At the same Commission, before the same judges who had tried the cases
of Colonel Warren and Augustine E. Costello, General William Halpin
was put on his trial for treason-felony. It was alleged that he was
one of the military officers of the Fenian organization, and, had been
appointed to take command, in the Dublin district, in the rising which
had taken place on the 5th of March; and this it was sought to prove
by the evidence of the informers, Massey, Corydon, Devany, and others.

General Halpin employed no counsel, and undertook the conduct of his
case himself. The considerations that had induced him to take this
course he thus explained to the jury:--

Two reasons operated on my mind, and induced me to forego
the advantage I would derive from having some of the able and
learned counsel that plead at this bar. The first reason is,
that if you, gentlemen, are a jury selected by the Crown,
as juries are known to be selected heretofore in political
cases--if you are, in fact, a jury selected with the express
purpose of finding a verdict for the Crown--then, gentlemen,
all the talent and ability that I could employ would avail
me nothing. If, on the other hand, by any chance the
Attorney-General permitted honest men to find their way into
the box, then, gentlemen, lawyers were equally unnecessary for
me.

Not an inaccurate view of the case, perhaps; the experience of the
Fenian trials, from first to last, certainly goes to support it.

The general set about his work of defending himself with infinite