Robt. Emmett's Last, Words.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 10, 12 May 1911, Page 6

Robt. Emmett's Last, Words.

SA/TH THE SPEAKER.

*'I have been charged with that importance in the efforts to emancipate my country as to be considered the keyetone of the combination of Irishmen, or, as your lordship expressed it, the life and blood of the conspiracy; you do mc honour ; you have given to the subaltern all the credit of 0, superior. "Thsi - © are men engaged in the conspiracy "svho are not only superior to mc, but even to your own estimation <of yourself, my lord, before THE SPLENDOUR OF WHOSE GENIUS and virtues I should bow with respectful deferencej and who would think themselves dishonoured to be called your friends; who would not disgrace themselves by shaking your bloodstained hand. "What, my lord! shall you tell mc on the passage of that scaffold, which the tyranny of which you are only the intermediary executioner has erected for my murder, that I am accountable for all the blf»d that has and will ■ be shed in this struggle of the oppressed against the oppressor ? Shall you tell mo this, and shall 1 be so very a slave as not to repel it? "I do not fear to approach the Omnipotent Judge, to answer for the conduct of my whole life, and am I to be appalled and falsified by a mere remnant of mortality here? "By yoxij too, who, if it were possible to collect all the innocent blood that you have shed in your unhallowed ministry in one great reservoir, YOUR LORDSHIP MIGHX SWIM IN "X~e{fno man dare, when I am dead, to charge mc with dishonour; let no man attaint my memory, by beieving that I could have engaged in any cause feut of my country's liberty and independence, or that I became the pliant minion of power in the oppression of the miseries of my countrymen. "The proclamation of the Provisional Government speaks for our views; no inference can be tortured from it to countenance barbarity or debasement at home, or subjection, humiliation, or treachery from abroad. I would not have submitted to a foreign oppressor, for the same reason that I would resist the present domestic oppressor. In the dignity of freedom I would have fought on the threshold of my country, and its enemy should only outer by passing over my lifeless corpse. "And am I, wlio lived but for my country, and who have stibjected myeelf to the dangers, of a jealous and watchful oppressor, and the bondage ©f the grave, only to giveMY COUNTRYMEN THEIR RIGHTS and my country its independence—am I to be loaded with calumny, and not suffered to resent or rep-el it? No, God forbid ! "If the spirits of the illustrious-dead participate in the concern and cares of those who are dear to them in this transitory life, O ever dear and venerable shade of my departed father, look down with scrutiny upon the conduct of your suffering son, and see if I have ever for a moment deviated from those principles of morality and patriotism which it was your care to instil hito my youthful mind, and for which I am now to offer up my life. "My lords, you are IMPATIENT FOR THE SACRIFICE —the blood which you seek is not congealed by the artificial terrors that surround your victim ; it circulates warmly and unruffled through the channels which God ceut-ed for nobler purposes, but which you are bent to destroy tor purposes bo grievous that they cry to Heaven. Hα ye patient! I have but ii few words more to say. "I am going to my cold and silentgrave; my lamp of life- is nearly extinguished; my race is run, the grave opens to receive mc, and 1 sink into its> bosom ! I have but one request to ask at my clc-parturo from this world; it is tho chanty oi its silence! LEI' NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH. for as m> man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and mc repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain

From His Speech from the Dock.

uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth— then, and not till then—let my epitaph be written. J have bone.