of the poor man, who has no visible means of living but labour, in the discretion of the magistrates? In Ireland, where poverty [is] general, it constitutes poverty [as] a crime. Let the rich men of Ireland, therefore, fear when they enact a law against poverty, lest poverty should enact a counter-law against riches.In October 1796, Curran supported Grattan's motion, in face an anticipated French invasion, that a defence of the kingdom could best be secured by legislation to guarantee "the blessings and privileges of the constitution without distinction of religion". On 15 May 1797, he supported William Ponsonby's proposal for sweeping reform. Once this last effort of the constitutional opposition to obtain a conciliatory policy from the government was rejected, Curran and his colleagues withdrew from the Commons and ceased to attend its debates until the parliament adjourned on 3 July. Courtroom defence of United Irishmen Despairing at the intransigence of the government, and in the hope of assistance from France, Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen organised to secure a national government by force of arms. Despite threats to his person (Loyalists denounced him as "the leading advocate of every murderer, ruffian and low villain"), when their leading publicists and conspirators were brought up on charges Curran served as star counsel. As his assisting junior counsel he took the United Irishman William Sampson. Curran's courtroom performances were widely reported and admired but, in many of the more celebrated cases, failed to secure acquittals. The Rev. William Jackson, accused of being an agent of the French Directory, cheated the hangman by taking his own life. Wolfe Tone and Archibald Hamilton Rowan, who had conferred with Jackson, escaped (or were permitted to escape) into exile. Napper Tandy, similarly fled. William Orr was hanged for administering the United Irish test to a soldier. The Sheares Brothers, and William Byrne, at the height of the Rebellion in July 1798, and were hanged, drawn and quartered。 In Ireland, the government could secure a conviction of treason on the testimony of just one witness. Where Curran succeeded, he relied on lengthy cross-examination of such government witnesses (often paid informers), seeking to trap them in inconsistencies. He used this technique to great effect in the case in 1797 of eleven members of the congregation of the Rev. Thomas Ledlie Birch, Saintfield, County Down, charged with attacking the house of a loyalist informer. His cross-examination of the prosecution