following paper was found in the depot, in Emmet’s hand-writing:—
“I have little time to look at the thousand difficulties which still lie between me and the completion of my wishes that those difficulties will likewise disappear I have ardent, and I trust, rational hopes; but if it is not to be the case, I thank God for having gifted me with a sanguine disposition. To that disposition I run from reflection, and if my hopes are without foundation—if a precipice is opening under my feet, from which duty will not suffer me to run back, I am grateful for that sanguine disposition, which leads me to the brink and throws me down, while my eyes are still raised to visions of happiness, that my fancy formed in the air.”