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 Patrick, 
 
 William John 
 
 If 
 
 The 
 
 harh 
 'and the 
 
 quire 
 informers... 
 
 London 
 
 1866 
 
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 CATALOG RECORD TARGE 
 
 Fitzpatrick, William John, 1830-1895. 
 
 "The Sham Squire" and the informers of 1798 : with a view of their contemporaries to which 
 are added jottings about Ireland seventy years ago / by William John Fitz-Patrick. 
 
 London : J.C. Hotten, 1866.. 
 
 :''^;; 323 p. ; 17cm. - ^'""^' -,. :-^:--,'''::'-[:^ : ''' 
 
 Includes bibliographical references. 
 
 Higgins, Francis, 1746-1802. j 
 
 Fitzgerald, Edward, 1763-1798. 
 Ireland-History-Rebellion of 1798. 
 Ireland-History- 1 760- 1 820. 
 
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LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 O (. V 
 
 F58n 
 1866 
 
The person charging this material is re- 
 sponsible for its return to the library from 
 which it was withdrawn on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. 
 
 Theft, mutilation, and underlining of beeks ar reasons 
 for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from 
 the University. 
 To renew cali Telephone Center, 333-84OO . . 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 MOV 
 
 NOV 1 
 
 Miiri.5 
 
 n 
 
 t\9Ji 
 
T l 
 
:;>;v^^vi::.^;v|^,; 
 
 ."THE SHAM SQUIRE"; 
 
 ti 
 
 AMD 
 
 THE INFOEMEES 
 
 ' .' '. ' .: ' ' ' '^9^--- "' - -' - - '^'- ':; ; 
 
 . , ^ '. . ' \ ' ' 
 
 ./'..'- : 1798.' : ",C- 
 
 ' ' . >... -' ' .'-t . 
 
 WITH A VIEW OF THEIR CONTEMPORARIES. | 
 
 TO WHICH AB ADDBD 
 
 Sotttngs aliout IrelanU ^e&entg gears ago* 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM JOHN FITZ-PATRICK, J.P., 
 
 BIOORAPHES OF BISHOP DOTLB, LORD OLOHCDSBT, LADT UOKO4N, 
 
 " Truth is stranger thanjiction" 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, 74 PICCADILLY. 
 DUBLIN : W. B. KELLY, 8 GRAFTON STREET. 
 
 1866. 
 
It wts suggested by the writer's late friend, D. Owen Madden, author of 
 bhe Revelatiom of Ireland, who read an outline of the present work, that 
 'he Bloodhoundi of '98, would form a good addition to the title. The writer 
 iras at first disposed to adopt the hint ; but he has since feit that the title, 
 ilthough a sensational one, might, perhaps, sarour more of the partizan 
 than the historian, and he has therefore relinquished it. 
 
 J. F. FOVI.KB, Printer, 3 Crow Street, Dame Street, Dublin. 
 
AS THE CONDITION OF THIS VOLUME 
 WOULD NOT PERMIT SEWING, IT WAS 
 TREATED WITH A STRONG, DURABLE 
 ADHESIVE ESPECIALLY APPLIED TO 
 ASSURE HARD WEAR AND USE. 
 
941.51 
 
 ' ' "' ' .'. io-'-'\ '^/^ -"'',.' -'' ; 
 
 ... - -v/">;.:-^ ,. -. V 
 g THE RIGHT HON. THOMAS O'HAGAN, 
 
 JUSTICE OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, AND ONE OP 
 
 HER MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL 
 
 ' - . ' -- " IN IRELAND. , ;'v;: ' ' -^ "'' ^ ';':.'.- 
 
 DEAR JUDGE O'HAGAN, ; ^ . y 
 
 Contrasts are often pleasant and instructive. I 
 could not make a better one than in dedicating to 
 him who dignifies the judgment seat by the purity 
 of his justice and the soundness of his law, a book 
 demonstrative of the way in which both were tra- 
 vestied in bad times by unconstitutional judges.* 
 
 It may seem strange, that a man who has abeady 
 written the lives of sundry Irish worthies, should 
 touch, even with stigma, the life of one eminently 
 unworthy. But we must not forget that Plutarch, 
 the Prince of Biographers and Moral Philosophers, 
 in his introduction to the Life of .Demetrius Polior- 
 * See pages 96, 110-13, 196, etc. 
 
IV 
 
 <dtes, to be followed by and compared witli tliat of 
 Antony the Triumvir two personages remarkable 
 for their vices, says : " We shall behold and imi- 
 tate the virtuous with greater attention, if we be 
 not entirely unacquainted with the characters of 
 the vicious and the infamous". . I 
 
 Owing to the recently discovered Fenian Con- 
 spiracy, and the attention which it has excited, 
 this work possesses, perhaps, more than ordinary 
 interest ; but, lest it should be supposed that I was 
 influenced in my choice of the subject by its apt- 
 ness to existing circumstances, I am bound to add, 
 that the book was written, and in great part printed, 
 before the Fenian movement obtained notoriety. 
 ,*= With a cordial appreciation of your public and 
 private worth, and thanking you for allowing me 
 to dedicate this book to you, 
 
 I beg to remain, dear Judge O'Hagan, 
 Yours very faithfully, .] 
 WILLIAM JOHN FITZ-PATEICK. 
 
 Kilmacud Manor, Stillorgan, 
 Nov. 1st, 1865. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 A PAMPHLET which forms but a small part of the 
 present work appeared in 1859. It excited consi- 
 derable attention, and has been, for some years, 
 quite out of print. Early in the present year, 
 several letters and leaders appeared in an influential 
 print, desiring particulars of Francis Higgins, and 
 the fate of his bequests. This induced me to re- 
 sume my exploration of the eventful* period in 
 question, and the results of that research are now 
 offered to the public. 
 
 The Irish Times of January the 11th, 1865, in a 
 third leading article on the subject, says: 
 
 " A scarce pamphlet has been kindly forwarded to us, 
 compiled by Mr. Fitzpatrick, the biographer of Lady 
 Morgan, Bishop Doyle, etc. The subject is the Francis 
 Higgins, who bequeathed 1,000 to be vested in land 
 for the liberation of poor prisoners in the Four Courts 
 Marshalsea, Dublin. The work contains copies of infor- 
 mations taken from the records of the courts of law, 
 passages from long-forgotten histories, extracts from the 
 newspapers and satirical poetry which startled Dublin 
 eighty years ago, and clauses from the authenticated will 
 of Francis Higgins. The picture drawn, and truthfully 
 drawn, of the society of Dublin at that period, is any- 
 thing l3ut edifying. Riots, tumults, abduction of heir- 
 esses, the abuse of the forms of justice for the perpe- 
 tration of wrong, corruption openly employed by the 
 goveriiment of the day, the passionate resistance and 
 cowardly submission of parliament, these are the pro- 
 minent features of the picture. But throughout the 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 ) 
 
 whole appears the terrible figure of Francis Higgins, 
 whose history would furnish materials for twenty sen- 
 sation novels. We stand amazed at discovering that 
 one man, apparently endowed with no great talent, 
 should have acted as he did with impunity even in 
 that wild time, and been appointed to dispense the jus- 
 tice he had outraged". 
 
 The rest of the article urges that a royal commis- 
 sion should be appointed to inquire into the condi- 
 tion and revenues of the charities bequeathed by 
 Higgins, Webb, and others, and expresses a hope 
 that parliament will at once take the matter in hand. 
 
 The original object', however, of the pamphlet 
 which has suggested the present work was to re- 
 move a misapprehension which pervaded almost the 
 entire reviewing press of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 For sixty-one years the name of the person who 
 \received the Government reward of 1,000 for the 
 ibetrayal of Lord Edward Fitzgerald remained an 
 impenetrable mystery, although historians have de- 
 voted much time and labour in seeking to discover 
 it. Among other revelations, recently published 
 in the Cornwallis Papers, we find that " Francis 
 Higgins, proprietor of the Freeman's Journal", was 
 the person who gave all the information which led 
 to the arrest and death of the Patriot Chief. In 
 the following pages, however, it will appear that 
 Higgins was not the actual Betrayer, but the em- 
 ployer of the Betrayer, a much respected " gentle- 
 man'', who, although in receipt for forty-five years 
 of a Pension the price of Lord Edward's blood 
 was not suspected of the treachery. 
 
 The Athenaum, after justly reprobating soine 
 of the duplicity practised in 1798, observed: 
 
' ' PREFACE ':-''.:' VU 
 
 " The second item was scarcely less disgusting. The 
 Freeman's Journal was a patriotic print, and advocated 
 the popidar cause, and its proprietor earned blood-money 
 by hunting down the unfortunate Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald !" 
 
 " Truth is stranger than fiction", however ; and 
 the Freeman's Journal, when owned by Higgins, 
 was not only the open and notorious organ of the 
 then corrupt government, but the most violent as- 
 sailant of the popular party in Ireland. 
 
 The Times, noticing the United Irishmen, said : 
 
 " They believed themselves to be embarked in a noble 
 cause, and were cheered on the path that led to martyr- 
 dom by the spirit-stirring effusions of a press which felt 
 their wrongs, shared their sentiments, and deplored 
 their misfortunes. Alas! the press that encoiiraged 
 was no more free from the influence of government 
 than the advocate who defended them. Francis Hig- 
 gins, proprietor of the Freeman's Journal, was the 
 person who procured all the intelligence about Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald. When we reflect that the Free- 
 man's Journal was a favourite organ of the United 
 Irishmen,* that in that capacity it must have received 
 
 * The organ of the United Irishmen was the Press ; and 
 Higgins, who then published a tri-weekly paper, came out 
 every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, with his " thunder- 
 ing" denunciations of the " disaffected" prints of the " turbu- 
 lent traitors" and " malign incendiaries", who conspired with 
 " French agents" to seduce Higgins's " countrymen" into 
 treasonable plots against the "a6/e, irise, and clement" goveru' 
 ment of the day. Here is the opening of a Higgins leader : 
 " It is with the most heartfelt regret that we find the lenity which 
 has been extended to the abettors of treason and rebelUon has 
 had no permanent effect, and that the temporary obedience 
 to the laws which it produced has proceeded more from fear 
 and inability to do mischief than from a sense of gratitude. . . 
 . . " 7 Those wretched remains of United Irishmen, worked on 
 by the arts of incendiaries and French agents. . . . The 
 violence and outrages of these deluded wretches can have but a 
 
Vlll PREFACE. i 
 
 much secret and dangerous information, and that all 
 this information was already bargained for and sold to 
 the Irish government before it was given, we can appre- 
 ciate at once the refinement of its policy, and the snares 
 and pitfalls among which the path of an Irish conspira- 
 tor is laid". 
 
 The misapprehension under which the para- 
 graphs of the Times and Athenceum were written, 
 found a prompt echo in the Mail^ Nation^ Post, and 
 other influential Irish journals. The Nation gave 
 it to be understood that Higgins, having become a 
 secret traitor to his party, published " next mom- 
 ing thundering articles against the scoundrels who 
 betrayed the illustrious Patriot" ; and in a subsequent 
 article added : " What fouler treachery was ever 
 practised than the subornation of the journals and the 
 writers in whom the people placed a mistaken con- 
 fidence, whereby the unsuspecting victims were made 
 to cram a mine for their own destruction !" 
 
 These statements excited a considerable sensation. 
 The Irish provincial press reiterated them, and lo- 
 cally fanned the flame. The Heath People^ in an 
 article headed, " Who does the government work?" 
 after alluding to Higgins, said : " Shame, shame for 
 ever on the recreant who had patriotism on his pen 
 point, and treason to the country in his heart!" 
 I felt that this statement, if unrefuted, would soon 
 find its way into the permanent page of Irish and 
 European history. 
 ' Having ascertained, on inquiry, the groundlessness 
 
 Tery short-lived existence, &8,Jortunately, we have in this coun- 
 try troops sufficient to crush any renewed effort at rebellion. 
 Major Sirr discovered a brace of loaded pistols, some powder, 
 and a pike of the revolutionary description, such as were used by 
 the rebels in their atrocities. By this day's search another 
 treasonable conspiracy has been happily developed". 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 of the charge of duplicity imputed to the Freeman^s 
 Journal, \n 1798; and believing that those more 
 legitimately concerned were cognizant to the same 
 extent, I looked forward, for many days, to some 
 editorial statement which would have the eflect of 
 dispelling the erroneous impression. But I found, 
 that so confidently had this charge of duplicitjr 
 against the Freeman been rung, that its present edi- 
 tors had themselves begun to regard it as not wholly 
 unfounded. A short letter from me, explanatory of 
 the real facts, was therefore gladly accepted by the 
 conductor of the Freeman^ s Journal^ who introduced 
 it in the following words, less by an observation too 
 complimentary to me : 
 
 " We publish to-day a most interesting letter from 
 William John Fitz-Patrick. The sad fate of the gallant 
 Lord Edward excited peculiar and permanent interest 
 in the minds of all who prized chivalry and patriotism ; 
 and when the Comwallis papers disclosed the name, 
 of the government agent who had tracked the noble]- 
 chief to his doom, a host of reviewers, ignorant of thai 
 history of the time, and anxious only to cast a slur on 
 the patriots of a by-gone century, wrote beautiful ro- 
 mances about the betrayer of Lord Edward. The re- 
 viewers, without exception, have represented Higgins as 
 the confidant of the United Irishmen as a ' patriotic' 
 journalist, who sustained the popular party with his 
 pen, and sold them for Castle gold. Mr. Fitzpatrick dis- 
 sipates the romance by showing who and what Higgins 
 was that he was the public and undisguised agent of 
 the English government that his journal, instead of 
 being ' patriotic', or even friendly to the United Irish- 
 men, was the constant vehicle of the most virulent as- 
 saults upon their character and motives that he was 
 the ally and friend of the notorious John Scott that, as 
 a journalist, he was the panegyrist of the notorious Sirr,-; ^ 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 and his colleague. Swan and that he never mentioned 
 the name of an Irish patriot of Lord Edward, O'Con- 
 nor, Teeling, or their friends without some such in- 
 sulting prefix as ' traitor*, ' wretch', ' conspirator', ' in- 
 cendiary*, while the government that stimulated the re- 
 volt, in order to carry the Union, is lauded as ' able*, 
 *wise*, 'humane', and 'lenient' I These events are 
 now more than half a century old ; but, though nearly 
 two generations have passed away since Higgins re- 
 ceived his blood-money, it is, as justly remarked by 
 Mr. Fitzpatrick, gratifying to have direct evidence that 
 the many high-minded and honourable men who were, 
 frtjm time to time, suspected for treachery to their 
 chief, were innocent of his blood". V. 
 
 Having, in the letter thus referred to by the 
 Freeman^ glanced rapidly at a few of the more start- 
 ^ling incidents in the life of the once famous, but 
 'long forgotten "Sham Squire", whicli elicited ex- 
 pressions of surprise, and even of incredulity, I 
 conceived that I was called upon to give his .his- 
 tory more in detail, and with a larger array of 
 authorities than 1 had previously leisure or space to 
 bring forward. From the original object of this 
 book I have in the present emtion wandered, by 
 brassing into the mosaic many curious morceaua; 
 illustrative of the history of the time, while in the 
 appendix will be found some interesting memora- 
 bilia, which could not, without injury to artistic 
 effect, appear in the text. 
 
 Kilmacud Manor, Stillorgan, 
 February 20th, 1865. 
 
THE SHAM SQUIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Early Struggles and Stratagems of the Sham Squire. How to 
 catch an Heiress. Judge Bobinson. John Fhilpot Curran. 
 The Black Dog Prison. Honesty not always the best 
 policy! Uprise of the Sham Squire. Lord Chief Justice 
 Clonmel. Irish Administrations of Lord Temple and the 
 Duke of Rutland. 
 
 IN the year of our Lord 1756, a bare-legged 
 boy with cunning eyes might be seen carrying 
 pewter quarts in Fishamble Street,* Dublin, then a 
 popular locality, owing to the continual ridottos, 
 concerts, and feats of magic, which made the old 
 
 .Music Hall an object of attraction. This bare- 
 legged boy became the subsequently notorious Jus- 
 tice Higgins, or as he was more frequently styled, 
 
 < the Sham Squire. Fishamble Street, as the scene 
 of his debut^ is mentioned in a file of the Dublin 
 Evening Post for 1789; and this account we find 
 corroborated by a traditional anecdote which Mr. 
 R of Dubun has communicated, on the autho- 
 rity of his late grandmother, who often told him 
 how she remembered her father, a provision mer- 
 chant in Fishamble Street, employing Higgins, 
 then a bare-footed lad, to sweep the flags in front 
 
 p T . j ' i b 
 
 or his door. 
 
 . ^ Dublin Evening Post,'So. 1789. ' / ;? 
 
THE SHAM SQUIRE, OR 
 
 " Our adventurer was the only survivor of a large 
 family of brothers and sisters, the children of humble 
 people named Patrick and Mary Higgins, who died 
 about the year 1760, and were interred* in Kilbar- 
 rack churchyard, near Howth. They are said to 
 have migrated from Downpatrick, and we learn 
 from the same authority that their real name was 
 M'Quignan.t He himself was born in a cellar in 
 Dublin, and while yet of tender years, became suc- 
 
 , cessively " errand boy, shoeblack, and waiter in a 
 porter house". 
 
 The number of times which Higgins used his 
 broom, or shouldered pewter pots, would be imin- 
 teresting to enumerate, and unprofitable to record. 
 Passing over a few years occupied in this manner, 
 we shall reintroduce Mr. Higgins to the reader, dis- 
 charging his duties as a " hackney writing clerk" 
 in the oflfice of Daniel Bourne, attorney -at -law, 
 Patrick's Close, Dublin. f He was bom a Roman 
 Catholic, but he had now read his recantation, as 
 appears from the Ojjicial Register of Conversions 
 preserved in the Record Tower, Dublin Castle. 
 Nevertheless, he failed to rise in the social scale. 
 Having become a perfect master of scrivenery, a 
 strong temptation smote him to turn his talent 
 for caligraphy to some more substantial accoimt 
 
 * Will of Francis Higgins, Prerogative Court, Dublin. 
 , t Dublin Evening Post, No. 1837. , ' 
 
 j Dublin Evening Po.it, No. 1765. 
 
 The same book, which seems unknown to most Iri^h. his- 
 torical and biographical writers, contains the names of Bairj 
 Yelverton, afterwards Lord Avonmore, Leonard MacNally, 
 and several other men of mark. Thanks to the energy of Si? 
 Bernard Burke, the courteous and efficient custodian of tiie 
 Records, many valuable MSS., of which the existence was 
 previously almost unknown, are constantly turning up, to the 
 great pleasure and profit of historical students. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. .iv 13 
 
 than 16 per annum, the general salary of 
 hackney writing clerks in those days.* Higgins 
 had great ambition, but without money and con- 
 nexion he was powerless. Accordingly, to gain 
 these ends, we find him in 1766 forging with 
 his cunning brain and ready hand a series of legal 
 instruments purporting to show that he was not 
 only a man of large landed property, but in the 
 enjoyment of an office of some importance under 
 the government. Trusting to his tact for complete . 
 success, Higgins, full of daring, sought Father 
 Shortall, and on his knees hypocritically declared 
 himself a convert to the Roman Cathouc Church. 
 The iron pressure of the Penal Code had not then 
 received its first relaxation; Catholics were daily 
 conforming to the Establishment ; Father Shortall 
 regarded Mr. Higgins's case as a very interesting 
 and touching one, and he affectionately received 
 the convert squire into the heaving bosom of the 
 suffering Church of Ireland. "And now, holy 
 father", said the neophyte, " I must implore of you 
 to keep my conversion secret. My parent has 
 got a property of 3,000 a-year, and if this matter 
 transpires I shall be disinherited". The good 
 pastor assured him that he would be as silent as the 
 ^ave; he gave him his blessing, and Higgins re- 
 tired, hugging himself in his dexterity, and offer- 
 ing mental congratulations on the prospect that 
 be^an to open to his future success. When this 
 rehgous intercourse had continued for some time, 
 Hiffgins told his spiritual adviser that the ease of his 
 soul was such as induced him humbly to hope that 
 the Almighty had accepted the sincerity of his 
 repentance. " If anything be now wanting to my 
 * Faulkner s Dublia Journal, January 2itti, 1767. 
 
14 THE SHAM SQUIRE, OE ' 
 
 Complete happiness", he added, "it is an amiable 
 wife of the true religion, whose bright example 
 will serve to keep my frail resolutions firm ; as to the 
 amount of fortune, it is an object of little or no consi- 
 deration, for, as you are aware, my means will be 
 ample".* His engaging manner won the heart of 
 Famer Shortall, who resolved and avowed to be- 
 friend him as far as in his power lay. Duped by the 
 hypocrisy of our adventurer, the unsuspecting 
 priest introduced him to the family of an eminent 
 Catholic merchant named Archer, who resided in 
 Thomas Street. 
 
 To strengthen his footing, Higgins ordered some 
 goods from Mr. Archer, and requested that they 
 might be sent to 76 Stephen's Green, the house of 
 his uncle, the then celebrated Counsellor Harward. 
 Mr. Archer treated his visitor with the respect due 
 to the nephew and, as it seemed, the heir presump- 
 tive of that eminent lawyer. The approach to de- 
 formity of Higgins's person had made Miss Archer 
 shrink from his attentions; but her parents, who 
 rejoiced at the prospect of an alliance so apparently 
 advantageous, sternly overruled their daughter's re- 
 luctance. The intimacy gradually grew. Higgins 
 accompanied Mr. Archer and his daughter on a 
 country excursion ; seated in a noddy they returned 
 to town through Stephen's Green, and in passing 
 Mr. Harward's house, Higgins in a loud tone ex- 
 pressed a hope to some person at the door that his 
 uncle's health continued to convalesce.f When too 
 late Mr. Archer discovered that no possible relation- 
 ship existed between his hopeful son-in-law and the 
 old counsellor. 
 
 * Sketches of Irish Political Characters. By Henry Mac 
 Dougall, M.A., T.C.D. Lond. 1799, p. 182. 
 t Tradition communicated by the late Very Bev. Monsig. Yore. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS Q|L '98. 15 
 
 .j^^ It is also traditionally stated by Mr. R , of 
 
 ^Dublin, that Higgins turned to profitable account 
 an intimacy which he had formed with the servants 
 of one of the judges. His lordship Kaving gone on 
 
 circuit, a perfect "high life below stairs" was per- 
 formed in his absence ; and Higgins, to promote the 
 progress of his scheme, succeeded in persuading his 
 friend, the coachman, to drive him to a few places 
 
 ; in the judicial carriage. 
 
 The imposture was too well planned to fail ; but 
 let us allow the heart-broken father to tell the tra^c 
 tale in his own words. 
 
 . '^Countvofthe City) The examination of William Archer, 
 o/Dublm,towit. I" of Dublin, merchant, who being duly 
 sworn and examined, saith, that on the 9th day of No- 
 vember [1766] last, one Francis Higgins, who this exa- 
 minant now hears and believes to be a common hackney 
 writing clerk, came to the house of this examinant in 
 company with a clergyman of the Church of Rome,* 
 
 * I am indebted to John Cornelius O'Callaghan, Esq., the ahle 
 author of The Green Book, and historian of The Irish Brigades in 
 the Service of France, for the following tradition, which he has 
 ohliginglj taken down from the lips of an octogenarian relative : 
 
 ' 1 Upper Rutland street, 
 . " January letfa, 1865. 
 
 * The circumstance respecting the ' Sham Squire' to vitdch I 
 alluded, was as follows : The Rev. Mr. ShorttEiIl (I beliere a 
 Jesuit) became acquainted with Higgins through the medium of 
 religion; the fellow having pretended to become a convert to 
 the Catholic Church, and even so zealous a one, as to confess 
 himself every Saturday to that gentleman, in order to re- 
 
 I ceive the Blessed Sacrament the following day I This having 
 
 gone on for some time, Mr. Shortair formed a high opinion 
 
 of Higgins, and spoke of him in such terms to the parents 
 
 ; of the young lady he was designing to marry, that they 
 
 ; were proportionately influenced in his favour. After the ' fatal 
 
 vf marriage' Mr. ShortaU was sent to Cork, and waa inttx>- 
 
 duced there to my maternal grandmother and her sisters, to 
 
16 THE SHAM SQUIEE, OB t - v; 3 
 
 and was introduced as a man possessing lands in the 
 county of Down, to the amount of 250 per annum, 
 which he, the said Francis Higgins, pretended to this 
 examinant, in order to deceive and cheat him ; and also 
 that he was in considerable employ in the revenue ; and 
 that he was entitled to a large property on the death 
 of William Harward, Esq., who the said Higgins alleged 
 was his guardian and had adopted him. In a few days 
 after this introduction (during which time he paid his 
 addresses to Miss Maryanne Archer, the daughter of 
 this examinant) he produced a state of a case, all of his 
 own handwriting, saying, that he was entitled to the 
 lands of Ballyveabeg, Islang, Ballahanera, and Dansfort, 
 in the county of Down ; and the more effectually to de 
 ceive and cheat this examinant and his daughter, 
 Higgins had at the foot thereof obtained the legal opi- 
 , nion of the said William Harward, Esq., that he was 
 entitled to said lands under a will mentioned to be made 
 in said case. Higgins, in order to deceive this exami- 
 nant, and to induce him to consent to a marriage with 
 his daughter, agreed to settle 1,500 on her, and in- 
 formed examinant that if said marriage was not speedily 
 performed, his guardian would force him to take the 
 oath to qualify him to become an attorney, which he 
 could not think of, as he pretended to be of the contrary 
 opinion ; and that as to the title deeds of said lands, he 
 could not then come at them, being lodged, as he pre- 
 tended, with William Harward, Esq. But that if exa- 
 minant thought proper, he would open a window in 
 William Harward's house, in order to come at said 
 deeds, let what would be the consequences. Examinant 
 was advised not to insist on said measure, and therefore 
 
 whom he used to mention how bitterly he regretted having been 
 
 so imposed upon. The story made such an impression on 
 
 as a child, that, shortly after she came to Dublin, she vent to 
 seethe ' Sham Squire's' tomb, in Kilbarrack churchyard. 
 
 " I am, most sincerely ^'ours, 
 ' - -,- r-'-T;' ' JOHN CoKNLs. O'CALLAGHAN". 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '&8. 17 
 
 waived it ; and relying on the many assertions and re- 
 presentations of the said Higgins, and of his being a 
 person of consideration and property, and particularly 
 having great confidence in the opinion of so eminent a 
 lawyer as William Harward, this examinant having 
 found on inquiry the same was the handwriting of 
 Harward, agreed to give Higgins 600 as a portion 
 with examinant's daughter, and one half of this exana- 
 nant's substance at his death, which he believes may 
 amount to a considerable surn^ and executed writings for 
 the performance of said agreement. And upon said 
 marriage Higgins perfected a deed, and thereby agreed 
 to settle the lands above mentioned on the issue of said 
 marriage, together with 1,500 on examinant's daugh- 
 ter. Soon after the marriage, the examinant being in- 
 formed of the fraud, he made inquiries into the matters 
 so represented by the said Higgins to facilitate said 
 fraud, and the examinant found that there was not the 
 least colour of truth in any of the pretensions or sug- 
 gestions so made by Higgins, and that he was not en- 
 titled to a foot of land, either in this kingdom or else- 
 where, nor of any personal property, nor hath he any 
 employment in the revenue or otherwise. Notwith- 
 standing the repeated assurances of the said Higgins, 
 and the said several pretences to his being a person of 
 fortune or of business, he now appears to be a person 
 of low and indigent circumstances, of infamous life and 
 character,* and that he supported himself by the craft 
 of a cheat and impostor ; nor is the said William Har- 
 ward either guar^n or any way related to Higgins, as 
 this examinant is informed and verily believes". 
 
 Mr, Harward, whose name has been frequently 
 
 * From a contemporary publication, Irish Political Characters^ 
 p. 180, weleam that when Higgins acted as an attorney's clezk 
 his talents were not confined exclusiyely to the desk. " His 
 master's pleasures found an attentive minister in Sham, and 
 Sham found additional profits in his master's pleasures". 
 
THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 mentioned, became a member of the IrisH bar in 
 Micliaelmas term, 1718, and was the contemporary of 
 Malone, Dennis, Lord Tracton, and Mr. Fitzgibbon, 
 father of Lord Clare, and sat for some years in the 
 Irish Parliament. At the period when Higgins took 
 such strange liberties witn his name, Mr. Harward 
 was in an mfirm state of health; he died, childless, . 
 in 1772. f 
 
 The biographer of Charlemont mentions Harward 
 as " deservedly celebrated for the acuteness of his 
 understanding, his pleasantry, and his original wit". 
 He would seem, indeed, to have been fonder of Joe 
 Miller than of Blackstone. We find the following 
 anecdote in the recently published life of Edmund 
 Malone : 
 
 "Harward, the Irish lawyer, with the help of a A! 
 great brogue, a peculiar cough, or long h-e-m, waa^ 
 sometimes happy in a retort. Harward had read a;.; 
 great deal of law, bat it was all a confused mass ; he ^ 
 had little judgment. Having, however, made one of 
 his best harangues, and stated, as he usually did, a 
 great deal of dovJj^ul law, which yet he thought. veiy 
 sound, Lord Chief Justice Clayton, who, thougli a most . 
 ignorant boor, had got the common black-letter of 
 Westminster Hall pretty ready, as soon as Harward 
 had done, exclaimed, * You do n't suppose, Mr. Harward, 
 that I take this to be law ?' ' Indeed, my lord', replied 
 Harward, with his usual shrug and cough, 'I do n't 
 suppose you do !"' .. -: H .; 
 
 The following is a copy of the true bill found by 
 the grand jury against Higgins : 
 
 ^'County of the CM The jurors for our Lord the King, 
 of Dublin, to icit,^ ^pon t^jg^j. Q^^JJ^ 5^^ ^j^^^. Francis 
 
 Higgins, of Publin, yeoman, being a person of evil 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OP '98. 19 
 
 name, fame, and disfionest conversation, and a common 
 deceiver and cheat of the liege subjects of our said 
 Lord, and not minding to gain his livelihood by truth 
 and honest labour, but devising to cheat, cozen, and 
 defraud William Archer of his moneys, fortune, and 
 substance, for support of the profligate life of him, the 
 said Francis Higgins, and with intent to obtain Mary- 
 anne Archer in marriage, and to aggrieve, impoverish, 
 and ruin her, and with intent to impoverish the said 
 William Archer, his wife, and all his family, by wicked, 
 false, and deceitful pretences, on the 19th November, in 
 the seventh y^ar of the reign of King George III., and 
 on divers other days and times, with force and arms, at 
 Dublin, in the parish of St. Michael, the more fully 
 to complete and perpetrate the said wicked intentions 
 and contrivances, did fraudulently pretend to the said 
 William Archer that [here the facts are again recited 
 in detail]. The said F. Higgins, by the same wicked 
 pretences, procured Maryanne Archer to be given in 
 marriage to him, to the great damage of the said William 
 Archer, to the great discomfort, prejudice, injury, and 
 disquiet of mind of the said Maryanne and the rest of 
 the family, to the evil example of all others, and against 
 the peace of our said Lord the King, his crown and dig- 
 nity". 
 
 A person named Francis Higgins really held an 
 appointment in the Custom-House, and our adven- 
 turer availed Hmself of the coincidence in carrying 
 out his imposture. In the FreemarHs JouTnal of 
 October 21st, 1766, we read: 
 
 *' Mr. Francis Higgins, of the Custom-House, to Miss 
 Anne Gore, of St. Stephen's Green, an accomplished 
 young lady with a handsome fortune". /.- - 
 
 There is a painfully interesting episode connected 
 with this imposture which the foregoing document 
 
20 THE SHAM SQUIBE, AKD ."VV . 
 
 do not tell, and we give it on the authority of the 
 late venerable divine, the VeryrHev. Dr. Yore, who 
 was specially connected with the locality/ As soon 
 as the marriage between Higgins and Miss Archer 
 had been solemnized, he brought her to some lodg- 
 ings at tiucan. The bride, after a short matrimonial 
 experience, found that Higgins was by no ineans a 
 desirable husband either in a pecuniary or, a com- 
 panional)le sense, and having watched, her. oppor^ 
 tunity to escape, she at length fled, .with almost 
 maniac wildness, to Dublin. Bfiggiii? gave chase) 
 and came in sight just as the poor girt Had reached 
 her father's house in Thomas Street. It was the 
 dawn of morning, and her parents had not yet risen ; 
 but she screamed piteously at the street doory and 
 Mrs. Archer, in her night dress, got up and opened 
 it. The afl&ighted girl had no sooner rushed through 
 the threshold than Higgins came violently up, and 
 endeavoured to push the door open. Mrs. Archer 
 resisted. She placed her arms across the ample iron 
 sockets wliieh had been formed for the reception of 
 a large wooden bolt. Higgins applied his strength. 
 Mrs. Archer cried wildly for rehef and mercy ; but 
 her hopeful son-in-law disregarded the appeal, and 
 continued to force the door with such violence that 
 Mrs. Archer's arm was crushed in two. ".>.- 
 
 Immediately on the informations being swom, 
 Higgins was committed to prison. We read that on 
 January 9th, 1767, the citizens of Dublin witnessed 
 his procession from Newgate in Cutpurse Row to the 
 Tholsel, or Sessions' House, at Christ Church Place, 
 then known as Skinner's Row.* 
 
 The Hon. Christopher Robinson, Second Justice 
 : ,- . --^"t.. 
 
 '"* * Dublin Evening post, No. 1829. 
 
' '^ THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 21 
 
 of the King's Bench, tried the case. It was imusual 
 in those days to report ordinary law proceedings ; 
 and there is no published record of the trial beyond 
 three: or four lines. But the case excited so strong 
 a sensation that its leading details are still tfadition- 
 aUy preservled among several respectable families. 
 Faulkner^ 8 Journal of the day records:^ "At an 
 adjournment of the Quarter Sessions, held at the 
 Tholsel, January 9th, 1767, Francis Higgins was 
 tried and found guilty of several misdemeanours".* 
 At die commission of oyer and terminer following, 
 we find that Higgins stood his trial for another 
 offence committed subsequent to his conviction and 
 imprisonment in the case of Miss Archer. The 
 leniency of the punishment inflicted on Higgins, 
 which permitted him to roam abroad within a few 
 weeks after having, being found guilty of " several 
 mtsdemeanours^j will not tail to surprise the h 
 
 humane 
 
 reader. ' But a violent hatred of topery prevailed 
 at that time ; and even the Bench of Justice often 
 rejoiced whenever it Jiad the power to give a rebuff 
 to those who had rejected the allurements of Pro- 
 testantism, and clung with fidelity to the oppressed 
 Church.f With reference to the Archer case, we 
 
 -, * Faulkner's DtAKn Journal, No. 414i. ' 
 
 t About 1769, Laurence Saul, of Saul's Court, IFisfaamble Street, 
 a wealthy Catholic distiller, was prosecuted for haying harboured 
 a 7ounff lady who had sought refuge in his house to avoid being 
 compelled by her friends to conform to the E8tftbli|iBil Chvch. 
 The Lord ChanceUor, in the course of this trial, dwddred tiiat tiie 
 law did not presume an Irish Papist existed m the kiilgdoBi ! 
 SanI, writing to Charles O'Conor, says:" Since there is not 
 the least prospect of such a rela;xation of the penal laws tt woold 
 induce one Boman Catholic to (any in this place of bondige, 
 who din purchase a settlement in some other land where freddctoi 
 and security of property can be obtained, will you condemo tte 
 for Baying 1^ if I cannot be one of the first, I will not be one of 
 
22 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 ^1 
 
 find that Judge Robinson in his charge to the jury 
 observed, that Higgins could not be heavily punished 
 for attempting false pretences, and flying under false 
 colours in the family of Mr. Archer, inasmuch as if 
 they believed the prisoner at the bar to be the im- 
 portant personage which he represented himself, their 
 own conduct presented a deception siad.suppressioveri 
 in not acquainting the prisoner's pretended guardian 
 and uncle with the matrimonial intentions which 
 unknown to his family he entertained. " Gentle- 
 men", added the judge, " that deception has existed 
 on both sides we have ample evidence. 'T is true 
 this sham squire is guilty of great duplicity, but so 
 also are the Archers".* 
 
 In thus fastening upon Higgins that admirable 
 nickname, which clung to him throughout his subse- 
 quent highly inflated career. Judge Robinson unin- 
 tentionally inflicted a punishment by far more severe 
 than a long term of imprisonment in Newgate or the 
 Black Dog. 
 
 Higgins exhibited great ^If-possession in the 
 dock; and he is said to have had the incredible 
 effrontery to appeal to the jury as men, and ask them 
 
 the lost to take flight?" Saul then bemoans the hard necessity of 
 quitting for ever friends, relatives, and an ancient patrimcHiy, 
 at a time of life when nature had far advanced in its decline, and 
 his constitution by constant mental exercise was much impaired, 
 to retire to some dreary clime, there to play the schoolboy again, 
 to learn the language, laws, and institutions of the country, to 
 make new friends in short, to begin the world anew. " But*, 
 he adds, " when religion dictates, and prudence points out the 
 only way to preserve posterity from temptation and perdition, I 
 feel this consideration predominating over all others. I am re<- 
 solved, as soon as possible, to sell out, and to expatriate". Saul 
 retired to France, and died there in 1768 (Gilbert's Dublin; 
 Memoirs of Charles O'Conor). 
 
 Tradition conmtttnicated by Mr. Gill, pablisher> 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 23 
 
 if there was one amongst them who would not do as 
 much to possess so fine a girl.* 
 
 Judge Robinson had scant reputation as a lawyer, 
 and was eminently unpopular. When proceeding 
 to the Armagh assizes, in 1763, he found a gallows 
 erected, and so constructed across the road that it was 
 . necessary to pass imder it. To the " Heart-of-Oak- 
 Boys" Judge Robinson was indebted for this com- 
 plimentf He was called to the Bar in 1737, and 
 died in Dominick Street, in 1786. Mr. O'Regan, in 
 his Memoir of Curran, describes Judge Robinson as 
 small and peevish. A member of the Bar named 
 Hoare sternly resisted the moroseness of the jud^e ; 
 at last, Robinson charged him with .a design to bring 
 the king's commission into contempt. " No, my 
 Lord", replied Hoare ; " I have read that when a 
 peasant, during the troubles of Charles I. found the 
 crown in a bush, he showed it all marks of reverence ; 
 but I will go further, for though I should find the 
 king's commission even upon a bramble, still I 
 shafl respect it". Mr. Charles Phillips tells us 
 that Judge Robinson had risen to his rank by the 
 publication of some political pamphlets, only remark- 
 able for their senseless, slavish, and envenomed scur- 
 .rility. This fellow, when poor Curran was strug- 
 gling with adversity, and straining every nerve in 
 one of his infant professional exertions, made a most 
 unfeeling effort to extinguish him. Curran had de- 
 clared, in combating some opinion of his adversary, 
 that he had consulted all his law books, and could not 
 find a single case in which the principle contended 
 for was established. " I suspect, sir", said the 
 heartless blockhead, " that your law library is rather 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, TSo. 1765. ' 
 
 t Hardy's Life of Charlemont, v. i., p. 189, .; 
 
24 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND I 
 
 contracted !" So brutal a remark applied from the 
 bench to any young man of ordinary pretensions 
 would infalHbly have crushed him ; but when any 
 pressure was attempted upon Curran, he never failed 
 to rise with redoubled elasticity. He eyed the judge 
 for a moment in the most contemptuous silence : " It 
 is very true, my lord, that I am poor, and the cir- 
 cumstance has certainly rather curtailed my library ; 
 my books are not numerous, but they are select, and 
 I liope have been perused with proper dispositions. 
 I have prepared myself for this high profession 
 rather by the study of a few good books than by the 
 composition of a great many bad ones, I am not 
 ashamed of my poverty, but I should of my wealth, 
 could I stoop to acquire it by servility and corrup- 
 tion. If I nse not to rank, I shall at least be honest ; 
 and should I ever cease to be so, many an example 
 shows me that an ill-acquired elevation, by making 
 me the more conspicuous, would only make me the 
 more universally and the more notoriously con- 
 temptible". 
 
 ^ Poor Miss Archer did not long survive her hu- 
 miliation and misfortune. She died of a broken 
 heart, and her parents had not long laid her remains 
 in the grave, when their own mournfully followed. 
 ! Mr. Higgins's companions throughout the period 
 of his detention in Newgate were not of the most 
 select description, nor were the manners prevalent 
 in the place calculated to reform his reckless cha- 
 racter. Wesley having visited the prison, found 
 such impiety prevailing, that he always looked 
 back upon it with loathing. " In 1767", observes 
 Mr. Gilbert, " Newgate was found to be in a very 
 bad condition, the walls being ruinous, and a con- 
 stant communication existing between the 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 25 
 
 .--' ' ' - 
 
 and female prisoners, owing to there being but one 
 pair of stairs in the building".* The gaoler carried 
 on an extensive trade by selling liquors to the in- 
 mates at an exorbitant price ; and prisoners refusing 
 to comply with his demands were abused, violently 
 beaten, stripped naked, and dragged to a small sub- 
 terranean dungeon, with no light save what was ad- 
 mitted through a sewer which ran close by it, carry- 
 ing off all the orduie of the prison, and render- 
 ing the atmosphere almost insupportable. In thia 
 noisome oubliette, perversely cafled " the nunnery", 
 from being the place where abandoned females were 
 usually lodged, twenty persons were frequently 
 crowded together and plundered. Criminals under 
 sentence of transportation were permitted to mix 
 among the debtors. By bribes and collusion be- 
 tween the gaoler apd the constables, legal sentences, 
 in many instances, were not carried out. These 
 practices at length attracted the attention of Parlia- 
 ment. Among other facts which transpired in the 
 resolution of the Irish House of Commons, we find 
 that the gaoler had " unlawfully kept in prison and 
 loaded with irons persons not duly committed by 
 stny ma^strate, till they had complied with the 
 tdost exorbitant demands". 
 
 Even when in durance Mr. Higgins's cunning 
 did not forsake him. Though far from being a 
 Macheath in personal attractions, he contrived to 
 steal the affections of the Lucy Lockit of the 
 prison, and the happy couple were soon after mar- 
 ried.f The gaoler was an influential person ia^ 
 his way, and promoted the worldly interest of his 
 
 * History of Dublin, p. 265-6, v. i. 
 t DubUn Evening Post, No. 1796. 
 
26 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' 
 
 For his " misdemeanours" in the family of Mr. 
 Archer, Higgins was committed to Newgate on 
 January 9th, 1767; but the punishment failed to 
 make much impression on him. In the Freeman^ s 
 Journal for February 28 the paper of which 
 Higgins subsequently became the influential pro- 
 prietor ^we find the following: 
 
 " At the commission of oyer and terminer, Mark 
 Thomas, a revenue officer, and Francis Higgins, the 
 celebrated adventurer, were convicted of an assault 
 
 against Mr. Peck Higgins was fined 
 
 5, to be imprisoned one year, and to give 1,000 
 security for his good behaviour for seven years". 
 
 V- The details embodied in an interesting letter, ad- 
 dressed on July 23, 1789, by "An old gray-headed 
 Attorney", to John Magee, editor of the Dublin 
 Evening Post, who, through its medium, continued 
 with indomitable perseverance to execrate Hig^na 
 when he became an efficient tool of the government, 
 and was absolutely placed on the bench .by them, 
 being chronologically in place here, we subjoin the 
 letter: 
 
 " In one of your late papers mention was made that 
 the Sham had taken off the roll the record of his con- 
 viction in the case of Miss Archer, but if you wish to 
 produce another record of his conviction, you will find 
 one still remaining, in a case wherein the late John 
 Feck was plaintiff, and the Sham and the late Mark 
 Thomas, a revenue officer, were defendants. Sham 
 being lilDerated from Newgate on Miss Archer's affair, 
 sought out the celebrated Mark Thomas, who at that 
 time kept a shop in Capel Street for the purpose of 
 registering numbers in the then English lottery at Id. 
 per number. Thomas found Sham a man fitting for 
 his purpose, and employed him as clerk during the 
 
THE BLOODHODNDS OF '98. ' 27 
 
 drawing, and afterwards as setter and informer in 
 revenue matters. 
 
 " Sham's business was to go to unwary grocers, and 
 sell them bags of tea by way of smuggled goods, and 
 afterwards send Thomas to seize them and to levy the 
 fines by information. One evening, however. Sham 
 and Thomas being inebriated, they went to John 
 Peck's, in Com Market, to search for run tea. Words 
 arose in consequence : Sham made a violent pass at 
 Peck with his tormentor (an instrument carried by 
 revenue officers) and wounded hjm severely in the 
 shoulder. Peck indicted them both : they were tried, 
 found guilty, and ordered a year's imprisonment in 
 Newgate, where they remained during the sentence 
 of the court. ' ^ . 
 
 " The time of confinement having passed over, they 
 were once more suffered 'to prowl on the public. 
 Thomas died shortly after, and Sham enlisted himself 
 under the banners of the late Charles Eeilly, of Smock 
 Alley, who then kept a public -house, with billiard and 
 hazard tables. Reilly considered him an acquisition 
 to prevent riotous persons spoiling the play ; for Sham 
 at that time was not bloated, and was well known to 
 be a perfect master in bruising, having carefully studied 
 that art for two years in Newgate under tae noted 
 Jemmy Stack. v 
 
 " Sham having lived some time at Eeilly^ conf rived 
 by means of his cunning to put Eeilly in the Marshal- 
 sea, and at the same time to possess himself of ReiUy'a 
 wife, his house, and his all. The unfortunate ReiDy 
 from his sufferings became frantic and insane, and hia 
 wife * * ^Q^ miserably. Sham still 
 holds the house in Smock Alley. It is sometimes let 
 
 out for a b 1, at other times his worship occupies it 
 
 as a warehouse for the disposal of hose".* 
 
 For this assault on Peck, we learn that Higgins 
 l.V * Dt^lin Evening Post, "So. 1836. 
 
28 THE SHAM SQUIEK, AND j 
 
 " was publicly led by the common -hangman tlirotiffli 
 the streets of Dublin to the Court of King's Bench ; 
 and while in durance vile had' no other subsistence 
 than bread and water, save what he extorted by his 
 piteous tale, and piteous countenance exhibited 
 through the grated bars of a Newgate air-hole".* 
 
 The next glimpse we get of Mr. Higgins is in the 
 y^r 1775, exercising the craft of a hosier at "the 
 Wholesale and Retail Connemara Sock and Stock- 
 ing Warehouse, Smock Alley",! and as a testimony 
 to his importance, elected president of the Guild of 
 Hosiers. J In 1780 we find his services engaged by 
 Mr. David Gibbal, conductor of the Freeman's 
 Journal^ and one of the proprietary of Pwe's Occur- 
 rencea. 
 
 The Pitblic Register or Freeman's Journal stood 
 high as a newspaper. In 1770 it became the organ 
 of Grattan, Flood, and other opponents of the corrupt 
 Townshend administration; while in Hoey's Mer- 
 cury the viceroy was defended by Jephson, Marley, 
 and Simcox. In literary ability the Freeman of that 
 day has been pronounced, by a competent authority, 
 as " incomparably superior to its Dublin contempo- 
 raries, and nad the merit of being, with the excep- 
 tion of the Censor, the first Irish newspaper which 
 published original and independent political essays", 
 Dr. Jebb, and the subsequently famous Judge Jobn-* 
 son, contributed papers to the Freeman at this 
 period. Until 1782 it was printed at St. Audeon'a 
 Arch; but at the close of tnat year' Gibbal trans- 
 ferred it to Crane Lane. '*'""- ^- -j :"" 
 
 Itt the journals of the Irish House of Comiiions 
 we find an order issued, betong date April 7, 1784, 
 
 ^ Dublin Evening Post, No. 1779. t Rid., No. 1791. 
 Und., No. 1775. GUbert's Dublin, voL i. p. 294. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 
 
 " That leave be given to bring in a bill to secure 
 the liberty of the press, by preventing abuses arising 
 from the publication of seditious, false, and slanderous 
 libels. Ordered That Francis Higgins, One of the 
 conductors of the Freeman^ s Journal^ do attend this 
 House to-morrow morning".* The terms in which 
 Mr. Higgins was reproved are not recorded. 
 
 A short discussion on the subject may be found 
 
 in the Irish Parliamejitary Debates. The Right 
 
 Hon. John Foster impugned the conduct of the 
 
 FTe&navLS Journal, and General Luttrel, afterwards 
 
 f L<ord Carhampton, defended it.t 
 
 On April 8th following, Mr. Foster brought in a 
 bill to secure the liberty of the press, by preventing 
 the publication of slanderous libels. Tne prorisions 
 of tne bill were, that henceforth the name of the 
 proprietor of every newspaper should be registered 
 upon oath at the Stamp Office, and that the printer 
 enter into a recognizance of 500 to answer all civil 
 suits which might be instituted against him for pub- 
 lications. Mr. Foster severely censured "those 
 papers that undertake slander for hire, and calumny 
 for reward"; Sir Hercuks Rowley saw no necessity 
 for the bill ; " he'knew of no traitorous, scandalous, 
 or malicious libels but one, viz., the title of the bill 
 itself, which was an infamous libel on the Irish 
 nation". On April 12th the subject was again de- 
 bated. Mr. Grattan declared that there was one 
 pa^r which daily teemed with exhortations and 
 incitements to assassination; parliament was called 
 upon to interfere, not by imposing any new penalty, 
 nor by compelling printers to have their publi- 
 cations licensed, but merely to oblige them to put 
 
 * Commons' 7oMma/s, vol. xi., pp. 267-268. 
 t ^'^A Par/. Z>e6o<cs, roll iii., p. 147. 
 
30 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND f 
 
 their names to their newspapers. The Attorney 
 General observed that these violent publications had 
 great effect on the popular mind. A conspiracy 
 had recently been discovered for murdering no less 
 than seven members of that House. " The con- 
 ditions were that the assassins should, upon per- 
 formance of the business, receive 100 ; and, in the 
 meantime, they were actually furnished with money, 
 pistols, ammunition, and bayonets. They were 
 urged to use the latter weapon, because it would 
 neither miss fire nor make a noise". The bill, in 
 an amended form, passed both Houses, and received 
 the royal assent on May 14th following. { ;z 
 
 We must now go back a little. While engaged 
 in Mr, Bume's office as an attorney's clerk, in 1766, 
 Higgins had contrived to acquire no inconsiderable 
 knowledge of law ; and as his ambition now pointed 
 to the prbfession of solicitor, for which, having re- 
 nounced " Popery",* he was eligible, a short course 
 of study sufficed to qualify hun. Higgins made 
 several attempts to grasp the privileges and gown of 
 an attorney ; but the antecedents of his life were so 
 damnatory, that opposition was offered by high legal 
 authorities to his efforts. But Higgins was not a man 
 on whom rebuffs made any impression, and we learn 
 that so indomitable was his perseverance in ende^ 
 vouring to obtain admittance as an'attomey of the 
 Court of Exchequer, that Chief Baron Fosterf pro- 
 
 * " Attorneys were sworn not to take a Catholic apprentioe I 
 have heard that there were instances of judges swearing in their 
 own servants as attorneys" MS. Letter. 
 
 Uatil 1793 Boman Catholics were inadmissable as attorneys. 
 
 t Anthony Foster, Chief Baron of the Exchequer ; called to 
 the Bar in 1732 ; died 1778. He was father of the Kight Hon. 
 John Foster, last Speaker of the Idsh House of Commons, and 
 first Lord Oriel. . ;\ , - gr; - . 
 
THE BLOODHOUUPS OF '98. 31 
 
 '-. . . 
 
 nounced it "impudence", and tlireatened a com- 
 mittal to Newgate if again repeated.* 
 
 The importance of naving a friend in court waB, 
 ere long pleasantly exemplified. Jolm Scott, after- 
 wards Earl of Clonmel, had in the days of his ob- 
 scurity known the Sham Squire Mr. Scott, as. we 
 are reminded by Sir Jonah Barrington,t Charles 
 Phillips,! and Walter Cox, was a person of very 
 humble origin, but of some tact and talent. In 
 1765 he became a member of the Irish Bar.| In 
 1769 we find Lord Chancellor Lifford recommending 
 him to the patronage of Lord Townshend, then vice- 
 roy of Ireland. " The Marquis", observes one who 
 knew Scott well, " had expressed his wishes for the 
 assistance of some young gentleman of the bar, on 
 whose talents and fidelity he might rely in the severe 
 parliamentary campaigns". Scott was accordingly re- 
 turned for MuUingar. " The opposition", adds Haidy, 
 " was formidable, being composed of the most leading 
 families in the country, joined to great talents, and 
 led on by Flood, whose oratorical powers were then 
 at their neight. Against this lofty combination did 
 Mr. Scott oppose himself with a promptitude and re- 
 solution almost \mexampled. No menace from with- 
 out, no invective within, no question, however popu- 
 lar, no retort, however applauded, no weight or vehe- 
 mence of eloquence, no delicate satire, for a moment 
 deterred this young, vigorous, and ardent assailant. 
 On he moved, without much incumbrance of argu- . 
 ment certainly, but all the light artillery and total 
 war of jests were peculiarly his own".^ . 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, No. 182& f Personal Sketches, p. 814. 
 J Curran and his Cotemporaries, p. 35, 
 
 ^ Irish Magazine far 1810, p. .^ 
 
 ^Wilson's Dublin Directories. , "^ ^ 
 
 if Hardy's Li/e of Charlemont, v. L, p. 269. 
 
32 THE SHAV SQUIRE, AND 
 
 The eager manner in which, the government 
 adopted and patronised Mr. Scott showed the straita .? 
 to which they had been reduced for some paxlia- 
 mentary fugleman. Mr. Scott's antecedents had 
 been foreign to his new duties. Originally' in the 
 ranks of the people, a zealous disciple of Lucas, the 
 companion of patriots, and even while in college a 
 Btaunch opponent of the government, Mr. Scott was, 
 in principle and practice, more than democratic. 
 When introduced to Lord Townshend by Lord Chan- 
 cellor Lifford, he observed with some humour, not 
 unmixed with regret, " My lord, you have spoiled a 
 good patriot !"* A few months subsequent to his 
 return for Mullingar, we find Mr. Scott created a 
 king's coimsel; in 1772, counsel to the Revenue 
 Board; in 1774, solicitor-general; in 1774, privy 
 councillor and attorney-general. During the ad- 
 ministration of Lord Northington, he became prime 
 sergeant ; and in that of the Duke of Rutland, chief 
 justice of the King's Bench, with a peerage.f 
 
 Politically speaking. Lord Clonmel was a bad 
 Irishman and a worse logician. " When he failed 
 to convince", writes Mr. Phillips, "he generally sucr 
 ceeded in diverting; and if he did not, by the grar 
 vity of his reasoning, dignify the majority to which, 
 when in parliament, he sedulously attached himself^ 
 he, at all events, covered their retreat with an ex- 
 haustless quiver of alternate sarcasm and ridicule. 
 Added to this, he had a perseverance not to be 
 fetigued, and a personal intrepidity altogether in- 
 vincible. When he could not overcome, he swag- 
 3red; and when he could not bully, he fought", 
 the bench, too, he was often very overbearing, 
 
 * Grattan's Memoirs, v. ii., p. 141. 
 
 t Archdall's Lodge's Irish Peerage, v, vii., pp. 242-3. 
 
/- : THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 33 
 
 and for having subjected a barrister named Hackett 
 ' to some discourtesy, which, at a meeting of the bar, 
 was reprobated and resented as a personal offence. 
 Lord Clonmel was obliged to apologize in the public 
 papers. He had many social virtues, however, and 
 Mr. Hardy informs us that in convivial hours his . 
 bonhommie and pleasantry were remarkable. " To 
 his great honour be it recorded", adds the biographer 
 of Charlemont, " he never forgot an obligation ; and 
 as his sagacity and knowledge of mankind must have 
 been ]()reeminent, so his gratitude to persons who 
 had slssisted him in the mediocrity of his fortune 
 was unquestionable, and marked by real generosity 
 a,nd munificence". 
 
