midnight
`` This way , man alive , '' responded the priest , `` is as free to me , in spite of corrupt jobs and grand juries , as it is to you or any other tyrant , whether spiritual or temporal . If there are turbulence and disturbances in this parish , it is because bad laws , unjustly administered , drive the people , first , into poverty , and then into resistance . And , sir , you are not to tell me , for I will not believe it , that a bad law , dishonestly and partially administered , is not to be resisted by every legal means . '' `` Do you call noon-day murder , midnight assassination , and incendiarism , legal ? Do you call schooling the people into rebellion , and familiarizing them with crime , legal ? All this may be allegiance to your pope , but it deserves a halter from the king and laws , of England . '' `` The king and laws of England , sir , have ever been more liberal of halters to the Irish Catholics , than they have been of either common justice or fair play .