Martin was an upright and honourable man, abundantly gifted with amiable qualities, but possessing no remarkable intellectual gifts, unless a tenacious will and steadfast endurance for the sake of justice, which had their root in his moral character, may be considered intellectual gifts. He comported himself with quiet dignity like one ready for either fate. Some of his characteristic sayings are apt to recur to my memory when I think of that eventful time. His three fellow-prisoners were Catholics, and the first day we messed together one of them said the ordinary Catholic grace after meat, ending "May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace." "Aye," interposed Martin, "and the souls of the unfaithful too, poor fellows!"
Our personal and political friends came to us next day, and every day, without let or hindrance, and Martin and I had conferences with O'Brien, Dillon, and the other leaders on the course proper to be pursued. Our trials were to be postponed as long as practicable, but if the delay did not extend to three months, which seemed impossible, we must take our fate and trust that a revolution might bring us back to Ireland. There was promise of a plentiful harvest when it ripened, and we must not allow it to be carried away " As God had been bountiful man must be brave."
The Tribune stopped immediately, but the Nation and Irish Felon were issued as usual, and Martin and I edited them, dating our articles from Newgate Prison.[1] The aim we had most at heart was to make sure that the sacrifice we must make should not be made in vain. We desired to take counsel not only with the friends at hand, but with the friends at a distance, on the duties of the near future. We summoned our chief adherents to Dublin by special messengers, and
- ↑ The upshot is highly characteristic. After some weeks the fact that articles were written from the prison attracted attention in England, and finally the Government were questioned in the House of Lords how they came to permit such a practice. Lord Lansdowne was instructed to reply that the prisoners had not been permitted to send out any correspondence, and that the signed articles were written outside, and the prisoners' names appended for the political effect. This statement, in which there was not a scintilla of truth, throws a lurid light on the method in which Irish news is cooked for Parliament. It will complete the story to state here that the Government, who declared we had not written the articles in question, placed them in the indictments on which we were tried, and one of them furnished the main evidence on which Martin was convicted.