 With Francis Higgins, whom he had known in 
 that darkly clouded period which preceded the dawn 
 of his good fortune, Lord Clonmel ever afterwards 
 kept up a friendly intercourse.* It is traditionally 
 asserted that Higgins had been of some use to Mr. 
 Scott, not only in early life, but during his subsequent 
 connection with the Irish government. Higgins hav- 
 ing been peremptorily refused admission to the craft 
 of solicitors by Chief Baron Foster, Mr. Scott, when 
 Attorney-General, kindly undertook to introduce ' 
 him to Lord Annaly,t Chief Justice of the King's 
 Bench, and the request so influentially urged was 
 immediately granted.| 
 
 The name of Francis Higgins, as an attomey-at- 
 law, appears for the first time in the Dublin Dtrec- 
 
 , * Dublin Evening Post file for 1789, passim. 
 t Letter of an " Old Gray-headed Attorney", D. E. Post, No. 
 1791. See also No. 1786. 
 
 J John Gore having served the government with fidelity, as 
 member for Jamestown, was appointed, in 1764, Chief Justice 
 of the King's Bench. Gore was created Baron Annaly in 1766, 
 but, dying without issue in 1783, the title became extinct. 
 ' 
 
8i :, THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 tory for 1781. His then residence is given 
 Lane. From 1784 to 1787 he is, styled Deputy 
 Coroner of Dublin.* We further leam that hig prac- 
 tice as solicitor throughout those years was exclu- 
 sively confined to the court in which Lord Clonmel 
 presided as chief justice. 
 
 Notwithstanding our adventurer's legal avocations 
 and professional business, which, owing to his natu- 
 ral aptitude and pleasant cordiality of manner, were 
 daily increasing, ne contrived, nevertheless, to con- 
 tribute, regularly, political squibs to the Freeman's 
 Journal. His pecuniary means increased, and he 
 sometimes lent money on good security. The pro- 
 prietor of the Freeman^s Journal, then somewhat 
 embarrassed, requested aij accommodation. With 
 some apparent good nature Higgins at once granted 
 the request ; but after a little time he asked his em- 
 ployer to payback the money ; the proprietor seemed 
 surprised, and begged that a longer period of accom- 
 modation might be extended. The Sham Squire 
 declined ; the journalist expostulated ; but Mr. Hig? 
 gins was inexorable, and without more ado levied 
 an execution on the Freetnan^s Journal^ 
 
 Mr. Higgins, having now acquired the sole con- 
 trol, literary and pecuniary, of the paper, became a 
 person of some importance in the public eye, and of 
 boundless consequence in his own. His wealth and 
 influence, swagger and efirontery, increased; but it 
 keenly chagrined him to find that, the more impor- 
 tant he became, the more inveterately he was pur- 
 sued by the nickname of the Sham Squire. 
 
 " Till the Volunteers have, in some degree, sub- 
 sided, your government can only subsist by expe- 
 
 * Wilson's Dublin Directories. 
 
 t Tradition preserved iu the office of the Freeman's Journal. 
 
;, ^ THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 35 
 
 dients, painful as sucli an idea must be to your feel- 
 ings",* writes Mr., afterwards Lord, Grenville, bro- 
 ther to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The Irish 
 Goveminent of these days was eminently weak and 
 venal ; and Mr. Higgins at once prostituted to its 
 purposes the once virtuous journal, of which he had 
 now become the master. 
 
 Lord Temple retired from the government, and 
 was succeeded by the Duke of Rutland. Mr. Con- 
 nolly, and other large landed proprietors, who had 
 formerly supported government, took, in 1786 and 
 following years, a decided part against his Grace's 
 administration. They denounced various bills as un- 
 constitutional jobs, introduced solely for the purpose 
 of ministerial patronage. But the grand attack of the 
 opposition was on thePension List. Mr. Grattan gave 
 great offence to the Treasury Bench, by causing the 
 whole list to be read aloud by the clerk, and ex- 
 claiming : " If I should vote that pensions are not a 
 grievance, I should vote an impudent, an insolent, 
 and a public lie". The Duke of Rutland fell into 
 great unpopularity with the populace, and narrowly 
 escaped personal outrage at the theatre. Meanwhile 
 the discontent which prevailed in the city, extended 
 to the country parts, and found noisy exponents in 
 the " Right Boys" and the " Defenders". 
 
 Yet the Duke possessed qualities and characteris- 
 tics which made him not unpopular with the gentry 
 and middle classes. It was supposed that he had 
 sown his wild oats in England; but, as events 
 proved, he had still some bushels to scatter broad- 
 cast in the green fields of Erin. His mission in 
 Ireland seemed to aim at extending luxury and ex- 
 
 * Court and Cabinets of George ///., by the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham and Chandos. Vol. i. p. 87. 
 
36 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' 
 
 travagance, conviviality and tinbridled pleasure. 
 He had great affability, and was free n-om the 
 haughty deportment which marked his predecessor's 
 intercourse with the Irish people. Moreover, he 
 showered knighthoods around with a lavish hand ; 
 and it is told of him that, having one evening in 
 his cups knighted a jolly innkeeper at Kilbeggan. 
 named Cuffe, of which he repented in the calm re- 
 action of the following day, he sent for the landlord, 
 and told him that as the whole affair was a joke, 
 the sooner it was forgotten the better. " I should 
 be well plazed to obleedge your Ex-cel-lency", he 
 replied, " but I unfortunately mentioned the mat- 
 ter to Leedy Cuffe, and she would part wid her life 
 afore she 'd give it up".* In the Duke of Rutland's 
 energetic attempt to attain popularity, he found in. 
 his beautiful and accomplished wife a zealous ally. 
 She made the Circular Road, now a comparatively 
 deserted highway, the Rotten Row of Dublin.t 
 
 This incident occurred on the property of the Lamberts of 
 Beauparc, in whose family the story is preserved. 
 
 t For several years afterwards this pleasant innovation con- 
 tinued. The late Lord Cloncurry, in his Personal Recollectiont 
 (2nd ed., p. 187), writes : " It was the custom, on Sundays, for 
 all the great folk to rendezvous, in the afternoon, upon the 
 North Circular Koad, just as, in latter times, the fashionables of 
 London did in Hyde Park; and upon that magnificent drive, I 
 have ferquently seen three or four coaches-and-six, and eight or 
 ten coaches-and-four, passing slowly to and fro in a long pro- 
 cession of other carriages, and between a double column of 
 well-mounted horsemen. Of course the popiJace were there, 
 too, and saluted with friendly greetings, always cordially and 
 kindly acknowledged, the lords and gentlemen of the country 
 party, who were neither few in number nor insignificant in sta- 
 tion The evenings of those Sunday mornings were 
 
 commonly passed by the same parties in promenading at the 
 Rotundo. I have frequently seen there, of a Sunday evening, a 
 third of the members of the two houses of parliament". 
 
 Moore mentions in his Memoirs (i. 10), that about the year 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 3T 
 
 If, says a contemporary song 
 
 "If you wish to see her grace, 
 The Circular Road it is the place". 
 
 There this beautifiil woman, with her six spank- 
 ing ponies, sparkling postillions, and gorgeously at- 
 tired out-riders, was daily to be seen smiling and 
 bowing. She was considered the handsomest 
 woman in Ireland with one exception Mrs. Dil- 
 lon, wife of a Roman Catholic woollen draper, re- 
 siding at No. 5 Francis Street. We are informed 
 by Mr. O'Reilly, in his Reminiscences of an End- 
 grant Milesian^ that one day the Liberty was thrown 
 into a state of unwonted excitation by the appear- 
 ance of her grace and out-riders in front of Mrs. Dil- 
 lon's door. She entered the shop, but Mrs. Dillon 
 was not behind the counter. " Shall I call her?" 
 inquired an agitated shopman. " No", said the 
 Duchegs, *' I shall go to her myself', saying which 
 she entered the parlour, and received a graceful 
 bow from the lady 6f the house. " There is no exag- 
 geration in the description", said the Duchess, as she 
 peered into the dove-like eyes of Mrs. Dillon, 
 
 1790 a curious toy called " a quiz" became fashionable with the 
 class of pedestrians to whom Lord Cloncurry alludes. " To such 
 a ridiculous degree", he writes, " did the fancy for this toy per- 
 vade at that time all ranks and ages, that in the public gardens 
 and in the streets, numbers of persons, of both sexes, were play- 
 ing it up and down as they walked along". The subsequent 
 Duke of Wellington, when in Ireland in 1797, was much given 
 to playing with this toy ; and Lord Plunkett said, that while serv- 
 ing on a committee with him he never for a moment ceased the 
 puerile indulgence. The early life of " the Iron Duke", if honestly 
 told, would exhibit him deficient in ballast. Having had some 
 warm words with a Frenchman in Dublin, he wrested from hia 
 hand a cane which was not returned. The Frenchman brought 
 an action for the robbery of the cane, and Wellesley was absolutely 
 tried in the Sessions House, Dublin, for the oflFence. He wa 
 acquitted of thfe robbery, but found guilty of the aasault. 
 
38 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND I 
 
 " you are the handsomest wojuan in the three 
 kingdoms". 
 
 The Duchess had many devoted admirers who 
 loved to flatter her with extravagantly fulsome com- 
 pliments. The late " Counsellor" Walsh in his 
 Ireland Fifty Years Ago^ mentions that Colonel St. 
 Ledger having seen the Duchess wash her mouth 
 and fingers one day after dinner, he snatched up the 
 glass and literally drained the contents. " St. Led- 
 ger", said the Duke, " you are in luck ; her Grace 
 washes her feet to-night, and you shall have another 
 goblet after supper". , 
 
 'The attractions of his wife failed to make this 
 young viceroy as domestic as could be desired. 
 On his way home from the theatre one evening 
 he was induced to visit the residence of Peg 
 Plunket. He forgot that a guard of honour at- 
 tended him, and on glancing from the window 
 next morning, his embarrassment may be conceived 
 at recognizing a troop of mounted dragoons with 
 drawn sabres in front of the house. Curran used to 
 tell that a noisy god at Crow Street theatre archly 
 inquired of Miss Plunket, on the occasion of a 
 command night, " Peg, who was your visitor the 
 other evenmg ?" In a tone of mock rebuke she wit- 
 tily retorted, " MANNERS, fellow". 
 
 A career so dissipated was not likely to last long. 
 Charles Manners, Duke of Rutland, died in the 
 government of Ireland from the effects of a fever 
 induced by intemperance, and the imposing pagean- 
 try which marked the funeral procession was con- 
 sistent with the splendour of his memorable regime. 
 
 He who writes the history of the Rutland vice- 
 royalty should consult the files of the Sham Squire's 
 journal. Higgins was its organ and eulogist; but, 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 
 
 setting aside political considerations, the Duke pos- 
 sessed tendencies which specially recommended him 
 to the cordial appreciation of Francis Higgins. The 
 services of Shamado did not pass unrewarded. Dur- 
 ing the Rutland viceroy alty he received the office of 
 under sheriff for the county of Dublin,* one in 
 those days of considerable emolument. Mr. Hig- 
 gins had a busy time of it. Presiding in court with 
 all the assumption of a judge, he not only tried all 
 the forty-shilling causes, but much larger ques- 
 tions, under the writ of Scire Facias. He executed 
 the writs which had been issued by the superior 
 courts, superintended the gibbeting of criminals, 
 and throughout the popular tumults, which locally 
 raged at this time, he no doubt frequently figured 
 at the head of his posse comitati^s, or sheriff's guard. 
 
 Nefarious practices had long degraded the office 
 of sheriff, but in 1823 they received a decided check 
 by the parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of Mr. 
 Sheriff Thorpe. The partiality with which sheriffs 
 habitually packed juries for particular cases, was 
 then unveiled; and it transpired that they pledged 
 themselves, before their election, to take a decided 
 part in politics against every Catholic. " Catholics", 
 observed Mr. O'Connell, " would rather submit to 
 great wrongs than attempt a trial in Dublin". Com 
 petent witnesses were examined at the same time; 
 and the Edinburgh Review, noticing their evidence, 
 said that, " No one could fail to be equally surprised 
 and disgusted with the abominable course of profli- 
 gacy and corruption which is there exhibited". That 
 the Sham Squire was no better than his predecessors 
 and successors we have reason to believe. 
 
 Mr. Higgins became every day a richer man. 
 * Wilson's J!>wWi Directory for 1787, p. 112. 
 
40 THE SHAM SQUIEE, AND ! 
 
 From the publication of the government proclama- 
 tions alone he deri^^^ed a considerable income. When 
 we know that the sum paid in 1788 to Mr. Higgins 
 for proclamations, was 1,600, according to the 
 parliamentary return, it is not surprising that the 
 popular organs of the day should have complained 
 that " Signor Shamado" received from the govern- 
 ment annually, more than a commissioner of his 
 majesty's revenue.* i 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 \ 
 
 Peculation. The Press subsidised and debauched. Lord Buck- 
 ingham. Judges revel at the board of the Sham Squire. A 
 Pandemonium unveiled. Lord Avonmore. A great struggle- 
 The Regency. Peerages sold. John Magee. Lord Car- 
 hampton Mrs. Lewellyn. Squibs and Lampoons. The Old 
 Four Courts in Dublin. Dr. Houlton. The Duke of Wel- 
 lingtoQ on bribing the Irish Press. - 
 
 THE viceroy's leisure in the last century was heavily 
 taxed by unceasing applications from Lord Clon- 
 mel and his unpopular colleagues, to authorise and 
 sign proclamations on every imaginable infraction 
 of the law. Mr. Griffith, on January 23, 1787, 
 complained in his place in parliament thjit the 
 " newspapers seemed under some very improper in- 
 fluence. In one paper the country was described as 
 one scene of riot and confusion; in another all is 
 peace. By the proclamations that are published in 
 them, and which are kept in for years, in order to 
 make the fortunes of some individuals, the kingdom 
 is scandalised and disgraced through all the nations 
 of the world where our newspapers are read. The 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 4| 
 
 proclamations are a libel on the country. Was any 
 offender ever taken up in consequence of such pub- 
 lications ? And are tney not rather a hint to offen- 
 ders to change their situation and appearance ? He 
 did hope, from what a right hon. gentleman had 
 said last year, that this abuse would have been re- 
 dressed, but ministers have not deigned to give any 
 answer on the subject".* On February 2nd follow- 
 ing, Mr. Corry animadverted to the same effect. 
 Foreigners would mistake the character of our 
 people, and look upon us as a savage nation ; hence 
 the low price of land in Ireland and the difficulty 
 of raising money. He denounced the bills furnished 
 by newspapers as a gross attempt to waste the public 
 money. Hussey Burgh declared that more procla- 
 mations were to be found in the Dublin Gazette^ 
 in the time of profound peace, long before the 
 Right Boys created a disturbance, than in the 
 London Gazette during the rebellion ! Mr. Wolfe 
 observed that government absolutely abetted the 
 Right Boys; they had inserted Captain Right's 
 manifesto in the middle of a government proclama- 
 tion, and so sent it round the kingdom much more 
 effectually than Captain Right ever could have done, 
 and that without any expense to the captain. 
 
 Mr. Forbes " thought It hard that the payment 
 of the Freeman^s Journal should be disputed ; for he 
 was sure that the proprietor was a very generous 
 man. An inn-keeper m the town he represented, 
 regularly received that paper. On his inquiring 
 what he paid for it, and who sent it, the inn-keeper 
 replied that he did not know. A Mr. F. H., some 
 worthy gentleman, God bless him, had sent it to 
 
 * Irish Parl. Register, vol. vii. p. 37-8. . 
 
42 THE SHAM SQUIEE, AND | 
 
 him, and never troubled him for -pajnnent or any- 
 thing else !"* 
 
 Thus it would appear that F. H. considered him- 
 self so overpaid by the peculating government of 
 that day, that he might well afford to push his paper 
 into an enormous gratuitous circulation. 
 
 The Duke of Rutland was succeeded as Lord 
 Lieutenant by the Marquis of Buckingham, who, as 
 Lord Temple, had already held the viceregal reins. 
 Of this chief governor Mr. Grattan observes: " He 
 opposed many good measures, promoted many bad 
 men, increased the expenses of Ireland in a manner 
 wanton and profligate, and vented his wrath upon 
 the country".! Such being the case, it is not sur- 
 prising that Lord Bulkley, in a letter to his Excel- 
 lency, dated Jime 14, 1788, should remark: "I 
 saw your brother. Marquis, who told me that he 
 heard with the greatest concern that your popularity 
 in Ireland was falling apace, and tliat the candles 
 
 " * 
 
 were out".t By way of counterbalance Higgins 
 swung the censer with more than ordinary energy. 
 According to the Post, a cheque from the treasury 
 for 1030 was graciously presented to the Sham 
 Squire at this period, " for puffing the character and 
 politics of Lord Buckingham". 
 
 The daring and dastardly experiment of bribing 
 the press was then of recent introduction in Ireland. 
 A letter from Mr. Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland, 
 addressed to Lord North, and dated " Phoenix Park, 
 August 27, 1781", says: 
 
 , " We have hitherto, by the force of good words, and 
 
 ..).' 
 , * Irish Par/. Register, vol. vii. pp. 83-88-89. 
 
 t Memoirs of Henry Grattan, vol. iii. p. 146 
 
 j Court and Cabinets of Geo. III., vol. i. p. 396, London, 1853. 
 
 Dublin Evening Post, Nos. 18061808. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 43 
 
 with some degree of private expense, preserved an as- 
 cendancy over the press, not hitherto known here, and 
 it is of an importance equal to ten thousand times its 
 cost, but we are without the means of continuing it".* 
 
 But Higgins had too much natural taste for the 
 " art and mystery" of legal lore, as well as for bills 
 of costs, to forego the emoluments of an attomey-at- 
 law for the editorial desk, however lucrative. We 
 find him figuring as solicitor for prisoners in several 
 cases which excited much noise at this time in- 
 stance the " Trial of Robert Keon, gentleman, for 
 the murder of George Nugent Reynolds, Esq."t 
 Retaining the absolute control of the Freeman's Jour- 
 nal^ Higgins, in order that he might be able to de- 
 vote more time to his profession, engaged Doctor 
 
 Correspondence of Bight Honble. J. C. Beresford, i p. 170. 
 Mr. Eden was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1780 until 
 1782; created, 1789, Baron Auckland; died, 1814. Modern 
 statesmen seem to hold conflicting opinions as to the expediency 
 of subsidising newspapers for political ends. The memorable 
 trial of Birch versus Lord Clarendon, in 1 850, revealed that hard 
 cash had been giren to the editor of the World for writing down 
 the Young Ireland Party. Cavour, on the other hand, who was 
 for many years before his death the daily butt of journalistic 
 abuse, disdained the purchase of the press. " One day", writes 
 his secretary, M. Artom, '' somebody tried to show him the ad- 
 vantage of ifounding a semi-official journal, which should have 
 the province of defending the policy of the Government. He 
 replied, * if you want to bring the best and soundest ideas into 
 discredit, put them into officious or official form. If you have a 
 good cause to defend, you will easily find writers who, without 
 being paid, will defend it with more warmth and talent than 
 paid journalists' ". 
 
 t Dublin, 1788. 163 pages. Beported by George J. Browne. 
 "The verdict was not given till after midnight. The hall 
 had previously been cleared by order of the court, but a few, 
 among whom was my father, then a student of Trinity College, 
 concealed themselves under the tables, so that they might learn 
 the result immediately on its being delivered". MS. Letter 
 of Dr. T. 
 
44 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ! 
 
 Houlton as his sub-editor, and- George Joseph 
 Browne, barrister, but originally a player*, and C. 
 Brennan, formerly a fierce democratic writer in the 
 Dublin Evening Post,'\ as contributors. In a short 
 time the Freeman's Journal became an important 
 and influential organ of the Irish Government. The 
 Sham Squire's society is said to have been courted 
 by high authorities in the Law and the State. In 
 the great liberal organ of the day it is alleged that 
 " Judges are the companions of his festive hours" 
 that " Judges revel at his Board, and are his asso- 
 ciates".? But the most startling feature in this epoch 
 of the Sham Squire's life, is the allegation repeatedly 
 made by the Dublin Evening Post, that Higgins, at 
 the very period of which we write, was the proprie- 
 tor of, or secret partner in, a gambling house of the 
 worst possible description in Crane Lane. In prose 
 and verse, this public nuisance received energetic 
 denunciation. 
 
 " Where is the muse that lashed the Roman crimes if 
 
 Where now is Pope with all his poignant rhymes ? 
 
 Where 's Churchill now, to aim the searching dart, 
 
 Or show the foulness of a villain's heart ? 
 
 Where is the muse to tune the piercing lay [ 
 
 And paint the hideous monster to the day ? j . 
 
 Alas! all gone ! let every virtue weep : 
 
 Shamado Uves, and Justice lies asleep. [ 
 
 How shall I wake her will not all the cries 
 
 Of midnight revels, that ascend the skies, 
 
 The sounding dice box, and the shrieking [- ] 
 
 The groans of all the miserable poor : 
 
 Undone and plundfer'd by this outcast man. 
 
 Will not these wake her V" etc., etc. ' 
 
 The satiric bard proceeds to describe Shamado 
 raising the unhallowed fabric in Crane Lane ; 
 
 Dublin Evening Post, No. 1793. 
 
 tW., No.l79i. t /6irf., No. 1756. ' ^ 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 
 
 *' Henceforth, he cried, no watchman shall presume 
 
 To check tlbe pleasures of each festive room ; 
 
 Henceforth, I say, let no policeman dare, 
 
 No sheriff, alderman, or e'en lord mayor. 
 
 No constable, or untaught bailiff rude. 
 
 With hideous visage, on these realms intruie. 
 
 He said, and striking with a golden wand. 
 
 The doors obey the impidse of his hand; ' . 
 
 The portals back upon their hinges flew, 
 
 And many a hazard-table rose to view. . 
 
 On every table did a dice-box stand. 
 
 Waiting impatient for the gamester's hand. 
 
 Full many a couch prepar'd for soft delight. 
 
 And a few lamps gleam'd out a glimmering light".* 
 
 But we have quoted sufficient as a specimen. In 
 a subsequent number of the Dublin Evening Post 
 the editor asks: 
 
 "Will not a day of retribution come for all this ac- 
 cumulation of villainy and enormity at which the blood 
 runs cold? Oh! that we had a Fitzgibbon Judge. 
 Then woidd not longer the Newgate felon, the murderer 
 of wretched parents, the betrayer of virgin innocence, 
 the pestiferous defiler of the marriage couch. Sham his 
 fate, and defy the laws of God and man^.f 
 
 In the Directory for 1788 is recorded Mr. Hig- 
 gins's removal from the obscurity of Ross Lane to 
 72 Stephen's Green, South, one of the fine old Hu- 
 guenot houses, of which Grattan occupied one. 
 From the above date, we find his professional prac- 
 tice extended from the King's Bench to the Common 
 Pleas, besides acting at the Tholsel or Sessions' 
 Court the very edifice in whose dock he stood a 
 fettered malefactor a few years before. Chief Baron 
 Yelverton, afterwards Lord Avonmore, presided in 
 the Exchequer, and discountenanced the impudent 
 
 Dublin Evening Post, No. 17i3. t Ibid., No. 1767. 
 
46 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 pretensions of the Sham Squire to practise in that 
 court. Yelverton, as one of the illustrious patriots 
 of 1782, had not much claims to the favourable con- 
 sideration of the Sham Squire. He was accordingly 
 lampooned by him. On May 3rd, 1789, we read: 
 
 " Counsel rose on behalf of Mr. Higgins, who had 
 been ordered to attend, to answer for certain scanda- 
 lous paragraphs reflecting on that court. 
 
 " Chief Baron Yelverton said, ' If you had not men- 
 tioned that affair, the court would not have condescended 
 to recollect its insignificance, but would have passed it 
 by, as it has done every other paragraph, whether of 
 praise or censure, which has appeared in that paper, 
 ' with the most supreme contempt. Let the fellow return 
 to his master's employment. Let him exalt favourite 
 characters, if there be any mean enough to take pleasure 
 in his adulation : let him continue to spit his venom 
 against everything that is praiseworthy, honourable, or 
 dignified in human nature : but let him not presume to 
 meddle with the courts of justice, lest, forgetting his 
 baseness and insignificance, they should at some time 
 deign to inflict a merited punishment' ".* 
 
 Yelverton's opinion of the Sham Squire's insig- 
 nificance Jfc^as not endorsed by Inspector-General 
 Amyas Griffith, who, in his tracts published this 
 year, afiter returning thanks to the " established 
 Bishops of Dublin,' Cashel, Cloyne, and Kildare," 
 and other personages who had patronized him, ac- 
 knowledges his obligation to Sham Squire, Esq.f 
 
 To render the careet of Francis Higgins more 
 distinct, we may, perhaps, be permitted to make a 
 slight historical digression. 
 
 A most important and embarrassing struggle be- 
 tween England and Ireland took place in 1789, in 
 
 * Dublin Evening "Post, No. 1757. 
 
 ^ Advertisement to Miscellaneous Tracts. ; 1 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 
 
 reference to the regency which George the Third's 
 mental aberration had made necessary. The Prince of 
 Wales at this period professed not unpopular politics, 
 and favoured the Catholic claims. Mr. Pitt, appre- 
 hensive that the regency might prove fatal to his 
 ambition and to his cabinet, powerfully resisted the 
 heir-apparent's right to the prerogative of his father, 
 and declared on 11th Dec., 1788, that " the Prince 
 of Wales had no better right to administer the go- 
 vernment during his father's incapacity than an^ 
 other subject of the realm".* An address to his 
 Royal Highness from the Irish Parliament requested 
 that he would " take upon himself the government 
 of Ireland during the continuation of the king's in- 
 disposition, and no longer, and under the title of 
 Prince Recent of Ireland, in the name, and on 
 behalf of his Majesty, to exercise, according to the 
 laws and constitution of that kingdom, all regal 
 powers, jurisdiction, and prerogatives to the crown 
 and government thereof belonging". Ireland called 
 upon the prince, in virtue of the federative compact, 
 to assume at once the sceptre of authority; but 
 Mr. Pitt's followers furiously struggled against it. 
 Grattan headed the independent party in the Com- 
 mons. Mr. Pelham, afterwards Lord Chichester, 
 after speaking of what he styles " the tricks and in- 
 trigues of Mr. Pitt's faction", says, " I have not time 
 to express how strongly the prince is affected by 
 the confidence and attachment of the Irish Parlia- 
 ment. I have only time to say in his own words, 
 ' Tell Grattan that I am a most determined Irish- 
 man"'. The Duke of Portland, writing to Mr. 
 Grattan on the 21st February, 1789, says: " I beg 
 most sincerely to congratulate you on the decisive 
 
 The Prospect Before Us. 1788, p. i. 
 
48 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 effect of your distrnguished exertions. Your own 
 coimtry is sensible and worthy of the part you have 
 taken m defence and protection of her constitution. 
 The prince thinks himself no less obliged to you ; ^ 
 and whenever this deluded country becomes capable ( 
 of distinguishing her true friends, she will contnbute \ 
 her quota of applause and gratitude".* '' 
 
 " The probability of his Majesty's recovery", 
 writes Sir Jonah Barrington, " had a powerful in- 
 fluence on placemen and official connections. The 
 viceroy took a decisive part against the prince, and 
 made bold and hazardous attempts upon the rights 
 of the Irish Parliament". The recently published 
 Buckingham correspondence! confirms Sir Jonah's 
 statement. Every day a bulletin announcing the 
 monarch's convalescence reached the viceroy. The 
 good news was orally circulated among his sup- 
 porters. Mr. Fitzgibbon was promised the seals 
 and a peerage if he succeeded for Mr. Pitt. Each , 
 member of the Opposition was menaced, that he 
 should be made the " victim of his vote". Lures were 
 held out to the wavering threats hurled at the iiide- 
 pendent. 
 
 This extraordinary threat elicited that spirited 
 
 * Life and Times of Henry Grattan, by his son, Tol. iii., pp. 
 373-4. 
 
 t Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George III., /on 
 Original Family Documents, by the Duke of Buckingliam and 
 Chandos, 1853. 1 he noble editor of these valuable state papers 
 admits that " the Parliament of Ireland preserved the unques- 
 . tionable right of deciding the Regency in their own way. The 
 position of Lord Buckingham", he adds, " had become peculiarly 
 embarrassing. What course should be taken in the event of such 
 an address being carried ? The predicament was BO stnmge, and 
 involved constitutional considerations of such importance, as to 
 give the most serious disquietude to the Administratiou". Vol. 
 ii. p. 101. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 49 
 
 protest familiarly known as " the Round Robin", to 
 which the Duke of Leinster, Lords Charlemont, 
 Shannon, Granard, Ross, Moira, and a host of other 
 influential men, affixed their signatures. The docu- 
 ment dwelt on the recent threat of making indivi- 
 duals " the victim of their vote", and stigmatised it 
 " as a reprobation of their constitutional conduct, 
 and an attack upon public principle and the inde- 
 pendence of Parliament; that any administration 
 taking or persevering in such steps was not entitled to 
 their confidence, and should not receive their support". 
 
 The address to the regent having passed both 
 the Lords and Commons, it was presented to Lord 
 Buckingham for transmission; but the viceroy de- 
 clined to have anything to say to it, and thus par- 
 liament was reduced to the necessity of forwarding 
 the address by the hands of delegates. Previous to 
 their departure the following resolution was carried 
 by 115 to 83: "That his Excellency's answer to 
 both Houses of Parliament, requesting him to trans- 
 mit their address to his Royal Highness, is ill ad- 
 vised, contains an unwarrantable and unconstitu- 
 tional censure on the proceedings of both Houses, 
 and attempts to question the imdoubted rights and 
 privileges of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and 
 of the Commons of Ireland". The viceroy, as a 
 last resource, endeavoured to multiply his partizana 
 by the most venal means. Mr. Fitzgibbon gave it 
 to be understood that half a million of money had 
 been placed in his hands for corrupt purposes ; and 
 as the first law officer of the crown made this dis- 
 gusting avowal, he casually confessed that one ad- 
 dress of thanks to Lord Townshend, a few years 
 before, had cost the nation 500,000 !* 
 
 * The corrupt policy and proceedings of the Townshend ad- 
 ministration received eflFective exposure in ft publication called 
 .-^See Appendix. i 
 
60 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' 
 
 Grattan, who was an eye-witness of all these dla- 
 reputable proceedings, observed at a later period: 
 " The threat was put into its fullest execution; the 
 canvass of the minister was everywhere in the 
 House of Commons, in the lobby, in the street, at 
 the door of the parliamentary undertakers, rapped 
 at and worn by the little caitiffs of government, who 
 offered amnesty to some, honours to others, and cor- 
 ruption to all ; and where the word of the viceroy 
 was doubted, they offered their own. Accordingly, 
 we find a number of parliamentary provisions were 
 created, and divers peerages sold, with such effect, 
 that the same parliament who had voted the chief 
 governor a criminal, did immediately after give that 
 very governor implicit support".* " They began", 
 said Cuiran, " with the sale of the honour of the 
 peerage the open and avowed sale for money of 
 the peerage to any man who was rich and shameless 
 enough to be the purchaser. It depraved the Com- 
 mons, it profaned the sanctity of the Lords, it poi- 
 soned the sources of legislature and the foimtains of 
 justice, it annihilated the very idea of public honour 
 or public integrity!" Curran did not speak thus 
 strongly from any cankering feeling of wounded 
 pride at slights received from the government. 
 Describing the events of 1798, his biographer tells 
 us : " To Mr. Curran it was communicated that his 
 support of the government would be rewarded with 
 a judge's place, and with the eventual prospect of a 
 peerage ; but, fortunately for his fame, he had too 
 much respect for his duties and his character to sa- 
 crifice them to personal advancement"-! v > 
 
 Grattan, Curran, and Ponsonby offered to ,prove, 
 
 * Life and Times of Henry Grattan, v. iii., p. 338. r , 
 t Li/e of Curran^ by his Son, v. i., p, 240. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 51 
 
 on evidence, the startling charges to which we have 
 referred ; but the government, knowing that it had 
 been guilty of an impeachable offence, shrunk from 
 the inquiry. The peerages of Kilmaine, Cloncurry, 
 and Glentworth were, beyond doubt, sold for hard 
 cash in 1789, and the proceeds laid out for the pur- 
 chase of members in the House of Commons. 
 
 Mr. Wright, in his history of Ireland, pronounces 
 Mr. Johnson's to be the ablest speech on the govern- 
 ment side during this struggle. He quotes it m full ; 
 but the effect is spoiled by Mr. Johnson's confession 
 to Thomas Moore in 1831, that he had always sup- 
 ported Grattan's policy until the regency question, 
 when he ratted, and at once became the recipient of 
 state favours. " In fact", added the ex-judge John 
 gon, " we were all jobbers at that time".* 
 
 T'he struggle between the viceroy and the par- 
 liament was a sadly exciting one. J*olitical profli- 
 facy stalked, naked and unblushing, through the 
 enate and the Castle. Vows, resolutions, rules, re- 
 putations, and faith were daily broken. Meanwhile, 
 the royal physicians opined that the king woul^ 
 soon be restored to health. " Your object", says the 
 secretary of state, in a letter to the viceroy on Feb. 
 19th, 1789, " your object will be to use every pos- 
 sible endeavour, by all means in your power, de^ 
 bating every question, dividing vpon every ques- 
 tion, moving adjournment upon adjournment, an<J 
 every other mode that can be suggested, to gain 
 time !"t Sheridan's politically penetrating eye saw 
 through the ruse. " I am perfectly aware", he writes 
 in a private letter to the prince, " of the arts that 
 will be practised, and the advantages which some 
 
 * Diary of Thomas Moore, vi., p. 55. 
 
 t Buckingham Correspondence, v. ii., p. 117. 
 
52 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' 
 
 i 
 
 people will attempt to gain by time".* These expe- 
 dients, coupled with the energetic efforts daily made 
 by a venal press and minister, at last triumphed; 
 and the king was now, to quote the words of Lord 
 Grenville in writing to the viceroy, " actually well !" 
 The struggle was therefore at an end, but not the 
 results of that struggle. The master of the rolls, the 
 treasurer, the clerk of permits, the postmaster-ge- 
 neral, the secretary at war, the comptroller of stamps, 
 and many other public servants of importance, were 
 summarily expelled from office. The Duke of 
 Leinster, one of the most respected officers of the 
 crown, received a supersedeas, together with Lord 
 Shannon. The influential family of Ponsonby, long 
 the iinwavering supporters of government, but who 
 on this occasion joined the legislature in asserting 
 its constitutional independence, were also cashiered. 
 But the promotions and appointments vastly ex- 
 ceeded the dismissals. Of the foimer, which in- 
 cluded a long string of creations in the peerage, 
 there were forty of the latter fifteen only. Em- 
 ployments that had long remained dormant were 
 revived, useless places invented, sinecures createdj 
 salaries increased; while such offices as the board 
 of stamps and accounts, hitherto filled by one, be- 
 came a joint concern. The weighmastership of 
 Cork was divided into three parts, the duties of 
 which were discharged by deputies, while the prin- 
 cipals, who pocketed the gross amount, held seats in 
 parliament. In 1790 one hundred and ten place- 
 men sat in the House of Commons ! On February 
 11th in that year, Mr. Forbes declared that the 
 pensions had been recently increased upwards of 
 100,000. In 1789 an additional perpetuity of 
 * Life of Sheridan by Thomas Moore, chap. xiii. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 53 
 
 2,800 was saddled on the country. The viceroy, 
 however glad of his victory, had not much reason, 
 one would think, to be proud of the means whereby 
 that victory was attained. But an examination of 
 his correspondence shows the utter unscrupulosity of 
 his heart. Writing to Lord Bulkley he observes: 
 " In the space of six weeks, I have secured to the 
 crown a decided and steady majority, created in the 
 teeth of the Duke of Leinster, Lord Shannon, Lord 
 Granard, Ponsonby, Conolly, O'Neill, united to all 
 the republicanism, the faction, and the discontent 
 of the House of Commons ; and having thrown this 
 aristocracy at the feet of the king, I have taught to 
 the British and Irish Government a lesson which 
 ought never to be forgotten ; and I have the pride to 
 recollect, that the whole of it is fairly to be ascribed 
 to the steady decision with which the storm was 
 met, and to the zeal, vigour, and industry of some of 
 the steadiest friends that ever man was blessed with". 
 
 Amongst "the steadiest friends" by whom the 
 viceroy was "blessed", the Sham Squire deserves 
 mention. He worked the engine of the press with 
 unflagging vigour, and by means of a forced circu- 
 lation he succeeded to some extent in inoculating 
 the public mind with the virus of his politics. It 
 was Lord Buckingham's policy to feed the flame of 
 Shamado's pride and ambition; and we are as- 
 sured by John Magee, that so essential to the sta- 
 bility of the Irish government were the services of 
 this once fettered malefactor, that on frequent occa- 
 sions he was admitted to share the hospitalities and 
 confidence of the viceroy's closet. 
 
 The first allusion to Francis Higgins, which the 
 leading or^an of the popular party m the last cen- 
 tury contains, is an article on March 8th, 1789, 
 
54 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 wherein the Sham Squire is spoKen of as " Frank 
 Paragraph, the Stephen's Green Attorney", who on 
 the previous night, having been escorted up the 
 backstairs of the Castle by Major Hobart,* received 
 the Marquis of Buckingham's hospitality and confi- 
 dence. The article concluded by expressing a hope 
 that Frank, whether as an attorney, as proprietor of 
 a prostitute print, or as the companion of a viceroy, 
 should not in the day of his happy exultation forget 
 his original insignificance. 
 
 Mr. John Magee was the then proprietor of the 
 Dublin Evening Post. Sir Jonah Barrington tella 
 us that although eccentric he was a most acute 
 observer, a smart writer, and a ready wit. Politi- 
 cally honest and outspoken, often to indiscretion, 
 he enjoyed the confidence and love of the populaf 
 party in Ireland. By the government he was feared 
 and hated ; and on more occasions than one he was 
 consigned to a dungeon. Magee exercised consi- 
 derable infiuence on the public events of his time, 
 and he may be not inapplicably styled the Irish 
 Cobbett of the eighteenth century. 
 
 Against the Sham Squire Magee had no personal 
 enmity; and previous to 1789 there is no allusion 
 to him direct or indirect in the Post; but Mr. 
 Higgins's importance having in that year swelled to 
 an unprecedented extent, as the accredited organ 
 of the Castle, Magee felt urged by a sense of 
 public duty to declare uncompromising war against 
 the fortunate adventurer. Probably Magee's labours 
 had good effect in checking the further promotion 
 of Higgins. 
 
 Magee first wielded the lash of irony ; but finding 
 
 * Major Hobart, afterwards Lord Buckinghamshire, was the 
 diplomatic chief secretary for Ireland at this period. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 55 
 
 that this failed to tell with sufficient effect, he there- 
 upon applied the loaded bludgeon of denunciation. 
 Several poetic diatribes appeared in the Post at this 
 period ; but they are too voluminous to quote in full. 
 One, in which the Sham Squire is found soliloquis- 
 ing, goes on to say ; 
 
 "You know my power; at my dread command 
 
 B wds, pimps, and bullies, all obedient stand: 
 
 Nay, well you know, at my terrific nod 
 
 The i'Veeman lifts aloft the venal rod: 
 
 Or if you still deny my sovereign awe, 
 
 1 '11 spread the petty-fogging nets of law". 
 
 Higgins's antecedents are glanced at : 
 
 " You know my art can many a form assume. 
 Sometimes I seem a hosier at a loom ; 
 Then at the changing of my magic wand 
 Before your face a wealthy Squire I stand, 
 With a Sham title to seduce the fair, 
 And murder wretched fathers by despair". 
 
 As soon as the struggle respecting the Regency 
 question had ceased, the viceroy is said to have 
 acknowledged Higgins's fidelity- by recommending 
 him to Lord I>ifford* as a fit and proper person 
 to grace the magisterial bench ! 
 
 We resume the Sham Squire's soliloquy: 
 
 " And if Old Nick continues true, no bar shall 
 Prevent me from becoming Four Courts marshal. 
 Behold me still in the pursuit of gain, 
 My golden wand becomes a golden chain. 
 
 Before Lord Lifford accepted the seals, then estimated as 
 worth 12,000 per annum, they had been offered to Judges 
 Smyth, Aston, and Sewell, of the English Bench, and declined. 
 He was the son of William Hewit, a draper in Coventry, and 
 began life as an attorney's clerk. See Iri&h Polit. Characters 
 London, 1799, p. 58; also S/eator's Dublin Chronicle, 1788-9, 
 pp. 240, 550, 1256. Lord Lifford's personalty was 150,000. 
 
56 THE SHAM SQUIftE, AND 
 
 See how I loll itt my judicial chair,. ^ 
 
 The fees of office pded up at my rear ; > 
 
 A smuargl'd turkey or illegal hare. ) 
 
 Those I commit, who have no bribe to give, 
 
 Rogues that have nothing don't deserve to live. 
 
 Then nimbly on the turning of a straw, 
 
 I seem to be a pillar of the law ; | . 
 
 See even nobles at my tables wait. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 But think not that (like idiots in your plays) 
 My friendship any saves but him who pays ; 
 Or that the foolish thought of gratitude 
 Upon my callous conscience can intrude ; | 
 And yet I say, not Buckingham himself 
 Could pardon one, unless I touch the pelf ; 
 There 's not a robber hanged, or pilferer whipt. 
 Till at my word he 's halter'd or he 's stript".* 
 
 By the 5 George the Second (c. 18, s. 2) no 
 attorney can become a justice of the peace while in 
 practice as an attorney ; but in the case of the Sham 
 Squire all difficulties were smoothed. Some of the 
 most influential political personages of the time tra- 
 velled out of the way in order to mark their approval 
 of Mr. Higgins's elevation. The letter to which 
 we have already referred, signed " An Old Gray- 
 headed Attorney", and published on July 23rd, 
 1789, records that Francis Higgins had the honour of 
 being first " introduced as a justice of his Majesty's 
 peace for the county of Dublin, to the bench as- 
 sembled at Kilmainham, by the good, the vir- 
 tuous, the humane Earl Carhampton; that peer 
 who so truly, nobly, and gallantly added to the 
 blushing honour of a before-unsullied fame, by 
 rescuing from a gibbet the chaste Mrs. Lewellyn. 
 Mr. Higgins was also there, and there accom- 
 panied by that enlightened senator, independent 
 
 * Duljliii Evening Post, No. 1742. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 57 
 
 placeman, and sound lawyer/ Sir Frederick Flood, 
 Bart".*] 
 
 Lord^Carliampton, who regarded Higgins with 
 such a fatherly eye of patronage and protection, has 
 received scant courtesy from the historians of his 
 time. Hardy alone excepted. As Colonel Luttrel 
 he first attained notoriety at the Middlesex Elec- 
 tion, where he acted as unconstitutional a part 
 as he afterwards did in Ireland in his military 
 capacity. Mr. Scott on this occasion publicly de- 
 clared that Luttrel " was vile and infamous". 
 Luttrel did not resent the insidt, and his spirit 
 was called in question. " He was a clever bravo", 
 writes Mr. Grattan, "ready to give an insult, 
 and perhaps capable of bearing one".t " There is 
 in this young man's conduct", wrote Junius to Lord 
 North, " a strain of prostitution, which for its sin- 
 gularity I cannot but admire. He has discovered 
 a new line in the human character. He has dis- 
 graced even the name of Luttrel". Unpopular 
 to loathing in England, and hooted from its 
 shores, Luttrel came to try his fortune in Ireland, 
 where, having openly joined the Beresford party 
 in their system of coercion, he daily sank lower 
 and lower in popular estimation. Lord Car- 
 hampton's utter contempt of public reputation was 
 evidenced in every act. Flippant and offensive 
 in his speech, arrogant, haughty, and overbear- 
 ing in lus manner, steadily opposing on a per- 
 
 * Frederick Flood, Esq., K.C., M.P. for Wexford, re- 
 ceived his baronetcy (which is now extinct) on June 3, 1780. 
 He was a commissioner of the Stamp Office. For a notice of 
 Sir F. Flood see A Review of the Principal Characters of the Irish 
 House of Commons hy Falkland (i.e., John Robert Scott, B.D.) 
 Lond. 1795, p. 50 ; also Barrington's Personal Sketches, L 207. 
 
 t Grattan's Memoirs, v. iii., p. 167. 
 
58 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 verse principle, generous sentiments and public 
 opinion. Lord Carhampton soon acquired an un- 
 enviable character and fame. But even had hia 
 lordship the purity of a Grattan or a Fox, he 
 might have vainly attempted to cast off an heredi- 
 tary stigma of unpopularity which had been origin- 
 ally fastened on his family by Luttrel, the betrayer 
 of King James. 
 
 The picketings, free quarters, half-hangings, flog^ 
 gings, and pitch-cappings, which at length fanned 
 the flame of disaffection into open rebellion, were 
 understood to be mainly directed by Lord Car- 
 hampton. In 1797 the Rev. Mr. Berwick, under 
 whose windows men had been flogged, and in some 
 instances left for dead, having humanely procured 
 proper sugical treatment for some of the sufferers, 
 was sent for by Lord Carhampton, who told him 
 " that he had heard he was interfering with what waa 
 going on ; that it was shameful for him ! and that 
 if he persevered he would send him in four days on 
 board the tender !"* Thirteen hundred of the king's 
 subjects had been already transported by Lord Car- 
 hampton without trial or sentence.f 
 
 Under the auspices of this peer, who at last at- 
 tained the dignity of commander-in-chief, the army 
 were permitted to riot in the most demoralising 
 Kcense. Cottages were burnt, peasants shot, their 
 wives and daughters violated.l General Sir Ralph 
 Abercrombie viewed the state of the army with dis- 
 gust, and declared that they had become " formidable 
 to all but the enemy". As a commander, Lord 
 
 Grattan's Memoirs,, \, iv. p. 334. ' 
 
 . t Plowden's History of Ireland, v. i\. p. 372. 
 
 j Speech of Lord Moira, Nov. 22, 1797. See also Speeches 
 of Lord Dunsany, Sir L. Parsons, and Mr. Vandeleur. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 59 
 
 Carhamptofi was rtithless and capricious. The Lord 
 Lieutenant on several occasions interfered, but Lord 
 Carhampton as often refused to obey the viceroy".* 
 In the letter of" A Gray-headed Attorney", Irom 
 which we have taken an extract. Lord Carharapton's 
 name is mentioned m conjunction with that of a 
 
 moman named Lewellyn, who seventy years ago en- 
 \. -, . /. \. . ' T\ I;T A 
 
 ;)oyed an iniamous notonety in Dublin. A young 
 
 girl named Mary Neal, having been decoyed into a 
 house by Mrs. Lewellyn, met with some ill usage 
 for which Lord Carhampton got the credit. Against 
 Mrs. Lewellyn, as mistress of this house, the father 
 of the girl lodged informations. But in order to 
 avert the prosecution, a friend of Mrs. Lewellynj 
 named Edge worth, trumped up a counter-charge to 
 the effect that Neal, his wife, and daughter, had 
 robbed a girl, and thus got warrants against them* 
 *' She had interest enough with the gaoler", writes 
 Hamilton Rowan, " to procure a constable who, in 
 the middle of the night, took the Neals to Newgate 
 ^and locked them up in separate cells". Mrs. Neal it 
 Seems was enceinte , and in the morning, on opening 
 the cell, she, and an infant of whom she had been 
 delivered, were found dead.f Neal was tried fot 
 the alleged robbery, but the case fell to the ground. 
 Meanwhile, Mary Neal remained dangerously ill at 
 a public hospital, where, adds Mr. Rowan, " she was 
 protected from the exami^nations and interrogations 
 of some persons of high rank, which did them no 
 credit, in order to intimidate her, and make her 
 acknowledge that she was one of those depraved 
 young creatures who infest the streets, and thus to 
 defend Lewellyn on her trial", Mrs. Lewellyn was 
 
 * Barrington's Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, p. 261. 
 t Autobiography of A. Hamilton Rowan, p. 95. 
 
60 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND '' 
 
 tried for complicity in the violation, and received sen- 
 tence of death. Edgeworth was convicted of subor- 
 nation of perjury, and ordered to stand three times 
 in the pillory, and to be imprisoned for one year. 
 Both culprits were shortly after pardoned and libe- 
 rated by the viceroy ! Several pamphlets appeared 
 on the subject. Hamilton Rowan wrote " An In- 
 vestigation of the Sufferings of John, Anne, and 
 Mary Neal" ; another writer published " The Cries 
 of Blood and Injured Innocence, or the Protection 
 of Vice and Persecution of Virtue", etc., addressed 
 " to his Excellencythe Marquis of B ^". Dr. Boy- 
 ton also entered the lists and was called out by Lord 
 Carhampton. Rowan espoused the cause of Mary 
 Neal with almost Quixotic fervour. He challenged 
 to mortal combat every man who dared to asperse 
 her fame. He accompanied her to the Castle, 
 and presented a petition to the Lord Lieutenant, 
 praying that as Lewellyn's *' claim to mercy was 
 founded on the principle of Mary Neal being soiled 
 with guilt which her soul abhorred, such a commu- 
 nication of the evidence might be made as she may 
 defend herself against". The viceroy, however, de- 
 clined to grant the prayer ; and the statue of Justice 
 over the Castle gate was thereupon supposed to say : 
 
 *' Since Justice is now but a pageant of state. 
 Remove me, I pray you, from this Castle gate. 
 Since the rape of an infant, and blackest of crimes. 
 Are objects of mercy in these blessed times, 
 On the front of new prison, or hell let me dwell in. 
 For a pardon is granted to Madame Lewellyn". 
 
 John Magee declared that the Sham Squire's in- 
 fluence in high quarters had been exerted to the 
 uttermost in effecting the liberation of Mrs. Lewellyn 
 and her obliging friend Edgeworth. The Post of 
 the day, in a parody on thefRev. Dr. Burrowes' 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 61 
 
 slang song, " The Night afore Larry was stretched", 
 tells us that 
 
 " Oh ! de night afore Edgwort was tried, 
 De council dey met in despair, 
 
 George Jos he was there, and beside. 
 Was a doctor, a lord, and a play'r.* 
 
 Justice Sham den silence proclaim'd, 
 De bullies dey all of them harken'd : 
 
 Poor Edgwort, siz he, will be framed, 
 His daylights perhaps will be darkened. 
 
 Unless we can lend him a haiid".t 
 
 Several stanzas to the same effect are given. At 
 length some further squibs intervening a valen- 
 tine from Maria Lewellyn to the Sham Squire ap- 
 peared. 
 
 " With gratitude to you, my friend. 
 Who saved me from a shameful end, 
 
 My heart does overflow; 
 . T was you my liberty restor'd, 
 
 'T was you that influenced my lord. 
 To you my life I owe4 
 
 A facetious report received circulation that Mrs. 
 Lewellyn was about to be allied in marriage to Mr. 
 Higgins; whereupon Magee's poet exclaimed in 
 pompous mock heroic : 
 
 " Irradiate Phoebus, ruling god of light. 
 Let not thy coursers chase away this night 
 Thy beams eflFulgent and resplendent hide. 
 Nor interrupt Francisco and his bride. 
 This night, escap'd from gaol and gaol's alarms. 
 The chaste Lewellyn fills his circling arms !" 
 
 Mrs. Lewellyn was not the only frail member of 
 her family. Her sister, who kept a house of in- 
 
 * Counsellor George Joseph Browne and Dr. Houlton, assist- 
 ant editors of the Freeman^s Journal; Lord Carliampton, and 
 Bichard Daly, lessee of Crow Street theatre. ' ' 
 
 t Dublin Evening Post, No. 1757. 
 
 J Jitrf., No. 1762. /6iW., No. 1768. - 
 
THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 famous notoriety,* fell from one crime to another, 
 until at last, in 1765, it was deemed necessary to 
 make a public example of her, and tlie wretched 
 woman was burned alive in Stephen's Green ! 
 
 But, perhaps, the wittiest poetic satire on the Sham 
 Squire which appeared in the Post^ is an ingenious 
 parody, extending to fourteen stanzas, on a then 
 popular slang song. Pandemonium, Belzebub, and 
 a select circle of infernal satellites, developing a 
 series of diabolical plans, are described. In the ninth 
 verse Shamado is introduced : 
 
 ** From Erebus' depths rose each elf, who glow'd with infernal 
 
 desire, 
 But their prince judged it fit that himself should alone bold 
 
 confab with the Squire". 
 
 The eleventh stanza is pithy: I 
 
 " 'T is well, said Shamado, great Sire ! your law has been always 
 my pleasure ; 
 
 I conceive what your ^ghness desires 't is my duty to second 
 the measure. 
 
 The deeper I plunge for your sake, the higher I raise my con- 
 dition ; 
 
 Then who would his fealty break to a prince who thus feeds 
 his ambition. 
 
 And gratifies every desire? 
 
 Through life I *ve acknowledged thy aid, and as constantly tasted 
 thy bounty. 
 
 From the Newgate solicitor's trade till a sub-sheriff plac'd in 
 the county. 
 
 Shall I halt in the midst of my sins, or sink fainting and tremb- 
 ling before 'em. 
 
 When my honour thick-spreading begins when, in fine I am 
 one of the quorum. 
 
 And may in the senate be placed ?"t 
 
 * Female immorality seems to have been regularly punished 
 in the last century. In the Fretman's Journal of Dec 6, 1766, 
 we read : " Alice Rice was pilloried at the Tholsel, pursuant to 
 her sentence, for keeping a house of ill fame in Essex Street", 
 
 t Dublin Evening Post, No. 174i. ' i 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 63 
 
 In May, 1789, Justice Higglns gave a grand 
 entertainment to his patrons and supporters in 
 Stephen's Green. All Dublin spoke of it ; the papers 
 of the day record it. [Magee ridiculed the Sham 
 Squire's pretensions. He called upon Fitzgibbon, 
 the new chancellor, to reform the magistracy, and 
 for a statement advanced in the following passage 
 Magee was prosecuted by Higgins ; but of this anon. 
 " Can it be denied nay, is it not known to every 
 individual in this city that the proprietor of a flagi- 
 tious gambling house the groom-porter of a table 
 which is nightly crowded with all that is vile, base, 
 or blasphemous in a great capital, that the owner 
 and protector of this house is a justice of peace for 
 the coimty Dublin?"* 
 
 Mr. Higgins had no longer any necessity to bribe 
 the judge's coachman to drive him through the 
 Streets in the judicial carriage. The Sham Squire 
 had now a gorgeous chariot of his own. In the 
 Post of June 4:th, 1789, we find a description of it, 
 i^. a dark chocolate ground, enlivened by a neat 
 border of pale patent yellow ; the arms emblazoned 
 in a capacious mantle on each pannel. In front, be- 
 hind, and under the coachman's footboard, the crest 
 is handsomely engraved on every buckle of the 
 silver plated hamess.f In this shining equipage, 
 with as puffed a demeanour as Lord Clonmel or 
 Sergeant Toler, Mr. Higgins constantly drove to 
 the courts. We read, " Mr. Higgins appeared in 
 his ^lace yesterday at the courts. He was set down 
 in ms own carriage, immediately after that of the 
 attomey-generar'.l And in a subsequent number, 
 it is reproachfully remarked that Higgins sits on the 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, No. 1 759. f Rid., No. 1770. 
 
 .,N 0.1767. 
 
64 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 same bench with Sergeant Toler, alrayed in chains 
 of gold, and dispensing justice.* The ostentatious 
 manner of the Sham, and above all, his impudent 
 swagger, excited a general feeling of disgust. Hfe 
 openly " boasted his influence at the seat of power, 
 and bragged that the police magistrates! lived on 
 terms of the closest intmiacy with him".t 
 
 On Sunday, June 16th, 1789, the celebrated 
 pulpit orator, Walter Blalte Kirwan, afterwards 
 Dean of Killala, and originally a Roman Catholic 
 priest, preached an eloquent sermon on morality in 
 Saint Andrew's Church, and, according to the Post 
 of the day, took occasion, in the course of his 
 homily, to lash the proprietors of the flagitious 
 gambling house in Crane Lane. Higgins denied 
 that he was the proprietor of it ; but the Post per- 
 sisted in declaring that if not the avowed owner, he 
 was the secret participator in its proflts. This vile 
 pandemonium was said to yield 400 a-year to Mr. 
 Higgins. II In vain were the authorities implored, 
 year after year, to suppress it. At length the fol- 
 lowing curious " card", as a last resource, was pub- 
 lished: 
 
 "The Freemen and Freeholders of the Parish of 
 Saint Andrew's take liberty to demand from Aldermaa 
 Warren, their representative in Parliament, and pre- 
 sident at the Police Board, why some measures are not 
 taken by him, to immediately and eflFectually suppress 
 that nursery of vice that receptacle for vagrants that 
 hell of Dublin the gambling house in Crane Lane. 
 The alderman has been so repeatedly applied to on the 
 subject, that it is high time that Freeholders who know 
 and respect themselves, should not longer be trifleol 
 
 * DuUin Evening Post, No. 1779. f Ibid., No. 1783. 
 J Ibid., No. 1760. Ibid., No 1 777. || Ibid,, No. 1782. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 
 
 with. Reports are now current, and circulated with a 
 confidence that render inattention somewhat more than 
 censurable. A magistrate and a city representatire 
 ought to be above suspicion. The Freeholders are 
 aware that infamous house is not in their district, yet 
 they know how their representative ought to act whether 
 as a man or a magistrate. His future conduct shall 
 alone determine their votes and influence".* 
 
 Weeks rolled over, and still nothing was done. 
 At length a correspondent, who signed himself 
 " An Attorney", threw out the following astute 
 inuendo: "Alderman Nat, and Level Low, are 
 in gratitude bound not to disturb the gambling- 
 house in Crane Lane, as the Sham is very indulgent 
 to them by not calling in two judgments which he 
 has on their lands".t 
 
 The sumptuousness of Mr. Francis Higgins' 
 entertainments continued to be the town talk. 
 Judges, as we are assured by Magee, revelled at his 
 board.f The police magistrates basked in the sun- 
 shine of Ms smile ; but it is at least gratifying to 
 learn that there were some liigh legal functionaries 
 who indignantly scouted the Sham Squire's preten- 
 sions. Magee observes, " To the honour of Lord 
 Fitzgibbon (Clare), be it recorded that he never 
 dined with Higgins on his public days, or suffered 
 his worship to appear at any table which his presence 
 dignified".]! 
 
