DEATH OF GENERAL T. F. BURKE, THE FENIAN LEADER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 38, 10 January 1890, Page 7

DEATH OF GENERAL T. F. BURKE, THE FENIAN LEADER.

A NEW York telegram of Monday last (says the Dublin Freeman November 16) briefly announced the death of this renowned and ever to be remembered son of Tipperary. On tbe 10th of December, 1840, he first saw the lujbtin the ancient and historic little tiwn of Fethird county Tipp-rary, so that the end of a noble life was reached while yt he wp,s in hi* prime. At the age of twelve he went with his parents to New Yjrk, where they settled, his father f llowing bis avocation of hiuse pam er, woich young Burke also followed after having received a sound education at a Catholic Seminary in the Empire City. Burke worked steadily and succes fully at his trade contributing largely to the assistance of his family ; but on the outbreak of the war he joined the Confederate Army under General Oleborn, who breathed his last in the arms of the young Irishman — John Mitchels son also served with Burke under the same general A bad wound left Burk- an impaired limb, and at tbe close cf the war be returned to New York with a much-injured constitution He was elected a general, w:tb the brevet rank, by tbe Confederate leaders, m recog.iitiou of hij services. In 1865 he joined the Fenian Brotberhooi in New York, and was subsequently appointed organuer for the Wolfe Tone Otrcie on Manual tan. Ac the end of the year 18b6 he came to Ireland to further the revolutionary movement — The county of Tipperary was assigned to him as the field of his operations. On his arrival in Clonnul, in the February of 1867 he whs ar/este 1 on suspicion, but. stating thit he had come to Ireland lor the benefit of his health, amply corroborated by his em iciated appearance, he was almost immediately released. On the eventful night of the insurrection he found himself at the bead of a small but brave and devoted band of men near the town of Tipperary He recognised the futility of his intended effjris with such a small b»nd of unaimed men. They were attacked on the 6th of February at a place cailtd Ballyhirst Fort, a few miles from Tipperary. Burke saw how vain it w«s to off. r resistance with Buch a f jrce, and eu joined dispersal, and a retroat wad made, his followers returning to their bomts. Burke himself, being thrown from his horsa, was captured. After two months' incarceration in the lipperary gaol, he w«s placed on his trial on April 24. 1867, in the court house, Green street Dublin, before Lord Chief Justice Whiteside, Judge Fnz»erald (lately deceased), and Baron Deasy, charged with high treason and misdemeanoujs and offences against tha Arms Act. The prisoners were defended by Mr. Butt, Mr. Dowse (now Baron of the Exct equer), and Mr. J. A. Curran (now County Court Juige of Kerry) He waH touuJ guilty of hign treason and sentenced to death after the prescribed manner. Before the Cnief Justice delivered the fatal judgment, and in response to the inquiry as to what he had to say way sentence of death should not be passed on him, Burke arose and delivered his memorable speech. His sen'en c was subsequently commuted to penal servitude tor life, and finally he share! in the general anoensty, when here turced t<> America, and whence the sad news of his death comeg mournfully to the motherland.

General Burke began by reviewing the evidence and alluding to the statem-nts made by Sub-luspector Kelly. My lords (he said) here standing on the brink of my grave, and in tbe piesence of the Almighty and Ever-livine God, I brand that evidence as being the foulest perjo y that ever man gave utterance to. There are many points, my lords, that have been 8«om to here to prove my complicity in a great nuny acts in which vis ulleged Ito k part. It is nut my desire now to give utterance to oue word, fully conscious of my honour as a man, which has never been impugned, fully conscious tint lean gointjmy grave with a tuaae and cnanct.-r unsijlliel — I can ouly say thit these parties, actuated by a doire either »or their own aggrandisement, or to save their paltry, miserable souls, have pandered to the miseraDle appetite, if I may so speak, of justice, and my life shall pay the f jrfeit. Fully convinced and sadafi.d of the righteousness of my every action in connection with the late revolutionary movement ia Ireland, I have nothing to recall, nothing th*t I would undo, nothing for which I would feel the blush of fcbame mantling to my brow for my conduct and career, both here as a cnizdn and in America, if you like, as a soldier. Even in tbis my hour of trial I feel the consciousness of having lived an honest man ; and I will die proudly believing that if I have given my little aid to give freedom and liberty to the land ut my b rth I have done only that which every Irishman and every man whose soul throbs with the feeling of liberty should do. I, my lords, feel that I should not mention the name of the informer Massy. I feel I should not befoul my lips with the name of that traitor, whose illegitimacy his been proved here a man wtiose name is not known, and who I deny point bUuk ever wore the star of a colonel in the Confederate Army. I shall pass him by, wishing him, in the words of the poet— ' " May the gras* wither from his feet, The woods deny him shelter, The earth a grave, the sun his light, and heaven its God." Let Massy remember from this day forth that he carries with him as my able and e.oquent counsel (Mr. Dowse) his state.!, that which will gnaw his conscience, carrying about with him in his breast a liviner hell from which he can never be separated. I, my lords, hav e no deßire for the n une of a martyr. I ask not the death of a martyr • but if it is the will of the AimigLty and Omnipotent God ihnt my devotion for the land of my birth shall be tested on the scaffold, I am willing there to die in defence of the rights of man to a free goTerament, of the rights of an oppressed people to throw off the yoke of thraldom. lam an Irishman by birth, an American by adoption • by nature a lover of freedom— an enemy to the power that holds my native land in the bonds of tyranny. Ireland's children are not

n<-ver w*>re, and never will be, willing or submissive slaves ; and so long as England's flag covers one inch of Irish boil, so long will they be i^ve it a divine r.gbt— so long will they concpire, imagine and devise means to hut I it from power, and to erect in its stead the Oodlikn structure of self-government.— After thanking his counsel the prisoner conclu to<1 : I shall now, my lords, us no doubt you will suggest to me, tbink o* the propriety of taming my attention to the world beyond tbe grave. I shall now look only to that home where sorrows Hre at an end, where j>y is eternal. I shall hope and pr»y that freedom may yet dawn on this down-trodden country. It is my hope, it is my piayer— and the last words that I shall utter will be a prayer to God for forgiveness and a prayer for poor old Ireland. I am willing if I have transgressed the laws to suffer the penalty ; bat I am opposed to this system of trumping up a case to take away tb« life of a human being. I ask for no meicy. I feel that with my present emaciated frame and somewhat shattered constitution, it is better my life should be brought to an end than that I should drag oat a miserable existence in tbe prison dens of Portland. I accept tbe verdict. Of conrse, my acceptance is unnecessary. lam satiified with it ; and now I shall close. True it is there are many feelings which actuate me at this moment— that these few disconnected remarks can give no idea of what I have to say to the court. I have ties that bind to life and to society as strong as any man in this court can have. I have a family I love as much as any other man in this court loves his family, but I can remember the blessing I received from an ag-d mother's lips as I left her for the last time. She, speaking as tbe Spartan Mother did. said : "Go, my bay. Return c ther with your shield or upon it," This consoles me. This gives me heart to submit to my doom, and I hope God will forgive me my past sins. I hope also that inasmuch as during 700 years Ireland preserved, notwithstanding all the tyranny to which she has been subjected, a separate and distinct natioaa i'y, He will also assist her to retrieve her fallen fortunes and to rise in beauty and majesty the the sister of Columbia— the peer of any nation in the world.