The government became
alarmed, and a warrant was issued for the arrest of Muir. He escaped to
France; but soon after, venturing to return to his native land, was
recognized and imprisoned. He was tried upon the charge of lending books
of republican tendency, and reading an address from Theobald Wolfe Tone
and the United Irishmen before the society of which he was a member. He
defended himself in a long and eloquent address, which concluded in the
following manly strain:--
"What, then, has been my crime? Not the lending to a relation a copy of
Thomas Paine's works,--not the giving away to another a few numbers of an
innocent and constitutional publication; but my crime is, for having
dared to be, according to the measure of my feeble abilities, a strenuous
and an active advocate for an equal representation of the people in the
House of the people,--for having dared to accomplish a measure by legal
means which was to diminish the weight of their taxes and to put an end
to the profusion of their blood. Gentlemen, from my infancy to this
moment I have devoted myself to the cause of the people.
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