 Higgins, meanwhile, surrounded by a swarm of 
 toadies and. expectants for place, with a loose gown 
 wrapped like a toga around him, would sometimes 
 swagger through the hall of the old Four Courts. 
 He IS traditionally described as having been one of 
 
 Dublin Evening Post, No. 1756. f Ibid., No. 1789. 
 J Ibid., No. 1756. Ibid., No. 1776. || Ibid., No. 1798. 
 
 5 
 
66' THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 the ugliest men in existence, and the following con- 
 temporary portrait, though somewhat exaggerated, 
 serves to confirm that account : 
 
 Through the long hall an universal hum 
 Proclaims, at length, the mighty man is come. 
 Clothed in a morning gown of many a hue, 
 "With one sleeve raggeid and the other new. 
 While filthy eructations daub his chin 
 With the remaining dregs of last night's gin; 
 With bloated cheek and little swinish eye. 
 And every feature formed to hide a lie. 
 While every nasty vice, enthroned within. 
 Breaks out in blotches o'er his freckled skin". 
 
 The bard, after describing Enmity, Treachery, 
 Duplicity, and other disreputable qualities, adds : 
 
 " And artful, cunning, simpering the while, 
 ' Conceals them all in one unmeaning smile. 
 
 **** 
 
 He comes, and round him the admiring throng 
 Catch at the honey dropping from his tongue; 
 Now promises^xcuses round him fly ; 
 Now hopes are born and hopes as quickly die ; 
 
 Now he from b ds his daily rent receives, 
 
 And sells indemnity to rogues and thieves".* 
 
 The hall of the Four Courts, through which 
 Francis Higgins was wont to stalk, is not the stately 
 vestibule now known by that name in Dublin. The 
 old Four Courts stood adjacent to Christ Church; 
 its hall, crowned by an octangular cupola, was long 
 and narrow, and entered by a door leading from the 
 lane known as " Hell". T'he chancellor, on enter- 
 ing, was always preceded by his mace-bearer and 
 tipstaffs, who were accustomed to call out " High 
 Court of Chancery", upon which the judges rose, 
 and remained standing until the chancellor had 
 taken his seat.t 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, No. 1746. 
 t Gilbert's DMin, v. i. pp. 136 7. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell had some reminiscences of the 
 old Four Courts and prison. The gaoler, it will be 
 remembered, was the Sham Squire's father-in-law. 
 
 "As we drove along Skinner's Row, O'Connell 
 pointed out the ruins of the old Four Courts, and 
 showed me where the old gaol had stood. ' Father 
 Lube', said he, * informed me of a curious escape of a 
 robber from that gaol. The rogue was rich, and gave 
 the gaoler 120 to let him out. The gaoler then pre- 
 pared for the prisoner's escape in the following man- 
 ner : he announced that the fellow had a spotted fever, 
 and the rogue shammed sick so successfully that no one 
 suspected any cheat. Meanwhile, the gaoler procured 
 a fresh corpse, and smuggled it into the prisoner's bed ; 
 while the pseudo-invalid was let out one fine dark 
 night. The corpse, which passed for that of the rob- 
 ber, was decently interred, and the, trick remained un- 
 discovered till revealed by the gaoler's daughter, long 
 after his death. Father Lube told me', added O'Con- 
 nell, ' that the face of the corpse was dappled with 
 paint, to imitate the discolourment of a spotted fever' ".* 
 
 To reduce the overcharged importance of the 
 Sham Squire, Magee published, in June, 1787, an 
 outline of his escapade in the family of Mr. Archer. 
 On June 30, a note appeared from the " reverend 
 gentlemen of Rosemary Lane", stating they had no 
 official or other knowledge of an imposture alleged 
 to have been committed twenty-three years pre- 
 viously on the late Mr. Archer by Mr. Higgins, and 
 adding, that during Mr. Higgins's residence in Smock 
 Alley, his conduct had been always marked with 
 propriety and benevolence. " This sprig of Rose- 
 mary", observed the Post^ " may serve to revive the 
 
 * Personal Recolkctiotis of O'CcnneW, bj W. J. O'Neil Diiunt, 
 T. i. p. 110. 
 
68 THE SHAM SQUIBE, AlffD 
 
 fainting innocence of the immaculate convert of 
 Saint Francis". But in the following number a 
 different aspect is given to the matter, thus : " We 
 have it from authority that the advertisement from 
 the reverend gentlemen of Rosemary Lane chapel is 
 a sham; for confirmation of which we refer the in- 
 quirer to any of the reverend gentlemen of said 
 chapel".* How far this may be in accordance with 
 the truth it is not easy to determine. 
 
 Mr. Higgins was not without some redeeming 
 qualities. He regularly attended divine service in 
 the Protestant church of Saint Andrew, and he 
 occasionally dispensed sums in charity. But for all 
 this he received little thanks and less credit. In a 
 trenchant poem levelled at Higgins, numbering some 
 fifty lines, and alleged to be from the pen of Hussey 
 
 Tl r1 *" 
 
 liurgh, we nnd: ! 
 
 " The cunning culprit Tujderstands the times, 
 Stakes private bounty against public crimes, 
 And conscious of the means he took to rise, 
 He buys a credit with the spoils of Tice".t 
 
 The Sham Squire's duties were onerous and 
 various. He not only presided, as we are told, with 
 the subsequent Lord Norbury, at Kilmainhatn,$ 
 but often occupied the bench of the Lord Mayor's 
 court, and there investigated and confirmed the 
 claims of persons to the rights and privileges of 
 freemen. 
 
 Mr. Higgins had, ere long, nearly the entire of 
 the newspaper press of Dublin in his influence;! to 
 quote Magee's words, they were all " bowing down 
 
 * 
 
 Dublin Evening Post, No. 1782. f /6f., No. 1794. 
 
 J /6trf., No. 1779. /6irf., No. 1789. 
 
 ., No. 1796. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 69 
 
 to Baal",* or as Magee's poet described tlie circum- 
 stance: 
 
 " Now, hireling scribes, exert the venal pen, 
 And in concerto shield this best of men". 
 
 And again : 
 
 "Nay e'en Shamado is himself on fire, 
 
 And humdrum Houlton tunes his wooden lyre ; 
 
 But virtue their resentment cannot dread, 
 
 And truth, tho' trampled on, will raise her head".t 
 
 Dr. Houlton, the Sham Squire's sub-editor, whose 
 name frequently appears in the local squibs of the 
 day, is noticed in Boaden's Life of Mrs, Jordan^ 
 as "a weak man with an Edinburgh degree in 
 physic, who wrote for a morning paper, and contri- 
 buted a prologue so absurd that it has been banished 
 from the play"4 From Raymond's Life of Dermody 
 we leam that Houlton humanely befriended the un- 
 fortunate poet. The doctor lost nothing by his con- 
 nexion with Higgins. The same work informs us 
 that he received " a medical appointment under the 
 Irish Government", and that his house in Dublin 
 was as showy as his style, having been put through 
 a process of decoration by Daly's head scene 
 painter. H The Literary Calendar of Living 
 Authors^ published in 1816, mentions that Hoidton 
 was a native of England, " practised in Ireland with 
 some success", brought out some musical pieces on 
 the Dublin stage, wrote poems for newspapers, and 
 songs for Vauxhall; and through the patronage of 
 Hook brought out at Drury Lane Theatre, in 1800, 
 his opera called Wilmore Castle^ which having 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, No. 1796. t ^i^, No. 1743. 
 t Boaden's Life of Mrs, Jordan, p. 62, v. ii. 
 ^ Raymond's Life of Dermody, v.i.f. 26^ et seq. 
 
70 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 been damned, lie retorted in a pamphlet entitled A 
 Review of the Musical Drama of the Theatre Royal^ 
 Drury Lane^ tending to develop a system of private 
 influence injurious to the public. 8vo. 1801". 
 
 Houlton as a poetaster was useful on the Sham 
 Squire's journal, which freely employed satirical 
 poetry in assailing reputations. 
 
 In 1789 the bill furnished by Higgins to the 
 Treasury amounted to 2,000; but the viceroy, we 
 are told, cut it down to 1,000.* I 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, No. 1761. This payment may have 
 been on accoimt or proclamations inserted as advertisements ; 
 but the Duke of Wellington's correspondence, when Irish 
 Secretary, makes no disguise that aU money paid on such 
 grounds was for purposes of corruption. This arrangement 
 was partially relinquished from the death of Pitt ; but in 
 1809, on the restoration of the old Tory regime, we find 
 a Dublin journalist petitioning for a renewal. Sir A. Wel- 
 lesley, addressing Sir Charles Saxton, the under secretary, 
 alluded to " the measures which I had in contemplation in 
 respect to newspapers in Ireland. It is quite impossible to leave 
 them entirely to themselves ; and we have probably carried our 
 reforms in respect to publishing proclamations as far as they will 
 go, excepting only that we might strike off from the list of those 
 permitted to publish proclamations in the newspapers, both in 
 town and country, which have the least extensive circulation, 
 and which depend, I believe, entirely upon the money received 
 on accoTint of proclamations I am one of those, however, who 
 think that it loill be very dangerous to allow the press in Ireland to 
 take care oj itself ^ particularly as it has so long been in leading 
 strings. I would, therefore, recommend that in proportion as 
 you will diminish the profits of the better kind of newspapers, 
 '. . . . on account of proclamations, you shall increase the 
 man they are allowed to charge on account of advertisements and 
 other publications. It is absolutely necessary, however, to keep 
 the charge vnthin the sum of ten thousand pounds per annum, voted 
 by parliament, which probably may easily be done when some 
 newspapers will cease to publish proclamations, and the whole 
 will receive a reduced sum on that account, even though an in- 
 crease should be made on account of advertisements to the accounts 
 of some. It will also be very nesessary that the account of this 
 money should be of a description always to be produced before par^ 
 Xiamen/. Ever yours, etc., ABTHUB WELLEBLEY".: 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 7L 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Lord Clonmel and the Fiats, Richard Daly. Persecution 
 of Magee. A Strong Bar. Caldbeck. Duigenan, and Egan. 
 
 ^The Volunteers to the rescue. Hamilton Rowan. Aa 
 artist arrested for caricaturing the Sham Squire. More 
 dquibs. ^The Gambling Hell. Inefficiency of the Police. 
 Magisterial delinquencies exposed. Watchmen and Watches. 
 Mr. Gonne's Chronometer. Juggling Judges. Outrages 
 in the face of day Ladies unable to walk the streets* 
 Stidan chairs. Unholy compacts. 
 
 MAGEE continued in his efforts to take down tlie 
 Sham Squire's pride and swagger. Squib after squib 
 exploded: 
 
 " There lives a Squire near Stephen's Green, 
 
 Crockledum he, crockledum ho. 
 And in Newgate once was seen. 
 
 Bolted down quite low. 
 And though he now is a Just- Ass,* 
 There was a day when he heard mass. 
 Being converted by a lass. 
 
 There to cross and go. 
 On stocking-making he can jaw, 
 
 Clockety heel, tippety toe; 
 Now an attorney is at law. 
 
 Six and eightpence, ho If ' 
 
 These squibs Mr. Higgins regarded as so many 
 "infernal machines", and he resolved to show his 
 own power, and to be revenged at the . same time. 
 Lord Chief Justice Clonmel was known to entertain 
 a strong prejudice against the press, especially such 
 newspapers as adversely criticizedthe administration. 
 In the authorised report of the parliamentary de- 
 bate^s on April 8, 1784, his views on the subject are 
 forcibly but curtly conveyed, viz. : " The Prime 
 Sergeant expressed his thorough detestation of news- 
 
 * Until 1793, Catholics were excluded from the magisterial 
 bench. 
 ^ Dublin Evening Poit, "So. 1796. 
 
72 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 papers and public assassins of character'^* We have 
 already seen that Lord Clonmel, long after his eleva- 
 tion to the bench and peerage, maintained friendly 
 relations with Higgins, m memory of auld lang syne. 
 His lordship's house, observes a correspondent, stood 
 on the west side of Harcourt Street, near the comer 
 of Montague Street. He possessed also very exten- 
 sive pleasure grounds on the east side of Harcourt 
 Street, stretching behind the entire south side of 
 Stephen's Green. A subterraneous passage underf 
 Harcourt Street opened communication with those 
 grounds, which joined the garden at the rere of 
 Francis Higgins's mansion in Stephen's Green ; and 
 there is a tradition to the ejQfect, that some of the 
 chieFs inquisitive neighbours often used to see him 
 making his way through the pleasure grounds for 
 the purpose of conferring with the Sham Squire. J 
 
 Higgins is said to have directed Lord Clonmel's 
 attention to Magee's lampoons, in many of which the 
 chief himself figured subordinately. His lordship 
 expressed indignation at liberties so unwarrantable, 
 and seems to have encouraged the Sham Squire to 
 follow up a plan of legal retribution, which the 
 active brain of Higgins had been for some time 
 concocting. 
 
 In the various onslaughts which Magee made 
 upon the Sham Squire, some passing prods were 
 bestowed on Richard Daly, the lessee of Crow Street 
 theatre, on Charles Brennan, a writer for the 
 FreemaTHs Journal^ as well as on a certain member 
 of the female sex, with all of whom Higgins was 
 believed to be on terms of close intimacy. In June, 
 
 * 7mA Par/. Z>eJa<fts, vol. iii., p. 155. I 
 
 t MS. Letter of Dr. T , 20th August, 1859. 
 
 j Tradition communicated by M S , Esq. - 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 73 
 
 1789, four fiats, marked with the exorbitant sum 
 of 7,800, were issued against Magee by Lord 
 Clonmel in the King's Bench, at the suit of Francis 
 Higgins and the three other persons to whom we 
 alluded. The Evening Post of June 30, 1789, an- 
 nounces that " Magee lies on the couch of sickness 
 in the midst of a dungeon's gloom", and publishes a 
 long appeal from Magee to Lord Clonmel, which 
 closes with the following paragraph : 
 
 " I again demand at your hands, John Scott, Baron 
 Earlsfort,* a trial by peers, by my fellows, free and in- 
 dependent Irishmen. Thou hast dragged a citizen by 
 thy officers thrice through the streets of this capital as 
 a felon. Thou hast confined before trial, and hast 
 deprived a free subject of his franchise, that franchise 
 for which his fathers bled on the walls, of Derry, the 
 banks of the Boyne, and the plains of Aughrim. 
 
 " John Scott, Baron Earlsfort, I again demand from 
 thee,'thou delegate of my Sovereign Lord the King, a 
 trial by jury". 
 
 On July 3rd, 1789, the trial of John Magee, at 
 the suit of Francis Higgins, was heard before Chief 
 Justice Clonmel. The Sham Squire, notwithstand- 
 ing his reliance on the partialityof the judge and jury, 
 found it advisable to retain a powerful bar, which 
 included the Prime Sergeant, Mr. Caldbeck, K.C. ;t 
 
 * Mr. Scott was created Baron Earlsfort in 1784, a Viscount . 
 in 1789, and Earl of Clonmel in 1T89. 
 
 t Caldbeck seems to have been as small as Tom Moore, and a 
 great wit. His great grandson, Mr. Wm. Francis Caldbeck, ha 
 given us the following traditional anecdote of him : " But you 
 little vagabond", said the opposite counsel one day, " if you don't 
 be cautious 1 '11 put you in my pocket". " Then I can tell you, 
 my fine fellow", retorted Caldbeck, " whenever you do, you '11 
 have more law in your pocket than ever you had in your head". 
 
74 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 John Toler, afterwards Lord Norbury;* Sergeant 
 Duquerry,t Recorder Burston,| Dr. Pat Duigenan, 
 John, nicknamed " Bully" Egan, || George J. Browne, 
 (Higgins's collaborator), with Messrs. Ponsonby, 
 Curran, Johnston, and Hon. S. Butler. That the 
 last three persons should have accepted briefs in the 
 
 * For a notice of Lord Norbury see Appendix. 
 
 t Sergeant Duquerry, a forensic orator of great power, " died 
 at the top first", like Swift, Flunket, Magee, Scott, Moore, and 
 many a stately oak. For several years before his death, Du- 
 querry groped in utter idiotcy. 
 
 t Beresford Burston will be remembered as the early friend 
 of Moore. See Memoirs of Moore, v. 1. p. 79. 
 
 Dr. Patrick Duigenan, originally a Catholic of low degree, 
 having " conformed" and continued year after year to oppose the 
 Catholic claims, with a virulence -and violence now almost in- 
 credible, was appointed by the Archbishops of Armagh and 
 Dublin, to preside as their judge in the Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 He was twice married, and each time to a Catholic. He died in 
 1816. 
 
 II John Egan's proficiency in vulgar wit and rough invective 
 ia traditionally notorious. If a somewhat unregulated indulgence 
 in this tendency obtained for him many enemies in early life, he 
 had the satisfaction of finally making all Ireland his debtor, by 
 his truly independent conduct at the period of the Union. 
 Trampling down the metaphorical sophistries of the government 
 spokesman, " he galloped", writes Sir Jonah Barrington, " like a 
 dray-horse, over all his opponents, plunging and kicking, and 
 overthrowing all before him". Tempting proposals were made 
 to him if he would support the Union. He was offered to be 
 made Baron of the Exchequer, with je3,500 a-year; but Egan, 
 although fax from being rich, spurned the venal ofier, and died 
 soon after in comparative want. 
 
 We are tempted to append two not uncharacteristic anecdotes 
 of John Egan, which are now published for the first time. Egan 
 resided at Eilmacud House, and was fond of bathing at the 
 Blackrock. One morning, having violently flung his enormous 
 carcase into the water, he came in collision with some other 
 person who was' performing a similar lavement. '* Sir", screamed 
 a mouth out of the water, " I presume you are not aware against 
 whom you have so rudely jostled". " I didn't care if you were 
 Old Nic^', replied Egan, floundering about like a great sea 
 monster. " You are a bear, sir", continued the mouth, " and I 
 am the Archbishop of Dublin". " Well", retorted Egan, not in 
 the least abashed, " in order to prevent the recurrence of such 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 75 
 
 case, seems singular, considering their democratic 
 bias. Curran's name is the history of his life ; Mr. 
 Johnston's is nearly forgotten ; but we may remind the 
 reader that although a judge, he libelled the Hard- 
 wicke administration, was tried for the offence, 
 retired from the bench, and shortly before his death 
 published a treasonable pamphlet. The Hon. Simon 
 Butler became in 1792 a leading member of the 
 Society of United Irishmen, was fined 500, and con- 
 demned to a protracted imprisonment in Newgate. 
 No good report of the trial, Higgins v. Magee, is 
 accessible. We endeavoured to give the Sham Squire 
 the benefit of his own report, but the file of the 
 Freeman for 1789 does not exist in Dublin, so far 
 as we know, not even in the office of that journal. 
 A very impartial report may be found in the Cork 
 Evening Post of the day, from which we gather that 
 Higgins proved the infamous gambling house in 
 Crane Lane to belong to a Miss J. Darley. This 
 evidence, however, did not alter Magee's opinion, 
 and he continued to insist that the Sham Sq^uire was 
 a secret participator in its spoils. 
 
 Poor Magee had not much chance against a bar 
 so powerful and a judge so hostile. Strictly speak- 
 ing, he had no counsel retained; but we nnd that 
 "for the traverser there appeared as amici cwn'cp, 
 Mr. Lysaght, and Mr. A. Browne of Trinity College". 
 The latter gentleman, member for the University of 
 Dublin, and subsequently Prime Sergeant of Ireland, 
 
 accidents, I would simply recommend you to get your mitre 
 painted on your back". 
 
 Egan drank hard ; and some clients, anxious to secure his pro.- 
 fessional services, made a stipulation with him, that no wine was 
 to be drank previous to the defence. Egan agreed, but casuisti- 
 6ally evaded the engagement, by eating large quantities of bread 
 soaked in wine. 
 
76 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 made a very able statement on the law of fiats. As 
 a lawyer, Browne was far superior to Lord Clonmel, 
 whose indecently rapid promotion by the govern- 
 ment was owing solely to his parliamentary services. 
 In the following session of parliament Mr. Browne, 
 in conjunction with Mr., afterwards Chancellor, Pon- 
 sonby, brought forward a masterly exposure of the 
 most unconstitutional conduct adopted by Lord 
 Clonmel at the instance of Francis Higgins. This 
 exposure with its salutary results shall be noticed 
 at the fitting period ; but meanwhile we will intro- 
 duce here a few of the salient points in Mr. Browne's 
 able statement on the law of fiats. 
 
 He expressed his amazement that a nation so as- 
 tute in guarding through her statute book every 
 avenue to oppression, should have passed unnoticed 
 and left unguarded this broad road to tyranny. He 
 was amazed how it could suffer a plaintiff" to require 
 bail to the amount of perhaps 20,000, where very 
 probably the damages afterwards found by a jury, if 
 any, might not be twenty pence. Having shown that 
 fiats, in Lord Clonmel's acceptation of the term, were 
 utterly unknown to the common law, he added, " I 
 am not sure whether, if Francis Higgins abused his 
 adversary's council for two years together, they 
 would be able to swear to two-penny worth of 
 damages; and therefore, when any man swears so 
 positively, either he is particularly vulnerable, and 
 more liable to damage than other men, or he is a 
 bold swearer, and the judge ought not to listen to 
 him". Mr. Browne cited Blackstone, Baines, Gil- 
 bert, and a vast array of high legal authorities, to 
 show the unconstitutional act of Lord Clonmel, in 
 issuing fiats against Magee to the amount of 7,800. 
 It appears that even in the case of assault and bat- 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 77 
 
 tery, moderate fiats had been refused by the bench. 
 Having, with great erudition discharged an impor- 
 tant argument to show that special bail in this and 
 similar actions was not requirable, Mr. Browne pro- 
 ceeded to prove that, even allowing it to be requirable, 
 the present amount could not be justified by reason 
 or precedent. The bail could only with propriety 
 amount to such a sum as would be sufficient to en- 
 sure an appearance. To imagine that Mr. Magee 
 would abscond and abandon his only means of earn- 
 ing a livelihood, was simply ridiculous. 
 
 Mr. Browne censured the manner in which Lord 
 Clonmel prejudiced the case " telling the jury be- 
 fore the trial began what the damages were, which 
 in the opinion of the judge they ought to give", 
 and Mr. Browne adduced high legal authorities in 
 proof of the error committed by Lord ClonmeL ; 
 
 He then contrasted some of the few cases on re- 
 cord in which fiats were issued, with the cause then 
 under discussion. Sir William Drake, a member of 
 parliament, was charged with being a traitor. The 
 words against him were of the most scandalous 
 nature. His life and property were at stake: he 
 brought his action, and on application special bail 
 from defendant was refused. Another case was that 
 of Duke Schomberg, a peer high in favour of his 
 king and country. He was accused by a miscreant 
 named Murray with having cheated the sovereign 
 and the army. Can any words be conceived more 
 shocking when applied to such a man ? Chief Jus- 
 tice Holt, as great a friend to the Revolution and to 
 the liberties of the country as ever sat on a judicial 
 bench, felt the same indignation, but he could not 
 prejudice the cause. He was ready to punish the 
 man if convicted, but he did not consider him con- 
 
78 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 victed beforehand. He ordered Murray to find 
 bail two sureties in 25 each, and the man in 
 100! In the last generation fifty pounds for a 
 duke in the present, 7,800 for an adventurer and 
 a player !* 
 
 At the close of the prosecution against Magee at 
 the suit of Francis Higgins, it was made the subject 
 of bitter complaint by the prisoner that he had been 
 refused the privilege of challenging his jurors, and 
 the benefit of the Habeas Corpus Act.'\ 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice having summed up and 
 "charged, the jury retired, but returned in half an 
 hour to ask the bench whether they might not find 
 the traverser guilty of printing and publishing, with- 
 out holding him responsible for the libel. His lord- 
 ship replied that the jury had nothing to do with 
 the law in this case, and that it was only the fact of' 
 publishing they had to consider. The jury then 
 desired a copy of the record, but the request was 
 refused. Having retired a second time, the jury at 
 length brought in their verdict, " Guilty of printing 
 and publishing". Lord Earlsfort declined to accept 
 the verdict. 
 
 One of the jurors replied that the difficulty they 
 found in giving a different verdict was, that they 
 could not reconcile it to their consciences to find a 
 man guilty under a criminal charge, who had not 
 been permitted to confront his accusers or his jurors, 
 or to listen to the accusations against him, that he 
 might be prepared for his defence. Therefore,, as 
 the jury had only seen the accusations on one side, 
 without the defence of the accused, they could not 
 
 * Browne's arguments in the King's Bench on the subject of 
 
 admitting John Magee to common baiL Dublin, Gilbert, 1790. 
 
 ^ Dublin Evening Post,'&Q. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 79 
 
 feel themselves warranted in pronouncing a man 
 gmlty under a charge of criminal intentions. 
 
 Lord Earlsfort replied that the very reason why 
 they ought not to hesitate, was the one they used in! 
 support of their scruples, namely, " the traversers 
 making no defence to the charge against him". He 
 desired that the jury might again retire. A 
 juror said that they had already given the matter 
 full consideration, but the Chief Justice interrupted 
 him, and the jury were ordered to return to their 
 room. 
 
 Counsellor Browne, M.P. for the College, ad- 
 dressed a few words to the bench, but was stopped 
 short by his lordship, who declared that he had 
 abeady given the matter full consideration, and had 
 made up his mind. The jury having again delibe- 
 rated, returned with a verdict of guilty.* 
 
 This prosecution did not muzzle Magee. In the 
 very number of his journal which contains a report 
 of the trial reference is made to " the marquis, 
 who, with that condescending goodness that agitates 
 his heart when he can be of any use to Mr. F. 
 Higgins, his familiar friend, and he who in former 
 days contributed not less to the festivity of his board, 
 than generously catered for his pleasure", etc. And 
 in Magee^a Evening Packet^ Shamado is again re- 
 minded of the awkward fact " that he has been at a 
 public trial convicted of crimes which the cordial 
 squeeze of his friend Jack Ketch alone can ex- 
 
 The trial of Daly versus Magee soon followed. 
 Dr. Pat Duigenan, "Bully Egan", with Messrs. 
 Duquerry, Smith, Burston, Butler, Brown, Fleming, 
 
 Dublin Evening Post, No. 1784. 
 
 ^ Magee's Evening Packet, No. 621, . . .- 
 
80 THE SHAM SQUIBE, AND 
 
 Ball, Curran, and Green were retained for the pro- 
 secution. 
 
 Mr. Kennedy, treasurer to the Theatre Royal, 
 Crow Street, was examined as a witness for Mr. 
 Daly. We extract a few passages : 
 
 " Were you ever witness to any riots in the theatre ? 
 Very often. The people used to cry out from the gal- 
 lery ' a clap for Magee, the man of Ireland a groan 
 for the Sham ! a groan for the Dasher, [Daly] out with 
 the lights, out with the lights !" I have frequently, at 
 the risk of my life, attempted to stop those riots". 
 
 It further appeared that men used sometimes to 
 come into the galleries with bludgeons and pistols. 
 Mr Dawson, a person whom Mr. Daly was in the 
 habit of sending to London, with a view to the en- 
 gagement of actors, was next examined. It tran- 
 spired that Daly, in consequence of his unpopularity, 
 found a difficulty in obtaining performers. 
 
 " Is Mr. Higgins proprietor of any paper ? A. I do 
 not know. Q. Is he proprietor of the FreemarCs Journal f 
 A. I have heard so. Q. Have you read the Freeman's 
 Journal? A. Sometimes. Q. Has there not been the 
 same constant series of recriminations between Mr. 
 Higgins and Mr. Magee? A. I have seen dashes on 
 each side. Q. Is there not a very particular intimacy 
 between Mr. Daly and Mr. Higgins ? A. Have I a 
 right, my lord, to answer that question ? 
 
 " Court No, I must object to that question. I think 
 it wrong to endeavoiir to involve this case in any party 
 or prejudice, etc. 
 
 " Counsel for the defendant ^Do you believe yourself 
 that there was any particular intimacy between Mr. 
 Daly and Mr. Higgins ? Sir, I know of no particular in- 
 timacy any more than between you and the many gen- 
 tlemen who are round you. ' 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98 SI- 
 
 < "Court ^You have answered very properly and 
 clearly. 
 
 " Q. There is a friendship between them ? A. The 
 same sort of friendship which subsists between man and 
 
 man".* 
 
 There certainly was no stint of hard words be- 
 tween the rival editors. Magee insinuated that 
 Ryder, the former lessee, had been tricked out or 
 the patent by a manoeuvre of the Sham Squire's, 
 and that Higgins and Daly conjointly held the 
 license.f But of any deliberate act oi dishonesty, 
 Daly was, we believe, incapable, although lax 
 enough in other respects. 
 
 George Ponsonby conducted tlie defence. He 
 ridiculed Daly's claims to damages ; and added that 
 for the torrent of abuse which had been thrown out 
 against Magee in the Freeman no redress was eought. 
 Mr. Higgins had ridiculed Astley with impunity in 
 the freeman's Journal; and for pursuing the same 
 course towards Daly, eight thousand pounds da- 
 mages were claimed against Magee. 
 
 Damages were laid at 8,000 ; but the jury con- 
 sidered that 200, with 6d. costs, was ample com- 
 pensation for the wounded feelings of Mr. Daly. 
 
 The Evening Post steadily declared that the up- 
 roaj in the galleries of the theatre was due rather to 
 Higgins and Daly, than to Magee. In Jul^, 1789, 
 we are told that two men named Valentine and 
 Thomas Higgins, wool-scribblers, were " very active 
 in several public-houses in aad about the Liberty, 
 endeavourmg to persuade working people to accept 
 tickets for the theatre, with express directions to 
 
 * Trial of John Magee for libel on . Dahf. Dublin, 1790, 
 pp. 30, 31. 
 
 ^ Dublin Evening Post, fio, l7Si. > 
 
 , . ."'' , 6 
 
^. 
 
 THE SHAM SQUIBE, AND 
 
 raise plaudits for Daly and Higgins, and to groan 
 Magee".* 
 
 A few evenings after, an immense troop of " Li- 
 berty Boys" in the Higgins' interest proceeded to 
 Crow Street Theatre, marshalled by a limb of the 
 law named Lindsay .f 
 
 " The general order is, knock down every man who 
 groans for the Sham Squire or the Dasher ; and you 
 have the guards at your back to take every man into 
 custody who resists you. On Tuesday night this party, 
 highly whiskeyfied, forced their Avay to the front row of 
 the gallery, struck and insulted several of the audience 
 there, and wounded the delicacy of the rest of the house 
 by riotous vociferation and obscenity. Last night se- 
 veral people were knocked down by them ; and some of 
 the very persons who were seduced from the Liberty to 
 the theatre, on their refusal to join in the purpose, were 
 charged to the custody of constables for disrespectful 
 language to the said Lindsay, and others were pursued 
 as far as Anglesea Street, for the same cause". J 
 
 On Magee's trial, the prosecuting counsel pro- 
 duced the manuscript of an attack upon the Sham 
 Squire in Magee's handwriting. Magee, who was 
 at first somewhat surprised at the unexpected pro- 
 duction of his autograph, soon discovered by what 
 means these papers got out of his hands. Brennan, 
 whohadbeen a writer for the Posiuntil 1788, when he 
 joined the Freeman^ conveyed to the Sham Squire 
 several of Magee's private papers, to which, when 
 retained in the ofl&ce of the Post at a salary of 100 
 a year, he had easy access. || Brennan certainly 
 
 * Dtiblin Evening Post,'So. 1787 1788, ' 
 
 t Ibid., No. 1785. ^ Ibid., No. 1788. 75tc?., No. 1794. 
 II Brennan figures in the book of Secret Service Money Expen*^ 
 eKture as a recipient, though not to a large extent. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 
 
 swore to Magee's handwriting on the trial. On the 
 evening that the Post advanced the above statement, 
 "Brennan came to Magee's house concealed in a 
 sedan chair, and armed with a large oak bludgeon, 
 and after rapping at the door and being answered 
 by a maid servant, he inquired for Mr. Magee with 
 the design of assassinating him, had he been in the 
 way ; but being told he was not at home, Brennan 
 rushed into the shop, and with the bludgeon, broke 
 open and utterly demolished several locked glass cases, 
 together with the sashwork and glass of these in- 
 terioi glazed doors, as well as the windows facing 
 the street. Brennan, in making his escape, was ob- 
 served by a man named M'Namara, who attempted 
 to seize him ; but Brennan knocked him down by 
 three blows of the bludgeon, and then kicked him 
 unmercifully".* 
 
 Brennan was committed to Newgate by Alder- 
 man Carleton ; but next day was set at liberty on 
 the bail of two of Daly's ofl&cials.f This rather in-, 
 temperate gentleman,' however, had not been an 
 hour at large when he proceeded to Magee's house 
 in College Green, armed with a sword, but happily 
 did not succeed in finding the object of his search.} 
 
 A word about the " Liberty boys" who, as Magee 
 records, came forward as the paid partizans of Hig- 
 gins, opens another suggestive glimpse of the state 
 of society in Dublin at the period of which we 
 write. Between these men and the butchers of 
 Ormond Market, both noted for turbulent prowess, 
 a feud long subsisted. On this stronghold the 
 Liberty boys frequently made descents; a formid- 
 able battle raged, often for days, during which time 
 the bridges across the Liffey from Essex Bridge 
 Dublin Evening Post, No. 1796. t Ibid.^'So. 1726.J Ibid., 1792. 
 
 .i.-'-SA' 
 
84 .THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 to " Bloody Bridge" were taken and retaken. Up- 
 wards of a thousand men were usually engaged; 
 business was paralyzed; traffic suspended; every 
 shop closed ; the executive looked on inert ; Lord 
 Mayor Emerson was appealed to, but with a nervous 
 shrug declined to interfere. The butchers, armed 
 with huge knives and cleavers, did awful havoc ; the 
 quays were strewed with the maimed and mangled. 
 But the professional slaughterers were not always 
 victorious. On one of the many occasions when 
 these battles raged, the butchers, who displayed a 
 banner inscribed " Guild of the B. V. Mary", were 
 repulsed by the Liberty boys near Francis Street, 
 and driven down Michael's Hill with loss. The Li- 
 berty boys drank to the dregs their bloody cup of 
 victory. Exasperated by uie *^ houghing" with 
 which the butchers had disabled folr me many of 
 their opponents, the " Liberty boys" rushed into the 
 }?talls and slaughter-houses, captured the butchers, 
 hooked them up by the clnn in lieu of their meat, 
 and then left the unfortunate men wriggling " alone 
 in their glory." The Liberty boys were mostly 
 weavers, the representatives of French artizans who, 
 after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, emigrated to 
 Ireland. The late Mr. Brophy, state dentist in 
 Dublin, to whom the students of local history are in- 
 debted for many curious traditional data, told us that 
 in the life-time of his mother a French patois was 
 spoken in the Liberty quite as much as English.* 
 
 * Dublin, in these days, possessed a Hngraenot church and 
 burial ground. A curious inaiiuscript memoir, in the autograph 
 of one of the Huguenot ministers, may be seen in a closet at- 
 tached to Marsh's Library, Dublin. Among the influential 
 French who emigrated to Ireland on the revocation of the Edict 
 of Nantes, may be mentioned Le Poer Trenche (ancestor of 
 Lord Clancarty), the LaTouches, Sauiins, Vignolles, LaBartes, 
 DuBedats, Montmorencys, Perrins, etc. 
 
THE . BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 85 
 
 The author of Ireland Sixty Years Ago furnishes 
 stirring details of the encounters to which we refer ; 
 but he failed to suggest, as we have ventured to do, 
 the origin of the feud. 
 
 " No army, however mighty", said the first Napo- 
 leon, addressing St. Cyr, " could resist the songs of 
 Paris". The Ormond boys, impelled bj a similar 
 policy, followed up their knife stabs with not less 
 pointed lines. In one song the following elegant 
 distich occurred: ;;.-> :> 
 
 And we won't leave a weaver alive on the Coombe, 
 But we'll rip up his tripe bag and burn his loom. ^ 
 
 Bi rigidi di do dee. 
 
 One of the last battles between the "Liberty" and 
 Ormond boys took place on May 11, 1790. 
 
 Meanwhile it became every day more apparent 
 that the Sham Squire was a dangerous man to touch. 
 On July 23rd we learn that Mr. James Wright, of 
 Mary's Abbey, was arrested for pubhshing a carica- 
 ture likeness of Justice Higgins.* A copy of this 
 picture, representing the Sham Squire standing 
 under a gallows, is now in the possession of Dr. 
 
 W of Dublin. Underneath is written " Bel- 
 
 phe^or, or the Devil turned Esquire", with the fol- 
 lowmg citation from Psalms : " Yet do I remember 
 the time past : I muse upon my works, yea, I exer- 
 cise myself in the works of wickedness". Nailed 
 to the gibbet is an open copy of the "Infernal 
 Journal", containing articles headed " A Panegyric 
 on the Marquis of Misery" " Prize Swearing" 
 " Dr. Dove" " A Defence ^of Informers", (a pro- 
 phetic hit) " Sangrado" " Theatre Royal: Ways 
 and Means ; to conclude with the Marker's Ghost" 
 "New Books: Houltoniana, or mode of Rearing 
 
 '. * Dublin Evening Post, TSo. 1792. . . '. 
 
86 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 ) 
 
 I . , 
 
 Carrier Pigeons"* " Bludgeoneer's Pocket Com- 
 panion"--" Marquis de la Fiat". 
 
 The appearance of Higgins, as presented in tliis 
 print, is blotched, bloated, and repulsive, not unsug- 
 gestive of the portraits of Jemmy O'Brien. A 
 cable knotted into a pendent bow, appears beneath 
 his chin. Surmounting the picture, as it also did 
 the bench where Higgins sometimes administered 
 the justice he had outraged, is " Fiat justitia". 
 
 With a sort of barbed harpoon Magee goaded 
 "the Sham" and his friends. In addition to the 
 Post, he attacked him in Magee's Weekly Packet. 
 The number for Saturday, October 17, 1789, con- 
 tains another caricature likeness of the Sham Squire, 
 in a woodcut, entitled " The Sham in Lavender". 
 He is made to say " I 'm no Sham I 'm a Pro- 
 testant Justice I '11 Newgate the Dog". At his 
 feet his colleague, Brennan, is recognized in the 
 shape of a cur dog. Behind him stands Mrs. Le- 
 wellyn in the short petticoats, high-heeled shoes, 
 large hat, and voluminous ringlets of the day. 
 Under his feet is a letter, addressed " Mrs. Lewel- 
 lyn. Cell, Newgate Free Carhampton" ; while the 
 viceroy. Lord Buckingham, complacently presid- 
 ing, is made to address Higgins as " Frank". 
 
 Verses, painfuly personal, accompanied the pic- 
 ture, of which the following will suffice as a sample : 
 
 " He that put you in lavender must wish you well. 
 
 You 've got by nature, Sham, a fatal smell ; 
 
 A dread effluvia, which some comic bard 
 
 To the burning of bones on the strand once compared*^. . , 
 
 Conceived in a more legitimate vein of sarcasm 
 was another piece : 
 
 . .1 : - :.-i:^'ll-'' 
 
 In these days a good deal of lottery etock jobbing took 
 place through the agency of carrier pigeons^ 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 87 
 
 *' In a poem, I think, called ' The Author', you '11 find 
 Two lines, my dear Sham, which occurr'd to my mind, 
 When the Packet I saw, and your worship saw there. 
 And your worship so like to yourself did appear ; 
 They were written by Churchill, and tho' they displease. 
 You must own they are apt, and the lines. Sham, are these: 
 ' Grown old in villainy, and dead to grace. 
 Hell in his heart, and Tyburu in his face' ".* 
 
 At a meeting of the Dublin Volunteers on July 
 lOth, 1789, it was resolved: " That, as citizens and 
 men, armed in defence of our liberties and proper- 
 ties, we cannot remain unconcerned spectators of any 
 breach of that constitution which is the glory of the 
 empire. That the violation of the fundamental 
 laws of these kingdoms occasioned the melancholy 
 catastrophe of 1648 ; that the violation of these laws 
 brought on the glorious Revolution of 1688 ; that 
 we look upon the trial by jury, with all the privileges 
 annexed to it, to be a most essential part of those 
 laws ; that we highly approve of the firm conduct of 
 our worthy fellow-citizen, on a late transaction, in 
 support of those gifts". 
 
 Archibald Hamilton Rowan, then a highly in- 
 fluential personage, addressed a public letter to 
 Magee, saving : " It is with regret I have beheld 
 you depnved of the inalienable rights of every 
 British subject on your late trial. I have no doubt 
 but that such arbitrary conduct as marked the judge 
 who presided on that day, will be severely punished, 
 and that you, sir, will not be so wanting to your 
 fellow-subjects, as not to bring it before the proper 
 tribimal. This being the cause of every man, it 
 ought to be supported from the common purse, and 
 not be. an injury to your private circumstances. If 
 any subscription for that purpose should be accepted 
 
 Magee's Evening Packet, Oct. 17, 1789. ; 
 
88 THE SHAM SQUIBE, AND : 
 
 , i , 
 
 by you, I request you will set down my name for 
 twenty-five guineas". 
 
 It is a notable instance of Magee's independence 
 of character, that he declined to accept one farthing 
 of the public subscription which had just been in- 
 augurated, with such promise of success, in his 
 honour. This spirited determination was the more 
 remarkable as his pecuniary losses, in consequence 
 of the oppressive treatment to which he was sub- 
 jected, proved most severe, as we shall presently 
 see. 
 
 In Mr. Sheridan's arguments, before the judges of 
 the King's Bench, to admit John Magee to common 
 bail for lampooning the Sham Squire's colleague, it 
 is stated : 
 
 " Magee _has made an affidavit in which he swears 
 that a writ issued in last Trinity Term to the sheriffs, 
 marked for 4,000, under authority of a fiat granted by 
 the Lord Chief Justice, and founded on an affidavit ; 
 that upon such writ he was arrested in June last ; that 
 in consequence of a number of vexatious suits and prose- 
 cutions against hinl, and from the reiterated abuse he 
 has received in the Freffman^a Journal^ he is extremely 
 injured in his credit, insomuch that though he has used 
 every effort in his power, he cannot now procure one 
 bail in this cause for the amount of the sum marked at 
 the foot of said writ, or of any larger amount than 500, 
 and saith he verily believes that the plaintiff had not 
 suffered damage in this cause to any amount whatever".* 
 
 * This scarce pamphlet was printed and published in London 
 a circumstance illustrative of the wide sensation whicli 
 Lord Clonmel's arbitrary conduct excited> Mr. Sheridan having 
 brought forward a host of high law authorities to show the ille-^ 
 gality of holding to special bail a man charged with defamation, 
 l)roceeded to exhibit the ludicrous weakness of the affidavit upon 
 which Lord Clonmtl issued a tiat for 4,000. Daly's claims 
 against Magee for damages were based upon a mock heroic poem 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 89 
 
 These denunciations would doubtless have been 
 stronger were it possible for the patriot mind of 
 John Magee to have taken a prophetic view of the 
 events of '98, and witnessed, hke Asmbdeus, certain 
 dark doings which the vulgar eye failed to penetrate. 
 
 The subterranean passage and the winding path 
 through Lord Clonmel's pleasure ground facilitated 
 the intercourse between him and Shamado, which, 
 as we gather from tradition and contemporary state- 
 ment, was briskly kept up. Higgins's journal was 
 the organ of Lord Clonmers party, and in a letter 
 addressed to the latter, published in Magee^s Even- 
 ing Packet,* we axe told.: 
 
 " It is inade no secret, my lord, that these ingiBnious 
 sophistications and learned commentaries which ap> 
 peared in the Higgins journal, in that decent business^ 
 had the honour of your lordship's inspection and correc- 
 tion in MS., before they were committed to the press**. 
 
 The visits of the influential and proverbially con- 
 vivial chief must have been hailed with no ordinary 
 pleasure and welcome. Sir Jonah Barrington, who 
 uved next door to him in Harcourt Street, writes, 
 " His skill was unrivalled, and his success prover- 
 bial. He was full of anecdotes, though not the most 
 refined ; these in private society he not only told, but 
 acted; and when he perceived that he had made a 
 very good exhibition he immediately withdrew, that 
 he might leave the most lively impression of his 
 
 in which Daly was supposed to figure under the title of Roscius, 
 and Higgins under that of Francisco. Daly having recited this 
 absurd poem in his affidavit, added that he had children " among 
 whom are four growing up daughters, who in their future pros- 
 pects may receive considerable injury"; and Daly wound up by 
 swearing that he had suffered damages to the amount of JE,4000 
 
 by the injuries which his family, or himself might hereafter 
 
 suffer! " . , 
 
 ."- -;.: * No. 621. . - :- - - . -''-; 
 
90 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' 
 
 pleasantry behind him. His boldness was his first 
 introduction his policy his ultimate preferment. 
 Courageous, vulgar, humorous, artificial, he knew 
 the world well, and he profited by that knowledge. 
 He cultivated the powerful ; he bullied the timid ; 
 he fought the brave ; he flattered the vain ; he duped 
 the credulous ; and he amused the convivial. He 
 frequently, in his prosperity, acknowledged favours 
 he had received when he was obscure, and occasion- 
 ally requited them. Half liked, half reprobated, 
 he was too high to be despised, and too low to be 
 respected. His language was coarse, and his prin- 
 ciples arbitrary ; but his passions were his slaves, and 
 his cunning was his instrument. In public and in 
 private he was the same character; and, though a 
 most fortunate man and a successful courtier, he had 
 scarcely a sincere friend or a disinterested a^erent". 
 " Arcades ambo brothers both", was applicable 
 in more than one sense to the Chief Justice and the 
 Sham Squire. "I sat beside Higgins at a lord 
 mayor's banquet in 1796", observed the late John 
 Patten ; " sixty years after I well remember how 
 strongly his qualities as a bon raconteur impressed 
 
 me". 
 
 Mr. Higgins plumed himself on being a little 
 Curran, and cultivated intimacies with kindred hu- 
 morists, amongst whom we are surprised to find 
 Father Arthur O'Leary, one of the persons named 
 advantageously by Higgins in his will.* O'Leary 
 was one of those memorable Monks of the Screw who 
 used to set in a roar Curran's table at " the Priory".! 
 
 
 
 * Last \dll of Francis Higgins, preserved in the Prerogative 
 Court, Dublin. 
 
 t A few of O'Leary's jokes have been preserved. " I wish 
 you were St Peter", said Curran. " Why ?" responded the 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 8>I^ 
 
 " The Sham", who loved to ape the manners of 
 those above him, also called his country seat at Kil^ 
 macud " the Priory" ;* and we believe it was to him 
 that Dick Hetherington,t in accepting an invitation 
 to dinner, wrote : 
 
 " Though to my ankles I '11 be in the mud, 
 I hope to be with you at Kilmacud"4 
 
 Though in open defiance of the laws, the gam- 
 bling hell in Crane Lane was still suffered to exist, 
 under the very shadow of the Castle, and within 
 three minutes' walk of the board of police. Whether 
 Higgins were really a secret partner in its profits, 
 as confidently alleged, we shall not now discuss, 
 although contemporary record and tradition both 
 favour the allegation. Mr. Higgins is entitled to the 
 benefit of his denial ; but no matter who may or may 
 not have been connected with this pandemonium, it 
 is at least evident that the executive had no right 
 to survey placidly for one day, much less for fifte'en 
 years, an institution so destructive to the morals, 
 health, wealth, and happiness of the people. These 
 matters may be worthy of note, as curiously illustra^ 
 tive of Dublin at the time of which we write. 
 
 Mr. Francis Higgins was no. novice in the art 
 and mystery of the gambling table. A scarce 
 
 Friar. " Because you could let me into Heaven". " It would 
 be better that I had the key of the other place", replied O'Leary, 
 "for then I could let you out". For illustrations of o'Leary's 
 humour see Recollections of John O'Keeffe, T. i. p. 245 ; Remi- 
 niscences of Michael Kelly, vol. i. p. 301 ; Barrington's Personal 
 Sketches, vol. ii. pp. 131-137; and the Memoirs q/ O'Leary, 
 by Rev. Dr. England. 
 
 * Statement of T F , Esq., J.P., formerly of the 
 
 Priory, Kilmacud. In 1859 the house was pulled down. 
 
 t Richard Hetherington will be remembered as the corres- 
 pondent of Curran (See Memoirs of Curran, passim^. 
 
 t Communicated by the late M. Brett, Esq. 
 
92* THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' 
 
 publication, printed in 1799, from the pen of 
 Henry MacDougall, M.A., and entitled Sketches of 
 Irish Political Characters^ mentions " the Sham's 
 admission to the profession of attorney, in which his 
 practice is too notorious to require statement", and 
 adds : " His next step to wealth was in the establish- 
 ment of a hazard table, which soon attracted a num- 
 ber of sharps, scamps, and flashmen; and they as 
 soon attracted the attention of the Sham, ever on 
 the watch to promote his own interest. The sharp 
 was useful to cheat the unwary of their money, 
 and keep it in circulation at his table. The scamp 
 plundered on the road, visited the Comer House, and 
 if taken up by the officers of justice, he seldom 
 failed, for acquaintance' sake, to employ the owner 
 in his capacity of solicitor. The nashman intro- 
 duced him (Higgins) to the convenient matron, 
 whom he seldom failed to lay under contribution 
 the price of protecting her in her profession". We 
 further leam that the city magistrates were all afraid 
 to interfere with Mr, Higgins and his delinquencies, 
 lest a slanderous paragraph or lampoon from the 
 arsenal of his press should overtake them. 
 
 Ten years previous to the publication of the fore- 
 going, the vigilant moralist, Magee, laboured to 
 arouse the magistracy to a sense of their duty. " For 
 fifteen years", we are told, " there has existed, under 
 the eye of magistracy, in the very centre of the me- 
 tropolis, at the comer of Crane Lane, in Escex 
 Street, a notorious school of nocturnal study in the 
 doctrine of chances ; a school which affords to men 
 of the town an ample source of ways and means in 
 the pluckings of those unfledged green-horns who 
 can be inveigled into the trap ; which furnishes to 
 the deluded apprentice a ready mart for the acquisi- 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 
 
 . ' '. ' I . 
 
 tion of experience, and the disposal of any loose 
 cash that can be purloined from his master's till ; 
 which affords to the working artizan a weekly 
 asylum for the reception of that stipend which 
 honest industry should allot to the purchase of food 
 for a wife and children ; and which affords to the 
 spendthrift shopkeeper a ready transfer office to 
 make over the property of his creditors to the plun- 
 der of knaves and sharpers".* 
 
 Two months after we find addressed to the autho- 
 rities a further appeal, occupying several columns, 
 and to the same effect.t 
 
 But the board of police was, in fact, eminently 
 imbecile. Among a long series of resolutions 
 adopted in August, 1789, by the gifted men who 
 formed the "Whig Club, we find : " The present ex- 
 travagant, ineffectual, and unconstitutional police of 
 the city of Dublin has been adopted, continued, 
 and patronised by the infiuence of tne present minis- 
 ters of Ireland. All proceedings in parliament to 
 remove the grievance, or censure the abuse, have 
 been resisted and defeated by the same infiuence. 
 The expediency of combating by corruption a con- 
 stitutional majority in parliament has been publicly 
 avowed, and the principle so avowed has been 
 carried into execution". 
 
 At last a committee was granted to inquire into 
 the police, whose extravagance and inefficiency had 
 now rendered them notoriously contemptible. They 
 had long wallowed in indolent luxuriousness on the 
 public money. Among their items of expense were : 
 " For two inkstands for the police, 5 6s. 6d. ; three 
 penknives, 2 2s. 3d.; gilt-edged paper, 100; 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, "So. 1782 
 t /6irf., No. 
 
94 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND i 
 
 Chambers' Dictionary, 11 7s. 6d.". Among their 
 books was Beecaria on Crime, with a commentary 
 from Voltaire.* 
 
 A curious chapter might be written on the short- 
 comings of the Dublin police and magistracy, not only 
 during the last, but even throughout a portion of 
 the present century. If not too digressive, a glance at 
 those shortcomings may amuse the reader. 
 
 " During the existence of the Volunteers", ob- 
 serves the late Counsellor Walsh, a conservative 
 writer of much accuracy, "gentlemen of that body 
 for a time arranged among themselves to traverse 
 the streets at night, to protect the peaceably disposed 
 inhabitants, and men of the first rank in the king- 
 dom thus voluntarily discharged the duties of watch- 
 men. But the occupation assorted badly with the 
 fiery spirits on whom it devolved, and the streets 
 were soon again abandoned to their so-called legi- 
 timate guardians. In the day-time the streets were 
 always wholly unprotected. The first appointment 
 -even of a permanent night-watch was in 1723, 
 when an act was passed under which the different 
 parishes were required to appoint ' honest men and 
 good Protestants' to be night-watches. The utter 
 inefficiency of the system must have been felt ; and 
 various improvements were from time to time at- 
 tempted in it, every four or five years producing a 
 new police act with how little success every one 
 can judge, who remembers the tattered somnambu- 
 lists who represented the ' good Protestant watch- 
 men' a few years ago. Several attempts had also 
 been made to establish an efficient civic magistracy, 
 but with such small benefit that, until a compara- 
 tively recent period, a large portion of the magis- 
 * Grattan's Memoirs^ v. iii. p. 456. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 95s 
 
 terial duties within the city were performed by 
 county magistrates, who had no legal authority 
 whatever to act in them. An office was kept in the 
 neighbourhood of Thomas Street by two gentlemen 
 in the commission for the county, who made a 
 yearly income by the fees ; and the order to fire on 
 the mob who murdered Lord Kilwarden, so late as 
 1803, was given by Mr. Bell, a magistrate of 
 the county and not the city of Dublin. Another 
 well-known member of the bench was Mr. Drury, 
 who halted in his gait, and was called the ' lame 
 justice' ". On the occasion mentioned by Mr. Walsh, 
 Drury retired for safety to the garret of his house in 
 the Coombe, from whence, as Curran remarked, ' he 
 played with considerable effect on the rioters with a 
 large double-barrelled telescope. 
 
 It is to be regretted, however, that irregularity 
 and imbecility are not the worst charges to be 
 brought against the justices of Dublin, even so late 
 as fifty years ago. Frank Thorpe Porter, Esq., late 
 police magistrate of Dublin, has preserved official 
 tradition of some of his more fallible predecessors. 
 Mr. Gonne having lost a valuable watch which he 
 had long regarded as irretrievable, was urged by 
 a private hint to remain at the outer door of the 
 police office, and when the magistrate came out, to ask 
 him, " What hour is it now exactly, your worship ?" 
 The *' beak" took out a watch, and answered the 
 question. Its appearance at once elicited from 
 Gonne the longest oath ever heard before a justice. 
 " By ", he exclaimed, " that watch is mine !" 
 
