“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.”
[7]. Annexed to the copy from which the above has been transcribed, is the following memorandum, in the hand-writing of a gentleman who held a confidential situation under the Irish government.—“The original of this paper was delivered on the morning just before he was brought out to execution, in order to be forwarded to his brother, Thomas Addis Emmet, at Paris.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
- Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
- Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.