 " Gonne obtained his watch", adds Mr. Porter, 
 " and was with great difficulty prevented from 
 bringing the transaction under the notice of the 
 government. The system by which the worthy 
 
&6 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND M 
 
 justice managed occasionally to possess himself of a 
 valuable watch, or some other costly article, con- 
 sisted in having two or three drawers wherein to 
 keep the property found with highwaymen or 
 thieves. If the prosecutor identified me delinquent, 
 he was then shown the right drawer ; but if he could 
 not swear to the depredator's person, the wrong 
 drawer was opened. The magistrate to whom this 
 narrative refers was dismissed in a short time for 
 attempting to embezzle fifty pounds".* 
 
 Before the establishment of the petty sessions 
 system in Ireland, magistrates in the safe seclusion 
 of their closets were often betrayed into grossly dis- 
 reputable acts. A parliamentary inquiry, in 1823, 
 into the conduct of Sheriff Thorpe, exposed, in 
 passing, much magisterial delinquency. 
 
 Mr. Beecher said, " It was no uncommon thing, 
 when a friend had incurred a penalty, to remit the 
 fine, and to levy a penalty strictly against another 
 merely because he was an object of dislike". Major 
 Warburton proved that a female had been sent to 
 America by a magistrate without any legal proceed- 
 ing whatever. Major Wilcox established the fact 
 that some justices of the peace were engaged in 
 illicit distillation, and that they took presents and 
 bribes, and bail when other magistrates refused^ 
 that they took cross-examinations where informa- 
 tions had been abeady taken by other magistrates. 
 " They issued warrants against the complaining 
 party m the first instance, at the suggestion of the 
 party complained against". It further appeared 
 that some magistrates took fees in money, and not 
 unfrequently rendered official services in considera-' 
 
 * Some notice of the embezzlements accomplished by Baron 
 Power and Sir Jonah Barrington, both judges on the Irish bench, 
 will be found in the appendix. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 97 
 
 tion of having their turf drawn home, or their po- 
 tatoes planted. The Rev. M. Collins, afterwards 
 bishop of Cloyne, proved that magistrates corruptly 
 received presents of corn, cattle, potatoes, and even 
 money. " If the person of whom the complaint 
 was made ranked as a gentleman, the magistracy 
 often decline interfering, because it would lead to 
 personal results". Mr. O'DriscoU alleged that there 
 were several magistrates trading on their office; 
 they " sell justice, and administer it favourably to 
 the party who pays them best". "It is a con- 
 venient thing", said O'Connell, " for a man to have 
 the commission of the peace, for he can make those 
 he dislikes fear him, and he can favour his friends". 
 These venal practices had transpired subsequent to 
 a judicial form which had professed to revise the 
 magistracy ! But the " revision" had been shaped 
 rather in obedience to sectarian prejudice than on 
 legitimate grounds. O'Connell showed that " most 
 excellent men had been deprived of their office 
 without any cause. It was particularly severe upon 
 the Catholic magistrates. In the county Cork, 
 eighteen out of twenty-one Catholics were struck 
 out". In Mr. Daunt's Conversations of O'Connett^ 
 the details are given of a certain justice who 
 threatened to flog and hang the sons of a widow to 
 whom his worship owed 2,000, unless she pledged 
 herself to cancel the bond !* 
 
 With magistrates like these, and with power- 
 less police such as we described, it is no wonder 
 
 * For full details, see voL iL p. 131. In one of O'Connell's 
 public letters, he made touching reference to the fact, that he 
 had known peasant girls sometimes driven to surrender what 
 ought to be dearer than life, as part of an unholy compact with 
 magistrates who had threatened the life or liberty of a father 
 or brother! 
 
 : -. - ' :-. ; .- ^- 7 ' - 
 
98 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 that a walk in the streets of Dublin should be en- 
 compassed with peril. Stephen's Green, the resi- 
 dence of the Sham Squire, was specially infested 
 with footpads, who robbed in a manner peculiar to 
 themselves. 
 
 " So late as 1812", says the author of Ireland 
 Sixty Years Ago, " there were only twenty-six small 
 oil lamps to light the immense square of Stephen's 
 Green, which were therefore one hundred and 
 seventy feet from one another. The footpads con- 
 gregated in a dark entry, on the shady side of the 
 street, if the moon shone ; if not, the dim and dis- 
 mal light of the lamps was little obstruction. A 
 cord was provided with a loop at the end of it. The 
 loop was laid on the pavement, and the thieves 
 watched the approach of a passenger. If he put 
 his foot in the loop it was immediately chucked. T'he 
 man fell prostrate, and was dragged rapidly up the 
 entry to some cellar or waste yard, where he was 
 robbed and sometimes murdered. The stun received 
 by the fall usually prevented the victim from ever 
 recognizing the robbers. We knew a gentleman 
 who had been thus robbed, and when he recovered 
 found himself in an alley at the end of a lane off 
 Bride Street, nearly naked, and severely contused 
 and lacerated by being dragged over the rough 
 pavement".* 
 
 * Almost equally daring outrages on the liberty of the subject 
 were nightly practised, with the connivance of the law, by 
 " crimp sergeants", who by brutal force, and sometimes by 
 fraud, secured the unwary for foreign enlistment. Attractive 
 women were employed to seduce persons into conversation pre- 
 paratory to the crimp sergeant's seizing them in the king's 
 name. Startling details of these outrages, which were oftea 
 marked by bloodshed, will be found in the Dublin newspapers 
 of 1793 and 1794, passim. See also the Irish. Masonic Maga- 
 zine for 1794 (fp. 94, 190, 284, 383, 482, 570). 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 99 
 
 When men fared thus, it may readily be supposed 
 that ladies could not walk the streets without nsk to 
 their lives or virtue. " It is deemed a reproach", 
 says an author, writing in 1775, "for a gentle- 
 woman to be seen walking in the streets. I was 
 advised by my bankers to lodge in Capel Street, 
 near Essex Bridge, being in less danger of being 
 robbed, two chairmen* not being deemed sufficient 
 protection".! 
 
 Twenty years later found no improvement. The 
 Anthologia Hibernica for December, 1794, p. 476, 
 furnishes new proofs of the inefficiency of the police. 
 Robbery and bloodshed " within a few yards of the 
 guard house in Fleet Street" is described. 
 
 It does not always follow that idleness is the 
 mother of mischief, for we find that combination 
 among the workmen of Dublin also attained a for- 
 midable pitch at this time. The Dublin Chronicle 
 of January the 28th, 1792, contains the following 
 paragraph : 
 
 "On the several mornings of the 17th, 18th, 19th, 
 and 20th inst., a number of armed persons, journeymen 
 tailors, assembled in a riotous manner about the house 
 of Mr. Millea, Ross Lane, Mr. Leet, Merchant's Quay, 
 Mr. Walsh, Castle Street, Mr. Ward, Cope Street, and 
 the houses of several other master tailors, and cut, 
 maimed, and abused several journeymen tailors who 
 were peaceably going to their respective places of employ- 
 ment; one of said men, named Michael Hani on, was killed 
 
 * Sedan bearers, familiarly styled " Christian Ponies". There 
 is a well known story in Dublin of a Connaughtman, who, when 
 entering a sedan chair, found that the bottom had, by some 
 accident, fallen out of it, but, nevertheless, he made no demur, 
 and walked to his destination in the chair. On getting out he 
 remarked to the men who assumed to convey him, " Only for the 
 honour of the thing I might as well have walked''. 
 
 t Philosophical Survey, p. 46. 
 
100 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND j 
 
 I , 
 
 on the spot, in Cope Street ; two have had their hands cut 
 oiF; several others have been cut and bruised in such a 
 manner as to be now lying dangerously ill ; and some 
 journeymen are missing, who, it is reported, have been 
 murdered and thrown into the river". t 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Magee's vengeance on Lord Clonmel. Lord Clare. The gods 
 of Crow Street. Kenewed effort to muzzle Magee. Letters 
 de Cacbet in Ireland. Seizures. George Ponsonby and 
 Arthur Browne. Lord Clonmel crushed. His dying confes- 
 sion. Deserted by the Sham Squire. More turpitude. 
 
 The spirit of John Magee was indomitable. An 
 interval of liberty between his conviction and sen- 
 tence from Lord Clonmel was now at his disposal, 
 and he certainly employed it in a singular way. 
 Profoundly indifferent to all personal consequences, 
 he most imprudently resolved to spend a consider- 
 able sum of money in wreaking his vengeance on 
 Lord Clonmel. This eccentric scheme he sought 
 to carry out in an indirect and, as he felt assured, 
 a perfectly legal manner. Having found himself 
 owner of 14,000, Magee settled 10,000 upon his 
 family, and with a chuckle declared that the balance 
 it was his intention, " with the blessing of God, to 
 spend upon Lord Clonmel".* The unpopular chief 
 of the King's Bench resided in a handsome villa 
 near the Black Rock, now known as 'iemple Hill, 
 but then styled Neptune.f On the splendid parterres 
 and pleasure grounds which luxuriantly environed it. 
 Lord Clonmel had spent several thousand pounds ; 
 
 * Personal Recollections of Lord Cloncurry (1849, p. 58). 
 t " Neptune, the elegant seat of Lord Clonmel" Seward's 
 Topographia Hibernia, Dub. 1795. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 101 
 
 while in the direction of the improvements many 
 an anxious and a precious hour had been consumed. 
 The wild and uncultivated district of Dunleary 
 without, only served to make the contrast more 
 striking. But alas ! this exquisite oasis the vindic- 
 tive proprietor of the Post resolved to lay waste. 
 As an important preliminary step he purchased 
 from Lady Osborne a large tract of ground imme- 
 diately adjoining Lord Clonmel's villa, and forth- 
 with dubbed it Fiat Hill* Magee speedily an- 
 nounced, but with some mental reservation, that in 
 honour of the birth-day of the Prince of Wales he 
 would give, at Dunleary, a grand Bra Pleasura, to 
 which he solicited the company of all his friends, 
 private and political, known and unknown, washed 
 and unwashed. Various field sports, with plenty of 
 Silvester Costigan's whiskey, were promised as an in- 
 ducement. " At one o'clock", to quote the original 
 advertisement, " the Ball will be kicked 6h Fiat 
 Hill. Dinner on the tented field at three o'clock. 
 Table d'hote for ladies and gentlemen. Cudgel play- 
 ing at five, with cool umpires to prevent ill temper 
 and preserve good humour".t 
 
 The late Lord Cloncurry's robust memory has 
 furnished us with the following graphic sketch of 
 the singular scene which took place upon this oc- 
 casion. " I recollect attending", writes his lordship, 
 " and the fete certainly was a strange one. Several 
 thousand people, including the entire disposable 
 mob of Dublin, of both sexes, assembled as the guests 
 at an early hour, and proceeded to enjoy themselves 
 in tents and booths erected for the occasion. A 
 variety of sports was arranged for their amusement, 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, No. 1798. 
 \DvblinEvening fos/, No. 1798. 
 
102 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 such as climbing poles for prizes, running races in 
 sacks, grinning through horse-collars, and soforth, 
 until at length, when the crowd had attained its 
 maximum density, towards the afternoon, the grand 
 scene of the day was produced. A number of active 
 pigs, with their tails shaved and soaped, were let 
 loose, and it was announced that each pig was to 
 become the property of any one who could catch 
 and hold it by the slippery member. A scene im- 
 possible to describe immediately took place: the 
 pigs, frightened and hemmed in by the crowd in all 
 other directions, rushed through the hedge which 
 then separated the grounds of Temple Hill from the 
 open fields ; forthwith all their pursuers followed in 
 a body, and, continuing their chase over the shrub- 
 beries and parterres, soon revenged John Magee 
 upon the noble owner". 
 
 Another pen, more powerful but not more accurate 
 than Lord Cloncurry's, tells us that " Lord Clonmel 
 retreated like a harpooned leviathan the barb was 
 in his back, and Magee held the cordage. He made 
 the life of his enemy a burden to him. Wherever 
 he went, he was lampooned by a ballad singer, OT 
 laughed at by the populace. Nor was Magee's 
 arsenal composed exclusively of paper ammunition. 
 He rented a field bordering his lordship's highly- 
 improved and decorated demesne. He advertised, 
 month after month, that on such a day he would 
 exhibit in this field a grand Olympic pig hunt; that 
 the people, out of gratitude for their patronage of 
 his newspaper, should be gratuitous spectators of 
 this revived classical amusement ; and that he was 
 determined to make so amazing a provision of 
 whiskey and porter, that if any man went home 
 thirsty it should be his own fault. The plan com- 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 103 
 
 pletely succeeded. Hundreds and thousands as- 
 sembled ; every man did justice to his entertainer's 
 hospitality : and his lordship's magnificent demesne, 
 uprooted and desolate, next day exhibited nothing 
 but the ruins of the Olympic pig hunf\* So far 
 Mr. Phillips.f The Court of King's Bench had not 
 yet opened for term, and Lord Clonmel was tran- 
 quilly rusticating at Temple Hill. Pallid with con- 
 sternation, he rang an alarum bell, and ordered his 
 post-chaise, with four of the fleetest horses in his 
 stable, to the door. The chief justice bounded into 
 the chariot with an energy almost incompatible 
 with his years ; the postillions plied their whips ; the 
 chaise rattled amid clouds of dust down Fiat Hill ; 
 the mob with deafening yells followed close behind. 
 Lord Clonmel, almost speechless with terror, re- 
 paired to the castle, sought the viceroy, swore " by 
 the Etemar\ that all the country south of Dublin 
 was in a state of insurrection ; implored his Excel- 
 lency to summon the privy council, and to apply 
 at once for extraordinary powers, including the sus- 
 pension of the Habeas Corpus Act. 
 
 The appeal of the chief justice prevailed, and on 
 September 3rd, 1789, we find Magee dragged from 
 his home by a strong body of the weak and in- 
 efficient police of Dublin, and consigned to NeW" 
 gate, I He was previously, however, brought be- 
 ^ 
 
 * Curran and his Contemporaries, by Charles Phillips, p. 37i 
 
 t Sir Jonah Barrington describes the scene to much the same 
 effect, vith this addition that Magee introduced " asses dressed 
 up with wigs and scarlet robes, and dancing dogs in gowns and 
 wigs as barristers". 
 
 f A favourite exclamation of Lord Clonmel's. Vide Rowan's 
 Autobiography, p. 208. 
 
 Reminiscence communicated by the late Rev. Dr. O'Hanlon. 
 
 in Dublin Evening Post, No. 1809. 
 
104 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND i 
 
 fore Sir Samuel Bradstreet, Recorder of Dublin, on 
 the charge of having announced that " there would 
 be thirty thousand men at Dunleary". The judge re- 
 quired personal bail to the amount of 5,000, and 
 two sureties in 2,500 each, for five years,* a demand 
 not so easy for a printer in a moment to meet. Such 
 mandates as these, amounting in some instances to 
 perpetual imprisonment, soon brought but too fatally 
 the administration of justice into contempt. 
 
 No unnecessary harshness seems to have been 
 shown to Magee during his incarceration. Unlike 
 the case of Lord Cloncurry, he was permitted the 
 use of pen, ink, and paper a concession as accep- 
 table to him as it was creditable to the government. 
 He constantly wrote letters for the Post signed with 
 his name, and bearing the somewhat inflammatory 
 date of " Newgate, 22nd October, fiftieth day of my 
 confinement" ^varied of course according as time 
 progressed and he was not diffident in adversely 
 criticising the policy of the viceroy, as well as some 
 leading members of the privy council, including 
 Lord Clonmel. " The man who vilifies established 
 authority", says Junius, " is sure to find an audience". 
 Magee was no exception to the rule. He became 
 an intense popular favourite; and the galleries of 
 Grow Street theatre used nightly to resound with 
 " a cheer for Magee, the man for Ireland !" and " a 
 groan for the Sham !"t 
 
 Magee's letters made frequent reference to the 
 sufferings to which the government had subjected 
 him. T'hus in No. 1789 he tells us, " I have been 
 four times fiated, and dragged through the streets 
 like a felon three times into dungeons!" But 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, No. 1814. 
 
 ^ Trial of Magee for Libel on R.Daly, 'f,Z(i. .1 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 105 
 
 having on October 29th received a notification from 
 government declaratory of its willingness to accept 
 the sum of 4,000 as bail "to keep the peace for 
 five years towards Lord Clonmel", Magee bade 
 adieu ,to prison, and, accompanied by Hamilton 
 Rowan, attended the court and ^ave the required 
 surety. " Mr. Magee, on being discharged, walked 
 to his own house in College Green, greeted by the 
 loud congratulations of the people".* 
 
 Poor Magee's spell of liberty seems to have been 
 of lamentably, and we may add, of most capriciously 
 short duration, if the evidence of his own organ can 
 be accepted as conclusive. The sweets of liberty 
 were once more exchanged for the bitters of 
 " durance vile". In the Dublin Evening Post of 
 November 12, 1789, we read " Magee was brought 
 up from the Lock-up House, where he had been 
 confined since Tuesday last upon fiats granted by 
 Lord Clonmel at the suit of Messrs. Higgins, Daly, 
 
 Brennan, and Miss , to the amount of 7,800. 
 
 Mr. Magee moved for a new trial in the matter of 
 the alleged libel against Higgins. But the chief 
 justice refused the motion, and informed the sheriff 
 that Magee was now a convict, and should be con- 
 ducted to Newgate forthwith".! The struggle was 
 characterised as one of might against right. In Oc- 
 tober, 1789, the attorney-general is said to have ad- 
 mitted in open court that the prosecution of Magee 
 was " a government business^^i 
 
 Arguments having been, on Nov. 19, heard in 
 arrest of judgment on Magee, the chief justice 
 adjourned the sentence to next term, and admitted 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, No. 1833. 
 t Ibid, No. 1839. 
 J /6M/, 1834. 
 
106 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 him to bail on the comparatively moderate recog- 
 nizance of 500. Magee was therefore discharged, 
 but it would almost seem as if the law authorities, 
 with Lord Clonmel at their head, had been only 
 playing off some malign practical joke upon him; 
 for we read that no sooner had Magee " reached 
 High Street after receiving his discharge than he 
 was taken into custody by the sheriffs on different 
 fiats amounting to 7,800 !"* 
 
 The very name of fiats had now become almost 
 as terrible as lettres de cachet: but in the Irish 
 Parliament of 1790 they received their death blow ; 
 and Lord Clonmel himself may be said to have 
 perished in their debris. 
 
 Of this unconstitutional agent Magee remarked : 
 " If the amount of the sum for which bail must be 
 found is to be measured and ascertained only by the 
 conscience of the affidavit-man, then indeed any pro- 
 fligate character may lodge in Newgate the Duke of 
 Leinster or Mr. Conolly, for sums which even they 
 would not find it possible to procure bail". On 
 January 28th, 1790, Magee was once more com- 
 mitted to prison. 
 
 Owing largely to the unflagging denunciations of 
 Magee, the Police Board in September, 1789, at 
 tempted some vigorous '^reform, and at last nocturnal 
 gambling houses were menaced with extinction. 
 Magee, even in the gloom of his dungeon, exulted 
 over the threatened downfall. The Gambler's 
 soliloquy went on to say : 
 
 Yes! this a fatal, dreadful revolution ! 
 
 A change repugnant to the dear delights 
 
 Of night-enveloped guilt, of midnight fraud, ' 
 
 And rapine long secure ; of dexterous art 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, 1844. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 107 
 
 To plunge unthinking innocence in woe, 
 And riot in the spoils of beggar'd youth! 
 Sad revolution! Hence come lethargy. 
 Come inactivity, and worse than all. 
 Come simple honesty! The dice no more 
 Shall sound their melody, nor perj'ry's list 
 Swell at the nod of dark collusive practice ! 
 Gaols lie unpeopled, and rest gibbets bare, 
 And Newgate's front board take a holiday! 
 Crane Lane, thou spot to Pandemonium dear, 
 ,: Where many a swarthy son of Chrisal's race 
 My galligaskin lined", etc.* 
 
 Alderman Carleton made four seizures. " And 
 yet", said the Post, " as fast as their implements are 
 seized, their tables demolished, and their gangs dis- 
 persed, the very next night new arrangements and 
 new operations are on foot. Who but the protected 
 proprietor of this infamous den who but a ruffian 
 who can preserve his plunder in security, and set 
 law and gospel at defiance, would dare at such 
 audacious perseverance ?"t 
 
 Meanwhile Mr. Higgins's ready pen continued to 
 rage with fury against all whose views did not ex- 
 actly chime with those held by his employers. A 
 contemporary journal says : " Squire Higgins, whose 
 protected system of virulent and unremitting slander 
 crows in triumph over the community, does not 
 scruple to avow his indifference to anything which 
 prosecution can do, guarded as he is by the inti- 
 mate friendship and implicit confidence of the 
 bench. He openly avows his disregard of Mr. Grat- 
 tan's prosecution for a libel now pending against him, 
 and says that he shall be supported by the Castle", j 
 Mr. Higgins having libelled a respectable official 
 in the revenue, legal proceedings were instituted ; 
 but one of the government lawyers refused, in 
 
 * Dublin JEvemngPost,-So. 1813. t/6tW., 1827. ^Ibid., No. 1825. 
 
108 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND i 
 
 December, 1788, to move, although feed in the 
 cause. 
 
 Poor Magee's cup of bitterness was at last filled to 
 the brim, by a proceeding which is best described 
 in his own letter to Lord Chancellor Clare. There 
 is a singular mixture of tragedy and farce in the 
 energetic efforts which were now openly made to 
 extinguish him. 
 
 "Newgate, Oct. 1. 
 
 " MY LORD, I have now been confined in this 
 prison of the felon, housebreaker, and murderer, 
 twenty-nine days twenty-one of which time mostly 
 to my bed. Judge, on my rising yesterday, to be 
 served with a notice to appear to-morrow at the 
 House of Lords, on a charge of lunacy, and that by 
 some interested persons, who without even the 
 shadow of .relationship, have secured my property, 
 and that to a very great amount, and refused by these 
 very people even ten guineas to procure common ne- 
 cessanes m a prison. Bail I cannot produce ; my 
 character as a trader is blasted ; my property as a citi- 
 zen embezzled ; my intellects as a man suspected by a 
 false and slanderous charge of insanity ; every engine 
 employed by a designing, needy, and desperate jun- 
 to, for the absolute deprivation of my property ; total 
 destruction of all that those who respect themselves 
 prize more even than life. My lord, I claim the in- 
 terposition of your authority as the first in law 
 power I supplicate your humanity as a man, a 
 parent, a husband, that I may be permitted to confiront 
 my accusers at the House of Lords on to-morrow". 
 
 To justify the charge of lunacy against John 
 Magee, it was alleged, among other pretexts, that he 
 had established boat-races and foot-ball matches at 
 Dunleary, and presided over them " in a round hat 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 109 
 
 and feathers".* We cull a few passages from the 
 newspaper report : - 
 
 " The Chancellor ' Mr. Magee, have you anything to 
 
 say ?' 
 
 " ' As to what, my lord ?* 
 
 " ' You have heard the matters with which you are 
 charged. I am called upon to issue a commission to 
 try whether you are insane or not. If you are found 
 insane, I am then to appoint a guardian of your person 
 and a guardian of your property, and you will become 
 a ward of the Court of Chancery. Have you any 
 attorney ?' 
 
 " ' No, my lord. Some time ago I sent for Mr. Kenny 
 as my solicitor. He came to me and found me sick in 
 bed. I opened my case to him, and he promised to call 
 upon me next day ; but the first intimation I had of Mr. 
 Kenny afterwards was, that he was preparing briefs 
 against me for this prosecution. Does your lordship 
 choose that I should call witnesses ? My own physician 
 is here'. 
 
 " ' Has he made an affidavit ?' 
 
 " ' He has, my lord'. 
 
 " ' The chancellor declared that there was not the 
 shadow of ground for issuing a commission. Supposing 
 all the charges true, they only amounted to acts of ex- 
 travagance and indiscretion. If he was to grant a 
 commission of lunacy against every man who did an 
 extravagant, an unwise, or even a bad thing, he was 
 
 * There is an anecdote of Magee traditionally preserved in the 
 ofiBce of the Evening Post, illustrative of his unawed demeanour 
 in the presence of Lord Clonmel, by whose domineering manner 
 even the bar were often overborne. Magee stood up in court, 
 and addressed a few observations to the bench in justification 
 of his hostility to Francis Higgins. But having styled him the 
 " Sham Squire", Lord Clonmel interrupted Magee, declaring that 
 he would allow no nicknames to be used in that court. " Very 
 well, John Scott", replied the editor of the Post, resuming his 
 seat, " your wish is a law". 
 
110 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 afraid he should have a great many wards. He had 
 observed Mr. Magee during the whole time he had been 
 in court, and he saw nothing insane about him. He 
 must therefore refuse the application'". ] 
 
 Magee's triumph began to date from this day. In 
 the Journals of the Irish House of Commons (v. 
 xiii. pp. 179-80) we lind it " ordered that the proper 
 oflScer do lay before the house an attested copy of 
 the affidavit filed in the Queen's Bench, on which 
 the chief justice ordered that a writ should issue, at 
 the suit of Francis Higgins and others, against John 
 Magee for 7,800. On March 3rd, 1790, the 
 entire case was brought before parliament by 
 George Ponsonby, afterwards Lord Chancellor of 
 Ireland. He showed that the practice of issuing 
 fiats under such circumstances was unconstitutional, 
 and a direct violation of the Bill of Rights ; and he 
 reminded the House, that while Warren Hastings, 
 who was accused of plundering India, murdering its 
 inhabitants, and rendering the government corrupt 
 and odious, was only held to 10,000 bail, an ob- 
 scure Irish printer, on a mere individual affirmation, 
 was held to bail for 7,800. Mr. Ponsonby ridi- 
 culed the idea of Higgins swearing that he " had 
 been injured in his unspotted, unblemished repu- 
 tation" by the lampoons of John Magee. 
 
 George Ponsonby was ably supported by Arthur 
 Browne :* " Till of very late years the evil was mo- 
 derate ; but since a certain learned judge came upon 
 the bench it has grown to an enormous height. Sir, 
 under the auspices of that judge these doctrines 
 
 * For a notice of Arthur Browne, member for the University 
 of Dublin, see Review of the Irish House of Commons, by Falk 
 land, i.e. John Robert Scott, D.D., p, 30; vu/e also Sketches oj 
 Irish Political Characters, p. 211. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. Ill 
 
 have been advanced, that any man may at his plea- 
 sure, with perfect impunity, deprive any other of 
 his liberty by an affidavit swearing that he believes 
 he has sufiered damage, without showing when or 
 how that his fancy, or his perjury, is to be the 
 guide of the judge's discretion, and the bail is to be 
 accommodated to the ideal wrongs, to the fancied 
 injuries, to the angry passions, or the wanton pre- 
 varication of a wicked or enraged prosecutor. 
 What is the consequence ? No man, however free 
 from debt or unconscious of crime, shall walk in 
 security in the public streets. He is liable to arrest 
 for any amount ; and if he seeks to punish the ac- 
 cuser he finds no spot on which to lay his hand. 
 How can he indict the accuser for perjury? He 
 only swore a general affirmative that he had been 
 damaged. Who can prove a general negative that 
 he had not? He only swore to the belief of 
 damage. Who can arraign his capricious fancy, or 
 convict it of perjury? If he had sworn to a parti- 
 cular instance that his arm had been broken, that 
 he had lost the setting of a house or the customers 
 of his shop I might prove the falsehood of the 
 assertion by evidence. But upon a general charge 
 nothing remains but submission and a prison. 
 
 " This power has been particularly directed against 
 printers. Whoever presumed to print or publish 
 without the leave or not under the direction of 
 Francis Higgins, was in great danger of a fiat : num- 
 bers of printers have been run down by fiats whom 
 the pubHc never heard of. John Magee was more 
 sturdy, and therefore his sufferings made more noise. 
 Four fiats were issued against him in June, ] 789, to 
 the amount of 7,800 ; he was kept in prison from 
 June to the ^end of November, before the q^uestion 
 
112 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' - 
 
 whether this bail should be reduced was decided. 
 Mr. Higgins had now, by the practice of the courts 
 (which gives a plaintiff three terms before he need 
 try his action), power to keep Magee in prison till 
 November next, so that he may lie in prison nine- 
 teen months for want of bail before the action be 
 tried; perhaps afterwards have a verdict in his , 
 favour, or only 8d. damages be given against him. 
 Each of the bail must swear himself worth twice 
 the sum for which he was security, i.e. 30,000, 
 and more in this case. What gentleman could find 
 such bail ? It amounted to perpetual imprisonment. 
 We may talk of independence, but liberty is no 
 more the security of our boasted emancipation is 
 a name, for we have nothing to secure. 
 
 " See what an instrument this doctrine might be 
 in the hands of private malice or public oppression. 
 Suppose a man willing to wreak his vengeance upon 
 his foe, and for that purpose recommending him- 
 self to the favour of the bench. Suppose a bad man 
 in possession of the ear of a judge, his old friend and 
 companion, perhaps instilling his poison into it, and 
 willing to make it the conduit through which to 
 wreak his vengeance on his foe ; suppose him to re- 
 commend himself by every willing and base act to 
 a wicked judge and such may be conceived^. Sup- 
 pose him the minion of that judge, requiring a little 
 mutual favour for his multiplied services, and asking 
 the debasement of the bench as the price of former aid 
 in the elevation of that judge. * * * Suppose 
 the slanderous assassin, seeking for a fiat against a 
 far less criminal than himself, and fixing the sum 
 which he thinks sufficient to throw his neighbour 
 into eternal bondage; is it not possible that his 
 friendly judge may listen to his argument in me- . ' , 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 113 
 
 mory of old festivity, and grant him a fiat, even to 
 his heart's content, although by so doing, your 
 courts of law, instead of being the sacred fountains 
 of justice, should become the channels of malevo- 
 lence? If the wretched victims of this assumed 
 power do not find redress here, they know not 
 where to fly for refuge ; on this House depends the 
 fate of all who are or may be subject to this tyranny. 
 If they do not find redress here, they must be lost ; 
 but they will be lost in the wreck of the national 
 character. What an instrument might such a power 
 be in the hands of a bad government ! what an in- 
 strument may it be against the liberty of the press I 
 How easily may any printer who presumes to open 
 his mouth against administration be run down by 
 it! We have called upon the administration to 
 correct this evil, and have met with a refusal. It 
 absurdly espouses a subject with which it has no 
 concern, and which it cannot defend". 
 
 The practice of issuing fiats was soon after re- 
 stricted to a defined and definite sum. Intense was 
 the humiliation of Lord Clonmel at the victory ob- 
 tained by Magee. Mr. Phillips informs us that his 
 heart withered from that day. Magee exposed his 
 errors, denied his merits, magnified his mistakes, 
 ridiculed his pretensions, and continually edging, 
 without overstepping the boundary of libel, poured 
 upon the Chief, from the battery of the press, a 
 perpetual broadside .of sarcasm and invective. 
 
 " Save us from our friends ; we know our ene- 
 mies", is an old and trite adage. Groaning beneath 
 the weight of Magee's hostility. Lord Clonmel pur- 
 sued the uneven tenor of his way; but when at 
 length the startling fact became evident that even 
 the fidelity of Higgins had begun to break down, 
 
 8 
 
114 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 the Chief felt inclined to ejaculate, Et tu Brute ! 
 Mr. Curran, in his Bar Sketches^ relates, on the 
 authority of Bushe, a story which shows that in 
 1 794 Lord Clonmel complained of having been lam- 
 pooned by the Freeman^s Journal. So much for 
 the instability of human friendship ! 
 
 Lord Clonmel became at last singularly sensitive 
 to public criticism. Rowan's A utobiography records 
 a strange dialogue between the chief and a book- 
 seller named Byrne, into whose shop he swaggered 
 on seeing Rowan's trial advertised. One sentence 
 will convey an idea of the colloquy, as well as of 
 the times in which such language could be hazarded 
 by a judge. " Take care, sir, what you do ; I give 
 you this caution ; for if there are any reflections on 
 
 the judges of the land, by the eternal G I will 
 
 lay you by the heels". 
 
 Lord Clonmel's health and spirits gradually broke 
 down, and accounts of his death were daily circu- 
 lated. On one of these occasions, when he was 
 really very ill, a friend said to Curran, " Well, they 
 say Clonmel is going to die at last. Do you be- 
 lieve it?" " I believe", said Curran, " he is scoun- 
 drel enough to live or die, just as it suits his own 
 convenience r (^See Addenda D.) Shortly before the 
 death of Lord Clonmel, Mr. Lawless, afterwards 
 Lord Cloncurry, had an interview with him, when 
 the chief exclaimed, " My dear Val, I have been 
 a fortunate man through life; I am a chief jus- 
 tice and an earl; but were I to begin the world 
 again, I would rather be a chimney-sweeper, than- 
 connected with the Irish government".* 
 
 But we must not lose sight of the Sham Squire. 
 We now find him accused of " purloining a docu- 
 ; * Personal Recollections of Lord Cloncurry, p. 46. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 115 
 
 ment from the office of the King's Bench, and com- 
 mitting erasures and alterations thereon, for the 
 purpose of securing the conviction of a defendant, 
 and depriving him of the benefit of a fair plea 
 against judgment". *' This", adds the Poa^, " is of a 
 piece with the notorious theft committed on the 
 grand jury bag in the town clerk's office, a few 
 weeks since, of the bills against the markers and 
 other vagabonds of the Crane Lane gambling-house. 
 If such felonious audacities are suffered to escape 
 with impunity, the dignity, the law, the equity of 
 the bench, and the lives and properties of the honest 
 part of the community, are no longer safe against 
 the daring acts of c\mning and villany".* Mr. 
 Higgins denies the charge in the Freeman's Journal 
 of the day ; but the subject, notwithstanding, was 
 brought before parliament, on March 5, 1790, 
 when Arthur Browne stated that in " the suit, 
 Higgins against Magee, it had appeared to the per- 
 fect conviction of every man in court, that two 
 erasures and certain alterations had been made in 
 the record ; that a circumstance so momentous had 
 astonished and alarmed all present, the court espe- 
 cially, who had promised to make a solemn investiga 
 tion of it, and ' probe it to the bottom'. He had 
 since heard from some friends, that it would not be 
 proper to comnHnce an inquiry until the suit, in 
 which this record was involved, should be finally 
 determined: no such objection had been offered by 
 the court at the time of discovering the forgery ; 
 nay, the court, on the instant, had certainly cojn- 
 menced an inquiry, though he never heard they 
 had carried it further. 
 
 " This dark and wicked transaction did, at the 
 
 * Dublin Evening Post, "K 
 
116 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 time of its being discovered, greatly alarm the bar ; 
 and in consequence a numerous and most respectable 
 meeting of barristers took place, at which meeting he 
 attended, and there did promise, that if the court of 
 king's bench did not follow up the inquiry with 
 effect, he would bring it before parliament : it cer 
 tainly was the business of the court of king's bench 
 to have taken it up ; but they not having done so, 
 he was resolved to keep his promise, and never lose 
 sight of it till parliament should decide upon it. 
 
 " The inquiry was, whether the public records of 
 the highest court of criminal judicature, by which 
 the life and property of any man in the realm might 
 be affected, were kept with that sacred care that no 
 m3.n could have access to alter or erase them ? and 
 whether the officers of that court were so honest and 
 so pure, that they would not allow of any corrupt 
 access?"* * i 
 
 CHAPTER V. ^ 
 
 Hair breadth escapes of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Testimony of 
 Lords Holland and Byron. A dark picture of oppression. 
 Moira House. Presence of mind. Kevolting Treachery. 
 Arrest of Lord Edward. Majors Sirr nd Swan. Death of 
 Captain Eyan. Attempted rescue. Edward Eattigan. 
 General Lawless. Lady Louisa Connolly. Obduracy of Lord 
 Camden. Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 
 
 SOME critics have been good enough to say that 
 an outline of the present narrative which appeared 
 a few years ago, possesses the interest of an effective 
 drama. At this stage we propose to let the curtain 
 
 Par/. Z)e6s., V. 10, p. 382. ! 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 117 
 
 drop for an interval, during which eight years is 
 
 supposed to elapse. 
 
 *** * 
 
 Once more it rises, disclosing the dark and 
 stormy period of 1798. The scene is Leixlip Bridge 
 at the dawn of morning, with a view of the Salmon 
 Leap. Nicholas Dempsey, a yeoman sentinel, is 
 seen, with musket shouldered, pacing to and fro. 
 A young man dressed as a peasant with frieze coat 
 and corduroy knee-breeches, approaches the bridge 
 driving before him half a dozen sheep. Accosting 
 the sentinel, he asks if there is any available night 
 park at hand where he could put his tired sheep to 
 rest. The yeoman scans his face narrowly, and to 
 the surprise, and probably confusion of the drover 
 replies: "No, my lord^ there is no pasturage in 
 this neighbourhood". No other words pass ; the 
 sentinel resumes his beat, and the drover proceeds 
 on his way.* 
 
 The person thus addressed by the yeoman was 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, of whom a cabinet min- 
 ister. Lord Holland, deliberately writes: 
 
 " More than twenty years have now passed away. 
 
 Many of my political opinions are softened my 
 
 ^4 . f ^ 1 j j- 
 
 predilections tor some men weakened, my prejudices 
 
 against others removed ; but my approbation of Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald's actions remains unaltered and 
 unshaken. His country 'was bleeding under one of 
 the hardest tyrannies that our times have witnessed".! 
 
 * We are indebted for this hitherto unpublished anecdote to 
 Mr. Ennis, of Kimmage, the grand-nephew of Nicholas Denipsey, 
 whose cartridge-box and sash are still preserved at Kimniage 
 House as an interesting memento of the man and of the inci- 
 dent. For a notice of the Yeomanry, see Addenda E. 
 
 t Memoirs of the Whig Party. Lord Holland adds: 
 " The premature and ill-concerted insurrections which followed 
 
118 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND i 
 
 i 
 
 " If Lord Edward had been actuated in political 
 life by personal ambition", writes Dr. MacNevin, 
 " he had only to cling to his great family connections 
 
 in the Catholic districts were quelled, rather in consequence 
 of waut of concert and skill in the insurgents, than of any good 
 conduct or discipline of the King's t'-oops, whoai Sir Ralph 
 Abercromhie described very honestly, as formidable to no one 
 but their friends. That experienced and upright commander 
 had been removed from his command, even after those just and 
 spirited general orders in which the remarkable judgment just 
 quoted was conveyed. His recall was hailed as a triumph by the 
 Orange faction. Indeed, surrounded as they were with burning 
 cottages, tortured backs, and frequent executions, they were yet 
 full of their sneers at what they whimsically termed 'the cle- 
 mency' of the government, and the weak character of their 
 viceroy. Lord Camden. ***** The fact is incontroverti- 
 ble, that the people of Ireland were driven to resistance, which, 
 possibly, they meditated before, by the free quarters and ex- 
 penses of the soldiery, which were such as are not permitted in 
 civilized warfare, even in an enemy's country. Trials, if they 
 must so be called, were carried on without number, under martial 
 law. It often happened, that three officers composed the court, 
 and that of the three, two were under age, and the third an offi- 
 cer of the yeomanry or militia, who had sworn, in his Orange 
 lodge, eternal hatred to the people over whom he was thus con- 
 stituted a judge. Floggings, picketings, death, were the usual 
 sentences, and these were sometimes commuted into banishment, 
 serving in the fleet, or transference to a foreign service. Many 
 were sold at so much per head to the Prussians. Other less legal 
 but not more horrible outrages were daily committed by the 
 different corps under the command of government. Even in 
 the streets of Dublin, a man was thot and robbed of .30, on the 
 loose recollection of a soldier's having seen him in the battle of 
 Kilcullen, and no proceeding was instituted to ascertain the 
 murder or prosecute the murderer. Lord Wycombe, who was 
 in Dublin, and who waa himself shot at by a sentinel, between 
 Black Rock and that city, wrote to me many details of similar 
 outrages which he had ascertained to be true. Dr. Dickson 
 (Bishop of Down) assured me that he had seen families returning 
 peaceably from mass, assailed without provocation, by drunken 
 troops and yeomanry, and the wives and daughters exposed to 
 every species of indignity, brutality, and outrage, from which 
 neither his remonstrances, nor those of other Protestant gentle- 
 men, could rescue them. The subsequent indemnity acts de- 
 prived of redress the victims cf this wide-spread cruelty". 
 
 : , ' ' - ^ : \ - - 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 119 
 
 and parliamentary influence. They unquestionably 
 would have advanced his fortunes and gratified his 
 desires. The voluntary sacrifices he made, and the 
 magnanimous manner in which he directed himself 
 to the independence of Ireland, are incontestable 
 proofs of the purity of his soul". 
 
 " What a noble fellow", said Lord Byron, " was 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and what a romantic and 
 singular history his was ! If it were not too near 
 our times, it would make the finest subject in the 
 world for an historical novel". 
 
 The insurrection meanwhile, to which Earl Rus- 
 sell refers as one " wickedly provoked, rashly begun, 
 and cruelly crushed",* was hastening to maturity. 
 Dublin and Kildare were ripe for revolt : the moun- 
 tains of Wicklow the stronghold of Holt were like 
 slumbering volcanoes. A great object was to pro- 
 cure, near Dublin, a place of concealment for the chi- 
 valrous nobleman who had espoused the cause of the 
 down-trodden people ; and a widow lady, named Dil- 
 lon, who resided near Dolphin's Bam, undertook to 
 give him shelter. Before he had been two days in 
 the house, under an assumed name, an accident 
 revealed his real one to the servant man. In clean- 
 ing Lord Edward's boots he observed the noble 
 stranger's name and title written in full; and he 
 took occasion to tell his mistress that he knew who 
 was the guest upstairs, but that she need not fear, 
 as he would die in his defence. The lady, with 
 some anxiety, communicated the circumstance to 
 Lord Edward, who expressed a wish to see the 
 faithful adherent. "No", replied the servant;"! 
 won't go up or look at him, for if they should arrest 
 
 * Preface to Moore's If emoiVs, Tol. L, p. 18. ' ' 
 
120 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 I : . .,' 
 
 me, T can tlicn swear I never saw him or spoke 
 to him". 
 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald remained for five weeks 
 in this retreat, when his friends siijTi^ested the ox- 
 ])e(honcy of nMnovintj to tli> house ol a n;s|)0('tiihl(; 
 leather inoiehant, named Murphy, who rosidod in 
 Tliomas Street, Dublin. Aeeompanied by VVilliani 
 Lawless, wlio aftorwards rose to tlie rank of general 
 in the serviee of France, Lord Edward, wrapped in 
 a eountrynian's great eoat, arrived at Murphy's, 
 where he remained for several days, during whieh 
 time, dressed in female attire, lie visited his wife and 
 children in Den/ille Street. lie became by degrees 
 more callous to risk, and we find him, early in Rlay, 
 riding, attcmded by Neilson only, to reconnoitre 
 the line of advance from Kildare to Dublin. While 
 executing this perilous task, he was actually stopped 
 by the patrol at Palmerstown, but having, as Moore 
 alleges, plausibly passed for a doctor hurrying to the 
 relief of a sick patient, he was suIFered, with his 
 companion, to resume their jonrm^y. 
 
 In order to Ibil pursuit. Lord Edward was advised 
 to remain not more than a night or two at any one 
 house. Moore's and Murphy's, in Thomas Street, 
 and Gannoirs, in Corn Market, were the houses 
 which afforded him shelter. 
 
 The proclamation olfering a reward of one thou- 
 sand ]>ounds for such information as should lead to 
 Jjis apprehensiou luid now appean'd. On Awen- 
 sion Thursday, May 17lh, 171)8, Major Sirr "re- 
 ceived information", writes INIoore, "that a party 
 of persons, supposed to be Lord Edward Fitx- 
 gerald's body guard, Avould be on their way from 
 Thomas Street to Usher's Island that night". The 
 precise object or destination of this party, Moore 
 
THE ULOODJIOUNDS OF 'US- 1 1* t 
 
 :i(lJs, lias not been ascciiulnccl, but that it was siip- 
 ])osed Lord Edward Avas going to Moira House,* 
 on Usher's Island, the residence of Lord and Lady 
 Moini, Avlth a view to see his wife Pamela, wlio is 
 ]jc;liov(;d to hjivc; IXMMI then under tlicir lio.spitablo 
 roolif Lord JCdward's actual destination, however, 
 and we have been at no ordinary pains to ascertain 
 it, was the residence- of Mr. Francis Magan,'who 
 resided at 20 Usher's Island. 
 
 From the representative of the Moore family, 
 who gave Lord Edward ample shelter and protec- 
 tion when a thousand povmds lay on his head, we 
 have gathered the following valuable traditional 
 details ; and, as will be found, they are interwoven 
 with the history of the Sham Squire. A carpenter, 
 named Tuite, was at work in one of the apartments 
 oCMr. Secretary Cooke's ollice on May IGth, 1708. 
 While repairing tlie Iloor within the j'ecess of a 
 double door, he distinctly heard Mr. Cooke say, 
 that the house of James Aloore, 119 Thomas Street, 
 should be ibrthwith searched for pikes and traitors. 
 Tuite, who was imder some obligations to Moore, 
 with great presence of UTind, noiselessly wrenched 
 oir the hinge of the outer door, and asked permis- 
 sion to leave the Castle (or ten minutes in order to 
 ])urchase a new hinge in Kennedy's Lane. Leave 
 was given; but, instead of ooma 'tb -Vkt ironmonger's, 
 Tuite ran with immense Spee^~l:e> tlamcS Moore in 
 
 * Now the Mendicity Institution. j-' 
 
 t It is not quite cert.ain tlint Lady Edward Fitzgerald \vas, at 
 this time, at Moira House. Tlie Personal Recollections of 
 Jjord Clonciirry (2nd Edition, p. 130) rather favour an opposite 
 conclusion, by stating tliat " at the time of Lord Edward's ar- 
 rest, his wife, Pamela, had taken refuge witli my sisters, nnd 
 was at the time in my father's house in Merrion Street" 
 namely, Mornington House. 
 
-. .^- , -..;;--^r.:-j . ,;^ -^ 
 
 122 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 Thomas Street, gave the hint, and returned to his 
 work. Moore, who was deeply implicated, and had 
 a commissariat for five hundred men on the premises, 
 fled to the banks of the Boyne, near Drogheda, after 
 previously telling his daughter to provide for the 
 safety of Lord Edward, who was at that moment 
 up stairs. Miss Moore had a high respect and friend- 
 ship for Mr. Francis Magan and 'his sister, who re- 
 sided at 20 Usher's Island. He was a Roman Catholic 
 barrister, and had been a member of the Society of 
 United Irishmen, though from prudential motives 
 he had shortly before relinquished his, formal con- 
 nection with them, but it was understood that his 
 sympathies were still with the society. Miss Moore 
 obtained an interview with Mr. Magan. and un- 
 bosomed her anxiety to him. Mr. Magan, at no 
 time an impassionable or impulsive person, seemed 
 moved: he offered his house as a refuge for 
 Lord Edward'^ The proposal was accepted with 
 gratitude, and it was thereupon arranged that Lord 
 Edward, accompanied by Mrs. and Miss Moore, 
 Gallaher, and Palmer, should proceed that even- 
 ing from Moore's in Thomas Street, to Magan's on 
 Usher's Island. It was further astutely suggested by 
 Mr. Magan, that as so large a party knocking at his 
 hall door might attract suspicion, he would leave 
 ajar his stable door in Island Street, which lay im- 
 mediately at the rere, and thus open access through 
 the garden to his hoarse. Lord Edward, while under 
 Moore's roof, passed as the French tutor of Miss 
 Moore, who had been educated at Tours, and 
 they never spoke unless in French. On the pre- 
 text of being about to take a stroll through Gal- 
 way's Walk adjacent, then a popular lounge. Miss 
 jMoore, leaning on Lord Edward's arm, walked down 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98 123 
 
 Thomas Street at about half-past eight o'clock on 
 the evening of May 17th. They were preceded by 
 Mrs. Moore, Palmei-, and Gallaher, the latter a 
 confidential clerk in Moore's employ, a man of 
 Herculean frame, and one of Lord Edward's most 
 devoted disciples. Of the intended expedition to 
 Usher's Island the 'government early that day 
 received information. Thomas Moore, in his 
 diary of August 26, 1830, gives the following 
 particulars communicated on that day by Major 
 Sirr : " Two ways by which he (Lord Edward) 
 might have, come, either Dirty Lane or Watling 
 Street : Sirr divided his forces, and posted himself, 
 accompanied by Regan and Emerson, in Watling 
 Street, his two companions being on the other side 
 of the street. Seized the first of the party, and 
 found a sword, which he drew out, and this was the 
 saving of his life. Assailed by them all, and in 
 stepping back fell; they prodding at'liim. His two 
 friends made off. On his getting again on his legs, 
 two pistols were snapped at him, but missed fire, 
 and his assailants at last made off". 
 
 As explanatory of the Major's statement we may 
 observe that one of Lord Edward's bodyguard was 
 despatched usually about forty yards in advance. 
 Major Sirr speaks of men prodding at his prostrate 
 body, but does not tell that he wore a coat of mail 
 under his uniform. Gallaher used to say that he gave 
 the Major seven stabs, not one. of which penetrated. 
 'During the struggle Gallaher received from Sirr an 
 ugly cut on the leg, which subsequently furnished a 
 mark for identification. Meanwhile the rebel party 
 hurried back with their noble charge to Thomas 
 Street not to Moore's, but to the nearer residence 
 of Murphy, who had previously given his lordship 
 generous shelter. 
 
^ . . '^ 
 
 121 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' 
 
 The original letter which conveyed to Major Sirr 
 the information touching Lord Edward's intended 
 visit to Usher's Island, still exists among the " Sirr 
 MSS." deposited in the Library of Trinity College, 
 Dublin. The following copy, has been made by 
 Dr. Madden, who, however, seems to agree with 
 Thomas Moore, in the opinion that Lord Edward's 
 destination was Moira House. 
 
 " Lord Edward will be this evening in Watling 
 Street. Place a watch in Watling Street, two 
 houses up from Usher's Island;* another towards 
 Queen's bridge ;t a third in Island Street, at the rere 
 of the stables near Watling Street, and which leads 
 up to Thomas Street and Dirty Lane. At one of 
 these places Lord Edward will be found, and will 
 have one or two with him. They may be armed. 
 Send to Swan and Atkinson as soon as you can 
 
 " EDWARD COOKE". 
 
 Mr. Cooke does not tell Sirr from whom he got this 
 information; nor was the major,- so far as we know, 
 ever cognizant of it ; but a letter written by Cooke 
 for the eye of Lord Castlereagh, and printed in the 
 Cornwallis correspondence, states unreservedly that 
 all the information regarding the movements of Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald came through Francis Higgins, 
 who employed a gentleman for whose name Mr. 
 Cooke considerately gives a dash " to set" the un- 
 fortunate nobleman. The " setter" we believe to 
 
 * This precaution was obviously lest Lord Edward should 
 enter by the hall door on Usher's Island. W. J. F. 
 
 t Lest he should come by " Dirty Lane" instead of Watling 
 Street. Magan's is the second stable from Watling Street, 
 although his house on Usher's Island is the sixth from that 
 Street. W. J. F. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 125 
 
 have been Mr. Francis Magan, barrister-at-law, of 
 whom more anon. 
 
 Nicholas Murphy received his noble guest with 
 a cead mile failte;* but next morning both were 
 thrown into a state of alarm by observing a detach- 
 ment of military pass down the street, and halt before 
 Moore's door.f The source from whence the espionage 
 proceeded has hitherto remained a dark and painful 
 mystery. Murphy hurried Lord Edward to the 
 roof of the warehouse, and with some difficulty per- 
 suaded him to lie in the valley. 
 
 To return to Mr. Francis Magan. On the day 
 following his interview with Miss Moore, he pro- 
 ceeded to her residence in Thomas Street, and with a 
 somewhat careworn expression, which then seemed 
 the result of anxiety for Lord Edward's safety, 
 though it was probably occasioned by bitter chagrin 
 at being baulked in a profitable job, said: " I hav^ 
 been most uneasy : did anything happen ? I waited 
 up till one o'clock, and Lord Edward did not 
 come". Miss Moore, who, although a woman of 
 great strength of mind, did not then suspect Magan, 
 replied : " We were stopped by Major Sirr in Watling 
 Street; we ran back to Thomas Street, where 
 we most providentially succeeded in getting Lord 
 Edward shelter at Murphy's".J Mr. Magan was 
 consoled by the explanation, and withdrew. 
 
 * Anglice A hundred thousand ^relcomes. 
 
 t For curious traditional details in connection with this inci- 
 dent see Mr. Macready's statement, Appendix F. 
 
 t Communicated by Edward Macready, Esq., son of Miss 
 Moore, May 17, 1865. Miss Moore, afterwards Mrs. Macready, 
 died in 1844. One of her last remarks was: " Charity forbade 
 me to express a suspicion which J have long entertained, tliat 
 Magan was the Betrayer; but when I see Moore, in his Life of 
 Lord Edward, insinuating that Neilson was a Judas, I can no 
 
126 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND ! 
 
 The friends who best knew Magan, describe him 
 as a queer combination of pride and bashfulness, 
 dignity and decorum, nervousness and inflexibility. 
 tijs obviously did not like to go straight to the Castle 
 and sell Lord Edward's blood openly. There is 
 good evidence to believe that he confided all the 
 information to Francis Higgins, with whom it will 
 be shown the Magan family were peculiarly inti- 
 mate, and deputed him, under a pledge of strict 
 secresy, to make a good bargain with Mr. Under- 
 secretary Cooke. 
 
 After Lord Edward had spent a few hours lying 
 in the valley of the roof of Murphy's house he ven- 
 tured to come down. The unfortunate nobleman had 
 been suffering from a sore throat and cold, and gene- 
 ral debility, and his appearance was sadly altered 
 for the worse. He was reclining, half dressed, upon 
 fibed, about to drink some whey which Murphy had 
 prepared for him, when Major Swan, followed by 
 Captain Ryan at some distance behind, peeped in at 
 the door. " You know me,my lord, and I know you", 
 exclaimed Swan, "it will be vain to resist".* Thif 
 logic did not convince Lord Edward. He spran<|' 
 from the bed like a tiger from his lair, and with a 
 wave-bladed dagger, which he had concealed under 
 the pillow, made some stabs at the intruder, but 
 without as yet inflicting mortal injury. j 
 
 remain silent. Major Sirr got timely information that 
 we were going to Usher's Island. Now this intention was known 
 only to Magan and me; even Lord Edward did not know our 
 destination until just before starting. If Magan is innocent, 
 then I am the informer". The Cornwallis Papers had not then 
 appeared, furnishing a link which, although useless separately, 
 powertully tends to corroborate Miss Moore's suspicion. 
 
 * The Express, May 2(>t\i, 1798. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 127 
 
 An authorized version of the arrest, evidently 
 supplied by Swan himself, appears in the Express of 
 May 26th, 1798, and goes on to say: " His lordship 
 then closed upon Mr. Swan, shortened the dagger, 
 and gave him a stab in the side, under the left arm 
 and breast, having first changed it from one hand 
 to the other over his shoulder (as Mr. Swan thinks). 
 Finding the blood running from him, and the im- 
 possibility to restrain him, he was compelled, in 
 defence of his life", adds Swan's justification, " to 
 discharge a double-barrelled pistol at his lordship, 
 which wounded him in the shoulder : he fell on the 
 bed, but, recovering himself, ran at him with the 
 dagger, which Mr. Swan caught by the blade with 
 one hand, and endeavoured to trip him up". Captain 
 Ryan, with considerable animation, then proceeded 
 to attack Lord Edward with a sword cane, which 
 bent on his ribs. Sirr, who had between two and 
 three hundred men with him, was engaged in 
 placing pickets round the house, when the report of 
 Swan's pistol made him hurry upstairs to his relief. 
 "On my arrival in view of Lord Edward, Ryan, 
 and Swan", writes Major Sirr, in a letter addressed 
 to Captain Ryan's son, on December 29th, 1838, " I 
 beheld his lordship standing, with a dagger in his 
 hand, as if ready to plunge it into my friends, while 
 dear Ryan, seated on the bottom step of the flight 
 of the upper stairs, had Lord Edward grasped with 
 both his arms by the legs or thighs, and Swan in a 
 somewhat similar situation, both labouring under 
 the torment of their wounds, when, without hesita- 
 tion, I fired at Lord Edward's dagger arm, [lodging 
 several slugs in his shoulder,] and the instrument of 
 death fell to the ground. Having secured the 
 titled prisoner, my first concern was for your dear 
 
128 THE SHAM SQUIBE, AND 
 
 father's safety. I viewed his intestines with grief and 
 
 sorrow".* 
 
 Not until a strong guard of soldiery pressed 
 Lord Edward violently to the ground by laying 
 their heavy muskets across his person, could he be 
 bound in such a way as prevented further effective 
 resistance.! When they had brought the noble 
 prisoner, however, as far as the hall,t he made a 
 renewed effort at escape, when a dastardly drummer 
 from behind inflicted a wound in the back of his 
 neck, which contributed to embitter the remain- 
 ing days of his existence. He was then removed 
 in a sedan to the Castle. 
 
 The entire struggle occupied so short an interval, 
 that Rattigan, who, the moment he received intima- 
 tion of the arrest, rushed forth to muster the popu- 
 lace, in order to rescue Lord Edward, had not time 
 to complete his arrangements. Rattigan was a re- 
 spectable timber merchant, residing with his mother, 
 a widow, in Bridgefoot Street. In Higgins's 
 Journal of the day, we read : 
 
 " A number of pikes were yesterday (Monday) 
 discovered at one Rattigan's timber-yard in Dirty 
 Lane ; as a punishment for which his furniture was 
 
 * Castlereaph's Correspondence, vol. i., pp. 463-'4. 
 
 t Moore's Life of Lord dwaj d Fitzgerald. 
 
 i Moore's Diary, vol. vi., p. 134. 
 
 " Recollections of the Arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald". 
 The Comet (Newspaper), Sept. 11, 1831 (p. 152). 
 
 The original Proclamation is now before us, offering a reward 
 of 300 for the " discovery" of liattigan. Lawless, and others. 
 Eattigan escaped, entered th French service, and died at the 
 Battle of Marengo. Lawless, the attached friend and agent of 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, after undergoing a series of romantic 
 adventures, also succeeded in eluding the grasp of his pursuers, 
 and rose to the rank of General under Napoleon. For the 
 account of Lawless's escape from Dublin, furnished by the only 
 party competent to detail it, see Addenda G. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 129 
 
 brought out into the street, and set fire to and 
 consumed". 
 
 It does not seem to have been the wish of the 
 higher members of the government, that Lord 
 Edward should have fallen into the hands of their 
 myrmidons. " Will no one urge Lord Edward to 
 fly ?" exclaimed Lord Clare. " I pledge myself that 
 every port in the kingdom shall be left open to him". 
 
 It is not possible to overrate the fatal severity of 
 the blow, which Lord Edward's arrest at that critical 
 moment imparted to the popular movement. Had 
 he lived to guide the insurrection which he had 
 organised, his prestige and eminent military talents 
 would probably have carried it to a successful issue. 
 Four days after his arrest, three out of thirty-two 
 counties rose; and to extinguish even that partial 
 revolt, cost the government twenty-two milhons of 
 pounds, and twenty thousand men. 
 
 The late Lord Holland furnishes, in his Me- 
 moirs^ many interesting illustrations of Lord Ed- 
 ward's sweet and gentle disposition : 
 
 " With the most unaffected simplicity and good 
 nature, he would palliate, from the force of circum- 
 stances or the accident of situation, the perpetrators 
 of the very enormities which had raised his high 
 spirit and compassionate nature to conspire and 
 resist. It was this kindness of heart that led him, 
 on his death-bed, to acquit the oflSicer who inflicted 
 his wounds of all malice, and even to commend 
 him for an honest discharge of his duty. It was 
 this sweetness of disposition that enabled him to 
 dismiss with good humoiir one of his bitterest per- 
 secutors, who had visited him in his mangled 
 condition, if not to insult his misfortunes, with the 
 idle hope of extorting his secret. ' I would shake 
 , ' . . ' ' '. . .- ,, 9:-,.. -. 
 
130 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 liands willingly with you', said he, ' but mine are 
 cut to pieces. However, I '11 shake a toe, and wish 
 you good bye' ". 
 
 " Gentle when stroked, but fierce when pro- 
 voked", has been applied to Ireland. The phrase 
 is also applicable, in some degree, to her chivalrous 
 son, who had already bled for his king as he had 
 afterwards bled for his country.* Murphy's narra- 
 tive, supplied to Dr. Madden, says : 
 
 " It was supposed, the evening of the day before he 
 died, he was delirious, as we could hear him with a 
 very strong voice crying out, ' Come on ! come on ! 
 d n you, come on !' He spoke so loud that the 
 people in the street gathered to listen to it". 
 
 Two surgeons attended daily on Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald.f 
 
 This delirium is said to have been induced by the 
 grossly indecent neglect to which his feelings were 
 subjected by the Irish government. Lord Henry 
 'Fitzgerald, addressing the heartless viceroy. Lord 
 Camden, " complains that his relations were ex- 
 cluded, and old attached servants withheld from at- 
 tending on him". 
 
 * To his wounds received in active service, and his ability 
 as a military officer, C. J. Fox bore testimony in the House of 
 Commons on the 21st December, 1792. Cobbett said that Lord 
 Edward was the only officer of untarnished personal honour whom 
 lie had ever known. Even that notoriously systematic traduccr 
 of the Irish popular party. Sir Richard Musgrave, was con- 
 strained to praise Lord Edward's " great valour, and consider- 
 able abilities", " honour and humanity' , " frankness, courage, 
 and good nature". 
 
 t One of the surgeons was Sir. Garnett, who, in a diary 
 devoted to his noble patient, noted several interesting facts. 
 Lord Edward manifested great religious feeling, and asked Mr. 
 Garnett to read the Holy Scriptures to him. We are informed by 
 ]\Ir. Colles, Librarian of the Royal Dublin Society, that this 
 J\1S. is now in -his possession. i 
 
THE BLOODHODNDS OF '98. 131 
 
 Epistolary entreaty was followed by personal sup- 
 plication. 
 
 " Lady Louisa Conolly", writes Mr. Grattan, 
 " in vain implored him, and stated that while they 
 were talking, her nephew might expire ; at last she 
 threw herself on her kness, and in a flood of tears, 
 supplicated at his feet, and prayed that he would re- 
 lent; but Lord Camden remained inexorable".* 
 
 Lord Henry Fitzgerald's feelings found a vent in 
 a letter, addressed to Lord Camden, of which the 
 strongest passages have been suppressed by that 
 peer's considerate friend, Thomas Moore: 
 
 " On Saturday my poor, forsaken brother, who 
 had but that night and the next day to live, was 
 disturbed; he heard the noise of the execution of 
 Clinch at the prison door. He asked eagerly, 
 'What noise is that?' And certainly, in some 
 manner or other, he knew it ; for O God ! what 
 am I to write ? from that time he lost his senses : 
 most part of the night he was raving mad ; a keeper 
 from a madhouse was necessary".! 
 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald died in great agony, 
 mental and bodily, on the 4th of June, 1798, and 
 was deposited in the vaults of St. Werburgh's 
 Church. Hereby hangs a tale, which will be found 
 in the Appendix.! 
 
 * Memoirs of Henry Grattan, vol. iv. p. 887. 
 t Moore's Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitr.gtrald, vol. 
 ii. p. 160. 
 
 I Appendix H. ' 
 
132 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 CHAPTER VI. ! 
 
 A secr,et well kept. The " setter" of Lord Edward at last 
 traced. Striking in the dark. Roman Catholic barris- 
 ters pensioned. A lesson of caution. Letter to the author 
 from Rev. John Fetherston-Haugh. Just debts paid with 
 wages of dishonour. Secret service money. An ally of " tli 
 Sham's" analysed. What were the secret services of Francis 
 Magan, barrister-at-law ? Shrouded secrets opened. 
 
 " ONE circumstance", says a writer, " is worthy of 
 especial notice. Like Junius, an unfathomed niy&- 
 tery prevails as to wlio it was that betrayed Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, and received the reward of one 
 thousand pounds".* 
 
 When one remembers the undying interest and 
 sympathy which has so long been interwoven with 
 the name of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, it is indeed 
 surprising that for sixty-one years the name of the 
 person who received one thousand pounds for dis- 
 covering him should have not transpired.f The 
 secret must have been known to many persons in the 
 Castle and the Executive ; yet even when the cir- 
 cumstance had grown so old as to become the legiti- 
 mate property of history, they could not be induced 
 to relax their reserve. Whenever any inquisitive 
 student of the stormy period of '98 would ask Major 
 Sirr to tell the name of Lord Edward's betrayer, the 
 Major invariably drew forth his ponderous snuff-box, 
 inhaled a prodigious pinch, and solemnly turned the 
 conversation. Thomas Moore, when engaged upon 
 the Life and Death 6f Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 
 made two special visits to Ireland for the purpose of 
 
 * Castlereagh Correspondence, vol. i., p. 468, First series. 
 
 t Francis Higgins received the 1,000 for having -pointed out 
 Lord Edward's retreat, but recent inquiries on the part of the 
 author have ascertained that Counsellor Magan betrayed Lord 
 Edward to Higgins. 
 
BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 133 
 
 procuring on the spot all the sadly interesting par- 
 ticulars of his lordship's short but striking career. The 
 Castle was then occupied by an Irish Whig adminis- 
 tration, but, notwithstanding Moore's influence with 
 them, and their sympathy, more or less, with the hero 
 whose memory he was about to embalm, he failed to 
 elicit the peculiar information in which the Castle 
 archives and library were rich. In 1841 Dr. Madden 
 was somewhat more fortunate. He obtained access 
 to a number of receipts for secret service money, as 
 well as to a book, found under strange circumstances, 
 in which the various sums and the names of the 
 parties to whom paid are entered. But perhaps the 
 most interesting entrjr was written in a way to de- 
 feat the ends of historic curiosity. 
 
 In the book of Secret Service Money Expendi- 
 ture, now in the possession of Charles Haliday, 
 Esq.,* the entry "June 20th [1 798] , F. H. Discovery , 
 of L. E. F. 1,000", appears on record. The re- 
 searches of one of the most indefatigable of men 
 proved, in this instance, vain. " The reader", says 
 
 * Doctor - has given us the following account of the dis- 
 covery of this document : " When Lord Mulgrave, since 
 Marquis of Normanby, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, some 
 official in Dublin Castle cleared out and sold a quantity of 
 books and papers, which were purchiised in one lot by John 
 Feagan, a dealer in second-hand books, who had, as his place of 
 business, a cellar at the corner of Henry Street. I had the op- 
 portunity of examining the entire collection, but, not being 
 much of a politician, I only selected two volumes, Wade's 
 
 Catalogue of the plants of the County Dublin, smA the Catalogue 
 of the Pinelli Library, sold in London A.P. 1789, which I bought 
 for Is. 6d. They, and the others of the collection, had each a 
 red leather label, on which in large gilt capitals was impressed, 
 ' Library, Dublin Castle'. Among them was the MS. account 
 of the expenditure of the Secret Servicte money, and of which J 
 was the first to point out the possible value when it was about to 
 be thrown, with various useless and imperfect books, into waste 
 paper". 
 
134 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 Dr. Madden, "has been furnished with sufficient 
 data to enable him to determine whether the ini- 
 tials were used to designate Hughes, or some other 
 individual; whether the similarity of the capital 
 letters J and F, in the handwriting, may admit or 
 not of one letter being mistaken for another, the F 
 for a J ; or whether a correspondent of Sirr's, who 
 sometimes signed himself J. H., and whose name 
 was Joel Hulbert, an informer, residing in 1798 in 
 Monasterevan, may have been indicated by them".* 
 Watty Cox declared that Laurence Tighe, to 
 whose house the bleeding body of Ryan was bome 
 after Lord Edward's an-est, had played the spy; 
 while, on the other hand. Dr. Brennan, in his Mile 
 sian Magazine, broadly charged Cox with the per- 
 fidy. Murphy, an honest, simple-minded man, in 
 wiiose house Lord Edward was taken, has not been 
 exempted from suspicion. The late eminent anecdo- 
 tist, Mr. P. Brophy, of Dublin, used to tell that Lord 
 Edward's concealment became known " through an 
 artilleryman who was courting Murphy's servant 
 girl" ; but Thomas Moore unintentionally disturbs 
 this story, which never reached his ears, by saying 
 "an old maid-servant was the only person in 
 Murphy's house besides themselves". I'he memory of 
 Samuel Meilson, one of the truest disciples who fol- 
 lowed the patriot peer, suffered from a dark inuendo 
 advanced in Moore's Life of Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald^ and echoed by Maxwell (p. 47), in his His- 
 tory of the Irish Rebellion. To one of the most 
 honourable of Lord Edward's followers, Charles 
 Phillips, under an erroneous impression, refers in a 
 startling note attached (p. 288) to the last edition 
 of Curran and his Contemporaries, He professes 
 * Madden's Lives and Times of the U. I. Men, v. ii. p. 443. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF 
 
 to know the secret, and adds: *' He was to the last, 
 apparently, the attached friend of his victim". In a 
 memoir oif O'Connell, from the pen of the late Mark 
 O'Callaghan, it is stated in positive terms (p. 32) that 
 John Hughes received the thousand pounds for the 
 betrayal of Lord Edward. The son and biographer 
 of the notorious Reynolds writes (v. ii. p. 194): 
 " The United Irishmen, and their partizans, es- 
 pecially Mr. Moore, emboldened by the distance 
 of time and place, have insinuated that my father 
 was the person who caused the arrest of Lord Ed- 
 ward". Further on, at p. 234, Mr. Reynolds flings 
 the onus of suspicion on Murphy, while Murphy in 
 his own account of the transaction says : " I heard 
 in prison that one of Lord Edward's bodyguard had 
 given some information". Again, Felix Rourke was 
 suspected of the infidelity, and narrowly escaped 
 death at the hands of his comrades. Suspicion also 
 followed William Ogilvie, Esq., who, as a near con- 
 nection, visited Lord Edward at Moore's, in Thomas 
 Street, a few days before the arrest, and transacted 
 some business with him.* Interesting as it is, 
 after half a century's speculation, to discover the 
 name of the real informer, it is still more satis- 
 factory that those unjustly suspected of the act 
 should be finally acquitted from it. It is further use- 
 ful as teaching a lesson of caution to those who, 
 blindfold, strike right and left at friend and foe.f 
 
 * When Miss Moore heard this dark suspicion started, she 
 faid, " If so, I know not whom to trust. I saw Lord Edward 
 take a ring from his finger and press it on Mr. Ogilvie as a 
 keepsake. Tears fell from Ogilvie's eyes as he grasped Lord 
 Edward's hand" Tradition of the Moore Family. 
 
 t Never was stronger anxiety expressed to trace an informer, 
 or fiercer maledictions hurled at his head. One stirring ballad 
 descriptive of the arrest and death of Lord Edward, says : 
 
136 THE SHAM SQUraE, AKD j 
 
 One of the most valuable letters printed by Mr. 
 Ross in his Memoirs and Correspondence of Mar- 
 quis Comwallis (v. iii. p. 320) is that addressed by 
 Secretary Cooke to his Excellency, in which Mr. 
 Francis Higgins and others are recommended as 
 fit recipients for a share in the 1,500 per an- 
 num, -which in 1799 had been placed for secret ser- 
 vice in the hands of Lord Cornwallis. " My occu- 
 pation", writes this nobleman on 8th June, 1799, " is 
 now of the most unpleasant nature, negotiating and 
 jobbing with the most corrupt people under Heaven. 
 I despise myself every hour for engaging in such 
 dirty work". And again : " How I long to kick those 
 whom my public duty obliges me to court". It may 
 be premised that "Mac" is Leonard McNally, the 
 legal adviser and advocate of the United Irishmen. 
 His opportunities for stagging were great, as, besides 
 being a United Irishman nimself, his name may be 
 found for the defence in almost every state trial from 
 Rowan's to that of the Catholic Delegates in 1811.* 
 M'Gucken, the third name mentioned, was the so- 
 licitor to the United Irishmen. 
 
 i; 
 " PENSIONS TO LOYALISTS. 
 
 *' I submit to your lordship on this head the fol- 
 lowing : First, that Mac should have a pension 
 
 of 300. He was not much trusted in the Rebellion, 
 and I believe, has been faithful. Francis Higgins, 
 
 " May Heaven scorch and parch the tongue by which his life 
 
 was sold, 
 And shriTel up the hand that clutched the proffer'd meed of 
 
 gold: 
 
 May treachery for ever be the traitor's lot on earth, 
 From the kith and kin arouud him, in his bei and at his 
 
 hearth". , , 
 
 See Addenda K. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 137 
 
 proprietor of the Freeman^ s Journal^ was the person 
 who procured for me all the intelligence respecting 
 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and got to set him, 
 
 and has given me much information, 300".* 
 
 Mr. Under-Secretary Cooke and Francis Higgina 
 were old acquaintances. The former came to Ire- 
 land in 1778 with Sir Richard Heron, chief secre- 
 tary under Lord Buckinghamshire, and havin^ effi- 
 ciently acted as his clerk, was appointed military 
 secretary in 1789, and obtained a seat in the Irish 
 Parhament.f During the Rutland administration Mr. 
 Cooke contributed papers to the JF'reeman^s Journal 
 " under the auspices of the Sham Squire" ; one, en- 
 titled The Sentinel, acquired some historic notoriety .J 
 Mr. Cooke's services were further rewarded by the 
 office of Clerk of Commons with 800 a year, as well 
 as by the lucrative sinecure of Customer of Kinsale. 
 
 At a later period he became secretary to the trea- 
 sury and under-secretary of state in the war and 
 colonial department. For some account of Mr. 
 Cooke's extraordinarily active and wily services in 
 promoting the legislative Union, see notice of Mr. 
 Trench, Addenda J. 
 
 * 
 
 Before we had thoroughly succeeded in unshroud- 
 ing Mr. Magan's share in the betrayal of Lord 
 Edward, the following and many more remarks, 
 tracing it on circumstantial evidence, were in type : 
 
 * It is strange that Mr. Eoss, who has generally exhibited such 
 vigilance and research as editor of the Cornwallis Papers, should 
 print such a note as the following (v. ii. p. 339) : " The man 
 who gave the information which led to his arrest received 1,000, 
 but his name has never transpired", 
 t Castlereagh Correspondence, v. i. p. 113. ' 
 J Irish Political Characters, Lond. 1799, p. 130. 
 
138 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 L 
 
 The considerate and cautious way in which Mr. 
 Cooke leaves a blank for the name of the individual 
 who performed the office of " setter", at the instance 
 of Higgins, suggests that he must have been a per- 
 son of some station in society, and one whose pros- 
 pects and peace of mind might suifer, were he pub- 
 licly known to have tracked Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald to destruction.* Mr. Cooke also leaves 
 a blank for the name of Leonard MacNally, whose 
 guilt did not transpire fully until after his death in 
 1820 ; but since then it has been but too notorious. 
 
 In the first volume of the second edition of Dr. 
 Madden's United Irishmen^ he furnishes, from page 
 364, an interesting account of "the Secret Ser- 
 vice Money expended in detecting treasonable con- 
 spiracies, extracted from original official documents". 
 At page 393 we leam that Mr. Francis Magan, a 
 Roman Catholic barrister, not only received large 
 sums down, but enjoyed to his death an annual 
 pension of 200. On the back of all Mr. Magan's 
 receipts, the Chief Secretary has appended a memo- 
 randum implying that Mr. Magan belonged to a 
 class who did not wish to criminate openly, but 
 stagged M& rosa. Dr. Madden remarks: " Coun- 
 sellor Francis Magan's services to government, what- 
 ever they were, were well rewarded. Besides his 
 secret pension of 200 a-year, he enjoyed a lucra- 
 tive oflScial situation in the Four Courts up to the 
 time of his decease. He was one of the commis- 
 sioners for enclosing commons". 
 
 In reply to an application addressed by us to an 
 
 * An old friend of Mr. Magan's informs us that he nsixed in 
 jrdod society and held his head high. The same informant adds 
 iliat he was stiff, reserved, and consequential; he often served 
 with Magan on Catholic Boards, where, owing to these causes, 
 he was not a favourite. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 139 
 
 old friend of Mr. Magan's, it has been urged that 
 the fact of his having received a pension from 
 the crown is no presumptive evidence of secret 
 service' at the period of '98, inasmuch as nearly- 
 all " the Catholic barristers were similarly pur- 
 chased, including Counsellors Donnellan, Mac- 
 Kenna, Lynch, and Bellew". Unluckily, however, 
 for this argument, we find the following data in that 
 valuable collection of state papers, the Comwallis 
 Correspondence, v. iii. p. 106: "In 1798", writes 
 Mr. Ross, " a bill passed to enable the Lord Lieute- 
 nant (Lord Comwallis) to grant pensions to the 
 amount of 3,000, as a recompense to persons who 
 had rendered essential services to the state during 
 the rebellion. This sum was to be paid to the 
 under secretary, through whose hands it was confi- 
 dentially to pass. By a warrant, dated June 23rd, 
 1799, it was divided as follows*: 
 Thomas Reynolds, his wife, and two sons* 1,000 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Cope, and her three daughtersf 1,000 
 John Warneford Armstrong! ... 500 
 
 Mrs. Ryan, widow of D. F. Ryan, and his 
 
 daughters ... ... ... 200 
 
 . FEANCIS MAGAN, ,,. ... 200 
 
 2,900 
 Balance to pay fees, etc. ... 100 
 
 3,000" 
 
 The counsellor's is the only name in this list which 
 Secretary Cooke inscribes with a prefix of courtesy, 
 
 * The wholesale betrayer of his associates, 
 t Wife of Mr. Cope, " who managed Reynolds", 
 t Betrayer of John and Henry Sheares. 
 Mr Ryan, who aided ia the arrest of Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald. 
 
140 THE SHAM SQUIEE, AND 
 
 and, no doubt, he was the mysterious gentle- 
 man whom Francis Higgins^ urged to "set" Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald. Between the Magan family 
 and Mr. Higgins a close intimacy subsisted for 
 many years. The barrister's father was the late 
 Thomas Magan of High Street, woollen-draper, tra- 
 ditionally known by the sobriquet of " Whistling 
 Tom".* In the Dublin Directory for 1770, his 
 name and occupation appear for the first time. So 
 far back as June 30, 1789, we find it recorded in 
 the Dublin Evening Post that " yesterday Mr. 
 Magan of High Street, entertained Mr. Francis 
 Higgins" and others. " The glass circulated freely, 
 and the evening was spent with the utmost festivity 
 and sociality". The Post in conclusion ironically 
 calls him " Honest Tom Magan". By degrees we 
 find Mr. Tom Magaij dabbling in government poli- 
 tics. The Evening Post of November 5th, 1789, 
 records : 
 
 " Mr. Magan, the woollen-draper, in High Street, in 
 conjunction with his friend Mr. Higgins, are preparing 
 ropes and human brutes to drag the new viceroy to 
 the palace. It was Mr. Magan and the Sham Squire 
 who provided the materials for the triumphal entry of 
 Lord Buckingham into the capital. Quere Should 
 not the inhabitants of Dublin who had their windows 
 broke on that glorious illumination order their glaziers 
 to entreat Mr. Magan and Mr. Higgins to cast an eye 
 on. the tots? Mr. Magan is really clever, and never 
 has flinched in his partiality and attention to the cause 
 of Mr. Francis Higgins Mr. Magan has the honour, 
 and that frequently, to dine Messrs. Higgins, Daly, 
 Brennan, and Houlton. j 
 
 * The draper's father was "James Magan, apothecary, Skin- 
 ner's Row", as we gather from a copy of the Dublin Directory 
 for 1769, in which an old man's hand-writing adds aunota- 
 tively, " Counsellor Magan's grandfather". 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 141 - 
 
 The last two named, it will be remembered, were 
 the Sham Squire's colleagues on the Freeman's 
 Journal. 
 
 The Post further instances an act of great friend- 
 ship which Mr. Magan performed with a view to 
 serve Mr. Higgins. And there is good reason to 
 believe that the Sham Squire was not unmindful of 
 those services. In the Directory for 1794 we find 
 Mr. Tom Magan styled " woollen-draper and mer- 
 cer to his Majesty" a very remarkable instance of 
 state favour towards any Roman Catholic trader at 
 that period of sectarian prejudice and ascendancy. 
 George III., however, gave Mr. Magan no custom, 
 and he died poor in 1797. With his son, who was 
 called to the bar in Michaelmas Term 1796, Mr. 
 Higgins continued to maintain a friendly intercourse. 
 From the year 1796 Francis Magan resided with 
 his sister until his death in 1843, at 20 Usher^s 
 Island. From the Castlereagli Papers (i. 459) we 
 leam that Mr. Secretary Cooke received positive 
 information of these movements of Lord Edward in 
 the vicinity of Usher's Island, which preceded the 
 final intelligence which led to his arrest some days 
 afterwards in Thomas Street. Mr. Cooke's letter 
 assures the viceroy that all the information respec- 
 ting Lord Edward had come from Francis Higgins, 
 who got some gentleman, for whose name the 
 under-secretary considerately gives a dash, " to set" 
 the unfortunate young nobleman. 
 
 Mr. Higgins at once claimed his blood-money, and ' 
 on the 20th June, 1798, we find that one thousand 
 pounds were paid to him. How much of this sum 
 was given by the Sham Squire to his friend " the 
 setter", or what previous agreement there may have 
 been between them, will probably never be known. 
 
142 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 We are rather disposed to suspect that Higgins 
 tricked his tongue -tied colleague by pocketing the 
 lion's share himself. Magan, by right, ought to 
 have received the advertised reward of 1,000 ; but 
 it appears from the Government records that this 
 round sum went into Higgins's hand conjointly 
 with a pension of 300 a year " for the discovery of 
 L. E. F." Magan obtained but 200 a year for 
 the information of which Higgins was merely the 
 channel ; though later in life he received office, and 
 sums for other discoveries. In 1799 an act was 
 passed, placing a considerable sum at the viceroy's 
 disposal, for the reward of secret services during the 
 rebellion. Francis Magan is the only important 
 member of the suborned staff of stags whose secret 
 services until now have been historically unac- 
 counted for. In the long array of items extracted 
 by Dr. Madden from the Secret Service Book, 
 per affidavit of Mr. Cooke, we find under date 
 " September 11, 1800", 
 
 " Magan, per Mr. Higgins, . . 300". 
 
 The sums of 500 and 100 were afterwards 
 privately presented to Mr. Magan, pursuant to the 
 provisions of the Civil List Act, which placed 
 money in the hands of the viceroy " for the detec- 
 tion of treasonable conspiracies". These douceurs 
 were, of course, in addition to the payments made 
 quarterly to Mr. Magan for the term of his natural 
 life, and for which his receipts still exist.* 
 
 Mr. Magan possessed peculiar facilities, local and 
 otherwise, for " setting" the movements of Lord 
 
 * One, by way of specimen, taken from the Lives and Times 
 of the United Irishmen, v. i. 393, is siibjoiued : 
 " licceived from William Gregory, Esq., by William Taj-lor, 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 143 
 
 Edward Fitzgerald and tlie United Irishmen who 
 habitually met in Con MacLaughlin's house, at 13 
 Usher's Island. Lady Edward, as we leam from 
 Moore's Memoirs, was at Moira House, close to Mr. 
 Magan's residence, while his lordship lay concealed 
 in Thomas Street adjacent. 
 
 Francis Magan, who became a member of the 
 Irish bar in 1796, found himself briefless, and with- 
 out " connection" or patrimony. A drowning man, 
 't is said, will catch at a straw ; and we have seen 
 how he turned to mercenary account peculiar know- 
 ledge which he acquired. Yet he would seem to 
 have made a false conscience, for with the wages 
 of dishonour, fie paid his just debts. The following 
 letter, addressed to us by the Rev. John Fethers- 
 ton-Haugh, is not without interest. It has been 
 argued by one of the friends of Mr. Magan, in re- 
 ply to a personal expression of our suspicion, that 
 he who would do the one would scom to do the 
 other; but it must be remembered that Mr. Magan, 
 subsequent to '98, was on the high-road to riches, and 
 wliile the bond, to which he was a party, existed, 
 he was, of course, legally liable. 
 
 " Griffinstown House, Einnegad. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, In reply to your letter, respect- 
 ing Mr. Francis Magan, I beg to say that my grand- 
 father, Thomas Fetherston, of Bracket Castle, was 
 in the habit, for years, of lodging in High Street, 
 Dublin, at the house of Thomas Magan, a draper, 
 and departed this life in his house. My father, on 
 inspecting my grandfather's papers, found a joint 
 
 Esq., fifty pounds sterling, for the quarter, to 24th December 
 last. 
 
 " Dublin, January 22, 1816. " F. MAGAN". 
 
 "Endorsed by Secretary of the Lord Lieutenant, 
 
 " January, 1816, ^650, S. A. F. MAGAN". 
 
144 THE SHAM SQUIKE, AND 
 
 bond from the draper and his son for 1,000, 
 and on speaking to the draper respecting its pay- 
 ment, he told him he was insolvent,* so my father 
 put it into his desk, counting it waste paper. Some 
 years elapsed, and the son came to Bracket Castle, 
 my father's residence, and asked for the bond, ' for 
 what?' said my father. To his astonishment, he said 
 it was to pay it. I was then but a boy, but I can 
 now almost see the strange scene, it made so great 
 an impression on me. Often my father told me 
 Magan paid the 1,000, and he could not conceive 
 where he got it, as he never held a brief in court. 
 He was puzzled why the crown gave him place and 
 pension. Believe me, etc., 
 
 " I. FETHERSTON H. 
 
 As we have already said, in the official account of 
 Civil Service Money expended in detecting treason- 
 able conspiracies, the item, ] 
 
 " September 11, 1800, Magan per Mr. Higgins, 300", 
 
 arrests attention. In the hope that Higgins' 
 journal of the day would announce some special 
 discovery of treason, tending to explain the circum- 
 stances under which the above douceur of 300 was 
 given, we consulted the files, but found nothing 
 tending to throw a light on the matter, unless the 
 following paragraphs published in the issues of 
 August 12th and of September 9th, 1800: 
 
 " Yesterday Major Swan took into custody a person 
 named M'Cormick,t who is well known in the seditious 
 
 * The statement was doubtless correct. No will of Thomas 
 Magan was proved in the Irish Probate Court. 
 
 t P. M'Cormick, a " noted" rebel, is mentioned in Madden's 
 United Irishmen, i. 519, as residing in High Street. Did Mr. 
 Magan's long residence in High Street furnish him with any 
 lacilities for tracing this man ? 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 145 
 
 circle, and lodged him in the guard house of the Castle. 
 He wore a green riband in his breast which had a 
 device wrought upon it of two hands fraternally united 
 by a grip, which, he said, was the badge of a new (it is 
 supposed Erin-Go-Brach) Order". 
 
 The second paragraph refers to " recent discove- 
 ries" in general terms only, but the style is amusing. 
 
 " Some of these offenders who were concerned in the 
 late conspiracies with United Irishmen, to whom the 
 lenity of Government had extended amnesty on assu- 
 ranees of their becoming iiseful and proper subjects, 
 having been recently discovered from their malignant 
 tongues to be miscreants unworthy of the mercy and 
 support extended to them, from their continual applauses 
 of the common foe and his friends, and their maligning 
 the first characters in the government and their 
 measures, it is intended to dispose of these vipers, not 
 as was at first intended, but in a manner that their per- 
 fidy and ingratitude merit". 
 
 Besides his pension of 200 a year and a place 
 under the crown, given in recognition of secret 
 services, Mr. Francis Magan further received, on 
 December 15th, 1802, as appears from the ac- 
 count of secret service money expenditure, 500 in 
 hand. This round sum, it is added, was given 
 " by direction of Mr. Orpen". The secret service for 
 which 500 was paid must have been one of no 
 ordinary importance. Conjecture is narrowed as to 
 the particular nature of the service by the heading 
 of the document, i.e. " Account of secret service 
 money applied in detecting treasonable conspiracies 
 pursuant to the provisions of the Civil List Act of 
 1793". A study of the historical events of the time, 
 with a comparison of the dates, find one or two dis- 
 
 10 
 
146 THE SHAM SQUIEE, AND 
 
 coveries in which Magan may have been concerned. 
 In the year 1802 a formidable attempt was made to 
 rekindle the insurrection in the county of Cork. 
 Sergeant Beatty, its leader, after skirmishing with 
 the king's troops and killing several, escaped to 
 Dublin, where, while in the act of reorganizmg his 
 plot, he was arrested and hung.* In 1802, Richard 
 F. Orpen, Esq., was high sheriff for the county of 
 Cork.f " He raised corps of volunteers for the sup- 
 pression of the Rebellion, was of an active mind, 
 and well acquainted with persons of rank and influ- 
 ence". J There is but one family of the name in 
 Ireland. It was, doubtless, this gentleman who 
 urged the reward of 500 to Magan in 1802 ; and, 
 probably, the secret service was the discovery of 
 the Cork conspirator. 
 
 The discovery of the plans of William Dowdall, a . 
 confidential agent alike of Colonel Despard in Eng- 
 land, and of Robert Emmet in Ireland, was also 
 made in 1802. Towards the end of that year, we 
 find him in Dublin, with the object of extending 
 their projects. Suddenly the news came that on No- 
 vember 13th, 1802, Despard and twenty-nine asso- 
 ciates were arrested in London. Dowdall fled, and 
 after some hair-breadth escapes reached France. No 
 imputation on his fidelity has ever been made. That 
 
 * Revelations of Ireland, by D. 0. Madden, p. 130 et seq. 
 See Addenda T. for fuller details. 
 
 t See files of the public journals for February, 1802. 
 
 I Letter from Richard F. John Orpen, Esq., August 16, 1866. , 
 
 Plowden's History of Ireland from the Union, v. i. p. 176. 
 The Higgins journal of November 23, 1802, states, but without 
 sufficient accuracy, that "the major part are iish". Lord 
 Ellenborough tried the prisoners, seven were hung and de- 
 capitated. Trial of Edward Marcuis Despard, London: 
 Gurney, 1803, p. 269. | 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 147 
 
 Despard's plans extended to Ireland is not generally 
 understood ; but the Castlereagh Papers (ii. 3) show 
 that he was one of the most determined of the So- 
 ciety of United Irishmen. 
 
 The Higgins journal of November 25th, 1802, 
 records: 
 
 " The lounging Erin-go-Brachites in this town seem 
 somewhat frightened since they heard of the apprehen- 
 sion of Colonel Despard and his myrmidons. It marks 
 a sympathy which, with the close whisperings and con- 
 fabs that of late have been observable among them, 
 incline some to think that they have not left off the 
 old trade of dealing in baronial and other constitutions". 
 
 " Robert Emmet", says Mr. Fitzgerald, in a nar- 
 rative supplied to Dr. Madden, " came over from 
 France in October, 1802. He (Emmet) was soon in 
 communication with several of the leaders who had 
 taken an active part in the previous rebeUion".* 
 Emmet is probably included among the " Erin-go- 
 brachites" thus indicated by the Higgins journal 
 of November 2nd, 1802. . . 
 
 .." Several Erin-go-Brachites have arrived in this city 
 within a few days past, after viewing (as they would a 
 monster) the Fkst Consul. They do not, however, use 
 the idolizing expressions of that character they were 
 wont, which shows that he has not been courteous to 
 the encouragers o pike-mongering in this country". 
 
 In the latter part of 1802, owing to private infor- 
 mation. Emmet's residence near Milltown was 
 searched by Major Swan.f The abortive insurrec- 
 tion of which he was the leader, did not take place 
 
 * Lives and Times of the United Irishmen, Tol. iii. p. 330. 
 t Statement of Mr. Patten to Dr. Maddeo, Ibid,, p. 339_ 
 
148 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 until July 23rd in the following year. A memo- 
 randum of Major Sirr's, preserved with his papers in 
 Trinity College, Dublin, mentions, in contradiction 
 to a generally received opinion, that early intima- 
 tion of Robert Emmet's scheme did reach the go- 
 vernment. 
 
 The purchase of Mr. Magan by the government 
 was at this time unknown to his friends and the 
 public. As a Roman Catholic and a member of the 
 former society of United Irishmen, no disposition 
 to suspect him seems to have taken possession of his 
 friends.* The fact that he had been a member 
 
 * Dr. Brennan, in the second number of his Milesian Maga- 
 zine, p. 49, enumerates the Roman Catholic barristers who had 
 received pensions. Mr. Magan's name is not included. Dr. 
 Brennan mentions the names of Donnellan, Bellevr, Lynch, and 
 MacEenna. The claims of Bellew and Lynch were for " Union 
 services". Mr. Cooke, writing to Lord Castlereagh an account 
 of the Bar Meeting, September 10, 1798, says, "Bellew and 
 Lynch, two Catholics, were in the majority". Mr. Sheil, in his 
 paper on the " Catholic Bar" contributed to the ^eu; Monthly 
 Magazine for February, 1827, thus specially refers to the above 
 four barristers : 
 
 " Every one of those gentlemen was provided for by Grovem- 
 ment. Mr. Donnellan obtained a place in the revenue ; Mr. 
 MacEenna wrote some very clever political tracts, and was 
 silenced with a pension ; Mr. Lynch married a widow with a 
 pension, which was doubled after his marriage ; and Mr. Bellew 
 is in the receipt of 600 a year, paid to him quarterly. 
 
 " Lord Castlereagh was well aware of the importance of secur- 
 ing the support of the leading Roman Catholic gentry at the 
 union, and the place of assistant barrister was promised to Mr. 
 Bellew. It became vacant: Lord Castlereagh was reminded of 
 his engagement, when, behold ! a petition signed by the magis- 
 trates of the county, to which Mr. Bellew was about to be nomi- 
 nated, is presented to the Lord Lieutenant, praying that a 
 Roman Catholic should not be appointed to any judicLl office, 
 and intimating their determination not to act with him. A 
 pension equ,ivalent to the salary of a chairman was given to Mr. 
 Bellew, and he was put in the enjoyment of the fruits of the 
 office, without the labour of cultivation". 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 149 
 
 of the La^wjers' Corps awakened no misgiving. All 
 the Catholic barristers, as a matter of course, joined 
 it ; and some of the most determined United Irish- 
 men, including Macready and others, were known 
 to wear the yeoman uniform, merely with the ob- 
 ject of cloaking themselves.* 
 
 A brother barrister and old friend of Mr. Magan's 
 informs us that he enjoyed some chamber practice ; 
 but, though he sometimes appeared in the hall, 
 equipped for forensic action, he never spoke in court. 
 Mr. Magan, as one of the first and few Roman 
 Catholic barristers called on the relaxation of the 
 Penal Code, is very likely to have been consulted 
 during the troubled times of '98 and following 
 years, by his co-religionists who were implicated 
 in the conspiracy. 
 
 The influential leaders of the United Irishmen 
 were mostly Protestants, and Leonard MacNally, 
 who generally acted as coimsel to the body, having 
 deserted the Catholic for the Protestant faith, 
 failed to command from Catholics that unlimited 
 confidence which a counsel of their own creed would 
 inspire. " Maci", writes Mr. Secretary Cooke, ad- 
 
 * All the Catholic barristers, with the object of averting sus- 
 picion or persecution, became members of the Lawyers' Corps. 
 Among others, Daniel OMDonnell and Nicholas Purcell O'Gor- 
 man, both United Irishmen, bek>nged to the corps. 
 
 O'Connell served as a private in the corps. The uniform 
 was blue, with scarlet facings and rich gold lace. See Memoir 
 of O'Connell, by his son, v. i. p. 13. In Mr. DsMJit'e Recollections 
 of O'Connell, v. ii. p. 99, O'Connell is found pointing out a house 
 in James's Street, which, when a member of the Lawyers* 
 Corps, he searched for " Croppies". This corps was disbanded 
 shortly subsequent to 1798; but in Faulkner's Dublin Journal 
 of April 9, 1803, an advertisement appears demanding its im- 
 mediate resuscitation, notwithstanding the absence of many in- 
 fluential members on circuit. For an account of O'Connell's 
 connection with the United Irishmen see Addenda B. 
 
150 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND i 
 
 dressing Lord Castlereagh, " Mac was not much 
 
 trusted in the rebellion".* Counsellor Magan, on 
 the contrary, was not, for nearly half a century, 
 suspected-t MacNally lived in Dominick Street, 
 and later in Harcourt Street a considerable dis- 
 tance from the more disturbed part of Dublin ; but 
 Mr. Magan's chamber for consultation lay invitingly 
 open at No. 20 Usher's Island, in the very hotbed 
 of the conspiracy. 
 
 The discoveries to which we have referred were 
 made towards the latter end of the year 1802. On 
 December 15th, 1802, one secret payment of 500 
 alone is slipped into the hand of " Counsellor 
 Magan". 
 
 " In the month of March, [1803]", writes Lord 
 Hardwicke, the then viceroy, " Government re- 
 ceived information of O'Quigley's return, and others 
 of the exiled rebels, and that they were endeavouring 
 to sound the disposition of the people of the county 
 of Dublin. A confidential agent was in consequence 
 sent into that county, whose accounts were very 
 satisfactory as to the state of the people, and of the 
 unwillingness of any of the middle class, who had 
 property to lose, to engage in any scheme of re- 
 bellion".! 
 
 Whether Francis Magan was the confidential 
 agent thus sent into the country we know not; 
 
 * Cornwallis Correspondence, v. iii. p. 320. 
 
 t The Irish Bar was sadly dishonoured in those days. See 
 Addenda K for the secret services of Leonard MacNally, and of 
 that prince of duplicity, Samuel Turner, barrister-at-law, vhoee 
 property was insincerely threatened with attainder by the 
 crown. 
 
 t This original MS. statement of Lord Hardwicke's, of which 
 Dr. Madden afterwards had the use, we fully transcribed in 
 1855. . 1 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 151 
 
 but it is at least certain that in the montli of April, 
 1803, he is found within forty-seven miles of Dublin, 
 and receiving money for political espionage. 
 
 " The account of secret service money applied in 
 detecting treasonable conspiracies", contains the fol- 
 lowing, entry : 
 
 " April 2, 1803, Magan, by post to Philipstown, 100".* 
 
 The Philipstown assizes were held at this time. 
 But so far from any important political trials being 
 in progress there, from which Magan, in his legal 
 capacity, might gather a secret, no business what- 
 ever was done, and, as the newspaper report of the 
 day records, the chairman received, in consequence, 
 a pair of white gloves trimmed with gold lace. We 
 must look elsewhere for Mr. Magan's secret services 
 at Philipstown in 1803. 
 
 Thomas Wilde and John Mahon were two of 
 Emmet's most active emissaries, and in a statement 
 of Duggan's supplied to Dr. Madden, it is stated 
 that they proceeded to " Kildare, Naas, Maynooth, 
 Kilcullen, and several other towns", in order to 
 stimulate the people. The formidable character of 
 Wilde and Mahon was known to Major Sirr, who in 
 a memorandum preserved with his other papers, 
 states that their retreat is sometimes " at the gaoler's 
 in Philipstown^ who is married to Wilde's sister". 
 
 Francis Magan, it is not unlikely, when one hun- 
 dred pounds reached him by post at Philipstown in 
 1803, was quietly ascertaining the loccilis of Wilde 
 and Mahon. 
 
 * An entry in the same form introducea the name of 
 
 M'Gucken, the treacherous attorney for the United Irishmen, 
 whose exploits will be found in our appendix : 
 
 "January 1, 1801, M'Gucken, per post to Belfast, 100". 
 
152 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 A letter from Captain Caulfield, written on De- 
 cember 17th, 1803, but to which the date " 1798" 
 has been by some oversight affixed in Dr. Madden's 
 valuable work on the United Irishmen,* is also 
 preserved among the Sirr papers, and details the 
 progress of a search for Wilde and Mahon, first 
 at Philipstown, and finally at Ballycommon, within 
 two miles of it. Yeomanry and dragoons surrounded 
 the house ; a hot conflict ensued, " and", confesses 
 Captain Caulfield, " we were inmiediately obliged 
 to retire. . . . The villains made their escape. 
 The gaoler of Philipstown and wife are in confine- 
 ment". 
 
 John Brett, the maternal grandfather of the pre- 
 sent writer, resided with his family in 1798, at 21 
 Usher's Island. No evidence of sedition existed 
 against him, unless that furnished by the old aphorism, 
 " show me your company, and I can tell who you 
 are". John Brett was peculiarly intimate with Con 
 MacLaughlin, and much intercourse existed between 
 their families. James Tandy, son of the arch rebel 
 Napper Tandy, was also a frequent visitor, and Mr. 
 Brett possessed the friendship of Oliver Bond. One 
 morning Mr. Brett's family were startled at the 
 news that Major Sirr, with a chosen guard, were 
 demanding admittance at the street door. Miss 
 Maria Brett, the aunt of the writer, cognizant of 
 only one act of political guilt, ran to her music- 
 book, tore out a strongly national song, and flung the 
 leaf, crushed up, on top of a chest of drawers. 
 Major Sirr entered, precisely as this silly achieve- 
 ment had been completed, and found the young 
 lady palpitating beneath the weight of her guilty 
 
 * Lives and Times of the United Irishmen, v. i. p. 522. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 153 
 
 secret. A search for pikes was immediately com- 
 menced ; drawers were rifled, wardrobes upset, beds 
 diligently searched, and in the midst of the confu- 
 sion what should turn up but the national song, 
 which, had it been suffered to remain in the music- 
 book, would never have excited attention. Major 
 Sirr solemnly put on his spectacles, and read the 
 democratic sentiments with a visage much longer 
 than the lines in which they were enshrined. The 
 search was resumed with renovated vigour, and 
 from the beds in the sleeping rooms the soldiers 
 now proceeded to uproot some recently dug beds 
 in the garden. Major Sirr, baffled. in his hopes 
 and bitterly chagrined, withdrew; but he had a 
 dexterous stroke of vengeance in store for John 
 Brett. ' Next day an enormous detachment of sol- 
 diers' wives arrived, bag and baggage, at Usher's 
 Island, loudly demanding hospitality, and producing 
 an official order for that purpose. Mr. Brett was 
 obliged to submit to the troublesome incubus, which 
 remained for several weeks billeted upon his family. 
 He could never guess the source which had sug- 
 gested to the government the expediency of search- 
 ing the house ; but we are inclined to harbour the 
 suspicion that the hint must have come from his 
 vigdant neighbour next door, Mr. Francis Magan. 
 The files of the popular journals during the ear- 
 lier part of the present century would, if diligently 
 consulted, exhibit Francis Magan* as a zealous Ca- 
 tholic patriot. Thus, Mr. Magan's name may be 
 found, m conjunction with those of Lords Fingal, 
 
 _ * It is not unlikely to Magan that the Duke of W ell ington refers 
 in his letter to Sir Charles Saxton, dated London, 17th Novem- 
 ber, 1808 : " I think that as there are some interesting Catholic 
 
 questions afloat now, you might feed with another 100" 
 
 Irish Correspondence of the Duke of Wellington, pp. 485-6. 
 
154 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND' 
 
 Netterville,,and Ffrench, Sir E. Bellew, Sir H. 
 O'ReiUy, Daniel O'Connell, Dr. Dromgoole, " Bar- 
 ney Coyle",* Con MacLaughlin,* Silvester Costi- 
 gan,* Fitzgerald of Geraldine,* and. others, convening 
 an aggregate meeting of the Catholics of Ireland on 
 the 26th of December, 1811, to address the Prince 
 Regent " on the present situation of Catholic affairs". 
 A lew days previously. Lords Fingal and Netter- 
 ville had been successively forced from the chair at 
 a Catholic meeting by Mr. Hare, a police magis- 
 trate. Among the denouncers of the government 
 at the aggregate meeting was Leonard MacNally ! 
 
 The few surviving friends of Mr. Magan desciibe 
 him as a prim and somewhat unsociable being, 
 though moving in good society. He looked wise, 
 but he never showed much proof of wisdom, and it 
 was more than once whispered in reference to him, 
 " Still waters run deep". For the last twenty 
 years of his life he rarely went out, unless in 
 his official capacity as commissioner. He never 
 married, and hved a recluse at 20 Usher's Island. 
 He became shrinking and timid, and with one or 
 
 two exceptions, including Taxing Master C , 
 
 did not like to meet old friends. Since the year '98 
 it seemed as if his house had not been painted or the 
 windows cleaned. The neighbours wondered, spe- 
 culated, and pryed ; but Magan's windows or doings 
 could not be seen through.f 
 
 From this dingy retreat, festooned with cobwebs, 
 Mr. Magan, almost choked in a stiff white cravat, 
 would, as we have said, occasionally emerge, and 
 
 Those persons had been United Irishmen. i 
 
 t " The neighbours used to say that there was a mystery qbout 
 the Magans which no one could fathom". ^Letter from Sylvester 
 E d, Esq. 1 . 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 155 
 
 pick his steps stealthily to the courts in which he 
 held office. 
 
 This demeanour may have been owing to a secret 
 consciousness of dishonour, and was doubtless 
 aggravated by a shrewd suspicion expressed by the 
 late Mr. Joseph Hamilton. 
 
 To explain this, a slight digression is necessary. 
 In 1830, appeared Moore's Me of Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald, and it may be conceived with what tre- 
 pidation Mr. Magan turned over the leaves, fearful 
 of finding the long sealed secret told. " Treachery", 
 writes Moore, " and it is still unknown from what 
 source, was at work". Here the Counsellor, no 
 doubt, breathed freely, especially when he read: 
 " From my mention of these particulars respecting 
 Neilson, it cannot fail to have struck the reader 
 that some share of the suspicion of having betrayed 
 Lord Edward attaches to this man". Hamilton 
 Rowan and the friends of Neilson indignantly 
 Bpumed the imputation, which Moore, further on, 
 sought to qualify. Mr. Joseph Hamilton made some 
 inquiries, and the result was a suspicion that Mr. 
 Magan was the informer. He failed to find that 
 evidence which we have since adduced ; but his 
 suspicion was deeply rooted, and he avowed it in 
 general society. 
 
 In 1843, Mr. Magan died. He was generally re- 
 garded as an honourable man ; and an eminent 
 Queen's Counsel stood beside his death bed. It is 
 only right to add the accompanying letter from the 
 gentleman to whom we allude : 
 
 " I never, directly or indirectly, heard anything 
 of the alleged charge against Frank Magan during 
 his life, I was on habits of intimacy with him to ; 
 the day of his death, and was with him on his 
 
156 THE SHAM SQUIKE, AND 
 
 death-bed. He always bore a high character, as far 
 as I could ever learn, either at the bar or in society. 
 Mr. Hamilton, to my surprise, wrote to me after his 
 death, cautioning me against taking any of the 
 money to which, he supposed, I was entitled as a 
 legatee. I was not one, and never got a penny by 
 the poor fellow. I can say no more". 
 
 Mr. Hamilton thought that it was beneath his 
 correspondent to accept a bequest derived from so 
 base a source. 
 
 Mr. Magan's will, drawn up hurriedly on his 
 death-bed, in January, 1843, and witnessed by his 
 parish priest and confessor. Rev. P. Monks, occupies 
 but a few lines, and bequeaths the entire of his pro- 
 perty to Elizabeth, his sister. Unlike his friend 
 the Sham Squire, who desired that his remains 
 should be interred with public pomp, Francis Magan 
 directs that his body may be buried with as much 
 economy and privacy as decency permits.* 
 
 Miss Magan, an eccentric spinster, continued to 
 reside alone at Usher's Island after her brother's 
 death. She found herself, on his demise, possessed 
 of an enormous sum of money ; and she became so 
 penurious, anxious, and nervous, that the poor lady 
 was in constant fear of being attacked or robbed. 
 From almost every person who approached her she 
 shrunk with terror. Miss Magan felt persuaded 
 .that designs on her purse, to be accomplished by 
 either force or fraud, were perpetually in process of 
 concoction by her narrow circle of friends. Death 
 at last released Miss Magan from this mental misery. 
 She left considerable sums in charity, and, amongst 
 others, twelve thousand pounds, as the late Rev. Dr. 
 
 " Records of the Prerogative Court, Dublin. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 157 
 
 Yore assured us, for founding a Lunatic Asylum at 
 Clontarf. Witli the death of this lady the family 
 of which she was a member became extinct, and we 
 therefore feel the less hesitation in mentioning their 
 names. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be said that any new suggestions 
 or remarks regarding the informers of '98 should be 
 left to Dr. Madden, who has devoted much time and 
 space to the subject. But Dr. Madden himself does 
 not seem to hold these narrow sentiments. 
 
 In the United Irislimen (vol. ii. 446), he throws 
 out suggestions " to those who may be disposed to 
 follow up his efforts to bring the betrayer's memory 
 to justice". 
 
 It may also be objected that we have devoted un- 
 due space to tracing the betrayers of Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald; but the following remarks, expressed 
 by the veteran historian of '98, show that the sub- 
 ject is one highly deserving of elucidation. 
 
 " And now", writes Dr. Madden, " at the conclu- 
 sion of my researches on this subject of the betrayal 
 of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, I have to confess they 
 have not been successful. The betrayer still pre- 
 serves his incognito ; his infamy, up to the present 
 time (January, 1858), remains to be connected with 
 his name, and, once discovered, to make it odious 
 
 for evermore Nine-and-fifty years 
 
 the secret of the sly, skulking villain has been kept 
 by his employers, with no common care for ms 
 character or his memory. But, dead or alive, his 
 infamy will be reached in the long run, and the 
 gibbeting of that nanie of his will be accomplished 
 in due time". 
 
 It must be remembered that Dr. Madden was the 
 first to set inquiry on a sound track, by citing from 
 
_ .- 
 
 158 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND j 
 
 ^ 
 
 the Secret Service Money Book the initials of the 
 Sham Squire i. e. " F. H. for the discovery of 
 L. E. F., 1000". In 1858 the Comwattis Papers 
 appeared, disclosing the name Francis Higgins. A 
 pamphlet from our pen appeared soon after, entitled 
 A Note to the Cornwallis Papers^ in which were pub- 
 lished many of the remarks contained in our sixth 
 chapter, and pointing, on purely circumstantial evi- 
 dence, to Mr. Magan as the " setter" employed by 
 Higgins. The fourth volume of the United Irish- 
 men, published in 1860, noticed the Comwattis 
 Papers^ and, indirectly, the pamphlet which fol- 
 lowed its publication : 
 
 " These revelations", writes Dr. Madden (p. 579), 
 " leave us wholly uninformed as to the traitor who 
 actually betrayed Lord Edward who sold his 
 blood to the agent of government, Mr. Francis 
 Higgins. All that we have learned, I repeat, from 
 the recent publication of the Cornwallis Correspon- 
 dence^ is, that Francis Higgins obtained the secret 
 for government of Lord Edward's place of conceal- 
 ment, but of the setter employed by Higgins we 
 know nothing, and all that we have reason to con- 
 clude is, that the setter was one in the confidence 
 of Lord Edward and his associates". I 
 
 Now, we respectfully submit that the more recent 
 researches which will be found in our fifth and sixth 
 chapters prove to demonstration that the " setter" 
 was Counsellor Francis Magan. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 159 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Was Higgins guiltless of Oliver Bond's blood ? ^Walter Cox. 
 Reynolds the informer. ^William Cope. Insatiable appetite 
 for blood-money. A dark and painful mystery. Lord Wy- 
 combe walks in the footsteps of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and 
 spies follow in the footsteps of Lord Wycombe. 
 
 THERE is no man so bad but that he might be 
 worse ; and the will of Francis Higgins, to which 
 we shall soon refer, shows that he was not incapable 
 of a generous impulse ; but on the whole we cannot 
 divest ourselves of the suspicion that his general 
 policy was worse, and his dark deeds more nume- 
 rous than have in black and white transpired. When 
 a man is once suspected and convicted of peculiar 
 turpitude, there is no limit to the suspicions which 
 ever after follow him. 
 
 A remarkable passage occurs in Walter Cox's 
 Irish Magazine for November, 1813, p. 52.* 
 
 " We hope," writes Cox, " no greater evil will be sus 
 tained by Mr. Scully than what this act of the Free- 
 
 * No one was better acquainted than Coi with the antecedents 
 of Higgias. In his Magazine for October, 1810 (p. 436), 
 Cox writes, " If the illustrious shade of the Sham Squire can 
 witness the transitory scenes of this life, how exquisitely must 
 his exalted spirit feel, at the improved manner in which his 
 literary property is arranged, by a person so exactly after his 
 own mind, so fertile in stratagem, so guarded in his conduct, 
 and so various in management". 
 
 We further learn that the then editor was "exactly a minia- 
 ture copy of the Sham" ; and then a secret or two transpires : 
 
 " After fixing his sentinels and dispatching his Messenger, 
 Con returns to the city to commence his literary labours on thie 
 Sham's journal ; there he figures in another character, since 
 that very immaculate paper was allowed to soar into the regions 
 of patriotism by having the little ballast of 1,200 a year thrown 
 over board, that kept it fioating over the Castle". 
 
160 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 man's Journal has inflicted ; had we nothing more to 
 record, to the prejudice of Irish interests, than such 
 impotent, and we may say harmless nonsense, Oliver 
 Bond and Lord Edward Fitzgerald would be now altve^ 
 and Tom Keynolds would have been only known as 
 a harmless monster". j 
 
 Cox, as an United Irisliman, and one of Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald's body-guard, was cognizant of 
 the various conflicting suspicions and surmises to 
 which the unexpected arrest of their chief gave 
 birth. Further, he was in the secrets of the govern- 
 ment subsequent to 1798. Arthur O'Connor has 
 said, that wHle a chance of success awaited the rebel 
 movement, it possessed no more stanch partizan 
 during thirty-five years that he personated the cha- 
 racter of an indomitable patriot. But flesh is weak, 
 and we find Cox in the receipt of a secret stipend 
 from the government. Dr. Madden informs us that 
 he played fast and loose sometimes revealing the 
 plans of the United Irishmen to the Castle, at other 
 times disclosing to the popular party the secrets of 
 the government and of its agents. 
 
 We are not aware that Dr. Madden ever noticed 
 the passage just cited from Cox's Irish Magazine. 
 Mr. Cox would seem to have formed a shrewd 
 opinion in reference to Lord Edward's discovery ; 
 but he advances the charge so ambiguously that, 
 unless with the light afforded by recent revelations, 
 it is not easy to understand his meaning. 
 
 A dark and painful mystery enshrouds the death 
 of Oliver Bond. Bond, an opulent merchant, resid- 
 ing in Bridge Street, Dublin, possessed, for many 
 years, the fullest confidence of the United Irishmen, 
 who, so early as 1793, formally addressed him on 
 the occasion of his fine and imprisonment. From 
 
THE BLOODHOONDS OF '98. 161 
 
 1785 to 1797 we recognize him as an active member 
 of the two Northern directories of United Irishmen, 
 a body largely composed of Presbyterians. At his 
 house in Dublin the Leinster directory regularly 
 met, until the night of March 12th, 1798, when, 
 Thomas Reynolds having betrayed his associates, 
 fifteen delegates were_arrested, conveyed to New- 
 gate, and sentenced to death. Mr. Mark O'Cal- 
 laghan, in his Memoir of O'Connell, p. 32, says: " It 
 is asserted on credible authority, that the secret 
 dungeons and state prisons of '98 were the scenes 
 of murder and assassination. Among others, Oliver 
 Bond, a wealthy merchant, was generally allowed 
 to have been murdered by a government officer or 
 turnkey employed for the purpose, although it was 
 at the time given out that he died of apoplexy". 
 How far Mr. O'Callaghan may be correct in this 
 conclusion we know not ; but a letter addressed by 
 the late James Davock to Dr. Madden, and printed 
 in the very interesting work of the latter, tends 
 much to corroborate it. 
 
 " The evening before his (Bond's) death I saw 
 him in the yard of the prison ; he seemed then to be 
 in perfect health ; the next morning he was found 
 dead in the passage outside his cell. It was the 
 general opinion that he had been strangled. Bond 
 had a free pardon signed at the castle at that time, 
 and was to have been sent out of the country with 
 the other state prisoners. It was necessary for his 
 wife to obtain this pardon, to enable her to collect 
 in the debts, for he left about thirty thousand pounds 
 behind him ; and his friends were afraid of impeding 
 her application, and thought it better to allow the 
 common report of his death arising from apoplexy 
 to pass unnoticed. 
 
 - ' ..'.-';. ^''V ' 11 
 
162 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND j 
 
 I 
 
 " The report in the prison 
 
 was that he had been killed by the under-gaoler, 
 Simpson. I was informed by Murphy, there was 
 such an uproar in the prison all that night, that 
 Murphy and others barricaded their doors on the 
 inside, afraid of violence. The woman who first 
 swore at the inquest that she had seen him die in 
 the yard, afterwards, in a quarrel, accused Simpson 
 of the murder ; on which he kicked her in the back, 
 of which injury she died".* 
 
 It may be added that Mr. Davock was for many 
 years the intimate friend and close neighbour of 
 Oliver Bond, who was a remarkably robust man, 
 and not more than thirty-five years of age at his 
 death. 
 
 Sentence of death on Bond and the fourteen de- 
 legates arrested at his house was commuted on con- 
 dition of their signing a compact ; but Bond was by 
 far the most formidable man amongst them ; and it 
 may have struck some of the unscnapulous under- 
 strappers attached to the Irish Government that it 
 would be desirable to get him out of the way. To 
 make an exception in Bond's case by bringing him 
 to the scaffold would be impossible. Of some of the 
 darker doings which notoriously took place, the 
 higher members of the government were, we have 
 no doubt, ignorant. 
 
 From the Castlereagh Papers we find that two 
 influential judges. Lords Carleton and Kilwarden, 
 warmly urged the execution of Byrne and Bond. 
 They were not of opinion that the offer made by 
 Byrne and Bond to give information would counter- 
 balance the discontent likely to be occasioned by 
 
 Lives and Times of the United Irishmen, fourth series* 
 eecond edition, p. 164. 
 
 , . J . , ' .'-^ 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 163 
 
 saving them from "the punishment due to their 
 crimes". Lord Carleton and his colleague also ex- 
 patiated on the injurious effects such an act of 
 mercy might have on the administration of criminal 
 justice, by discouraging jurors hereafter from coming 
 forward to discharge an odious duty. The viceroy 
 transmitted a paper to the Duke of Portland, dated 
 September 14, 1798, from which we gather that 
 " their reasoning did not altogether satisfy the lord 
 lieutenant. His Excellency, however, felt that he 
 could not do otherwise than abide by the opinion 
 of the first law authorities in Ireland". Byrne was 
 accordingly executed.* Oliver Bond was found 
 dead in his cell. 
 
 The Castlereagh papers do not seem to have been 
 consulted by those who professed to investigate the 
 circumstances attending the fate of Oliver Bond. 
 
 The Sham Squire, when a prisoner in Newgate, 
 we learn, made love to his keeper's daughter, 
 " whose friends, considering the utility of his talents 
 in their sphere in life, consented to her union with 
 the Sham, . . . and that the gaoler's interest pro- 
 cured Higgins admission to be a solicitor, in which 
 situation his practice is too notorious to require 
 particular statement", f 
 
 Did Francis Higgins, who seems to have enjoyed 
 a thorough immunity from legal pains and penalties, 
 and was unscrupulously officious in doing the dirty 
 work of the government, take upon himself to sug- 
 gest to his intimate friend, the keeper, the expe- 
 diency of getting rid of Oliver Bond ? The Sham 
 Squire was too astute to do the deed himself; but 
 
 * Memoirs and Cor resplendence of Lord Castlercngh, Tol. i. 
 pp. 347-8. 
 
 t Sketches of Irish Political Chaiaeters, Lond. 17y^, p. 182. 
 
164 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 he or his myrmidons may have got it done, and 
 then with complacency mused, " Shake not thy 
 gorey locks at me, thou can'st not say / did it". 
 
 To return to Cox. If we understand his aim 
 aright, he throws out the inuendo that Thomas 
 Reynolds would not have become an informer if it 
 had not been for Francis Higgins. At some future 
 day it may, perhaps, be ascertained that the Sham 
 Squire effected the corruption of Reynolds through 
 the mutual friend of both parties, the late Mr. 
 William Cope. The latter, after the plan had been 
 consummated, was openly recommended for a pen- 
 sion by Higgins in the freeman of September 1st, 
 1798. The influential recommendation of the 
 Sham Squire proved, as usual, successful. Mr. 
 Cope received a pension of one thousand pounds a 
 year, which after his death was continued to his 
 daughter, an elderly spinster, who with her half- 
 sister. Miss G , resided, until the last few years, 
 
 at Rbos Y Guir, opposite the Railway Station, 
 at Holyhead.* 
 
 It transpired that Mr. Cope, who received this 
 enormous pension for as Lord Cornwallis remarks 
 " certifying to the general credibility of Rey- 
 nolds", held a bond of that person's for one thousand 
 pounds, which was not likely to be paid. Whether 
 Higgins was Cope's legal adviser we know not ; but 
 the warm manner in which Cope was recommended 
 for a pension by Higgins favours the suspicion. 
 Cope was very intimate with Reynolds, and knew 
 all his secrets. By what judicious arrangement was 
 the bad debt settled ? We can imagine some proposal 
 
 like this tendered : " Pay this bond, or I will get you 
 
 * Letter from Doctor , dated " Holyhead, January 4th, 
 
 1858". See Appendix. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 165 
 
 arrested and imprisoned. Perform the double duty 
 of loyalty to your king and fidelity to a just cre- 
 ditor by revealing all you know. You will be 
 richly rewarded: refuse, on the other hand, and 
 the gallows may be your fate. It is your interest 
 as well as duty to take my hint". It is impossible 
 to know the exact words that passed, but we believe 
 we have given the substance. The tempter went 
 even further, and taking advantage of Reynolds's 
 notorious susceptibility to the dictates of vanity and 
 ambition, told him that the crown, regarding him as 
 a modern saviour, would probably prove their ap- 
 preciation by giving him two thousand pounds a 
 year and a seat in parliament.* All this and more 
 was revealed at the trial. Reynolds, who held the 
 rank of colonel and delegate from the province of 
 Leinster in the rebel army, settled his terms, writes 
 Mr. Curran, "namely, 500 guineas in hand, and per- 
 sonal indemnity, through Mr. Cope, Dublin mer- 
 chant".t 
 
 One by one he prosecuted hig colleagues to con- 
 
 * Carrick'8 Morning Post, April 3, 1823, quotes the following 
 paragraph from the Examiner, then edited by Leigh Hunt : 
 
 MB. REYNOLDS. A correspondent at Paris informs us, that 
 the Air. Reynold* now in that capital, inquired ahout some time 
 hack in our paper, is really the person who played such a con- 
 spicuous part in Ireland, and who for his meritorious services 
 on that occasion was rewarded by an appointment at Lisbon, 
 after which he was placed as Consul- General at Copenhagen 
 from whence, about three years since, he proceeded to Paris, 
 where he keeps his carriage, and is reported to live expensively. 
 Our correspondent says, that Mr. Reynolds's family appear on 
 Sundays at the chapel of the English Embassy in seats reserved 
 for them close by the ambassador and Lady Elizabeth ; and that 
 at his parties Lady Douglas (of Blackheath notoriety), Mrs. and 
 the Miss Reynolds, etc., form a portion of that company, for the 
 entertainment of whom the ambassador's salary is swelled out 
 to 14,000 a-year. 
 
 t Life oj Curran, by his son. First ed., v. ii. p. 128. 
 
166 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND I 
 
 viction. In contradiction to Mr. Cope's evidence, 
 witnesses swore that they believed Reynolds un- 
 worthy of credence on oath. Curran lashed and 
 lacerated him in passages which the government, out 
 of tenderness for his fame, omitted from the pub- 
 lished report. 
 
 " He measures his value by the coffins of his victims, 
 and in the field of evidence appreciates his fame, as the 
 Indian warrior does in fight, by the number of scalps 
 with which he can swell his triumphs. He calls upon 
 you by the solemn league of eternal justice, to accredit 
 the purity of a conscience washed in its own atrocities. 
 He has promised and betrayed he has sworn and for- 
 sworn ; and whether his soul shall go to heaven or to 
 hell, he seems altogether indifferent, for he tells you that 
 lie has established an interest in both. He has told you 
 that he has pledged himself to treason and to allegiance, 
 and that both oaths has he contemned and broken".* 
 
 Mr. Curran imagines that the reward of Reynolds 
 did not exceed five hundred guineas. The Life of 
 Reynolds by his son would fain persuade the reader 
 that his emolument had been still smaller. The 
 MS. book of secret service money expenditure, now 
 in the possession of Mr. Halliday, and printed by 
 Dr. Madden, reveals, however, that Reynolds re- 
 ceived not only in 1798, 5000 in four payments, 
 but in the following year a pension of 1000 a-year, 
 besides which he long enjoyed several lucrative 
 offices under the Crown. The total amount of 
 money flung to satisfy his insatiable cupidity was 
 about 45,740.t 
 
 * Life of Curran, by his son. First ed., v. ii., p. 134. 
 t Lwes and Times of the U, I. M. By K. B. Madden, M,D., . 
 vol. i. p. 425, et seq. i 
 
' THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 167 
 
 The delivery of " a live lord" into the jaws of death 
 proved so profitable a job to Francis Higgins, that 
 we find him soon after in hot scent after another. 
 John Earl of Wycombe, afterwards Marquis of 
 Lansdowne, was committed more or less to the 
 fashionable treasons of the time; he sympathised 
 with the men and the movement of '98, and as the 
 late John Patten, a near connection of Emmet's, 
 assured us, his lordship was fully cognizant of the 
 plot of 1803. Had Higgins been alive during the 
 latter year. Lord Wycomb^e might not have escaped 
 the penalty of his patriotism. His movements in 
 Dublin and elsewhere were watched most narrowly 
 by the Sham Squire. In despair, however, of being 
 able to gain access to Lord Wycombe's confidence 
 or society, we find Higgins saying : " Lord Wy- 
 combe, son to the Marquis of Lansdowne, is still in 
 Dublin. He has gone to Wales and back again to 
 Dublin several times. His lordship has given many 
 parties in the city, it is said, but they have been of 
 a close, select kind".* 
 
 Higgins and his confederates, like " setters", 
 pointed, and the scarlet sportsmen of the line im- 
 mediately fired. Lord Holland, in his memoirs of 
 the Whig Party, mentions that his friend. Lord 
 Wycombe, was fired at by common soldiers on the 
 highways near Dublin, and narrowly escaped with 
 his life.t 
 
 * Freeman's Journal, August 6th, 1798. His lordship's movp- 
 ments are further indicated by the same Journal ou August 9th, 
 
 1800. 
 t See page 118, ante. 
 
168 THE SHAM SQIJIRK, AND 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL I 
 
 Effort of conscience to vindicate its authority. Last will and 
 testament of the Sham Squire. Kilbarrack Church-yard. 
 A touching epitaph. Resurrectionists. The dead watcher. 
 The Sham Squire's tomh insulted and broken. His bequests. 
 
 CHARITY, it is written, covereth a multitude of sins. 
 Let us hasten, therefore, to record a really meri- 
 torious act on the part of Mr. Higgins. Anxious 
 to throw the utmost amount of light on a career 
 so extraordinary as that of Francis Higgins, we ex- 
 amined in the Prerogative Court, his " Last Will 
 and Testament". From this document we learn 
 that the Sham Squire's conscience was not by any 
 means hopelessly callous. On the contrary, while 
 yet comparatively young, it seems to have given 
 nim a good deal of uneasiness ; and it may not un- 
 reasonably be inferred, that, unscrupulous as we 
 have seen Mr. Higgins, his early life was chequered 
 by simdry peccadillos, now irrevocably veiled. 
 whatever these may have been, they contributed 
 to disturb the serenity of his manhood, and con- 
 science seems to have made an energetic effort to 
 assert its authority. Unable any longer to bear the 
 reproachings of his ill-gotten wealth, Mr. Higgins, 
 on September 19th, 1791, then aged forty-five, 
 mustered up courage and bequeathed a consider- 
 able portion of it to charitable purposes. It is 
 amusing to trace the feelings of awe which in the 
 last century filled our ancestors previous to attempt- 
 ing a voyage across St. George's Channel! Mr. 
 Higgins's will begins by saying that as he meditates 
 a voyage to England, he thinks it prudent to pre- 
 pare his will, and in humble supplication at the 
 feet of the Almighty, and by way of making atone- 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 169 
 
 inent for his manifold transgressions, lie is desirous 
 of leaving large sums of money to charitable pur- 
 poses. But before he proceeds to sj)ecify them, the 
 vanity of the Sham Squire shows itself in a com- 
 mand to his executors to commemorate his memory 
 in a proper manner, on a slab "well secured with 
 lime, brickwork, and stone", in Klilbarrack Church- 
 yard. To defray the cost of this monument, Mr. 
 Higgins left 30, and a further sum for his funeral. 
 He adds, that in case he should die in England, his 
 remains are to be removed to Ireland and "pub- 
 licly interred". To a lady who had been of con- 
 siderable use to Mr. Higgins, and had clung to him 
 with great fidelity, but who suffered seriously from 
 this circumstance, he bequeathed not only 1 ,000 
 as compensation, but all such property as might 
 remain after paying the other bequests; and to his 
 housekeeper, Mrs. Margaret Box, he left 100. 
 But, perhaps, the most remarkable item in the will 
 is 1,000 which he bequeathed to be laid out on 
 landed security, in order that the annual interest 
 might be applied to the relief and discharge of 
 debtors confined in the city marshalsea on Christ- 
 mas eve in each year.* This generous bequest has 
 served, we trust, to blot out some of the Sham 
 Squire's achievements, not alone at the hazard table, ' 
 but by means of sundry pettifogging quibbles and 
 doubles. Having been the means in early life of 
 considerably increasing the number of inmates at 
 the Lying-in- Hospital, Mr. Higgins now creditably 
 bestowed 100 upon that institution. To an asylum 
 
 * See Addenda for some correspondence on the alleged non- 
 execution of this bequest. The Four Courts Marshalsea of 
 Dublin, previous to its removal westward, stood in Werburgh 
 Street. 
 
170 THE SHAM SQUIRE, AND 
 
 for ruined merchants, known as Simpson's Hospital, 
 he bequeathed 50, and ordered that a particular 
 ward in it should be dedicated to his memory. To 
 the Blue Coat Hospital, where tis friend Jack 
 Giffard* and other kindred spirits passed their youth, 
 Mr. Higgins left the sum of 20. The Catholic 
 and Protestant Poor Schools were remembered with 
 impartiality by Higgins, who had been himself both 
 a Catholic and a Protestant at different times. He 
 bequeathed 10 to each of the Protestant schools, 
 as well as a like donation to the Catholic Charity 
 Schools of" Rosemary Lane, Adam and Eve, Bridge 
 Street, and Lazor Hill". To Mr. (afterwards Colonel 
 O'Kelly, of Piccadilly, London, the owner of the 
 celebrated race-horse "Eclipse") 300 was left, 
 " and if I did not know that he was very affluent", 
 adds Higgins, " I would leave him the entire of 
 my property". Father Arthur O'Leary, one of 
 Curran's " Monks of the Screw", was also advan- 
 tageously remembered by Mr. Higgins.f To that 
 accomplished ecclesiastic he bequeathed the sum 
 of 100 : but O'Leary never lived to enjoy it, and 
 passed into eternity almost simultaneously with the 
 Sham Squire, in January, 1802. To George J. 
 Browne, assistant editor, 50 was bequeathed, in 
 order to purchase mourning for Mr. Higgins, as 
 also certain securities held by Higgins for money 
 lent to Browne. Several other bequests in the 
 
 * For a notice of Giffard see the 32nd note to (Jeneral Cock- 
 bum's " Step Ladder", Addenda, J. 
 
 t Mr. Grattan in the Life of his father (ii. 198), mentions 
 that O'Leary was very intimate with Colonel O'Kelly, and lived 
 with him. O'Leary had a pension from the Crown for writing 
 down the White Boys. Mr. Grattan adds, on the authority of 
 Colonel O'Kelly, that Mr. Pitt offered O'Leary considerable 
 remuneration if he would write in support of the Union, but the 
 Friar refused. 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS O.F '98. 171 
 
 same shape and under similar circumstances are 
 made. Some young people who shall be name- 
 less here, are advantageously mentioned,* probably 
 on natural grounds. William, James, and Chris- 
 topher Teeling,t are named executors ; but it ap- 
 pears from the records of the Probate Court that 
 they declined to act. In those days there was no 
 stamp duty; and the sum for which Higgins' resi- 
 duary legatee administered does not appear. The 
 will was witnessed by George Faulkner. 
 
 In September, 1791, Mr. Higgins declares that 
 he has 7,000 in Finlay's bank ; " but my pro- 
 perty", he adds, " will, I believe, much exceed this 
 sum when all is estimated". Mr. Higgins having 
 lived for eleven years subsequent to the date of his 
 will, during which time he laboured with fiercer 
 zeal, and reaped even richer remuneration than be- 
 fore, it may be inferred that his property in 1802 
 was not far short of 20,000. 
 
 Little further remains to be told regarding the 
 Sham Squire. In 1799 we catch a parting glimpse 
 of him in a work descriptive of the actors in the 
 Union struggle. " From his law practice, his 
 gaming-table contributions, and news-paper", says 
 this work, " the Sham now enjoys an income that 
 supports a fine house in a fashionable quarter of a 
 
 * In the third volume of the Cornwallts Correspondence, one 
 of the name is found obtaining a pension of 300 a-year at the 
 same time that Francis Higgins's services received similar re- 
 cognition. A Christian name borne by the junior recipient is 
 stated in the same work to have been " Grenville", he was pro- 
 bably born during the viceroyalty of George Grenville, Marquis 
 of Buckingham, of whom Higgins was a parasite and a slave. 
 See p. 79, ante, etc. 
 
 t Is this the party whose name appears in the Secret Service 
 Money Act, viz.:" Nov. 5, 1803, chaise for C. Teeling from 
 the Naul, 1 6s. Od". 
 
172 THE, SHAM SQUIRE, AND ' 
 
 great city, whence he looks down with contempt 
 on the poverty of many persons, whose shoes he 
 formerly cleaned".* 
 
 Mr. Higgins did not long live to enjoy the price 
 of poor Lord Edward's blood. On the night of 
 January 19th, 1802, he died suddenly at his house 
 in Stephen's Green, aged fifty-six. To the lonely 
 graveyard of Kilbarrack he bequeathed his body. 
 A more picturesque spot " where erring man might 
 hope to rest", it would be difficult to select. Situated 
 at the edge of the proverbially beautiful bay of 
 Dublin, the ruins of Kilbarrack, or as they are 
 sometimes styled, "the Abbey of Mone", have long 
 existed as a monument of that primitive piety 
 which prompted the Irish mariners of the fourteenth 
 century to erect a chapel in honour of St. Mary 
 Star of the Sea, wherein to offer up an orison for 
 their messmates, who had perished beneath the 
 waves.t 
 
 In accordance with Mr. Higgins's expressed 
 wishes, a large tabular tomb was erected over his 
 remains in 1804. Beside it repose the ashes of 
 Margaret Lawless, mother of the patriot peer Clon- 
 curry, and near it lies the modest grave of John 
 Sweetman, a leading " United Irishman", from 
 whose house adjacent Hamilton Rowan escaped 
 crossed in an open boat from Kilbarrack to the Bay 
 of Biscay, where it passed through the British fleet 
 and although 1,000 lay on his head, was safely 
 landed in France by the faithful fishermen of Bal- 
 
 * Sketches of Irish Political Characters, p. 148. 
 
 t An interesting notice of Kiibarrack appears in Mr. D'Alton's 
 History of the County Dublin, pp. 113118, but he does not sug- 
 gest the origin of its name, i.e. Kill Berach, or the Church of St. 
 Berach, a disciple of St. Kevin. 
 
. - THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 173 
 
 doyle, who were well aware of liis identity. But 
 the Sham Squire's ambitious looking tomb is the 
 
 monarch of that lonely graveyard, and it is impos- 
 
 ., "^ i 1 ' 1 
 
 sible to pass without one s attention being arrested 
 
 by it. It records that " the legal representatives 
 of the deceased deem it but just to his memory 
 here to inscribe, that he has left bequests behind 
 him, a memento of philanthropy, liberality, and 
 benevolence to the poor and distressed, more du- 
 rable than can sculptured marble perpetuate, as 
 it will last for ever, and be exemplar to all those to 
 whom Heaven has entrusted affluence". [Here the 
 chief bequests are enumerated in detail] " Reader", 
 adds the epitaph, " you will judge of the head and 
 heart which dictated such distinguished charity to 
 his fellow- creatures, liberal as it is impartial, and ac- 
 knowledge that he possessed the true benevolence 
 which Heaven ordains, and never fails everlastingly 
 to reward". 
 
 This epitaph suggests a curious comment on the 
 question asked by a child after spelling the in- 
 scriptions in a church yard, " Mama, where are 
 the bad men buried ? " 
 
 . The lonely and desolate aspect of the hallowed 
 ruin which Higgins chose as his last resting place, 
 contrasts curiously with the turbulence of his guilty 
 life; and Old Mortality could not select a more 
 fitting site for the moralising ruminations in which 
 he loved to indulge. 
 
 Francis Higgins was wise in his generation, and 
 astutely kept his own counsel. Some of his sins we 
 have told, but the bulk are probably known only to 
 the Searcher of Hearts. Of the guilty secrets which 
 were buried in Higgins's heart, how many have found 
 a vent in the rank hearts'-ease and henbane, which 
 
174 THE SHAM SQUIKE, AND 
 
 spring from his grave. " Where", writes Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne, describing a dialogue between a doctor 
 and his patient, " where did you gather these herbs 
 with such a dark flabby leaf?" " Even in the 
 graveyard", answered the physician ; " they grew 
 out of his heart, and typify some hideous secret 
 that was buried with him, and which he had done 
 better to confess during his lifetime". 
 
 " Perchance he earnestly desired it, but could not". 
 
 " And wherefore", rejoined the physician, 
 " wherefore not, since all the powers of nature call 
 so earnestly for the confession of sin, that these 
 black weeds have sprung up out of a buried heart, 
 to make manifest an unspoken crime ?" 
 
 But why speculate upon it ? It is not certain, after 
 all, that the storied urn of the Sham Squire really 
 enshrines his ashes. The deserted position of Kil- 
 barrack graveyard rendered it, some years ago, a 
 favourite haunt with those who, under the nickname 
 of " sack-'em-ups", effected premature resurrections 
 for anatomical purposes ;* and it is very possible that 
 
 * The Irish Penny Magazine for January 20th, 1833, contains 
 a picture of Kilbarrack churchyard undergoing spoliation at the 
 hands of medical students, who have succeeded, meanwhile, in 
 slipping a sack over the liead of " the dead watcher". The 
 latter is made to tell a long story descriptive of his feelings 
 previous and subsequent to this denouement: 
 
 ' One time I would picthur to myself the waves approaching 
 like an army a-horseback, and shaking their white tops for 
 feathers ; and then I would fancy I saw the dead people starting 
 up out of their graves, and rushing down helthur skekhur to 
 purtect their resting-place, shouldering human bones for fire 
 arms they grabbed thigh boats, and arm-bones, and all the 
 bones they could cotch up in their hurry, and when they would 
 viake ready prenent back the waves id gallop nimble enough, 
 but it was to wheel about agin with more fury and nearer to 
 the inemy, who in their turn would scamper back agin with long 
 strides, their white sheets flying behind 'em, like the cullegion 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 175 
 
 the heart of Higgins may have been long since the 
 subject of 'a lecture on aneurism of the aorta.* 
 
 Through life Higgins was the subject of popular 
 execration, and in death this enmity pursued him. 
 An alderman of the old Corporation, who resided 
 at Howth, declared, in 1820, that in riding into 
 Dublin, he could never pass Kilbarrack without 
 dismounting from his horse for the purpose of ridi- 
 culing and insulting the Sham Squire's grave. The 
 loathing in which Higgins had been held wreaked 
 its vengeance in more formidable demonstrations. 
 Many years ago some persons unknown visited 
 his tomb, and smashed off the part on which the 
 words, " sacred to the memory of Francis Higgins" 
 were inscribed. The thickness of the slab is con- 
 siderable ; and nothing short of a ponderous sledge 
 hammer could have effected this destruction. The 
 same eccentric individual who, in the dead of night, 
 well nigh succeeded in depriving an obnoxious 
 statue of its head,t is likely to have been cognizant 
 of the malign joke played on the Sham Squire's 
 mausoleum. No one better knew the depth of his 
 rascality than Watty Cox, who, in the Irish Ma- 
 gazine^ makes reference to both his turpitude and 
 tomb. Of the former, illustrations have been already 
 given (p. 59 ante). Of the latter we read: 
 
 chaps of a wiiidy Sunday, and grinning frightfully through the 
 holes which wanst were eyes. Another time I would look across 
 to Howth as it riz like a black ^oini betune me and the sky ; and 
 I would think if the devil that is chained down below there at full 
 length in a cavern near the light-house was to break loose, what 
 a purty pickle I 'd be in". 
 
 * It has been remarked by Dr. Mapother and other physio- 
 logists that aneurism of the aorta is peculiarly liable to overtake 
 the designing, selfish, and wrongly ambitious man. It kills 
 suddenly. 
 
 t The statue of William III. in College Green. 
 
176 THE SHAM SQUIEE, AND 
 
 " Con* was riding with his employer and lady by Kil- 
 barrack Churchyard, where the remains of the Sham 
 are deposited under a magnificent tomb and splendid 
 inscription. The party naturally stopped to pay a 
 grateful tribute to departed worth ; Con mounted the 
 flinty covering, and after reading with impassioned 
 energy the eulogium it bore, burst into tears, and de- 
 clared upon his honour, the composition was unequalled 
 in the history of sepulchral literature".^ 
 
 Nearly two generations passed away, and unless 
 by a few families, all memory of the Sham Squire be- 
 came obliterated. Tourists visited Kilbarrack ; and 
 disciples of Doctor Syntax, moved by the touching 
 epitaph and the romantic scenery around, perchance 
 dropped a tear upon the stone. Pedestrians made 
 it a halting point and resting place ; the less matter- 
 of-fact mused on Erin's days of old. 
 
 Ere her faithless sons betrayed her, 
 
 cleared the moss out of the inscriptions, and prayed 
 for the nameless patriot and philanthropist who 
 mouldered below.!}: All remembrance of his life had 
 
 * Frederick William Conway, who conducted the Freeman 
 after the death of Higgins. 
 
 t Irish Magazine for NoTemher, 1813. 
 
 j On September 15, 1853, a gentleman published a letter in the 
 Freeman, requesting to know not only the name of the person 
 on whom so eulogistic an epitaph had been written, but the fate 
 of the trust-money named in it. " It is gross ingratitude", he 
 added, "and practical materialism, to allow the tomb and 
 memory of such a philanthropist to perish for want of a suitable 
 monument to mark his last resting-place, and I should only hope 
 that among so many benefited, one, at least, may be found to 
 turn to the grave of their common benefactor". A letter in 
 reply went on to say, " this -will hardly sati.-fy your correspon- 
 dent in regard to the trust bequest for poor debtors, or offer any 
 apology or explanation of why the tomb of such a charitable 
 testator should be left so totally neglected and defaced by the 
 highway". Twelve years later found another Jonathan Old- 
 buck poking among the stones of Kilbarrack, and addressing a 
 
THE BLOODHOUNDS OF '98. 177 
 
 died out, although a tradition of his sobriquet still 
 floated about the locality, and by degrees the history 
 of Higgins degenerated into " the beautiful legend 
 of the Sham Squire":* which at last was cruelly 
 disturbed by the publication of the Cornwallis cor- 
 respondence, the researches of the present writer, and 
 some patriotic scribe who since our first disclosures 
 on this subject has inscribed across the imposing 
 epitaph, surmounted by a picture of a pike and a 
 gallows, 
 
 " Here lies the monster 
 
 Higgins, 
 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald's 
 Informer". 
 
 similar query to the Irish Times. The subject excited a consi- 
 derable sensation, and became invested with almost romantic in- 
 terest. Several leaders as well as letters appeared. " Kilbar- 
 rack", wrote the editor, "is as lonely and desolate a ruin as ever 
 an artist painted. A stray goat or sheep may be seen browsing 
 upon the old graves, half covered with drifted sand ; or a flock 
 of sand larks sweeps through the wide and broken arches. 
 Bound the forsaken tombs grow in abundance heartsease, ver- 
 onica, and the white harebell. There are pretty mosses on the 
 gray walls; but the aspect of the ruins oppresses the heart with 
 a sense of melancholy loneliness. Sometimes, when the storm 
 blows inshore, the waves dash in spray over the ruined walls, 
 and weep salt tears over the tombs" Irish Times, Jan. 3, 1865. 
 
 " An Humble Debtor", dating from the Four Courts Marshal- 
 sea, and citing as his text, " I was ia prison, and ye visited me 
 not" Matt., XXV. 43, 44, went on to say: "Your journal for the 
 last few days has given great consolation to the inmates of this 
 prison, by its insertion of letters bearing on the hitherto almost 
 unknown benefactions of Francis Higgins, of good memory". 
 
 The gentleman thus addressed was of opinion that the money, 
 if invested in land, ought to yield now, at least, 50 per annum ; 
 but it has been stated by the chaplain to the Marshalsea that no 
 more than 15 a year is received, and comes not from landed 
 security, but from some old houses in Cumberland Street. 
 
 * " The legend of the Sham Squire'', full of romance, and 
 bearing no resemblance to the authentic details which we have 
 gathered, appeared in 1856 in a serial published by Mr. Chamney. 
 
 12 
 
JOTTINGS 
 
 ABOUT 
 
 IRELAND AND THE IRISH 
 
 SEVENTY YEARS AGO : 
 
 BEING ADDENDA SUGGESTED BY ALLUSIONS IN 
 THE FOREGOING TEXT 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 -A. ' '.:'^ ; :. . 
 
 BARATARIANA. 
 
 
 
 This book has always possessed peculiar interest for 
 historic students of the period to which it refers ; and 
 several communications have appeared from time to 
 time in N<^e8 and Queries touching it. In reply to an 
 inquiry,* the late Right Hon. J. Wilson Croker pro- 
 mised to contribute particulars as to the writers of 
 Baratariana,^ but failed to do so, although he lived for 
 several years subsequently. J " That promise not having 
 been fulfilled", observed a writer, " permit me to ask 
 from some of your Irish correspondents materials for a 
 history of this very curious volume" ; and ABHBA ex- 
 pressed a hope that " Mr. Fitzpatrick would be induced 
 to furnish us with a key to the characters which figure 
 in the book".|| In accordance with these suggestions, 
 we gathered from a variety of sound sources, several 
 well authenticated details. 
 
 Sir Hercules Langrishe, Mr. Grattan, then a young 
 barrister not in parliament, and Mr. Flood, were, 
 according to the Memoirs of Flood (p. 79), the principal 
 writers of Baratariana. In Grattan^ s Lift (voL i., p. 
 185), there is an account of a visit to Sir Hercules in 
 1810; and the octogenarian is found repeating with 
 enthusiasm some of his fiash passages in Baratariana. 
 The contributions of Sir Hercules to this bundle of 
 
 * First Series, voL x., p. 185, t Ibid^ vol. x., p. 353. 
 
 Ibid. Second Series, vol. viii,, p. 52. U Ibid, p. 139. 
 
182 ADDENDA i 
 
 political pasquinades are noticed in Grattan's elegy on 
 the death of the patriot baronet (vide vol. i., p. 188). 
 The late Hon. Major Stanhope informed us that Mr. 
 St. George, a connection of his, held the very volumi- 
 nous papers of Sir H. Langrishe, and not the present 
 baronet. They threw, he said, great light on the poli- 
 tical history of the time, and he promised to give us 
 access to them if desired. The articles written by 
 Grattan were, as his son informs us (vol. i., p. 185), 
 " Posthumous", " Pericles", and the dedication of Sa- 
 ratariana. He read them to his friends, and they were 
 struck by his description of Lord Chatham. Gilbert's 
 Dublin (vol. i., p. 294) tells us, what the Life of Flood 
 does not, that the articles signed " Syndercombe" 
 were from Flood's pen. The volume of Ptiblic Charac- 
 ters for 1806, in noticing William Doyle, K.C., and 
 Master in Chancery, remarks (p. 64) that he was " uni- 
 versally admired for his brilliant wit", and that " he 
 contributed largely to Baratariana" . 
 
 To the second edition of the book, published in 1 773, 
 there is appended the following so-called " key" ; but 
 the difficulty is to recognize, at this distance of time, 
 the names which have been initialed, and to supply 
 
 them. 
 
 i ' . . 
 
 1. Sancho .... Lord T d. 
 
 2. Groreannelli . . . Lord A y. 
 
 3. Don Francisco Andrea) . ,, . ^ 
 
 , . _, > Kt. Hon. 1 8 A s. 
 
 del Bumperoso . .) 
 
 4. Don Grcorgio Buticamy . Sir G e M y. , 
 
 6. Don Antonio . . . Et. Hon. A y M e. 
 
 6 Don John Alnagero . Kt. Hon. J n H ^y H n. 
 
 7. Don Philip . . . Kt. Hon. P p T 1. 
 
 8. Count Loftonso . . L. L s, nowE. ofE y. 
 
 9. Don John . . . Rt. lion. J n P y. 
 
 10. Don Helena . . . K 1 H n, Esq. 
 
 11. Donna Dorothea del Mon-) j^ggjj ^ 
 
 roso . . . .) 
 
 12. Don Godfredo Lilly . G y L 11, Esq. 
 
 13. The Duke Fitzroyola . Duke of G n. 
 
 14. Cardinal Lapidaro . . The late Prim. S e. 
 
BARATABIANA. 183 
 
 15. The Bishop of Toledo . 
 
 16. Don Edwardo Swanzero . 
 
 18. Donna Lavinia . . Lady St. L - r. 
 
 19. DonRicardo . . . B - dP - r, Esq. 
 
 The first named is George Viscount Townshend, who 
 became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, October 14th, 
 1767, and continued in the government, until succeeded 
 by Simon, Earl of Harcourt, November 30th, 1772. 
 
 2. Lord Annaly, Lord Chief Justice of the King's 
 Bench in Ireland. As John Gore he represented 
 Jamestown in parliament for several years ; d. 1783. 
 
 3. The Right Hon. Francis Andrews. He succeeded 
 Dr. Baldwin as Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in 
 1 758. Andrews had previously represented Dublin in 
 parliament ; d. 1774.* 
 
 4. Sir George Macartney, Knight, f bom 1737 ; 
 Envoy Extraordinary to the Empress of Russia, 1764, 
 and Plenipotentiary, 1767 ; knighted October, 1764. 
 In July, 1768, he was elected for the borough of 
 Armagh. In 1769 he became Secretary to Lord Town- 
 shend. Viceroy of Ireland. In 1776 Sir George Ma- 
 cartney was raised to the peerage. He married the 
 daughter of Lord Bute : hence the nickname Buticarny. 
 
 5. The Right Hon. Anthony Malone. For upwards 
 of half a century an ornament to the Irish Bar ; d. May 
 8, 1776. For a long account of him see Hardy's Life 
 of Charlemont (vol. i. pp. 133-139 ; Taylor's Hist, of 
 the Univer. of Dublin (pp. 395-6.) ; and Grattan's 
 Memoirs^ passim. J 
 
 6. Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson. In the Direc- 
 
 * Taylor's Hist, of the Univer. of Dublin, pp. 251-2; Wilson's 
 DMin Direc. (1770), p. 41. 
 
 t Vide "List of Privy CounciUors", Dublin Direc. (1770), 
 p. 41. 
 
 J In Wilson's Directory for 1770, Malone is styled '* King's 
 First Counsel at Law, Sackville Street". 
 
184 ADDENDA. ! 
 
 tory of the day he is styled " Prime Serjeant and 
 Alnager of Ireland, Kildare St.". He subsequently 
 became Secretary of State and Keeper of the Privy 
 Seal. For a long account of Hutchinson, see Hardy's 
 Charlemont (i. 141. ; ii. 185). Having obtained a peer- 
 age for his wife, he became ancestor of the Lords 
 Donoughmore.* The Sketches of Irish Polit. Char. 
 observes (p. 60) : " Lord Townshend said of Hely Hutch- 
 inson, that if his Majesty gave him the whole king- 
 doms of England and Ireland, he would beg the Isle of 
 Man for a cabbage garden". 
 
 7. Right Hon. Philip Tisdall, P.O., Attorney General. 
 He represented the University of Dublin in parliament, 
 from 1739 until his death in 1777. For a full account 
 and character of Tisdall, see Hardy's Charlemont (i. 152 
 156). In the Directory of 1770 he is styled "Prin. 
 Secre. of State, and Judge of the Prerogative Court, 
 Leinster Street". 
 
 8. The Hon.' Henry Loftus succeeded his nephew 
 Nicholas as fourth Viscount Loftus ;t b. 11th Nov. 1709 ; 
 advanced to the earldom of Ely, 5th Dec., 1771.t 
 
 9. Right Hon. John Ponsonby, son of Lord Bess- 
 borough, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, b. 
 1713 ; d. 12th December, 1789. 
 
 10. " Robert Hellen, K. C., and Counsel to the Com- 
 missioners, Great Cuffe Street ; called to the Bar Hilary 
 Term, 1755".|| 
 
 11. A Miss Munro was said to have been mixed up 
 
 * Burke's Peerage (1848), p. 315. For an account of his 
 regime as Provost of Trin. Coll., see Taylor's Sist. of Univer. of 
 Dublin, p. 253. 
 
 t His ancestor, A. Loft-House, accompanied Lord Sussex to 
 Ireland. Various family links subsequently united the Loftuses 
 to the house of Townshend. General Loftus married, 1790, Lady 
 E. Townshend, only daughter of Marquis Townshend. Her 
 daughter Charlotte married Lord Vere Townshend. 
 
 J Burke's Peerage, p. 371 (1848). 
 
 Ibid., p. 93 ; Hardy's Charlemont, i. 184, 201, 293. : 
 
 11 Wilson's Dublin Directories. 
 
BARATARIANA. 185 
 
 with some of the political intrigues which characterized 
 the Townshend and other administrations, " Dolly 
 Munro" is traditionally described as a woman of sur- 
 passing beauty and powers of fascination. She was 
 quite a Duchess of Gordon in the political circles of her 
 time. 
 
 12. " Godfrey Lill, Esq., Solicitor General, Merrion 
 Square, M , 1743".* 
 
 13. Augustus Henry, third Duke of Grafton, b. 1736, 
 filled the offices of Secretary of State and First Lord 
 of the Treasury in 1765 and 1766, and that of Lord 
 Privy Seal in 1771. 
 
 t4. Primate Stone. He was the great political rival 
 of Lord Shannont Death closed the eyes of both within 
 nine days of each other, in Dec. 1764,t 
 
 15. Dr. Jemmet Browne, consecrated Bishop of 
 Cork, 1743 ; promoted to Elphin, 17724 
 
 16. Edward B. Swan, Esq., Surveyor-General of the 
 Kevenue. He was the father of the famous Major 
 Swan, who arrested the thirteen delegates of the United 
 Irishmen at Oliver Bond's in 1798 (Plowden's Hist. 
 Jrelancl, ii. 424), and who afterwards assisted in the 
 capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald ? [Castlereagh Cor- 
 respondence, vol, i. 463.] 
 
 17. '* Surgeon Alexander Cunningham, Eustace 
 Street", figures in the list of surgeons at p. 98. of Wil- 
 son's DuUin Directory for 1770. 
 
 18. Lady St. Leger. E. St. Leger (nephew of 
 Hughes Viscount Doneraile, whose title became extinct 
 in 1767) represented Doneraile from 1749 to 1776, 
 
 * Wilson's Dublin Directories. 
 
 t Dublin Direc. 1769, p. 42; Hardy's Charlemont, vol i. 
 pussim 
 
 t Wilson's Dublin Direc. 1774, p. 52. 
 
 Dulflin Direc., 1774 [Com. Rev.^, p. 73. The Viceroy, at 
 p. 228 of Saratariana, is made to speak of " his trusty friends, 
 bwan and Waller". lu the Directory for 1774, " George 
 Waller, Clerk of the Minutes in Excise", is mentioned. 
 
186 - ADDENDA. 
 
 when his majesty pleased to create him Baron Done- j 
 raile as a reward for parliamentary services. He mar- ]' 
 ried Miss Mary Barry. She died March 3, 1778.* ' 
 This is probably the party referred to. ' 
 
 19. Richard Power, K. C. - In the Directory of 1774, 
 we find him styled " Third Baron of the Exchequer, 
 and Usher and Accountant-Gen eral of the Court of 
 Chancery, Kildare Street, Hilary, 1757". Mr. Daunt, 
 in his Recollections of O'Connell (ii. 145), narrates an 
 extraordinary anecdote of O'Connell's in reference to 
 Baron Power, who, having failed to take Lord Chan- 
 cellor Clare's life with a loaded pistol, proceeded to 
 Irishtown to commit suicide by drowning. It was re- 
 marked as curious that in going off to drown himself, he 
 used an umbrella as the day was wet. Baron Power 
 was a convicted peculator. 
 
 The Anthologia Hibemica for February, 1794, p. 154, 
 details the particulars of Baron Power's death. Besides 
 his j udicial office, he was Usher to the Court of Chancery, 
 and large sums were frequently deposited in his hands 
 for the security of suitors. The Baron having pocketed 
 3,000 in the Chandos suit, Lord Chancellor Clare was 
 appealed to, who ordered the Baron to appear in court 
 and answer for his conduct. The Judge hesitated, de- 
 claring that he held a seat on the same bench with the 
 Chancellor in the Court of Exchequer Chamber. Lord 
 Clare issued his command in a still more peremptory 
 tone ; and the tragedy detailed by Mr. O'Connell was 
 the result. Sir Jonah Barrington's elaborately embel- 
 lished account of this transaction is most inaccurate. 
 He suppresses all allusion to the embezzlements of 
 which, by the way, Barrington was himself convicted 
 as a judge* and merely says that Lord Clare teased 
 Power to madness, because the Baron was arrogant 
 
 * Archdall's Lodgers Peerage, vol. V. p. 123. 
 t Personal Sketches, vol. i. p. 457-9. See Notice of Barring- 
 ton, Addenda P. 
 
TOPING EZtEAOEDINAEY. , ]87 
 
 himself, and never would succumb to the arrogance of 
 Fitzgibbon, to whom in law he was superior. Both 
 accounts, however, agree in saying that Power was im- 
 mensely rich. 
 
 The letters from Philadelphus, also published in 
 Baratariana, repeatedly mention the name Pedro Pezzio. 
 Dr. Charles Lucas (b. 1713 ; d. 1771) is the party 
 alluded to. . 
 
 B. . 
 
 TOPING SEVENTY YEARS AGO. 
 (See page 38, ante). 
 
 It did not need the example of the Duke of Rutland 
 to make hard drinking the fashion in Ireland. The 
 anecdote, " Had you any assistance in drinking this 
 dozen of wine ?" " Yes, I had the assistance of a bottle of 
 brandy", gives an idea of the extent to which the prac- 
 tice reached. Few songs were sung save those in praise 
 of wine and women. Judge Day's brother. Archdeacon 
 Day, wrote a popular song called " One Bottle More". 
 Curran sung : 
 
 " My boys, be chaste till you 're tempted ; 
 While sober be wise and discreet ; 
 And humble your bodies with fasting, 
 Whene'er you 've got nothing to eat". 
 
 " It was an almost invariable habit at convivial meet- 
 ings", observes an informant, " to lock the door lest any 
 friend shoxild depart. The window was then opened, 
 and the key flung into the lawn, where it could not be 
 again found without much difficulty. An Irish piper 
 was stationed behind the door, where he jerked forth 
 planxty after planxty as the toasts progressed. A cer- 
 tain baronet used to knock the shanks off each guest's 
 glass, to necessitate draining it to the bottom before he 
 
188 ADDENPA. 
 
 could lay it down again. Gallons of buttered claret 
 were drunk, and morning found the convivialists lying 
 under the table in heaps of bodily and mental imbe- 
 cility". 
 
 The late Dr. Henry Fulton informed us that he 
 heard from Mr. Dawson, one of the Volunteer Conven- 
 tion in 1782, and afterwards Chairman of Armagh, the 
 two following anecdotes, illustrative of Irish convi- 
 viality in the last century : 
 
 Sir William Johnson and his friend Dawson were 
 invited out to dine. Some time after dinner Sir William 
 came to him and said : " Dawson, am I very drunk ?" 
 " No", said the other ; " Why so ?" " Because", said 
 the baronet, *'I can't find the door". It would have 
 been hard for him, for the host had a mock bookcase 
 which moved on a spring, and when required closed up 
 the entrance. After making another trial,, Sir William 
 gave it up, and quietly resumed his seat. Dawson 
 escaped out of a window, got up stairs to a sleeping 
 apartment, and knowing that all the party would remain 
 for the night, bolted the door and barricaded it with all 
 the furniture he could remove. Next morning he found 
 two of the gentlemen in bed with him, who had efiected 
 an entrance through a panel of the door. 
 
 No gentleman thought of paying his debts, and the 
 extensive house of Aldridge, Adair, and Butler, wine 
 merchants in Dublin, sent a clerk to Connaught to col- 
 lect money due to the firm. The clerk returned, pro- 
 testing that he was half dead with feasting, but could 
 get no money. Kobin Adair then personally went down, 
 and arrived at the house of his principal debtor just in 
 time for dinner, and found a large party assembled. 
 In the course of the evening the following was com- 
 posed and sung : 
 
 " Welcome to Foxhall, sweet Robin Adair. . 
 
 How does Tom Butler do, 
 And John Aldridge, too ? 
 Why did they not come with you, i 
 Sweet Robin Adair ?" 
 
TOPING EXTRAORDINARY. 189 
 
 
 
 It is almost needless to add that he, too, returned 
 without the debt. 
 
 To compensate for bad debts, a large margin foi 
 profit was fixed by the Dublin wine merchants of that 
 day. 
 
 " Claret", writes Barrington, " was at that time about 
 18 the hogshead, if sold for ready rhino; if on 
 credit, the law, before payment, generally mounted it 
 to 200, besides bribing the sub-sheriff to make his 
 return, and swear that Squire * * * * had * neither 
 lodi/ nor goods\ It is a remarkable fact, that formerly 
 scarce a hogshead of claret crossed the bridge of 
 Banagher for a country gentleman, without being fol- 
 lowed within two years by an attorney, a sheriff's officer, 
 and a receiver ofaUJiis rents, who generally carried back 
 securities for 500". In the Irish Quarterly Review^ 
 vol. ii. p. 331, is quoted a French author's description 
 of Holybrook, county Wicklow, the seat of Robin 
 Adair, " Si famaux dans nombre des chansons^'. He was 
 probably the head of the wine firm referred to by Dr. 
 Fidton. Another Adair, equally noted for bacchana- 
 lian powers lived at Kilternan. 
 
 " Were I possess'd of all the chink 
 
 That was conquered by Cortez, Hernan, 
 I'd part with it all for one good drink 
 With Johnny Adair of Kilternan. 
 The soldier* may drink to their Cumberland brave, 
 
 The sailors may drink to their Vernon, 
 Whilst all merry mortals true happiness have 
 With Johnny Adair of Eilternan". 
 
 Owen Bray, of LoughUnstown, also figures in more 
 than one song. 
 
 " Were ye full of complaints from the crown to the toe, 
 A visit to Owen's will cure ye of woe ; 
 A buck of such spirits ye never did know, 
 For let what will happen, they 're always in flow ; 
 When he touched up Ballen a Mona, oro, 
 The joy of that fellow for me". 
 
190 ADDENDA. 
 
 Drinking clubs fanned the flame of political agitation 
 and sectarian bitterness then so rife. One of these 
 pandemoniums stood in Werburgh Street, where many 
 a man with, as a song of the day has it, 
 
 a goodly estate, 
 
 And would to the Lord it was ten times as great", 
 
 drank himself to delirium, death, and beggary. The 
 spirit of the times is shown in one of the club, who, 
 having pitched a basin of filthy fluid from the window, 
 which was hailed by a shriek below, exclaimed, " If you 
 are a Protestant, I beg your pardon respectfully ; but 
 if you're a Papist (Ate), take it and bad luck to you !"* 
 The County Kildare was not second to Wicklow or 
 Dublin in convivial indulgence. Some years ago, as we 
 stood among the ruins of Clonshambo House, a song 
 commemorative of its former occupant was chanted : 
 
 " 'T was past one o'clock when Andrew got up, 
 His eyes were as red as a flambeau ; 
 Derry down, my brave boj-s, let us sleep until eve. 
 Cried Andrew Fitz-Gerald of Clonshambo". 
 
 The windows of old Clonshambo House looked into a 
 churchyard, which ought, one would think, to have 
 preached a more salutary homily to the convivialists 
 than the event seems to have proved. Adjoining it is 
 a crumbling wall glassed, and displaying many a sturdy 
 old neck with the cork still lodged in it. 
 
 The judges of the land, vulgarly regarded as almost 
 infallible, were no better than their neighbours, and 
 the phrase, " as sober as a judge", must for a time have 
 fallen into disuse. Baron Monckton, being often vino 
 deditus^ as we are assured by Barrington, usually de- 
 scribed the segment of a circle in making his way to 
 the seat of justice. Judge Boyd, v/hose face, we are 
 told, resembled "a scarlet pincushion well studded", 
 possessed a similar weakness; and a newspaper, in 
 
 
 
 ^ Tradition communicated by F. T. P , Esq. 
 
- 
 
 BRIBEET AND INTIMIDATION. 191 
 
 praising his humanity, said that when passing sentence 
 of death, it was observable that " he seldom failed to 
 have a drop in his eye". Of the first jndge named it 
 might be said, as of the Geraldines, Ipsis Hibernis H&er- 
 niores, for Baron Monckton was imported from the 
 English Bar. 
 
 Hard drinking continued fashionable in Ireland 
 within the last forty years. A late eminent polemic 
 habitually drank, without ill effects, a dozen glasses of 
 whiskey toddy at a sitting. Bushe, on being introduced 
 to the late Con, Leyne of the Irish Bar, asked " Are you 
 any relation to Con of the Hundred Battles ?" " This is 
 Con of the Hundred Bottles", interposed Lord Plunket. 
 
 A well-known person, named Led ge, who lived 
 
 at Bluebell, having met a favourite boon companion, 
 was induced by him to partake of some refreshment at 
 an inn, where he speedily consumed sixteen tumblers 
 of punch. He was rising to leave, when the friend 
 suggested that he should " make up the twenty". " The 
 
 parish priest is to dine with me", replied Led ge, 
 
 " and I should not wish him to see the sign of liquor 
 
 on me". 
 
 C. 
 
 HOW LORD BUCKINGHAM PUNISHED 
 JEPHSON AND PURCHASED JEBB. 
 
 Magee's lampoons on the Sham Squire's patron, 
 the Marquis of Buckingham, were met by retorts in the 
 same vein. The chief writer of these retaliative epi- 
 grams was Robert Jephson, Master of the Horse at 
 Dublin Castle. Lord Cloncurry, in his Personal Secol- 
 lectionSj observes : " He lived at the Black Rock, in a 
 house which still remains, nearly opposite Maretimo, 
 and was, for a considerable period, the salaried poet 
 laureate of the viceregal court. He lost place and 
 
192 ADDENDA. | . 
 
 pension by an untimely exercise of his wit, when dining 
 one day at my father's house. The dinner was given 
 to the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquis of Buckingham, 
 who happened to observe, in an unlucky mirror, the 
 reflection of Jephson in the act of mimicking himself. 
 He immediately discharged him from the laUreateshift". 
 Public writers were corrupted without stint during 
 the administration of Lord Buckingham. By fa,r the 
 ablest man in Ireland, at that day, was Dr. Frederick 
 Jebb, the Irish Junius. UndeT the pseudonym of 
 Guatimozin, he published powerful letters in sustain- 
 ment of his country's cause. The viceroy, writing to 
 Lord North, says: "As the press was exceedingly 
 violent at that time, and had greater efiect in inflaming 
 the minds of the people, it was recommended to me as 
 a measure of absolute necessity, by some means, if pos- 
 sible, to check its spirit. On this a negociation was 
 opened with Dr. Jebb, who was then chief of the poli- 
 cal writers, and he agreed, upon the terms of my recom- 
 mending him for a pension of 300 a year, to give his 
 assistance to government, and since that time he has 
 been very useful, as well by suppressing inflammatory 
 publications as by writing and other services, which he 
 promises to continue to the extent of his power".* 
 After the death of Dr. Jebb the pension was continued 
 to his children. 
 
 D. 
 
 LORD CLONMEL. 
 
 Among the many searchingly critical notices of Lord 
 Chief Justice Clonmel, contributed by Grattan, Bar- 
 rington. Rowan, Cloncurry, Cox, Magee, and others, 
 no allusion has been made to the circumstances in 
 which his wealth may be said to have originated. We 
 
 * Memoirs of Grattan, by his Son, v. ii,, p. 175. 
 
THE POPERY LAWS. 193 
 
 are informed by a very respectable solicitor, Mr. 
 
 H , that in looking over one of Lord Clonmel's 
 
 rentals he was struck by the following note, written 
 by his lordship's agent, in reference to the property 
 " Boolnaduff " : " Lord Clonmel, when Mr. Scott, held 
 this in trust for a Roman Catholic, who, owing to the 
 operation of the Popery laws, was incapacitated from 
 keeping it in his own hands. When reminded of the 
 trust, Mr. Scott refused to acknowledge it, and thus the 
 property fell into the Clonmel family ". 
 
 In Walker's Hibernian Magazine for July, 1797, we 
 read, p. 97: "Edward Byme, of MuUinahack, Esq., 
 to Miss Roe, step-daughter to the Earl of Clonmel, and 
 niece to Lord Viscount LlandaiF".* 
 
 Hereby hangs a tale. Miss Roe was understood to 
 have a large fortune, and when Mr. Byrne applied to 
 Lord Clonmel for it, his lordship shuffled, saying: 
 " Miss Roe is a lapsed Papist, and I avail myself of the 
 laws which I administer, to withhold what you desire' . 
 Mr. Byme filed a bill in which he recited the evasive 
 reply of Lord Clonmel. The Chief Justice never 
 answered the bill, and otherwise treated Mr. Byrne's 
 remonstrances with contempt. These facts, which have 
 never been in print, transpire in the legal documents 
 held by Mr. H . 
 
 Too often the treachery manifested by the rich in 
 positions of trust, at the calamitous period in question, 
 contrasted curiously with the tried fidelity observed by 
 some needy persons in a similar capacity. Moore, in 
 his Memoirs of Captain Bock, mentions the case of a 
 poor Protestant barber, who, though his own property 
 
 * Lord Clonmel married first, in 1768, Catherine, only 
 daughter of Thomas Mathew, of Thomastown ; secondly, Mar- 
 garet, only daughter of Patrick Lawless, of Dublin (Archdall's 
 Lodge's Irish Peerage, T, yii. p. 243). The late Apostle of Tem- 
 perance, Father Theobald Mathew, was a native of Thomaa- 
 town, and a member of the family into which Lord Clonmel 
 intermarried, 
 
 13 
 
194 ADDENDA. 
 
 did not exceed a few pounds in value, actually held in 
 fee the estates of most of the Catholic gentry of the 
 county. He adds that this estimable man was never 
 known to betray his trust. 
 
 The proximity of the residences of Lord Clonmel 
 and Sir Jonah Harrington has been noticed at p. 89. 
 It may amuse those familiar with the locality to tell an 
 anecdote of the projecting bow- window, long since 
 built up, which overhangs the side of Sir Jonah's former 
 residence, No. 14 Harcourt Street, corner of Montague 
 Street. Lord Clonmel occupied the house at the oppo- 
 site comer, and Lady Clonmel affected to be very 
 much annoyed at this window overlooking their house 
 and movements. Here Lady Barrington, arrayed in im 
 posing silks and satins, would daily take up position, and 
 placidly survey a portion of the world as it wagged. 
 Sir Jonah was remonstrated with, but he declined to 
 close the obnoxious window. Lady Clonmel then took 
 the difficulty in hand, and with the stinging sarcasm 
 peculiarly her own, said : " Lady Barrington is so 
 accustomed to looking out of a shop window for the 
 display of her silks and satins, that I suppose she cannot 
 afford to dispense with this". 
 
 The large bow window was immediately built up. 
 And has not since been re-opened. Lady Barrington 
 was the daughter of Mr. Grogan, a silk mercer of 
 Dublin. Lady Clonmel was a Miss Lawless, related to 
 the Cloncurry family, who rose to opulence as woollen 
 drapers in Higk Street. The Lawlesses .held their 
 heads high, and more than once got a Eoland for an 
 Oliver. The first Lord Cloncurry having gone to see 
 the pantomime of Don Quixote, laughed immoderately 
 at the scene where Sancho is tossed in a blanket. 
 On the following morning the Sham Squire's journal 
 contained the following epigram : 
 
 " Cloncurry, Cloncurry, ' ' 
 
 Why in such a hurry, 
 
 To laugh at the comical Squire ? ' 
 
.'V. 
 
 LORD CLONMEL'S DIARY. 195 
 
 For though he 's tossed high, 
 You cannot deny 
 That blankets have tossed yourself higher". 
 
 The Diary of John Scott, Lord Clonrnd, has been 
 privately printed by his family. It shows, while re- 
 cording many weaknesses, that he was a man of rare 
 shrewdness, and gifted with a considerable amount of 
 political foresight. A few excerpts from tliis generally 
 inaccessible volume will interest the reader : 
 
 " Lord ! what plagues have false friends proved to 
 " me. The idea oi friendship and the very word should 
 *' be expunged from the heart and mind of a politician. 
 " Look at Lord Pery" (p. 211). 
 
 " In last month I became a viscount ; and from 
 " want of circumspection in trying a .cause against a 
 " printer (Magee), I have been grossly abused for several 
 " months. I have endeavoured to make that abuse 
 
 " useful towards my earldom" (Sept. 20, 
 
 1789, 348.) 
 
 On Oct. 19, 1789, he says that unless he adopts 
 the discipline of Pery and others, " I am actually dis- 
 " graced, despised, and undone as a public man. Let 
 " me begin to be diligent to-day. No other learning but 
 " law and parliamentary reading can be useful to me ; 
 " let these be my study" (p. 349). 
 
 On Jan. 21, 1790, he writes: "Let me therefore 
 " from this moment adopt a war discipline, and resolve 
 ^^ seriously to set about learning my profession, and 
 " acting my part superlatively throughout" (p. 351). 
 
 Among his good resolutions recorded on 10th Feb. 
 were : " To establish a complete reform from snufF, 
 " sleep, swearing, sloth, gross eating, malt liquor, and 
 " indolence". 
 
 The Diary finds him constantly engaged in a battle 
 with his own weaknesses, which unhappily in the end 
 generally win the victory. At p. 362, towards the 
 close of the book, we read : " By neglect of yourself 
 
196 ADDENDA. 
 
 "you are now a helpless, ignorant, unpopular, accused 
 " individual ; forsaken by Government, persecuted by 
 " Parliament, hated by the Bar, unaided by the Bench, 
 " betrayed and deserted by your oldest friends. Reform, 
 " and all will be well. Guard against treachery in 
 " others and passions in yovirself. At p. 441, we learn: 
 " My three puisne judges are actually combined against 
 " me, and that ungrateful monster, Lord Carleton, has 
 " made a foolish quarrel with me". 
 
 Few men possessed a more accurate perception of 
 what was right to be done ; and his beau ideal of a per- 
 fect Chief Justice is a model of judicial excellence 
 which a Mansfield or a Bushe might read with profit : 
 but poor Lord Clonmel signally failed to realize it. Day 
 after day, as we have said, finds this most extraordinary 
 man toiling in vain to correct his besetting weaknesses. 
 Sir Jonah Barrington's description of Lord Clonmel 
 perpetually telling, and acting, extravagantly comic 
 stories, is corroborated by the Chief's own Diary. 
 " I have made", he writes, " many enemies by the trea- 
 " chery of men and women who have taken advantage 
 *'of my levity* and unguardedness in mimicry, and 
 " saying sharp things of and to others ; and have injured 
 " m.yself by idleness, eating, drinking, and sleeping too 
 " much. From this day^ then^ let me assume a stately^ 
 " grave^ dignified deportment and demeanour. No buf- 
 " foonery, no mimicry, no ridicule". This is one of the 
 closing entries in the very remarkable Diary of John 
 Scott, Lord Chief Justice Clonmel. As a constitutional 
 judge he holds no place. In opposition to the highest 
 legal authorities of England, he held that one witness 
 was quite sufficient to convict in case of treason. 
 
 * It cannot be said of Lord Clonmel, as ol Jerry Keller, an 
 Irish barrister, that some men have risen by their gravity while 
 he sank by his levity. 
 
YEOMANRY OUTRAGES. 197 
 
 TRE IRISH YEOMANRY IN 1798. 
 
 The fidelity of Dempsey, the yeoman, to Lord 
 Edward's cause is the more remarkable, when we re- 
 member that he belonged to a body which was notorious 
 for its implacability to suspected persons. The per- 
 sonal narratives of Hay, Cioney, Teeling, O'Kelly, and 
 the historic researches of Madden, furnish abundant 
 anecdotes of their brutality. The following remin- 
 iscence, communicated to us by the late Mrs. Plunket, 
 of Frescati the former residence, by the way, of Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald as it does not happen to have been 
 printed, may be given here : 
 
 Previous to the outburst of the Rebellion there was 
 a noted bridewell at Geneva, in the county Wexford, 
 wherein persons suspected of treasonable tendencies 
 were incarcerated, and from thence removed soon after 
 to some distant place of transportation. The betrothed 
 of one young woman and the husband of another, 
 both personally known to Mrs. Plunket, were cast into 
 this prison. The women were permitted to visit the 
 captives ; they exchanged clothes, and the young 
 men passed out unrecognized. When the young 
 women were discovered occupying the cells, nothing 
 could exceed the rage of the local yeomanry. They 
 assembled a mock court-martial, found the fair con- 
 spirators guilty of having aided and abetted the escape 
 of traitors, and then sentenced them to be tossed naked 
 in a blanket. The yeomanry carried their decision into 
 effect. They roughly tore the garments from the 
 young women, stripped them stark naked, and then 
 prostrated them on the blanket which was prepared 
 for their punishment. They were tossed unmercifully, 
 amidst the brutal laughter of the assembled yeomanry. 
 A Scotch regiment present had the manly feeling to 
 
198 ADDENDA. 
 
 turn their backs. The married woman was pregnant, 
 and died from the effects of the treatment she received. 
 The younger girl, a person of great beauty, was 
 seriously injured both in body and mind. Mrs. Plun- 
 ket witnessed the less revolting part of the scene. She 
 was a person of considerable energy of character, one 
 of the Barringtons of Wexford, and a Protestant. 
 Having married Mr. Plunket, a Catholic, she embraced 
 that religion, to the great annoyance of her family, 
 who brought her home, and kept her in detention. 
 Mr. Plunket was arrested in Dublin on suspicion of 
 treasonable intent; she escaped, walked the entire 
 way to Dublin, and by her beauty and her tact, exer- 
 cised in influential quarters, succeeded in getting her 
 husband liberated. We have heard this lady say that 
 an agent of Lord Camden's Government offered her 
 1,000 to inform on persons who were implicated in the 
 rebellion, but she rejected the bribe with indignation. 
 
 About the same time, and in the same county, the 
 yeomanry, after having sacked the chapel and hunted 
 the priest, deputed one of their corps to enter the 
 confessional and personate the good pastor. In the 
 course of the day some young men on their way to the 
 Battle of Oulart dropped in for absolution. One, who 
 disclosed his intention and craved the personated 
 priest's blessing, was retorted upon with a curse, while 
 the yeoman, losing patience, flung off the soutanne, re- 
 vealing beneath his scarlet uniform. The youth was 
 shot upon the spot, and his grave is still shown at 
 Passage. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis, the more humane Viceroy who 
 succeeded Lord Camden, notices, in a letter to General 
 Eoss, the "ferocity and atrocity" of the yeomen, and 
 that they take the lead in rapine and murder. He 
 adds : 
 
 " The feeble outrages, burnings, and murders which 
 are still committed by the rebels serve to keep up 
 
MR. MACREADY'S STATEMENT. 
 
 the sanguinary disposition on our side ; and so long 
 as they furnish a pretext for our parties going in 
 quest of them, I see no prospect of amendment. 
 
 " The conversation of the principal persons of the 
 country all tend to encourage this system of blood; 
 and the conversation even at my table, where you 
 will suppose I do all I can to prevent it, always turns 
 on hanging, shooting, burning, etc., etc. ; and if a 
 priest has been put to death, the greatest joy is ex- 
 pressed by the whole company. So much for Ireland 
 and my wretched situation".* 
 
 :: "' p.- ' ' 
 
 MR. MACREADY'S STATEMENT. 
 
 [After we had received from Mr. Macready, the es- 
 teemed President of the Young Men's Society, a verbal 
 statement of the facts recited (p. 121, etc., ante), he 
 was good enough to commit to writing the subjoined 
 further details, which graphically illustrate the calami- 
 tous period in question.] 
 
 " Prior to the outburst of the insurrection in 1798, 
 and while espionage was active in its pursuit of .Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, stimulated by the reward of 1,000 
 for his apprehension, he was stopping in my grand- 
 father's house, No, 124 Thomas Street, and passing as 
 my mother's French tutor. She was not long home 
 from France, having left it in consequence of the Revo- 
 lution. She was a woman of much strength of charac- 
 ter, and carried the different letters between Lord 
 Edward and the other United Irishmen. While acting 
 in this capacity she usually went as a patient in Dr. 
 Adrien's carriage, with her arm bandaged up, and her 
 
 .* Memoirs and Correspondenc:' ofMarquis Cornwallis. Vol. 
 ii. p. 368. 
 
200 ADDENDA. 
 
 ,' s 
 
 clothes marked with blood. While Lord Edward was { 
 at James Moore's, the only person he saw, exclusive of 
 Lawless and a few other trusted political friends, was '" 
 his stepfather, Mr. Ogilvie, who had been a tutor in :' 
 the Leinster family, and the duchess married him. 
 * * * * Lady Fitzgerald never visited him at ; 
 Moore's, as it was supposed every move of hers was 
 cFosely watched, but my mother brought his .little 
 daughter to see him. She was a seven months' child, 
 and was afterwards married to Sir Guy Campbell, . 
 who was head of the Constabulary of Ireland. [Here ; 
 the anecdote of Tuite, given at p, 121, ante, appears.] 
 I had this from my grandfather and Tuite. The former 
 promised to bury Tuite, but he outlived him by many 
 years. It was considered unsafe for Lord Edward to , 
 remain concealed at our house, and my grandmother ; 
 went down to Magan, a barrister, and friend of hers, 
 who lived on Usher's Island, and arranged with him ; 
 that to-morrow evening Lord Edward would go down j 
 at seven or eight o'clock to his place, and, to avoid being 
 seen entering the front door, the stable in Island 
 Street was to be open to admit him. At eight o'clock 
 Mrs. Moore and Pat GaUagher, a clerk of ours, walked 
 out arm-in-arm, and my mother and Lord Edward 
 behind. They went along Thomas Street to Watling ' 
 Street, and turned down at the end of Watling Street, 
 'and just at Island Street, near Magan 's stable. Major 
 Sirr stopped Lord Edward. My mother screamed out 
 to Gallagher, who was a very powerful man. He at 
 once upset Major Sirr ; and only the Major had a coat 
 of mail on him, his career was ended on that occasion,- 
 for Gallagher tried his dagger on him. Major Sirr was . 
 also a powerful man, wielded his dagger, and although 
 under Gallagher, contrived to drive it through the 
 calf of his leg. Finding himself wounded, and fearing 
 he would not be able to make his escape, and perceiving - 
 that he could not wound Major Sirr, made the best of 
 
NARROW ESCAPES. 201 
 
 his way off, having first knocked the Major down with a 
 box, using the butt of the dagger to assist his blow. My , 
 mother and Lord Edward fled at the first part of the 
 fray, and as Murphy's (now Graham and Dunnill's 
 wool crane) was the nearest friend's place, they went 
 into it. Mrs. Moore got home as she best could; of 
 Gallagher I will speak hereafter. The accuracy of 
 the carpenter Tuite's information to Moore was soon 
 confirmed. The next day my grandfather Moore's 
 house was taken possession of. The famous Dr. 
 Gahan, the Augustinian friar, was visiting my mother, 
 and she was seeing him to the door when the double 
 knock came. The old priest in his humility stood 
 partly behind the door to allow whoever it was to enter. 
 A captain, a serjeant, and a large number of soldiers, 
 rushed in. They seized the poor old priest, and by the 
 qeue or pig-tail, the then mode of wearing the hair, 
 tied him up to a beam in the wareroom off the 
 shop. My mother ctrf him down. She then remembered 
 that the committee or council of the United Irishmen 
 were sitting at a house in James's Gate (the house now 
 occupied by Mr. Nulty). While the soldiers were taking 
 possession and rifling the house, she ran up to James's 
 Gate, and informed the parties there that her father's 
 house was full of soldiers. The father of the Rev. 
 George Canavan, late P.P. of St. James's, had a tan- 
 yard outside the house wherein the Directory met. 
 Into this yard they descended through a window, and , 
 escaped down Watling Street. My mother, when re- 
 turning, met some of the soldiers ; one of them recog- 
 nized her, * and said, ' There's that Croppy b h 
 
 again', making a drive at her with his bayonet which was 
 screwed to the top of his musket. She stooped and 
 escaped, but the bayonet cut her across the shoulders. 
 There were some good shots on the qui vive. The occur- 
 rence just took place on the site of Roe's distillery, and a 
 shot was forthwith fired from a house at the corner of 
 
202 ADDENDA. j ; 
 
 Crane Lane, which closed the loyal career of the sol- 
 dier who wounded my mother. He was shot dead. 
 The official report in the newspapers next day stated 
 that they were so near capturing the Committee or 
 Directory of the United Irishmen that in their flight 
 they left the taper lighting, and the wax was soft with 
 which they had been sealing their letters and docu- 
 ments. I should have mentioned that Magan went 
 up the next morning to know had anything happened, as 
 he was quite uneasy at not seeing Lord Edward and 
 Mrs. Moore, and that he had stopped up until mid- 
 night expecting them. While on this point I may as 
 well Anish it. When Dr. Madden was getting infor- 
 mation from my mother, he asked who she thought had 
 betrayed Lord Edward. Whether she said this to him 
 or not I cannot say ; but just as he left, she said to 
 me, " Dr. Madden asked me who I thought betrayed 
 Lord Edward, and only fearing I should sin against 
 charity. I would have said it was Magan, for no one but 
 my mother and he knew that Lord Edward was to go 
 down to his (Magan's) house on Usher's Island the 
 night his lordship was stopped by Major Sirr. Poor 
 Lord Edward himself did not k,now we were going to 
 Magan's house till we set out for it. We told Magan 
 next day what a narrow escape we had that night, and 
 how Lord Edward had to take refuge in Murphy's. 
 Lord Edward was arrested on the following day in 
 Murphy's house'.* 
 
 " Gallagher, of whom I have already spoken, was 
 brought out for execution ; but he put on a freemason's 
 apron, having received an intimation that the captain 
 of the guard was a member of the craft. By some 
 
 It is more than probable that Mrs. Macready did not avow 
 during that interview her suspicion of Magan. It took place, 
 as we learn from the Lives of the United Irishmen (v. ii. p. 406) 
 in the year 1842 Magan was then alive. Reminiscences con- 
 tributed by Mrs. Macready appear, but Magan's name does not 
 occur in them. . , 
 
ESCAPE OF GALLAGHER. 203 
 
 rule of ihdr faith, one brother cannot see another 
 hung. Be this as it may, the captain ordered his men 
 away, arid Gallagher was taken back to the Provost 
 prison until some non-masonic hangman could be got. 
 After or about this time the executions at the comer 
 of Bridgefbpt Street, in Thomas Street, were going on, 
 and the blood flowing from the block whereon the poor 
 rebels were quartered clogged up the sewers, and some 
 dogs were licking it up. The Lady Lieutenant was 
 driving past, and got such a fright from this horrible 
 scene that she fainted in the carriage. Having arrived 
 home, she wrote to her brother, who was high in the 
 then government, for Grod's sake to stop this whdlesale 
 massacre of the defenceless. Her humane, appeal had 
 the desired effect ; an order came to stem all further 
 executions ; enough blood had been shed. The rest of the 
 prisoners were ordered to be transported, and vessels for 
 that purpose were sent over. In one of these poor 
 Gallagher was placed, heavily ironed. The night be- 
 fore the transport sailed, his young wife was permitted 
 to see him, when his manacles, for that occasion, were 
 'taken off. His wife brought a coil of sash cord under 
 her dress ; night came on before she left, and Gallagher 
 held one end, while she took the other ashore. The 
 captain, as soon as he thought the wife was out of 
 sight of the ship, ordered the prisoner to be put in irons 
 again. When they went to him for that purpose he 
 said, " Can you not wait one minute ?" They paused, and 
 he leaped overboard, and was towed by the rope safely 
 ashore, before the sailors (who told the captain the 
 man had leaped in) had time to overtake him in a 
 boat. He was put aboard a smuggling lugger that 
 conveyed salt to France, and in years afterwards James 
 Moore, his former master, met him in London. He 
 told him he was a wealthy hotel kfeper in Bourdeaux, 
 and the handsome landlady of course was the person 
 who pulled the cord with him aboard the transport ship. 
 
204 ADDENDA. 
 
 I 
 
 " My mother took 500 to the doctor who attended 
 the prisoners in Bermingham Tower, Dublin Castle, 
 where my grandfather was detained, and he certified my 
 grandfather was mad! Whether he arrived at this 
 coifclu&ion from his professional skill or my mother's 
 persuasive powers, deponent further knoweth not ; but 
 I even heard, in the event of my grandfather's escape, 
 he was to be further convinced that my grandsire was 
 mad. Major Sirr had not implicit faith in the doctor's 
 word, for he went to the Tower to judge for himself. 
 The prisoner must have acted the maniac to life, for 
 he made Major Sirr run for his life after severely 
 biting him. He then passed out of the Tower, and 
 escaped up Castle Street. The government, never re- 
 arrested him, believing him insane. 
 
 " Major Sirr and Jemmy O'Brien the Informer were 
 looking for pikes at the rere of my grandfather's stores 
 in a field that is now occupied by Messrs. Fitzsimons, 
 timber merchants, Bridgefoot Street. A croppy, named 
 Clayton, saw them, and had them covered with his 
 carbine ; but as he could only hit one, he feared the 
 other might escape, and that he himself would be cap- 
 tured. He told this to Casey, who said each of them 
 were fully worth a charge of powder. This, perhaps, was 
 the narrowest escape Major Sirr had, for he it was that 
 was covered, and covered moreover by a man of un- 
 erring aim the saiup who hit the soldier at Costigan's 
 Gate". . . . . . -..I . ./ 
 
 JEMMY O'BRIEN. 
 
 O'Brien, to whom Mr. Macready refers, had obtained 
 an unenviable notoriety for murder, burglary, and gene- 
 ral chicane, when Major Sirr enlisted him in his service 
 as a " bloodhound", who, to quote the words of Curran, 
 *' with more than instinctive keenness pursued victim 
 
JEMMY O'BRIEN. 205 
 
 after victim". " I have heard", he added, " of assas- 
 sinations by sword, by pistol, and by dagger, but here 
 is a wretch who would dip the Evangelists in blood. 
 If he thinks he has not sworn his victim to death, he 
 is ready to swear without mercy and without end. 
 But, oh ! do not, I conjure you, suffer him to take an 
 oath ; the hand of the murderer should not pollute the 
 purij;y of the gospel, or, if he will swear, let it be by 
 the knife, the proper symbol of his profession". To 
 trace O'Brien through the bloody track of his progress 
 during " the reign of terror", would prove a repulsive ' 
 task. The following account of the circumstances 
 which led to his end, w^ere given to us in 1854 by a 
 gentleman connected with the Irish Executive. In the 
 year 1800 O'Brien was deputed to scrutinize some per- 
 sons who had assembled for the purpose of playing 
 foot ball, near Steevens' Lane. In scrambling over a 
 fence which enclosed the field, assisted by an old man 
 named Hoey, who happened to be- on the spot, the cry 
 of " O'Brien the informer" was immediately raised, the 
 people fled, and O'Brien in his chagrin turned round 
 and illogically wreaked his vengeance tRy stabbing Hoey 
 to death. He was tried for the crime and sentenced to 
 execution by Judge Day, who was a just judge in bad 
 times, and disregarded the eulogiums with which Major 
 Sirr belauded O'Brien during the trial. The delight of 
 the populace was unbounded. A-vast ocean of people 
 surged roimd the prison and under the gallows. A de- 
 lay occurred; the populace became impatient, ,nd 
 finally uneasy, lest the government should have yielded 
 to the memorial which was known to have been pre- 
 sented in his favour. A multitudinous murmur gra- 
 dually gave place to a loud boom ef popular indigna- 
 tion. The delay was caused by the cowardice of O'Brien, 
 who shrank from his approaching doom. Prostrate on 
 his knees, he begged intervals- of indulgence according 
 as the turnkey reminded him " that his hour had come". 
 
206 ADDENDA. 
 
 At length Tom Galvin, the hangman, a person of bar- 
 barous humour, accosted him, saying, "Ah, Misther 
 O'Brien, long life to you, sir, come out on the balcony, 
 an' don't keep the people in suspense ; they are mighty 
 onasy entirely under the swing-swong". 
 
 G. ' 
 
 GENERAL LAWLESS. 
 
 Having some reason to doubt the accuracy of the ac- 
 count given on hearsay by the late Lord Cloncurry, and 
 quoted by Dr. Madden, which represented Lawless 
 eflFecting his escape in the guise of a butcher, carrying a 
 side of beef on his shotilder, we instituted inquiries as 
 to the real facts, and the parties exclusively competent 
 to state them ; and with this object we bad an interview, 
 in 1854, with the late Mrs. Ryan, of Upper Gardiner 
 Street, then in her eighty-second year. 
 
 After the break-up of the Executive Directory by the 
 arrests at Oliver Bond's, a new one, compbsed of John 
 and Henry Sheares, William Lawless, and others, started 
 into existence, determined to carry out the plans of the 
 original founders. Proclamations appeared, and several 
 arrests were made ; but Lawless, owing to his own tact 
 and the presence of mind of his friends, escaped. Law- 
 less was proceeding to his mother's house in French 
 Street at a rapid pace, through Digges Street, when his 
 sister, perceiving his approach, appeared at the draw- 
 ing-room window, and motioned him to retire. The 
 house was at that moment undergoing a search by 
 Major Sirr and his myrmidons, and had Lawless come 
 up, his life would, doubtless, have paid the forfeit. 
 It is a significant fact that, on the following day, Henry 
 Sheares was arrested in the act of knocking at Lawless's 
 door. The family of Mr. Byrne, of Byrne's Hill, in 
 
GENERAL LAWLESS. 207 
 
 the Liberty, was then staying at their country resi- 
 dence near Kimmage, where Mr. Byrne and his 
 daughters, of whom our informant Mrs. Ryan was one, 
 provided Lawless with an asylum. He was concealed 
 in a garret- bedroom, communicating with a small 
 clothes closet, into which he retired/at every approach, 
 even of the servants, who were quite unconscious of 
 his presence. Days rolled over, and the search, but 
 without avail, continued. Military and yeomanry 
 scoured the country round. Major Sirr was so active, 
 that some swore he possessed the alleged ornithological 
 property of being in two places at once. 
 
 The Lawyer's corps having been on duty near Kim- 
 mage, it was suggested that Mr. Byrne's house should 
 be searched ; but a gallant nephew of Lord Avonmore, 
 who commanded, refused to sanction this proceeding, 
 in consequence of Mr. Byrne's absence and the pre- 
 sence of several ladies in the house. Lawless thanked 
 his stars ; but the fears of the family were greatly ex- 
 cited by the proximity of his pursuers, and they resolved 
 at aU hazards to remove him to Dublin previous to 
 making one desperate effort to reach 'France. Word 
 was sent to Philip Lawless, an eminent brewer, residing 
 at Warrenmount, the elder brother of William, to send 
 his carriage to Mr. Byrne's to convey him to town. 
 Mrs. Ryan, then Miss Byrne, dressed Lawless in a 
 loose white wrapper of her own, and a close beaver 
 bonnet. As Lawless possessed a pale sallow counte- 
 nance. Miss Byrne applied some effective touches, not of 
 ordinary rouge, but of lake paint, to his cheeks. The 
 outlaw, accompanied by Mrs. Ryan and her two sisters, 
 entered the carriage and proceeded openly at noon-day 
 to Dublin. The rebellion had not yet burst forth. 
 No opposition was offered to the ordinary transit of 
 vehicles. When half way to Dublin, a party of yeo- 
 manry scowled into the carriage, but not detecting 
 anything suspicious, suffered it to proceed. Having 
 
208 ADDENDA. 
 
 arrived at the residence of Mrs. Lawless, the outlaw 
 sent for a suit of sailor's clothes and donned them ; but 
 his long pane face was far from disguised. To effect 
 this desideratum. Lawless placed upon his head an im- 
 mense coil of cable, which he arranged so as that a 
 large portion descended upon his forehead, and went 
 far to baffle recognition. As he proceeded with this 
 burthen in the direction of Sir John Rogerson's Quay, 
 the redoubtable Major Sirr passed him closely, but 
 the disguise was so perfect, that no suspicion seems 
 to have been excited. Lawless gained greater con- 
 fidence from this moment, reached the wharf, em- 
 barked on board a merchant vessel, and a favourable 
 wind soon wafted him to the shores of France. He 
 entered the military service of that country, gained 
 distinction, lost a leg, and died a general in 1824. 
 
 One of the Irish refugees. Colonel Byme, addressing 
 the present writer in a letter dated " Paris, Rue Mon- 
 taigne, February 18, 1854", says : 
 
 " Lord Clon curry committed a mistake in the work 
 referred to, respecting the late General Lawless having 
 lost his leg at Flushing, in August, 1 809. He lost it at 
 the battle of Lowenberg, in August, 1813. It ap- 
 peared ridiculous that a colonel with but one leg 
 should be put at the head of a regiment of infantry in 
 a campaign by Napoleon".* 
 
 In Ireland Lawless had been a physician of great 
 
 * Colonel Byme adds : " I have made notes of the principal 
 events and transactions that came within my knowledge during 
 the insurrection of 1798, as well as that of 1 803. If I thought 
 their publication could in any way tend to benefit my native 
 country, I would cheerfully get them printed ; but I am well 
 aware that the present time is not a propitious moment. I 
 trust a time may come when the publication of such docu- 
 ments will be encouraged. They 'will show the efforts and 
 sacrifices that were made to procure the independence of Ire- 
 land". Colonel Byrne has since paid the debt of nature, and 
 the work in question has been publiijhed under the auspices of 
 his widow. , . 
 
LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 209 
 
 promise, and filled the chair of Physiology and Ana- 
 tomy at the College of Surgeons. Another eminent 
 medical man, Dr. Dease, Professor of the Practice of 
 Surgery, was also deeply implicated; but he lacked 
 the moral energy of Lawless, and, on timely informa- 
 tion reaching him that a warrant was in progress for 
 his apprehension, he retired to his study, and died, like 
 Cato, by his own hand. A fine white marble bust of 
 this physician, inscribed "William Dease, obiit 1798", 
 is preserved in the Hall of the College of Surgeons. 
 The old man's brow, furrowed by years of earnest honest 
 labour, and the intelligent expression of his eye, pre- 
 maturely quenched, awaken painful emotions. 
 
 William Lawless possessed a cultivated literary 
 taste ; and in the Irish Masonic Magazine for 1794 a 
 number of poems from his pen may be found. He had 
 been a member of the Royal Irish Academy ; but 
 Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 1802 announces his ex- 
 pulsion on political grounds. . 
 
 H. 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 
 
 A late eminent writer, Mr. Daniel Owen Maddyn, 
 author of Ireland and its Rulers, Revelations of Ireland, 
 The Age of Pitt and Fox, Chiefs of Parties, etc., in a 
 letter to the author, written a few days before his 
 death, strongly recommended that the present work, of 
 which we gave him an outline, should be entitled. Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald and his Bloodhounds, and enclosed a 
 story which he rightly considered would form an in- 
 teresting note. 
 
 The story, whether true or false, ran to this effect : 
 ** Lady Guy Campbell was most anxious to discover 
 where her father was interred, so as to give him decent 
 
 14 
 
210. ADDENDA. ! 
 
 sepulture. It was said that he had been buried in 
 various places ; but on examining them, it was found 
 that the information was erroneous. After much in- 
 vestigation, she was at last referred to one old man, 
 who, it was stated, could tell her. 
 
 "She accordingly went to this pauper's house, and 
 found a man in bed, and no sooner did he see her 
 than he said: 'I know who you are you must be 
 the daughter of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, you are so 
 like him*. She told him the object of her visit, and 
 then he related to her that he had lingered about 
 NeWgate when her father died, and that after nightfall he 
 saw six men bearing out a shell, and that he followed 
 them until they came to Werburgh's Church, and that 
 he saw them take the coffin into the vaults of the 
 church, and that, unperceived by them, he stole into 
 the vaults after them, and saw where they deposited 
 the cofl^. From intensity of feeling, in the wildness 
 of grief for his lost master, he stayed all that night in 
 the vaults, and in order to mark the coffin he scratched 
 the letters 'E. F.' on the lid of the coffin. In doing 
 this he used a rusty old nail which he had picked up. 
 He had great difficulty afterwards in forcing his way 
 out through a grated window. 
 
 " He then put his arm into his breast and took out a 
 rag of cloth, gave Lady Guy Campbell the identical 
 nail, and told her to go to Werburgh's Church. She 
 went there with her friends, and in the vaults she dis- 
 covered the coffin exactly as it had been described by 
 her informant, and the letters ' E. F.' incised on it 
 several inches long. 
 
 "Such", adds Mr. Maddyn, "is the story told me 
 by a member of the bar a Tory, and a man moving in 
 capital society". 
 
 In the churchyard of St. Werburgh is also buried 
 Major Sirr, by whose hand Lord Edward fell. See 
 notifee of Major Sirr, Addenda J, note 29. , 
 
SHEARES; CONWAY. . 211 
 
 JOHN AND HENRY SHEARES. 
 
 The Brothers Sheares were natives of Cork, whither 
 the younger had proceeded, early in May, for the purpose 
 of organizing that county. An energetic cooperator 
 in this movement was a silversmith named Gonway, 
 a native of Dublin. The treachery of this man was 
 so artfully concealed that his most intimate friends 
 never suspected him. 
 
 "If those who join secret societies", writes a Cork 
 
 correspondent, " could get a peep at the records of 
 
 patriotic perfidy kept in the Castle, they would get some 
 
 insight into the dangerous consequences of meddling 
 
 with them. There is a proverbial honour amongst 
 
 thieves ; there seems to be none amongst traitors. The 
 
 publication of the official correspondehce about the end 
 
 of the last century made some strange revelations. In 
 
 Cork, there lived a watchmaker, named Conway, one 
 
 of the directory of the United Irishmen there. So 
 
 public and open a professor of disloyal sentiments was 
 
 he, that on the plates of his watches he had engraved 
 
 as a device a harp without a crown. For a whole 
 
 generation this man's name was preserved as " a 
 
 sufferer for his country'', like his ill-fated townsmen, 
 
 John and Henry Sheares. The Cornwattis Correspon- 
 
 dence (vol. iii. p. 85) reveals the fact that Conway was 
 
 a double-dyed traitor ; that he had offered to become 
 
 a secret agent for detecting the leaders of the United 
 
 Irishmen, and that the information he gave was very 
 
 valuable, particularly as confirming that received from 
 
 a solicitor in Belfast, who, whilst acting as agent and 
 
 solicitor to the disaffected party, was betraying their 
 
 secrets to the executive, and earning, in his vile role of 
 
 informer, a pension, from 1799 to 1804, of 150, and the 
 
 sum of 1,460, the wages he received for his services". 
 
212 ADDENDA. 
 
 The fate of the Sheares has been invested with some- 
 thing of a romantic interest ; and not a few traditional 
 accounts describe their end as not less saintly than 
 that of Charles the First. Into their case, as in that 
 of other political martyrs, some romance has been 
 imported ; and as truth is stranger than fiction, we may 
 tell an anecdote communicated to us on November 
 21st, 1857, by the late John Patten, brother-in-law of 
 Thomas Addis Emmet. The Sheareses, though no- 
 minally Protestants, were tinged with deistical ideas. 
 " I heard it stated", observed Mr. Patten, " that when 
 the hangman was in the act of adjusting the noose 
 round the neck of John Sheares before proceeding to 
 
 the scaffold, he exclaimed, ' D n you, do you want 
 
 to kill me before my time ? ' I could not credit it, and 
 asked the Rev. Dr. Gamble, who attended them in their 
 last moments, if the statement were correct. ' I am 
 sorry to say ', replied Dr. Gamble, ' that it is perfectly 
 true. I myself pressed my hand against his mouth 
 to prevent a repetition of the imprecation* ". 
 
 THE EEIGN OF TERROR IN IRELAND. 
 
 Exception has been taken to impressions of the 
 reign of terror in Ireland, whether derived from tradi- 
 tional sources which possess no personal knowledge of 
 it, and, on the principle that a story never loses in its 
 carriage, may be prone to exaggeration ; or from the 
 testimony of partisan participators in the struggle, who 
 still smart from the combined effects of wrong received 
 and unsatisfied vengeance. 
 
 The Viceroy, Lord Cornwallis, is at least a witness 
 above suspicioD. In a letter dated April 15th, 1799, 
 he writes : * , ^ 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 213 
 
 " On my arrival in this country I put a stop to the 
 burning of houses and murder of the inhabitants by 
 the yeomen, or any other persons who delighted in 
 that amusement ; to the flogging for the purpose of 
 extorting confession ; and to the free-quarters, which 
 comprehend universal rape and robbery throughout 
 the whole country". And on the 24th July, 1798, we 
 are assured, " except in the instances of the six state 
 trials that are going on here, there is no law either 
 in town or county but martial law, and you know 
 enough of that, to see all the horrors of it, even in the 
 best administration of it. Judge, then, how it must 
 be conducted by Irishmen, heated with passion and 
 revenge. But all this is trifling compared with the 
 numberless murders which are hourly committed by 
 our people without any process or examination what- 
 ever".* 
 
 To either of the objections just noticed, advanced by 
 persons who are sceptical as to the extent of the Irish 
 Reign of Terror, General Sir George Cockburn, who 
 fought against the rebels, is not open. From his re- 
 presentative, Phineas Cockburn, Esq., of 8ha,ngana 
 Castle, we have received several interesting MSS. in 
 the autograph of the General, which possess much in- 
 terest for the students of the calamitous period of '98. 
 
 " Sampson's papers", observes General Cockburn, 
 in a letter to Lord Anglesey, " contained details of 
 most horrible outrages on the people, of cruelty and 
 foul deeds. Of course violence begets violence, and 
 though the people, in many cases, were driven to re- 
 taliation, it was not before murder, burning, destruction 
 of property, often on suspicion or being suspected, and 
 flogging, drove them to d^esperation". 
 
 The following curious paper has, with others, been 
 placed at our disposal by Mr. Cockburn : 
 
 * Correspondence of Marquis CornwaUis^ vol. ii. p. 368. 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 THE STEP-LADDER, OR A PICTURE OF THE IRISH GOVERN- 
 MENT AS IT WAS BEFORE LORD CORNWALLIS's ARRIVAL, 
 AND DURING THE SYSTEM OF TERROR, ETC. 
 
 f The Chancellor, 1 
 
 I Speaker, ' 2 
 
 No. 1 The Cabinet, viz. -^ C. Cashel (Archbishop) 3 
 
 Castlereagh, 1 
 
 J. Beresford, Commissr. 5 
 
 No. 2 Under-strappers 
 to do.. 
 
 f E. Cooke, 
 I Drogheda, 
 ^ Glentworth, 
 I Carhampton, 
 [j. 
 
 6 
 
 i 7 
 
 8 
 9 
 Claudius Beresford, 10 
 
 No. 3 Strong supporters 
 of do., of Orangeism, 
 jobbing, and corruption. 
 
 No. 4, Servants to the 
 Faction, viz. 
 
 No. 5. Very mischievous 
 men, and enemies to 
 liberty. 
 
 f Enniskillen, '' 11 
 
 Lees, ; 12 
 
 Carleton, ; 13 
 
 Perry, 14 
 Isaac Corry, 
 
 Waterford, 15 
 
 Annesley, ! 1 6 
 
 Blaquire, [ 17 
 
 Londonderry, 18 
 
 Toler, , l^ 
 
 Kingsborough, j 20 
 
 Downshire, i 21 
 
 Dillon, ; 22 
 
 Trench, gg 
 
 Dr. Duignan, 24 
 O'Beirne, Bp. of Meath, 25 
 
 Tuam (Archbishop), 26 
 Alexander, Mem. Derry 27 
 
GENERAL COCKBURN S " STEP-LADDER 
 
 215 
 
 Burns, 
 Finley, 
 Cleghorn, 
 
 No. 6. Ruffian Ma- j S. H. Mannix, 
 gistrates, always! Fitzgerald, 
 ready to murder, ' Jacob, 
 
 burn, etc. 
 
 Tyrrel, 
 Knipe, 
 Giiffith, 
 1_ Blaney, 
 
 Meath. ~\ 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 Cork. 
 Tipperary. 
 
 do. 
 Kildare. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 Monaghan. 
 
 28 
 
 No. 7. Miscreants, 
 
 Sirr, . 
 
 Swan, 
 
 Sands, 
 
 Giffard, 
 
 Hempen stall, Lt. M. 
 
 Spectacle Knox, 
 
 Higgins, 
 
 ( Armstrong, 
 
 No. 8. Spies, viz. -(Reynolds, 
 
 (Cope, 
 
 No. 9 Turnkey and 7 
 Gaoler to the Faction, j 
 
 29 
 
 80 
 81 
 
 82 
 33 
 34 
 85 
 
 86 
 87 
 88 
 
 89 
 
 A few remarks in illustration of the persons enume- 
 rated in the " Step -Ladder" of General Cockburn 
 serves to disclose a condensed history of the time. 
 
 1 . Lord Chancellor Clare was the son of John Fitzgib- 
 bon, who had received his education for the Roman Ca- 
 tholic priesthood, but, preferring civil to canon law, con 
 formed, with a view to becoming a member of the bar. 
 The subsequent Lord Clare was appointed attorney- 
 general in 1784, and five, years later attained the topmost, 
 rung of " the step-ladder", from whence he looked down 
 with supercilious arrogance on those by whose aid he 
 had risen. He rapidly covered all Ireland with his 
 

 216 ADDENDA. 
 
 partisans. Both houses of parliament became his au- 
 tomatons. Of coercion he was an uncompromising 
 advocate. In 1784, as alleged by Plowden, he intro- 
 duced a bill for demolishing Roman Catholic chapels. 
 In parliament he defended the use of torture. In 
 private, as his letters to Lord Castlereagh show, he 
 upset the bill of Catholic relief, which, according to 
 Mr. Pitt's promise, was to have accompanied the Act 
 of Union. But it should be remembered by the as- 
 sailants of Lord Clare's reputation, that, unlike many 
 of the influential men enumerated in General Cock- 
 burn's " step-ladder", he, at least, was politically con- 
 sistent, and did not commence his career in the ranks 
 of the tribunes. In action he was impulsive, fearless, 
 and despotic. Rushing to a political meeting con- 
 vened by the High Sheriff of Dublin, and attended by 
 one friend only, this, the most unpopular man in all 
 Ireland, interrupted a democratic orator in his address, 
 commanded the mob to disperse, almost pushed the 
 high sheriff from the chair, and threatened an ex-qfficio 
 information. The sheriff, panic-stricken, dissolved the 
 meeting. If hissed in the street. Lord Clare pulled out 
 pistols.* He powerfully contributed to carry the Union. 
 His ambition was indomitable, and he aspired to trans- 
 fer his boundless influence to the wider field of Eng- 
 land. He had placed several viceroys in succession 
 beneath his thumb. Might he not also attain an ascen- 
 dancy over the personage whom they represented ? 
 
 " If I live", said Lord Clare, when the measure was 
 brought before the House of Peers, " if I live to see 
 the Union completed, to my latest hour I shall feel an 
 honourable pride in reflecting on the little share I may 
 have had in contributing to effect it". 
 
 His first speech in the British parliament met with 
 interruption and rebuffs. He abused the Catholics, 
 
 * Diary of Lord Clonmel, printed privately for his family, 
 p. 449. 
 
LOED GLARE. 217 
 
 ridiculed his country, was called to order by Lord Suf- 
 folk, rebuked by the Lord Chancellor, resumed, was 
 again called to order, lost temper, and stigmatized the 
 opposition as " Jacobins and levellers". " We would 
 not bear this insult from an equal", exclaimed the 
 Duke of Bedford ; " shall we endure it at the hands 
 of mushroom nobility ?" Even Mr. Pitt was disgusted. 
 "Good G d", said he, addressing Mr. Wilberforce, 
 " did ever you hear, in all your life, so great a rascal 
 as that ?" Mr. Grattan mentions, in the memoirs of 
 his father, that this anecdote was stated by Mr. Wilber- 
 force to Mr. North. 
 
 Crestfallen, Lord Clare returned to Ireland, where . 
 he found a number of hungry place-seekers awaiting 
 his arrival. " Ah", said he, as he began to calculate 
 his influence, and found it wanting, " /, that once had 
 all Ireland at my disposal, cannot now nominate the 
 appointment of a gauger". His heart broke at the 
 thought, and on January 28th, 1802, Lord Clare, after 
 a painful illness, and while yet comparatively young, 
 died.* His death-bed presented a strange picture. 
 Charles Phillips says he ordered his papers to be 
 burnedjt as hundreds might be compromised. In 
 
 * A few days after the Sham Squire's demise. Lord Clare, not- 
 withstanding his avowed tendency to foster political profligacy, 
 possessed the redeeming virtue of having snubbed the Sham 
 Squire. 
 
 t It has been mentioned by the Athenaeum (No. 1634:), as a 
 significant fact, that nearly all those who were concerned ia 
 carrying the Union had destroyed their papers, and Lord Clare, 
 Sir Edward Littlehales, with Messrs. Wickham, Taylor, Mars- 
 den, and King, were instanced. It is also remarkable, that all the 
 MSS. reports of the eloquent anti-Union speeches, with the MSS. 
 of many pamphlets hostile to the measure, were purchased from 
 Moore the publisher, and burnt by order of Lord Castlereagh. 
 See Grattan's Memoirs^ vol. v. p. 180. Lord Clonmel, in his 
 last moments, expressed much anxiety to destroy his papers. 
 His nephew, Dean Scott, who assisted in the conflagration, 
 assured Mr. Grattan that one letter in particular completely 
 revealed Lord Ca3tlereagh's scheme to foster the JlebeUion of 
 
218 ADDENDA. 
 
 Grattan's memoirs it is stated, on the authority of Loid 
 Clare's nephew, that he bitterly deplored having taken 
 any part in effecting the Union. Plowden states that 
 he vainly called lor the assistance of a Catholic priest ; 
 but we have never seen the allegation confirmed. His 
 funeral was insulted by much of the indecency 
 which attended Lord Castlereagh's in Westminster 
 Abbey. In one of Lord Clare's speeches he declared, 
 that he would make the Catholics as tame as cats. 
 Dead cats were flung upon his hearse and his grave. 
 Lord Cloncurry, in his Recollections^ says that he was 
 obliged to address the infuriated populace from the 
 balcony of Lord Clare's house in Ely Place, ere they 
 could be induced to relinquish the unseemly hooting 
 which' swelled the death-knell of John, Earl of Clare, 
 
 2. " Mr. Foster, we learn, was for several years not 
 only the supporter, and indeed the ablest supporter of 
 administration, but the conductor and manager of 
 their schemes and operations ".* He sternly opposed 
 the admission of Catholics to the privileges of the con- 
 stitution ; but Ireland must always remember him v;ith 
 gratitude for the determined .hostility with which he 
 opposed the Legislative Union. 
 
 Feeling that the papers of Mr. Foster (afterwards 
 Lord Oriel) would throw great light upon the history 
 of the Union, we asked the late Lord Massareene, who 
 represented the Speaker, for permission to see them, 
 but it appeared that the Honourable Mr. Chichester 
 Skeffington " seized " the archives after Lord Ferrard's 
 death, and Lord Massareene never saw them after. 
 
 '98 in order to carry the Union. The purchase of Lord De 
 Blaquire's papers by the government appears in our notice of 
 that personage. Mr. Commissioner Phillips tells us that the 
 debates on the Union called into operation all the oratorical talent 
 of Ireland, but their record has been suppressed, and that the 
 volume containing the session of 1800 is so inaccessible, that it 
 has been sought for in vain to complete the series in the library 
 of the House of Lords. 
 
 * Review of the Irish House of Commons ("p. 129). 
 
LORD CASTLEREAGH. 219 
 
 3. Charles Agar, was appointed Archbishop of Cashel 
 in 1779, translated to Dublin in 1801, and created Earl 
 of Normanton in ISO'J. When we leara that his 
 grace acquired ^40,000 by a single renewal fine, the 
 statement that he amassed a fortune of 400,000 is 
 not surprising.* Lord Normanton would seem to 
 have been more active as a privy councillor than as a 
 prelate, for Archbishop Magee declared that " the 
 diocese of Dublin had been totally neglected " by his 
 predecessors,.t A savage biographical notice of Arch- 
 bishop Agar appears in Cox's Irish Magazine for 
 August, 1809, pp. 382-4, together with some lines 
 beginning : 
 
 " Adieu, thou mitred nothingness, adieu, 
 Thy failings many, and thy virtues few." 
 
 Yet amid the sectarian strife of that day it is plea- 
 sant to find " C. Cashel " in amicable epistolary cor- 
 respondence with his rival. Dr. James Butler, Roman 
 Catholic Archbishop of the same diocese. J 
 
 4. Lord Castlereagh, who, falsifying the hyperbolical 
 apothegm of Dr. Johnson that " patriotism was the 
 last refuge of the base", began political life in the 
 ranks of the patriots. Of his hostility to the lordly 
 interest, and identification with the reform or popular 
 party, the autobiographies of Teeling and Sampson 
 furnish curious particulars. His electioneering agent 
 on those principles was Neilson the Rebel. Castlereagh's 
 subsequent career is too notorious to require special 
 detail. Dr. Madden calls him the Robespierre of Ire- 
 land, and says that his memory has " the faint sickening 
 smell of hot blood about it ". Ireland, when weak and 
 postrate from loss of blood, was robbed by Lord Cas- 
 tlereagh of its richest gem a domestic parliament. 
 
 * Daiton's 4rc^6isAops q/Z)M6/tn, p. 351. 
 t Charge delivered October 24, 1822 p. 33. 
 j nenehan's Irish. Church Histort/, edited by Rer. D. McCarthy, 
 p. 345. 
 
220 ADDENDA. j 
 
 The corruption he practised to silence opposition has 
 been sometimes denied ; but little attempt to disguise 
 it appears in his own correspondence, notwithstanding 
 the ample weeding which it admittedly underwent by 
 Lord Londonderry. 
 
 " It will be no secret ", writes the unprincipled 
 statesman, " what has been promised, andby what means 
 the Union has been secured. His appointment will en- 
 courage, not prevent, disclosures ; and the only 
 eflfect of such a proceeding on their (the ministers') 
 part will be, to add the weight of their testimony to 
 that of the anti-unionists in proclaiming the profligacy 
 of the means by which the measure has been accomplished"* 
 
 5. The Right Honourable John Beresford, member 
 for Waterford, discharged, besides his more legitimately 
 recognized duties as commissioner of revenue, a pecu- 
 liar office, similar to that held, during a later period, by 
 the Right Honourable William Saurin. His influence 
 penetrated every department of the state ; and to every 
 contemporary viceregal administration, except that of 
 Lord Fitzwilliam, who paid the penalty of his indepen- 
 dence, Mr. Beresford was the arrogant and dogmatical 
 dictator. His family held places to the amount of 
 20,000 per annum. In Mr. Beresford's correspon- 
 dence, rather recently published, much curious matter 
 appears. Referring to some remarks of Denis Bowes 
 Daly, Mr. Beresford writes : " No Lord Lieutenant 
 could exist with my powers ; that I had been a Lord 
 Chancellor, a Chief Justice of the King's Bench, an 
 Attorney General, nearly a Primate, and certainly a 
 Commander-in-Chief ; that I was at the head of the 
 Revenue, and had the law, the army, the revenue, and 
 a great deal of the Church in my possession ; and he said 
 expressly, that I was considered the king of Ireland".! 
 
 * Memoirs and Correspondence oj Viscount Castlereagh, v. iii. 
 p 331. 
 
 t Mr. Beresford to Lord Auckland, Dublin, January 9, 1795, 
 V. ii. p, 51. i 
 
 ' -.1 
 
A BACKSTAIES CABINET. 221 
 
 6. Mr. Under Secretary Cooke has -already been no- 
 ticed (p. 137, ante). 
 
 7. The Marquis of Drogheda was not a prominent 
 character. "As an orator", observes a writer in 
 1779, "he is of no consideration; in fact he seldom 
 speaks". Lord Drogheda's political labours were 
 behind the scenes. He quietly promoted the Legisla- 
 tive Union, with other calamitous measures, and then 
 as quietly applied for his reward. The Duke of Port- 
 land, in a private and confidential letter to the Viceroy, 
 dated June 27, 1800, declares that Lord Drogheda's 
 claims to be a member of the representative peerage 
 were "irresistible".* 
 
 8. Lord Grlentworth's services were much of the same 
 order as those of the Marquis of Drogheda. So little 
 was he known outside the backstairs of the Castle that 
 he obtains no place in either of the contemporary 
 publications which we have more than once consulted. 
 It will be remembered that his was one of the three 
 peerages which Grattan and Ponsonby offered to prove 
 had been sold for hard cash, and the money laid out 
 in the purchase of members in the House of Commons. 
 The other two peerages were those of Kilmaine and 
 Cloncurry.f 
 
 9. Of Lord Carhampton we have already spoken 
 fully 4 It is right, however, to give his memory what- 
 ever benefit is derivable from an excuse addressed by 
 him to Colonel Napier, who, as a humane and chivalrous 
 ofiicer, protested against the demoralising license and 
 brutality practised by the troops. " We are determined 
 to use coercion only. Consider I am only an insigni- 
 ficant part of an administration, and must follow their 
 system". " Like master, like man", would have been 
 
 * Castlereagk Correspondence, v. iii.p. 345. . 
 
 t Memoirs of Grattan, v. iii. p. 291. 
 
 t Pages 57, 60, ante. 
 
 Moore's Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, v. ii. p. 300. 
 
222 ADDENDA. 
 
 a fitting motto for the army when under the command- 
 ership of Lord Garhampton. He died poor, and we 
 have heard, from the representatives of Mr. Michael 
 Lewis, his attorney, that some bonds which Lord Car- 
 hampton left behind proved mere waste paper. 
 
 10. John Claudius Beresford, son of Mr. Commissioner 
 Beresfoid, already noticed, succeeded him as a member 
 of " the Irish Backstairs Cabinet". He expressed a wish 
 for the rebellion, that Mr. Pitt might see with what 
 promptitude it could be crushed. In conjunction with 
 Major Sirr, Mr. Beresford maintained a battalion of 
 spies, which octogenarians sometimes refer to as " Beres- 
 ford's Bloodhounds". He largely helped to stimulate the 
 rebellion of '98 by generally a coercive policy, which 
 was cruelly followed up by the administration of tor- 
 ture. This was practised under the personal direction 
 of John Claudius Beresford, both at the riding school 
 in Marlborough Street and on the site of the present 
 City Hall. When Lord Castlereagh endeavoured to 
 ignore the charge, Mr. Beresford in parliament not 
 only admitted but defended the vile practice. He was 
 Secretary to the Grand Lodge of Orangemen, and in- 
 fused their views into almost every department of the 
 Irish government. The oapriciousness of popular feel- 
 ing in his regard was quite as remarkable as the mer- 
 curial movement of his own chequered career. Having 
 creditably filled the office of Lord Mayor of Dublin, 
 his carriage Was drawn through the streets by the same 
 mob which had often previously execrated him. 
 
 The terrible vicissitude which marked the later 
 career of John Claudius Beresford strikingly contrasts 
 with his power anterior to the union. In partnership 
 with Mr. Woodmason he opened a bank at No. 2, 
 Beresford Place. One day the bank broke, and Beres- 
 ford was a bankrupt, cut by those who had formerly 
 cringed. A man's good fortune often turns his head ; 
 but bad fortune as often averts the heads of his fiiends. 
 
LORD ENNISKILLEK. 223 
 
 Beresford was, perhaps, an illustration of both ends of 
 the apothegm. Some persons who had kno^vn him 
 in his glory pitied the old attenuated man, with bent 
 back and threadbare clothes a viell-known spectacle 
 in the streets of Dublin foriany years after, preaching 
 in sUent exposition, ^^ Sic transit gloria mundif" 
 John Claudius Beresford strongly opposed the union, 
 not, we fear, on patriotic grounds, but because it was 
 likely to stem the torrent of his own ambition. His 
 character was not without some good points, and he 
 is said to have been charitable in disbursement, and 
 of private worth in his family. In the Imperial Par- 
 liament he represented the County of Waterford, the 
 great stronghold of his race, further noticed in our 
 sketch of the Marquis of Waterford. 
 
 11. Lord Enniskillen, a vigorous speaker in the Irish 
 Parliament, presided at a drum-head trial of a yeoman, 
 named Wollagan, for murder, and acquitted him. " It 
 was an atrocious murder ", writes Plowden ; " every 
 aggravating circumstance was proved. No attempt 
 was made to contradict any part of the evidence : but 
 a justification of the horrid murder was set up, as 
 having been committed under an order of the com- 
 manding officer, that if the yeomen should meet mth 
 any whom they knew or suspected to be rebels, they 
 needed not be at the trouble of bringing them in, but 
 were to shoot them on the spot ; that it was almost 
 the daily practice of that corps to go out upon scouring 
 parties". Lord Cornwallis, the new viceroy, con- 
 demned the verdict, and disqualified Lord Enniskillen 
 from sitting on any new court martial.* 
 
 12. Mr. John Lees, a Scotchman, accompanied Lord 
 Townshend to Ireland as Private Secretary. He was 
 appointed Secretary at War and Secretary to the Post- 
 Office in Dublin, and in 1 804 received the hoDour of a 
 baronetcy. 
 
 * Plovfden's History of Ireland, v. ii. p. 5U. 
 
224 . ADDENDA. , 
 
 13. Lord Carleton, the son of a trader In Cork,* ^vas 
 appointed Solicitor General in 1779, Chief Justice of the 
 Common Pleas in 1787, Baron in 1789, and Viscbunt 
 eight years later. In his policy on the question of the 
 Legislative Union, Lord Carleton was not consistent. 
 We find him at first giving his sentiments decidedly 
 against it, and a few weeks later avowing himself a 
 supporter of the measure. 
 
 Sir Jonah Harrington, in his Personal Sketches (i. 
 475), writes : " Lord Carleton, as Justice of the 
 Common Pleas, had rendered himself beyond descrip- 
 tion obnoxious to the disaffected of Ireland, in 
 consequence of having been the judge who tried and 
 condemned the two Counsellors Sheares, who were exe- 
 cuted for treason, and to whom that nobleman had 
 been testamentary guardian by the will of their father ". 
 The latter statement thus emphatically italicised by 
 Barrington, is one of the startling myths in which he 
 habitually indulged. The will of Mr. Sheares contains 
 no allusion whatever to the Chief Justice. 
 
 14. Sexton Perry was originally a patriot of ultra 
 energy, and considerable infiuence with his party. Dur- 
 ing the corrupt administration of Lord Townshend, 
 Perry seceded from his popular principles. In the year 
 1771 he was appointed speaker, and in 1785 created 
 Viscount Perry. Mr. O'Regan of the Irish Bar, 
 writing in 1818, bemoans that Perry, Malone, and 
 Avonmore should have no biographer: "What re- 
 cords have we of those who fiourished for the last fifty 
 years, the most memorable period of our history? 
 Where, then, in what archives are deposited monu- 
 ments of our illustrious dead ? Where, but in Lodge's 
 Peerage^ are to be found any traces of Lord Perry ? " t 
 
 We are able to answer one of the questions asked 
 by the biographer of Curran. The historic investiga- 
 
 * Sleator'8 Z)M6/m CArom'cZe for 1791. 
 \ Memoirs of Curran, preface, p. xv. 
 
CORRY AND GRATTAN. 225 
 
 tors of the life of Perry and his times may be glad to 
 know that at Dungannon Park, the residence of the 
 youthful Lord Ranfurley, is preserved an immense 
 collection of letters addressed to the late Lord Perry 
 when he was Speaker of the Irish House of Com- 
 
 mons.* 
 
 14 "I-. The Honourable Isaac Corry, Chancellor of the 
 Irish Exchequer, and M.P. for Newry, where his father 
 was a respectable trader, joined the Whig Opposition, 
 and for several years distinguished himself by the vio- 
 lence of his patriotism ; but during Lord Buckingham's 
 administration he was appointed Surveyor of Ordnance 
 at a salary of 1,000 a year, which was followed by 
 further promotion. Official peculation had attained a 
 fearful pitch at this time. In the ordnance and trea- 
 sury, the grossest frauds pervaded almost every depart- 
 ment. The public stores were plundered with impunity 
 in open day. The arms, ammunition, and military 
 accoutrements, condemned as useless, were stolen out 
 at one gate, and brought in at the other, and charged 
 anew to the public account. Journeymen armourers, 
 who worked in the arsenal, seldom went home to their 
 meals without conveying away a musket, a sword, or 
 brace of pistols, as lawful perquisites, and sanctioned by 
 the connivance of the superiors. Clerks in subordinate 
 departments, with salaries not exceeding 100 per 
 annum, kept handsome houses in town and country, 
 with splendid establishments ; some of them became 
 purchasers of loans and lotteries : all exhibited signs 
 of redundant opulence.f During the debate on the 
 Union, Grattan, with, we think, less point than usual, 
 stung the vulnerable ministerialist by calling him " a 
 dancing master" ; Corry challenged his satirist ; they 
 
 * Letter of Henry Alexander, Esq., guardian of Lord Ran- 
 furley, dated Carlton Club, July 7, 1860. 
 t i'lowdeu's History of Ireland v. ii. p 279. 
 
 15 
 
226 ADDENDA. ! 
 
 left the House, and before the debate terminated, 
 Corry was shot through the arm.* 
 
 15. The Marquis of Waterford was the leading mem- 
 ber of the powerfully influential family of the Beresfords. 
 In conjunction with his brother he hurled by their might, 
 the liberal viceroy. Lord Fitzwilliam, from office, and 
 provoked from the latter a remark in the English 
 House of Peers, to the effect, that it was impossible to 
 effect any good in Ireland unless the power of the 
 Beresfords could be destroyed.f Not until 1826 was this 
 desirable consummation achieved. At the Waterford 
 election in that year, the Beresfords received, from the 
 forty shilling freeholders, their death blow. " I did 
 not think ", said Sheil, " that there was so much vir- 
 tue under rags ". This telling stroke was planned and 
 inflicted by Dr. Kelly, R.C. Bishop of Waterford. 
 
 17. Sir John, afterwards Lord De Blaquire, repre- 
 sents one of the Huguenot families of whom we have 
 spoken, p. 84 ante. Patronised by Lord Harcourt, he ac- 
 cepted the office of bailiff" of the Phoenix Park, to which 
 the small salary of 40 a year was attached, with the 
 use of a little lodge, a garden, grass for two cows, and 
 half-a-crown per head for all cattle found trespassing 
 in the Park. The first piece of his cleverness was 
 shown in contriving to make the salary 50 per annum 
 
 * Grattan cultivated unerring aim in conjunction with ac- 
 curate eloquence. In the secluded woods of Tenaliinch he 
 might be sometimes seen declaiming with Demosthenic 
 energy, and the next hour lodging bullets in particular trees 
 which still bear marks of the havoc, 
 
 t Lord Clare writing to the Right Honourable J. C. Beres- 
 ford, says : " The more I consider the flagrant and unwarrant- 
 able calumnies which he [Lord Fitzwilliam] deals out so 
 flippantly against you, the more I am decided in my opinion 
 that you ought in the first instance to bring an action against 
 him for defamation, and lay it in the city of London. He had 
 flfty copies of this memoir made out by the clerks in the diffe- 
 rent offices in the Castle, which were distributed by his order". 
 Beresjord Correspondence v, ii. p. 88. 
 
BLAQDIEE AND THE UNION. 227 
 
 for his own life and that of the king's two eldest sons ; 
 with liberty to graze cattle to an unlimited extent. 
 Sir John was a pluralist in sinecures, and amongst the 
 rest filled the office of Director of Public Works.* He 
 applied for a more comfortable residence which the 
 Board of Works built for him at the public expense of 
 8,000. Sir John, however, was not yet satisfied. 
 The garden being small, he successfully petitioned for 
 a larger one, whereupon, he took in about ten acres 
 which he surrounded by a wall, also at the expense of 
 the nation.! But it is De Blaquire's connection with 
 the Legislative Union, and the rare astuteness with 
 which he promoted the success of that measure, on 
 which his fame as a diplomatist historically rests. " Sir 
 John Blaquire is disposed to exert himself very much",J 
 observes Lord Castlereagh in communicating the good 
 news to the Duke of Rutland on January 7, 1799. 
 "The entrance to a woman's heart", said the first 
 Napoleon, " is through her eye or ear ; but the way to 
 a man's heart is down his throat ". De Blaquire illus- 
 trated the wisdom of the apothegm. " He enjoyed," 
 says Sir Jonah Barrington, "a revenue sufficiently 
 ample to enable him to entertain his friends as well, 
 and far more agreeably,, than any other person I had 
 previously met. Nobody understood eating and drink- 
 ing better than Sir Jolin De Blaquire ; and no man 
 was better seconded in the former respect, than he 
 was by his cook, Mrs. Smith, whom he brought from 
 Paris". 
 
 For some notice of the intrigues with which De 
 Blaquire secured infiuential support to the Union, see 
 '^he Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation. A few years ago, 
 
 * Personal Sketches v.i.' 
 ^ Irish Political Characters, 1799, p. 150. 
 % Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh v. ii, 
 p. 85. 
 Personal Si:ctches by Sir Jonah Barrington v. i. p, 193. 
 
228 . ADDENDA. | 
 
 f . 
 
 one of his descendants found a trunk of old dusty 
 papers calculated to throw great light on the history of 
 the Union. This gentleman offered the entire trunk- 
 full to the Wellington government for 1 00 ; his pro- 
 posal was eagerly accepted ; and we have heard him 
 ridiculed by his friends for being so silly as not to have 
 stipulated for a couple of thousand pounds, which 
 would have been acceded to, they allege, with equal 
 alacrity. 
 
 18. Lord Londonderry, father of Lord Castlereagh, 
 was an active agent in checking the popular plots of the 
 time ; but that his lordship was not without misgivings 
 as to the result may be inferred from the fact, men- 
 tioned in the Castlereagh Papers (ii. 331), that he 
 would not take bank notes in payment of rent. 
 
 19. Of John Toler, Lord Norbury, it may without 
 much injustice be said, that for thirty years he performed 
 the triple role of bully, butcher, and buffoon. His services 
 in the first capacity proved useful to the then govern- 
 ment, and helped him far more than his law to judicial 
 elevation.* His old passions and prejudices clung to 
 him as a judge ; he browbeat timid counsel ; and has 
 been known to suggest mortal combat by the remark, 
 " that he would not seek shelter behind the bench, or 
 
 * Mr. Toler's powers of invective were quite startling. When 
 he uttered such language in parliament as this, the license of 
 his tongue elsewhere may be conceived, "Had he heard a 
 man uttering out of those doors such language as that of the 
 honourable gentleman, he would have seized the ruffian by 
 the throat, and dragged him to the dust". (ParZ. Deb.~) 
 
 An extraordinary license of language was permitted by the 
 Speaker in these days. A tradition of the period thus describes 
 the denunciation of a certain family : " Sir, they are all rotten, 
 from the honourable member who has just sat down, to the tooth- 
 less hag that is now grinning at us from the gallery". The 
 allusion was to the member's mother. Lord Castlereagh was 
 upi/raided with impotency by Grattan, in the presence of Lady 
 Caetlereagh, who occupied a seat in the Speaker's gallery during 
 one of the debates on the Union. 
 
LORD NOBBURY. 229 
 
 merge the gentleman in the Chief Justice". His relish 
 for a capital conviction was undisguised ; a document 
 before us mentions the almost incredible fact, that at a 
 single assize, he passed sentence of death on one 
 hundred and ninety-eight individuals, of whom one 
 hundred and ninety-seven passed through the hands of 
 Galvin, the hangman. With the black cap on his head, 
 he joked as freely as though it were a cap and bells. 
 " Ah, my lord, give me a long day", craved a wretched 
 culprit. "Your wish is granted", replied the judge, 
 " I give you till the 21st of June, the longest day in 
 the ye;ir"! Lord Norbury's charges transcend des- 
 cription. "Flinging his judicial robe aside", writes 
 Mr. Sheil, " and sometimes casting off his wig, he 
 started from his seat and threw off a wild harangue, 
 in which neither law, method, or argument could be 
 discovered. It generally consisted of narratives of his 
 early life, which it was impossible to associate with the 
 subject, of jests from John Miller, mixed with jokes of 
 his own manufacture, and of sarcastic allusions to any 
 of the counsel who had endeavoured to check him dur- 
 ing the trial". 
 
 Sir Jonah Harrington mentions that he has seen his 
 "racket court"* convulsed with laughter by the ap- 
 pearance of the chief in a green tabinet coat with pearl 
 buttons, striped yellow and black vest, and buff 
 breeches the costume of Hawthorn in "Love in a 
 village", a character personated by Lord Norbury at 
 Lady Castlereagh's masquerade; and he found the 
 dress so cool that he frequently, in after years, wore it 
 under his robes. On this particular occasion it was 
 revealed accidentally by Lord Norbury throwing back 
 his robes, owing to the more than ordinarily heated at- 
 mosphere of the court. 
 
 This was a designation of Lord Norbury's oirn. " What's 
 j'our business ?" a witness was asked. " I keep a racket court". 
 " So do 1", rejoined the Chief Justice, puffing. 
 
230 ADDENDA. 
 
 "That Scotch Broom deserves an Irish sticF\ 
 exclaimed Lord Norbury, in reference to Lord 
 Brougham, who had brought before parliament some 
 unconstitutional conduct of which he had been guilty ; 
 and at a later period, it appeared, from the same source, 
 that the old chief had fallen asleep on the bench dur- 
 ing a trial for murder. In 1827 he resigned, and in 
 1831 he died. The late Mr. Brophy, state dentist, 
 who was present at Lord Norbury's funeral, informed 
 us that when lowering the coffin by ropes into a 
 deep grave, a voice in the crowd cried, " Give 
 him rope galore,* boys ; he never was sparing of 
 it to others". As a landlord. Lord Norbury was by no 
 means bad ; and in his own house he is said to have 
 been gentle and forbearing. 
 
 20. Lord Kingsborough had always been prominently 
 zealous in promoting that system of coercionf which, as 
 Lord Castlereagh admitted, aimed to make the United 
 Irish conspiracy explode. J When the rebellion broke 
 out. Lord Kingsborough, as colonel of the North Cork 
 Militia, proceeded to join his regiment in Wexford, 
 but was captured by the rebels, who held possession of 
 the town. Lord Kingsborough owed his life to the 
 personal interposition of Dr. Caulfield, Eoman Catholic 
 IJishop of Ferns. 
 
 21. General Cockbume regards Lord Down shire as a 
 rotten rung in the step-ladder, and styles him " a very 
 mischievous enemy to liberty". We think, however, 
 that his hostility to the Union goes far to redeem 
 his shortcomings. His policy on this question so dis- 
 pleased the government that he was dismissed from the 
 lieutenancy of his county, from the colonelcy of his 
 regiment, and even expelled from the Privy Council. 
 It was further proposed to institute a parliamentary 
 inquiry into the conduct of Lord Downshire. 
 
 Anglice, in plenty, | 
 
 t Plowden's Ireland, v. ii. p. 475. 
 
 j Moore's Life of Lord E. Fitzgerald^ p. 110, Paris Edn. 
 
POLITICAL SEDUCTION, 231 
 
 22. Lord Dillon also pursued a policy in 1800 which 
 covers a multitude of previous political sins.* At a meet- 
 ing of influential anti-unionists in Dublin, he proposed 
 that a joint-stock purse should be formed for the purpose 
 of out- bribing the government. UntilJune, 1799, Lord 
 Dillon exercised his property and influence, both con- 
 siderable, in favour of the Unioo. 
 
 23. Mr. Trench formed, under curious circumstances, 
 a majority of one in favour of the Union. His vote and 
 voice disclosed a very painful instance of tergiversation 
 and seduction. Mr. Trench declared, in presence of 
 a crowded House, that he would vote against the 
 minister, and support Mr. Ponsonby's amendment. 
 "This", observes Sir Jonah Harrington, who was 
 an eye-witness of the transaction, " appeared a stunning 
 blow to Mr. Cooke, who had been previously in conver- 
 sation with Mr. Trench. He was immediately observed 
 sidling from his seat, nearer to Lord Castlereagh. 
 They whispered earnestly ; and, as if restless and un- 
 decided, both looked wistfully at Trench. At length 
 the matter seemed to be determined on. Mr. Cooke 
 retired to a back seat, and was obviously endeavouring 
 to count the House probably to guess if they could 
 that night dispense with Mr. Trench's services. He re- 
 turned to Lord Castlereagh ; they whispered, and again 
 looked at Mr. Trench. But there was no time to lose ; 
 the question was approaching. All shame was banished ; 
 they decided on the terms, and a signiflcant glance, 
 obvious to everybody, convinced Mr. Trench that his 
 conditions were agreed to. Mr. Cooke then went and 
 sat down by his side ; an earnest but very short con- 
 versation took place; a parting smile completely told 
 the House that Mr. Trench was satisfled. These sur- 
 mises were soon verifled. Mr. Cooke went back to 
 Lord Castlereagh ; a congratulatory nod announced his 
 satisfaction. But could any man for one moment sup- 
 
 * Plowden's History of Ireland, v. ii. p. 551. 
 
232 ADDENDA. 
 
 pose that an M.P. of large fortune, of respectable 
 family, and good character, could be publicly, and 
 without shame or compunction, actually seduced by 
 Lord Castlereagh under the eye of two hundred and 
 twenty gentlemen ? In a few minutes Mr. Trench 
 rose to apologise for having indiscreetly declared he 
 would support the amendment. He added, that he had 
 thought better of the subject ; that he had been con- 
 vinced he was wrong, and would support the minister ". 
 Mr. Trench accordingly became Lord Ashtown. 
 
 24. Dr. Duigenan has been already noticed at p. 74 
 ante. 
 
 25. Of Bishop O'Beirne much has been written, but 
 we never saw in print some curious details embodied 
 in a letter, dated April 22nd, 1857, and addressed to us 
 by the late Mr. William Forde, Town Clerk of Dublin. 
 "I can furnish", writes Mr. Forde, "an interesting 
 anecdote of the early history of that gentleman, which 
 I learned when very young, living within two miles 
 of the see house of the diocese of Meath. Dr. O'Beime 
 was never ordained a Roman Catholic priest, but 
 was educated at the Irish College of Paris with a 
 view to his becoming a priest. His brother. Rev. 
 Denis O'Beirne, was educated at the same time 
 and in the same college, and died parish priest of 
 the tpwn of Longford, of which his brother was the 
 rector. The name of the parish in the Church is Tem- 
 plemichael. The history of the bishop in early life was, 
 that having suspended his studies, owing to ill-health, he 
 returned home for a couple of years, and was returning 
 to the college, when the following incident, which al- 
 tered his destinies for life, occurred to him : He was 
 travelling on foot through Wales, when the day became 
 very boisterous and rainy, and took shelter in a poor 
 inn on the wayside, and after ordering his dinner, which 
 was a small bit of Welch mutton, he went into a little 
 sitting-room. In some time two gentlemen came in also 
 
f^,- ..'.:: '-.'.'''.'?<' v.i*"::;?^ " ' .. 'T.-'^Jr 
 
 Bisuop O'BEIRNE. 233 
 
 for shelter (they were on a shooting party, and were 
 driven in by the violence of the storm), and asked the 
 woman of the house what she could give them for 
 dinner. She replied she had nothing but what was at 
 the fire roasting, and it was ordered by a gentleman in 
 the next room, adding in a low tone, she believed he 
 was an Irishman ; whereupon one of the gentlemen ex- 
 claimed, 'Damn Paddy, he have roast mutton for 
 dinner and while we must fast ; we will take it ', where- 
 upon O'Beirne walked down from his room, and asked 
 who damned Paddy, and insisted upon getting his 
 dinner, and added they shoidd not have it by force, 
 but if they would take share of it on his invitation he 
 would freely give it, and they were heartily welcome ; 
 on which they accepted the invitation, provided he 
 would allow them to give the wine, which they assured 
 him was very good, notwithstanding the appearance of 
 the place. They all retired to the sitting-room, and 
 the two gentlemen began conversing in French, where- 
 upon O'Beirne interrupted them, and informed them 
 that he understood every word they uttered, and they 
 might not wish that a third person should know what 
 they were speaking about, and then the conversation 
 became general, and was carried on in French, of 
 which O'Beirne was a perfect master. They inquired 
 of him what were his objects in life, when he told 
 them his history that he was a farmer's son in Ireland, 
 and his destiny was the Irish Catholic priesthood. 
 When they were parting, one of the gentlemen asked 
 would he take London on his way to Paris, to which he 
 replied in the affirmative. He then gave him a card 
 with merely the number and the street of his residence, 
 and requested he would call there, where he would be 
 very happy to see him. O'Beirne walked to London, 
 which took him a considerable time, and on arriving 
 there did not fail to call at the place indicated by the 
 card. When he got to the house, he thought there 
 
234 ADDPJNDA. ! \JL 
 
 must be some mistake ; but nothing daunted, he rapped, 
 and met a hall porter, to whom he presented the card, 
 and told him how he came by it, but supposed it was 
 a mistake. The porter replied : ' Oh no ! his grace ex- 
 pected you a fortnight ago, and desired you should at 
 once be shown in', and ushered him in accordingly to 
 the study, where his Grace the Duke of Portland in- 
 troduced himself to him. He had been appointed 
 Governor of Canada, and O'Beirne's knowledge of the 
 French language, and his education and general infor- 
 mation, were matters that made him a desirable pri- 
 vate secretary to deal with the French Canadians, and 
 O'Beirne accepted the proposal of going out private 
 secretary to the Duke of Portland. It was in Canada 
 he apostatized and became a minister of the Estab- 
 lished Church. I understood all this from a clergy- 
 man. To the Duke of Portland O'Beirne owed his 
 promotion in the Irish Church, first, to the parish 
 of Templemichael, then to the see of Ossory, and finally 
 his translation to the see of Meath, then valued at more 
 than 8,000 per annum. He was married to a Scotch 
 lady, a daughter of General Stuart. He had one son 
 and two daughters. Neither of them married. At the 
 time of his death he was an uncompromising opponent 
 to Catholic Emancipation. I believe his brother the 
 priest died before him. I always heard that it was 
 Bishop O'Beirne married the Prince of Wales and Mrs. 
 Fitzherbert, and that the marriage took place in France, 
 where the party went to have the ceremony per- 
 formed". 
 
 It may be added that the Honourable Charles Lang- 
 dale, in his memoirs of his kinswoman, Mrs. Fitzher- 
 bert, expresses ignorance of the clergyman's riame, 
 though we are told the Pope recognized it as a valid 
 marriage. Dr. O'Beirne is very likely to have been 
 the officiating party. When studying for the Roman 
 Catholic priesthood in Paris, he is said to have attained 
 deacon's orders. 
 
A JUDKIN FITZGERALD. 235 
 
 26. Wm. Beresford, D.D., another prominent mem- 
 ber of tlie inexhaustibly influential sept of the Beres- 
 fords, was consecrated Bishop of Dromore in 1780 ; 
 Bishop of Ossory in 1784, and translated to the arch- 
 bishopric of Tuam in 1795. He married the sister of 
 Lord Chancellor Clare, and was created Lord Decies in 
 December, 1812. This influential prelate died Sep- 
 tember 6, 1819 ; and his personalty was sworn to as 
 250,000. 
 
 27. Mr. Henry Alexander, both a barrister and a 
 banker by profession, represented Londonderry in the 
 Irish Parliament. Here he was an active member of 
 the secret committee. Having successfully promoted 
 the Union, he entered the British Senate as member 
 for Old Sarum. He signally distinguished himself as 
 an advocate for coercion ; and on the 8th February, 
 1815, we flnd him strenuously defending the suspension 
 of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. From the Cas- 
 tlereagJi Papers (i. 348) we learn that Mr. Alexander 
 was a relation of the Irish rebel, Oliver Bond. 
 
 28. To describe the exploits of the members of that 
 body, styled by General Cockburn, " Ruflfian magis- 
 trates ", would be to write the history of the whole, 
 and we are spared the painful jiecessity of detailing, 
 ad nauseam^ scenes of revolting barbarity. As a spe- 
 cimen of his magisterial colleagues and cotemporaries, 
 take Mr. Thomas Judkin Fitzgerald, High Sheriff for 
 the County of Tipperary. From the trial of Doyle r. 
 Fitzgerald, we learn that the defendant, in the street, 
 and for the purpose of flagellation, seized Doyle, who 
 was a respectable tradesman in Carrick. In vain he 
 declared his innocence ; and some of the most respect- 
 able inhabitants tendered evidence in support of that 
 declaration. Doyle was a yeoman, and he begged that 
 Captain Jephson, his commanding officer, might be 
 sent for ; the request was refused. He offered to go 
 to instant execution if, on inquiry, the shadow of 
 
236 . ' ADDENDA. i 't' 
 
 sedition could be advanced against him ; but inquiry- 
 was declined. Bail was then offered to any amount for 
 his appearance, but Mr. Fitzgerald would not be baulked 
 in the sport of which he had a foretaste, and declaring 
 that he knew Doyle by his face to be a " Carmelite 
 traitor", tied him to the whipping-post, where he re- 
 ceived one hundred lashes until his ribs appeared ; his 
 knee breeches were then removed, and fifty more lashes 
 administered. Doyle's entire innocence was afterwards 
 proved. He appealed at the Clonmel assizes for redress ; 
 the facts appeared to demonstration; but an Orange 
 jury, packed by the sub-sheriff, acquitted the high 
 sheriff, Mr. Judkin Fitzgerald. 
 
 Mr. Wright, a teacher of the French language, em- 
 ployed both by public schools and private families, 
 having called on Mr. Fitzgerald, the latter drew his 
 sword, exclaiming : " Down on your knees, rebellious 
 scoundrel, and receive jour sentence" which was to be 
 flogged first and shot finally. Wright surrendered his 
 keys, and expressed himself willing to suffer any punish- 
 ment if his papers or conduct revealed proof of guilt. 
 " What ! you Carmelite rascal", exclaimed the high 
 sheriff, " do you dare to speak after sentence ?" He 
 then struck him, and ordered him to prison. The next 
 day, when brought forth to undergo his sentence, Wright 
 knelt down in prayer, with his hat before his face. 
 Mr. Fitzgerald snatched the hat from him and trampled 
 on it, seized Wright. by the hair, dragged him to the 
 earth, kicked him and cut him across the forehead with 
 his sword, then had him stripped naked, tied up to the 
 ladder, and ordered him fifty lashes. Major Rial came 
 up as the fifty lashes were completed, and asked the 
 cause. Mr. Fitzgerald handed him a note written in 
 French, saying, he did not himself understand French, 
 though he understood Irish, but Major Rial would find 
 in that letter what would justify him in flogging the 
 scoundrel to death. Major Rial read the letter. He 
 
^ MAGISTERIAL BRUTALITY. 237 
 
 found it to be a note for the victim, which he thus 
 translated : 
 
 "SiR, . . - . 
 
 "I am extremely sorry I cannot wait on you 
 at the hour appointed, being unavoidably obliged to 
 attend Sir Laurence Parsons. . . 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 " BARON DE CLUES". 
 
 " Notwithstanding this translation", observes Mr. 
 Plowden, " Mr. Fitzgerald ordered Wright fifty more 
 lashes, which were inflicted with such peculiar severity, 
 that the bowels of the bleeding victim could be perceived 
 to be convulsed and working through his wounds ! Mr. 
 Fitzgerald, finding ne could not continue the application 
 of his cat-o'-nine-tails on that part without ciitting his 
 way into his body, ordered the waistband of his breeches 
 to be cut open, and fifty more lashes to be inflicted. He 
 then left the unfortunate man bleeding and suspended, 
 while he went to the barrack to demand a file of men 
 to come and shoot him ; but being refused by the com- 
 manding officer, he came back and sought for a rope to 
 hang him, but could get none. He then ordered him. 
 to be cut down and sent back to prison, where he was 
 confined in a dark small room, with no other furniture 
 than a Avretched pallet of straw, without covering, 
 and there he remained seven days without medical 
 aid" !* 
 
 Wright brought an action and ndrabile dictu 
 obtained a verdict ; but the effect of it was neutralized 
 by the open indemnification of Mr. Fitzgerald for cer- 
 tain acts done by him not justifiable in. common law.f 
 He received from the crown a considerable pension for 
 his ultra-loyal services in 1798, and on August. 5th, 
 
 * Trial of Wright v. Fitzgerald, Plowden's History of Ireland, 
 V. ii., p. 546, etc. 
 
 t Barrington's Personal Sketches, v. iii., p. 267. 
 
238 ADDENDA. 
 
 1801, was created a baronet.* Tipperary is full of tra- 
 ditions of his excessive political zeal. One represents 
 him equipped in cocked hat and sword, mounting the 
 altar steps of old Latin chapel during the most solemn 
 part of the Mass, and endeavouring to recognize among 
 the congregation some unfortunate man whom he desired 
 to scourge.t Ou another occasion he ascended the 
 altar in Tipperary chapel during the delivery of an 
 exhortation by the parish priest. Mr. Fitzgerald for 
 convenience placed his three-cocked hat on the same 
 bench which bore the Blessed Sacrament, and it was 
 thought, at the time, an act of most singular daring on 
 the part of the priest to remove the terrorist's hat and 
 hand it to an acolyte. | It was said that Mr. Fitzgerald 
 used to steep his cat -o'- nine-tails in brine before opera- 
 ting. " I have preserved the country", he boasted. 
 "Rather say that you have pickled it", replied Jerry 
 Keller. 
 
 Cox, in his Magazine^ furnishes a criminatory obituary 
 of Sir Thomas Judkin Fitzgerald, who, execrated by the 
 people, whom he had stung to fury and madness, sank 
 into his grave September 24, 1810. " The history ot 
 his life and loyalty", observes Cox, " is written in legible 
 characters on the backs of his countrymen". The 
 painful manner in which the lives of the late baronets 
 of this family terminated, presents some remarkable 
 coincidences. Sir John Judkin Fitzgerald, son of the 
 terrorist, was drowned in the " Nimrod" in its passage 
 from Bristol to Cork. His son. Sir Thomas Judkin 
 Fitzgerald reduced to pecuniary straits opened a 
 blacking manufactory, and committed suicide in the 
 year 1864 ; and again, his son, a fine boy, hanged him- 
 
 * Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, p. 399. 
 
 t Letter of Kev. Dr. Fitzgerald, P.P., Ballingarry, County 
 Tipperary, July 10, 1865. 
 
 J Statement of Rer. W. Wall, P.P., Clonoulty, Cashel, Sep- 
 tember, 1865. 
 
 Irish Magazine, October, 1810, p. 482. 
 
MAJOR SIER. 239 
 
 self accidentally while playing with " a swing" in the 
 garden at Golden Hills.* 
 
 29. Major Sirr, who, acting upon the information sup- 
 plied by Francis Higgins, shot at and captured Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, is no stranger to the reader of these 
 pages. For a pithy resume of his life he would do well 
 to consult Curran's speech in the case of Hevey versus 
 Sirr. 
 
 " For the purpose of this trial", said he, " I must 
 carry back your attention to the melancholy period of 
 1798. It was at that sad crisis that the defendant, 
 from an obscure individual, started into notice and con- 
 sequence. It is in the hotbed of public calamity that 
 such portentous and inauspicious products are accele- 
 rated without being matured. From being a town- 
 major, a name scarcely legible in the list of public 
 incumbrances, he became at once invested with all the 
 powers of absolute authority, Th life and the liberty 
 of every man seemed to have been surrendered to his 
 disposal. With this gentleman's extraordinary eleva- 
 tion begins the story of the sutfeiings and ruin of the 
 plaintiff'. 
 
 The cessation of the rebellion, and the introduction of 
 a milder system of government, found. Henry Charles 
 Sirr's occupation gone. He became a " picture fancier", 
 cultivated the fine arts, frequented auctions, accumu- 
 lated fossils and minerals, sonorously sung psalms, and 
 exhibited the whites of his eyes rather than the black- 
 ness of his heart. Fifty years ago he was appointed 
 police magistrate of Dublin, and continued to discharge 
 its duties until his death in 1841, when "the remains 
 of the assassin of Lord Edward",t writes Mr. Gilbert, 
 
 * Letter from W. L. Hackett, Esq., M.A., Ex-Mayor, dated, 
 " Clonmel, April 16th, 1865". 
 
 t This phrase is not, perhaps, strictly accurate. The pro- 
 fessor of medical jurisprudence in the University of Dublin, 
 addressing the writer of these pages, says: " An inquest was held 
 in Newgate on the body of Lord E, Fitzgerald, and on the evi- 
 
240 ADDENDA. 
 
 " were deposited in Werburgh's churchyard", the same 
 mortuary which contains Lord Edward's bones. " The 
 stone, shaded by a melancholy tree", adds Mr. Gilbert, 
 " does not explicitly state that the town major of '98 
 was buried under it, and appears to have been originally 
 placed over the corpse of his father, who preceded him 
 in that office, and was also distinguished by his bad 
 character, a fact unknown to the biographers of Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald. A more infamous tool than Henry 
 Charles Sirr was probably never employed; the bare 
 relation of his atrocities would far exceed the wildest 
 fiction which ever emanated from the brain of the most 
 morbid romancist". 
 
 30. Identified with Major Sirr in most of his plans, 
 perfidies, and perils, all that has been said of Sirr is 
 applicable to Swan, with this exception, that Sirr pro- 
 fessed to be a saint, while his deputy Swan, frank, jolly, 
 and outspoken, claimed to be no better than an " honest 
 " sinner". Of Swan's efficiency as a rebel-hunter the 
 Sham Squire was a constant eulogist ; and in one of 
 his laudations, it is stated that the government proved 
 their appreciation of "Major Swan's" services by 
 awarding him the commission of the peace for every 
 county in Ireland. 
 
 31. Major Sandys, perhaps the worst member of that 
 terrible triumvirate of soi-disant majors, who daily stung 
 the people to madness and death, filled the office of 
 Governor of the Provost, the Bastile of Ireland. Here, 
 cruelties the most revolting were hourly practised under 
 the direction of Major Sandys, who, as the brother-in- 
 law of Mr. Cooke, the Under Secretary to the Lord 
 Lieutenant, enjoyed thorough connivance and immunity. 
 Dr. Madden asserts that indulgences of air, light, and 
 
 dence of Surgeon Leake, a verdict returned of death from 
 water on the chest. I'his fact is not known to many. I have 
 sometimes mentioned it to my class when lectoiring on forensic 
 medicine". . 
 
M SANDYS GIFFAED. 241 
 
 food were sold to the state prisoners by Major Sandys, 
 and that he remitted tortures at the triangle, on re- 
 ceiving either money, or written orders for goods, plate, 
 or pictures, addressed by the prisoners to friends outside. 
 The rapacity of Major Sandys, especially for plate, 
 proved at last insatiable. Curran's memorable speech 
 m re Hevey, states : " A learned and respected brother 
 barrister had a silver cup ; the Major heard that for 
 many years it had borne an inscription of ' Erin go 
 bragh', which meant ' Ireland for ever'. The Major 
 considered this perseverance in guilt for such a length 
 of years a forfeiture of the delinquent vessel. My poor 
 friend was accordingly robbed of his cup". 
 
 These and even graver charges were made by Curran, 
 not only in the lifetime of Major Sandys, but under the 
 very flash of his eye. " And I state this", exclaimed 
 Curran, " because I see Major Sandys in court, and 
 because I feel I can prove the fact beyond the possi- 
 bility of denial. If he does not dare to appear, so 
 called upon as I have called upon him, I prove it by 
 his not daring to appear. If he does venture to come 
 forward, I wUl prove it by his own oath ; or if he 
 ventures to deny a syllable I have stated, I will prove 
 by irrefragable evidence that his denial was false and 
 perjnred". < 
 
 A terrible vicissitude, followed by a still more terrible 
 disease, overtook the once potential Major Sandys. His 
 family begged bread from door to door ; and hie him- 
 self died in extreme destitution and bodily suffering. 
 
 32. John Giffard, an illiterate and illiberal alumnus 
 of the Blue Coat Hospital, began political life, like many 
 a better cotemporary, as an ardent patriot and member 
 of the Volunteer Association. He also practised as an 
 apothecary, as did Lucas before him ; but he saon for- 
 sook the pestle for the pen, and acquired the sole 
 editoral control of an influential newspaper, the Dublin 
 Journal^ whicl^ had been started, and for flfty years 
 
 16 
 
242 ADDENDA. 
 
 ably edited, by George Faulkner, the friend of Swift and 
 Chesterfield. Like the Sham 'Squire, whom he resem- 
 bled in more ways than one, Giffard at once prostituted 
 the newspaper to the worst purposes of the venal 
 party which ruled supreme in Ireland some eighty 
 years ago ; and it has been stated that the paper dis- 
 closed such violence, virulence, vulgarity, and men- 
 dacity, that at the present date its advocacy would be 
 held detrimental to the cause of any party. Yet Giffard 
 was preferred to places of honour and emolument. Be- 
 sides holding a lucrative office under the Back-Stairs 
 Viceroy, Mr. Beresford in the Revenue, Giffard succeeded 
 his brother journalist Higgins as sub-sheriff of Dublin. 
 We have seen it stated by Mr. Gilbert in his History^ 
 that Giffard is understood to have received the latter 
 appointment for the express purpose of packing the 
 jury which in 1794 convicted Bamilton Rowan. Giffard 
 was called "The dog in office", and his paper *' The 
 Dog's Journal". The artists who caricatured Sheriff 
 Higgins were placed under arrest.* The same despotic 
 policy pursued Sheriff Giffard's tormentors. The fol- 
 lowing paragraph, dated October 3d, 1794, doubtless 
 refers to Giffard. 
 
 "A printer in South King Street was taken into 
 custody by Messrs. Shee, etc., charged with printing 
 and publishing a caricature of a dog in his last moments, 
 with his confession and dying words. The picture and 
 types were taken possession of.f 
 
 Hamilton Rowan and Dr. William Drennan were 
 then under trial by Mr. Giffard's juries. The following 
 admission we find in the Beresford Correspondence. 
 
 " Government are determined to hang Rowan, if 
 possible, but they have not yet shown any suspicion of 
 any person here being concerned in the plot, in order 
 to lull them into security. No person knows as much 
 
 * See p. 85, an<e. ' . ; "J 
 
 t Masonic Magazine for October, 1794, p. 383. ' - 
 
HEPENSTALL. 243 
 
 as I now tell you except Lord Westmoreland, the 
 Attorney-General, and Sackville Hamilton". Beresford 
 Correspondence, v. ii., p. 2ti. 
 
 Giffard sought to stab with his pen, and pike with his 
 tongue every friend to national progress. In reply to 
 a charge of treason, Grattan thus retorted : " It proceeds 
 from a hired traducer of his country, the excommuni- 
 cated of his fellow-citizens, the regal rebel, the unpun- 
 ished ruffian, the bigoted agitator. In the city, a fire- 
 brand ; in the court, a liar ; in the streets, a bully ; in 
 the field, a coward. And so obnoxious is he to the very 
 party he wishes to espouse, that he is only supportable 
 by doing those dirty acts the less vulgar refuse to exe- 
 cute". The quondam apothecary swallowed this box of 
 bitter pills. In 1817 Giflfard ceased to edit the Dublin 
 Journal. In not less than twenty numbers, the follow- 
 ing appeared, among other paragraphs affecting not 
 merely Mr. Giffard's reputation, but that of the party of 
 which he had long been the champion and the protege : 
 " Since Mr. Giffard ceased on the 1st of July, 1816, to 
 have directly or indirectly any concern with this paper, 
 it has rapidly increased in circulation, and we are now 
 satisfied that the public can fairly appreciate the value 
 of an independent print, which wishes to soothe and 
 not to irritate the angry passions which have so long 
 agitated the country".* 
 
 Giffard amassed a large fortune, and built himself a 
 handsome residence, known as Dromartin Castle, Dun- 
 drum. 
 
 33, Lieutenant Hepenstall is the person whom Sir 
 Jonah Barrington, in his Historic Anecdotes of the Union, 
 and afterwards in his Personal Sketches (v. iii., p 267- 
 271) describes as Lieutenant H ".the walking 
 galloiRTs". This notorious officer, originally an apothe- 
 cary like Giffard, was a GoUah in stature, and a Nero 
 in feeling. If Hepenstall met a peasant who could not 
 
 July 2nd, 1817. ; 
 
244 ADDENDA. 
 
 satisfactorily account for himself, he knocked him down 
 with a blow from his fist, which was quite as effectual 
 as a sledge hammer, and then adjusting a noose round 
 the prisoner's neck, drew the rope over his own 
 shoulders and trotted about, the victim's legs dangling 
 in the air and his tongue protruding, until death at 
 last put an end to the torture. These details, almost 
 incredible at the present day, have been authenticated 
 by several witnesses, and even admitted by Hepenstall 
 himself at the trial of Hyland when Lord Norbury 
 complimented him as having done no act which was not 
 natural to zealous, ^loyal, and efficient officer. Prefixed 
 to the Irish Magazine for 1810 a picture of Hepenstall in 
 his capacity of executioner appears. His features, 
 handsome in their conformation and seraphic in their 
 expression, present a puzzle to the students of Lavater's 
 theory. The print is accompanied by a startling memoir 
 of Hepenstall's atrocities, which we find corroborated 
 by an article in the Press newspaper of January 11, 
 1798, and copied by Dr. Madden. That article speaks 
 of Hepenstall as a person well known by the name of 
 " the walking gallows". In conjunction with higher 
 colleagues, he had continued, long anterior to the out- 
 break of '98, to goad the people into revolt by such 
 brutalities as we have described. Hepenstall did not 
 long live to enjoy the interval of repose which succeeded 
 his unsleeping vigilance in '98. In 1800, as we are 
 assiired by Cox, he became afflicted with morbus pedicula- 
 ris; his body was literally devoured by vermin, and after 
 twenty-one days' suffering, he died in great agony. Dr. 
 Madden says that this event occurred in 1818 ; Mr. Cox 
 gives 1804 as the year ; but the Sham Squire enables 
 us to fix the date positively. In his Journal of Sep- 
 tember 18, 1800, Mr. Higgins touchingly records : 
 
 " Died on Thursday night, of a dropsical complaint, 
 " Lieutenant Edward Hepenstall, of the 68th Regiment, 
 ^' sometime back an officer in the Wicklow militia a 
 
, ALEXANDER KNOX. 245 
 
 " gentleman whose intrepidity and spirit during the 
 " Rebellion rendered much general good, and himself 
 "highly obnoxious to traitors". And then follows a 
 tribute to " the qualities which endeared Mr. HepenstaU 
 to his family and friends". 
 
 Luckily, or unluckily, for Hepenstall's memory, his 
 fast friend the Sham Squire did not write his epitaph, 
 and the lieutenant's grave remains in St. Andrew's 
 churchyard uninscribed. It was once suggested by Dr. 
 Barrett that the inscription should be confined to two 
 lines : 
 
 " Here lie the bones of HepenstaU, 
 Judge, jury, gallows, rope, and all". 
 
 Lieutenant Hepenstall's brother, who survived him 
 for a few years, received a large pension soon after from 
 the crown. His relict was married by Archbishop Agar 
 to Dr. Patrick Duigenan, as we gather from an entry 
 in Donnybrook Parish Register, dated October 19, 
 1807, and printed|in the Rev. B. H. Blacker's work 
 descriptive of the locality. 
 
 34. " Spectacle Knox", as General Cockbum styles 
 him, is Alexander Knox, whom Lord Macaulay calls 
 " a remarkable man". He began his career as assist- 
 tant private secretary to Lord Castlereagh, in whose cor- 
 respondence and that of Mr. Wilberforce a mass of his 
 letters may be found, to say nothing of several volumes 
 ostensibly devoted to the preservation of his epistles. 
 Mr. Knox drew up the report of the Secret Committee, 
 and made himself generally useful as a scribe during 
 the reign of terror in Ireland. When the late Sir 
 Robert Peel came to Ireland as Chief Secretary, accom- 
 panied by a young and beautiful wife, Mr. Knox fell 
 wildly in love with her. He was fully sensible of the 
 madness and illegality of his passion, from which he 
 strove to fly but in vain. In a state of temporary 
 mania he nearly destroyed himself by an act of bodily 
 mutilation. Our authorities for this story are the late 
 
246 ADDENDA, 
 
 ( 
 
 Surgeon Peel and Dr. Labatt, who professionally at- 
 tended Mr. Knox, and communicated the facts to an 
 eminent physician still living. Knox survived for many 
 years after, but the vigour of his intellect had sunk, 
 and his eye had lost its former sparkle. 
 
 36. Captain Armstrong. The arrests at Bond's were 
 followed by the betrayal and execution of John and 
 Henry Sheares. To those hapless victims ^broth^rs 
 by blood and barristers by profession Captain J. W. 
 Armstrong, of the King's County militia, had, with 
 vampire instinct, obtained an introduction through the 
 agency of a mutual friend. Carried away by the ardour 
 of youth and the strong revolutionary current of the time, 
 they unreservedly expressed their projects. Armstrong 
 fanned the flame, helped their plans with hints derived 
 fiom military reading and experience, wormed himself 
 into their confidence, partook of their hospitality, min- 
 gled with their families, and, as has been stated by Mr. 
 Curran, fondled on his knee the child of the i>arent 
 whom he had marked out for death, while, to quote the 
 reminiscence of one of the family, Mrs. Sheares sang at 
 the harp for his amusement. Armstrong received pro- 
 motion, a commission of the peace, and a pension of 
 500 a year. Fifty-six years subsequent to this tragedy, 
 we heard with surprise that Armstrong was still alive ! 
 The late Maurice R. Leyne, addressing the present 
 writer in 1854, says : *' I saw the old scoundrel. Cap- 
 tain Armstrong, travelling by boat from Limerick. He 
 was a passenger, and was attended by a body-guard of 
 two policemen with loaded arms. He was the object 
 of much observation and whisperings while on board ; 
 and as he was leaving the packet at, I think, Banagher, 
 one of the boatmen with vengeful malice addressed him 
 as ' Mr. Sheares\ pretending he had mistaken his name. 
 He was known as ' Sheares Armstrong' among the 
 people". 
 
 Soon after, the present writer, then a very young 
 
ARMSTRONG. 247 
 
 man, addressed a letter to Captain Armstrong conveying 
 some queries, which merely elicited the following note, 
 suggesting a personal interview ; but we recoiled from 
 such close contact, and the matter dropped : 
 
 " Ballycumber, May, 17th, 1854. 
 
 " SIR I have received your letter. I have no objection 
 to a personal interview with you, and to give you every 
 information in my power on the subject of your in- 
 quiries, but I decline writing anything about it. 
 " Your most obedient servant, 
 
 " J. W. ARMSTRONG. 
 " To W. J. Fitzpatrick, Esq.". 
 
 Captain Armstrong's seal displays the device of three 
 arms outstretched in an attitude of hostility. His 
 incorrigible longevity had heartily weairied and dis- 
 gusted the Treasury. At length, one fine morning in 
 1858, he died, after having drawn altogether about 
 80,000. Whether his family inherit any share of his 
 pension we have not been able to ascertain. 
 
 87. Thomas Reynolds has been already noticed, p. 
 164, et seq., ante. 
 
 88. To William Cope the same remark applies. 
 
 89. Of Justice Godfrey there is little of interest to 
 tell. An instance of his magisterial activity may be 
 found in the Dublin Magazine for December, 1799, p. 
 878. 
 
 It will be observed that Sir George Cockbum, in his 
 list of the government of Ireland during the reign of 
 terror, makes no allusion to the Viceroy, whom John 
 Magee, for having styled " the cold hearted and cruel 
 Camden", was prosecuted by the Orange Attorney- 
 General Saurin, and heavily punished. The truth is 
 that Lord Camden was a cypher. Watson Taylor acted 
 as private secretary to his Excellency at this period, 
 and he mentioned to Moore, on the 19th October, 1888, 
 that "Lord Camden was constantly outvoted in his 
 wish for a niore moderate system of government by 
 
248 ADDENDA. . 
 
 Clare and Castlereagh". Watson Taylor, when in 
 Ireland, was more busy writing songs than despatches ; 
 and we find that, among other effusions, he threw off 
 the well-known, piece " Croppies, lie down". 
 
 K. 
 MACNALLY AND TURNER. 
 
 The Comwattis Correspondence, published in 1859, 
 confirms the allegation that Leonard MacNally, the 
 confidential law adviser to, and eloquent counsel for, 
 the leaders of the Irish rebellion of 1798, was in the 
 pay of the unscrupulous Tory government of that day, 
 and basely betrayed the secrets of his confiding clients. 
 MacNally had been himself a member of the Whig 
 Club, and the Society of United Irishmen, and went so 
 far as to challenge and fight Sir Jonah Harrington, who 
 had indulged in stinging animadversion of it. He was 
 apparently a staunch democrat, and enjoyed the most 
 unlimited confidence of the popular party. He survived 
 until 1820; and with such consummate hypocrisy was 
 his turpitude veiled, that men who could read the 
 inmost soul of others never for a moment suspected him. 
 The late W. H. Curran, in the Life of his father 
 (i. 384-5), pronounces a brilliant eiilogium on "the 
 many endearing traits" in MacNally's character, and adds 
 that he (W. H. Curran) is filled with " emotions of the 
 most lively and respectful gratitude". We farther 
 learn that " for three-and-forty years Mr. MacNally 
 was the friend" of Curran, and that " he performed the 
 duties of the relation with the most unco npromising 
 and romantic fidelity". Years after, when the late D. 
 Owen Maddyn urged W. H. Curran to bring out a new 
 edition of the Life of his father, he replied that it would 
 be difficult to do so, as he should have to cancel the 
 passage to which I have referred, and indulge in severe 
 
m 
 
 MACNALLY. 249 
 
 reflections upon the memory of MacNally, a near rela- 
 tion of whom was practising in the court where Mr. W. 
 H. Curran sat as judge. Curran's regard for MacNally 
 was steadily consistent. In 1807, on the accession of 
 the Whigs to power, Mr. Curran exerted the large 
 influence which he then possessed, to obtain a silk 
 gown for his friend. The Duke of Bedford, however, 
 who was then viceroy, having discovered the base com- 
 pact which subsisted between his Tory predecessors and 
 MacNally, rejected the claim. But the reasons for the 
 refusal were not then known, and the popular party 
 regarded as a grievance this treatment of their favourite 
 counsel. Charles Phillips, who practised for many 
 years at the same bar with MacNally, thus notices, in 
 one of the last editions of Curran and his Contemporarily 
 the report that MacNally had a pension : " The thing 
 is incredible ! If I was called upon to point out, next 
 to Curran, the man most obnoxious to the government 
 who most hated them, and was most hated by them 
 it would have been Leonard MacNally that Mac- 
 Nally, who, amidst the military audience, stood by 
 Curran's side while he denounced oppression, defied 
 power, and dared every danger !" 
 
 After the death of MacNally,* his representative 
 claimed a continuance of the secret pension of 300 a- 
 year, which he had been enjoying since the calamitous 
 period of the rebellion. Lord Wellesley, the viceroy, 
 demanded a detailed statement of the circumstances 
 under which the unholy agreement had been made, 
 and after some hesitation it was furnished. The start- 
 ling truth soon became known. O'Connell announced 
 the fact publicly, and used it as an argument for 
 dissuading the people from embarking in treasonable 
 projects. 
 
 The MS. volume containing "An account of the 
 
 * MacNally must have died intestate, as we can find no trace 
 of his will in the Irish probate court. . . . 
 
250 ADDENDA. 
 
 Secret Service ^foney Expenditure", discloses the fre- 
 quent payment of large sums to MacNally, irrespective 
 of his pension, during the troubled times which pre- 
 ceded and followed the Union. This engine of corrup- 
 tion as recorded by the same document invariably 
 passed through the hands of a Mr. J. Pollock. 
 
 It is suggestive of intensely melancholy ideas, to 
 glance over this blood-tinged record. The initials of 
 MacNally perpetually rise like an infernal phantom 
 through its pages. Passing over the myriad entries 
 throughout the interval of 1797 to 1803, we come to 
 the period of Robert Emmet's insurrection. In the 
 State Trials we find MacNally, on September 19, 1803, 
 acting as counsel for Emmet at the Special Commission. 
 Under date September 14, 1803, "L. M. 100", appears 
 on record in the Secret Service Money Book. This 
 retainer, doubtless, overbalanced poor Emmet's fee. 
 The gifted young Irishman was found guilty and exe- 
 cuted. No one is permitted to see him in prison, but 
 MacNally, who pays him a visit on the morning of his 
 execution, addresses him as " Robert", and shows him 
 every manifestation of affection. On the 25th August, 
 1803, "Mr. Pollock, for L. M., 100", is also recorded. 
 Sometimes MacNally signed the receipts for Secret Ser- 
 vice Money " J. W." : but besides that the writing in 
 these documents is identical with his acknowledged 
 autograph, the clerk's endorsement " L. M. N." leaves 
 no room for doubt. The original receipts were kindly 
 shown to us in 1854 by Dr. Madden. 
 
 The masterly manner in which MacNally fortified 
 his duplicity is worthy of attention. As I already ob- 
 served, persons usually the most clear-sighted regarded 
 him as a paragon of purity and worth. Defending 
 Finney, in conjunction with Philpot Curran, the latter 
 giving way to the impulse of his generous feelings, 
 threw his arm over the shoulder of MacNally, and with 
 emotion said : " My old and excellent friend, I have 
 
- _ ' , MACNALLY,'- . ' ; '; . 
 
 long known and respected the honesty of your heart, 
 but; never until this occasion was I acquainted with the 
 extent of your abilities. I am not in the habit of paying 
 compliments where they are undeserved". Tears fell 
 from Mr. Curran as he hung over his friend.* Nineteen 
 years after, Curran died ; and he died with the illusion 
 undispelled. ,From the Freeman's Journal of, October 13, 
 1817, we gather that Judge Burton wrote from London 
 to MacNally, as the old and tried friend of Curran, to 
 announce the approaching death of the great patriot.f 
 
 Sir Jonah Barrington insinuates that MacNally was 
 an unpopular companion in society. The late Dr. 
 Fulton, addressing us in 1858, observed : " L. MacNally 
 was a most agreeable companion quite a little Curran, 
 and his political views were considered even more 
 democratic than Curran's. He made a bet that he 
 would dine at the mess of the Fermanagh militia, an 
 iiltra Orange body. He joined them unasked, and 
 made himself so agreea,ble, and every man there so 
 pleasant, that he received a general invitation to their 
 mess from that day. He was a most pleasing poet, and 
 wrote, among other effusions, the well known song, 
 * Sweet Lass of Eichmond Hill' ". 
 
 Sir Jonah Barrington, who often sacrificed strict 
 accuracy to sensational effect, has given us, in his Per- 
 sonal Sketches, a monstrous caricature of MacNally 's 
 outward man. Nevertheless, although, like Curran, of 
 low stature, he had, as we are informed by O'Keefe, 
 who knew him intimately, "a handsome, expressive 
 countenance, and fine sparkling dark eye". J 
 
 Mr. MacNally must at least have had a rare amount 
 of what is familiarly termed " cheek". In his defence 
 of Watty Cox, at a public trial -in Dublin, Feb. 26, 
 
 * Life of Curran by his Son, v. i. p. 397, 
 t We contributed to Notes and Queries some portions of this 
 paper. 
 J Recollections of John O'Keefe, v. i. p. 45. , 
 
252 ADDENDA. 
 
 1811, he says, " few men become . . . informers 
 until they have forfeited public character".* 
 
 The Duke of Wellington, in the following letter, 
 probably refers to MacNally, whose insatiable cupidity 
 is very likely to have prompted him to seek further 
 recognition of his unworthy services by applying for 
 some office in the gift of the crown : 
 
 London, 29th June, 1807. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, I agree entirely with you respect- 
 ing the employment of our informer. Such a measure 
 would do much mischief. It would disgust the loyal 
 of all descriptions, at the same time that it would ren- 
 der useless our private communications with him, as no 
 further trust would be placed in him by the disloyal. 
 I think that it might be hinted to him that he would 
 lose much of his profit, if, by accepting the public em- 
 ployment* of government, he were to lose the confidence 
 of his party, and consequently the means of giving us 
 
 information , , 
 
 " Believe me, ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 " ARTHUR WELLESLEY.! 
 "To James TraU, Esq.". 
 
 The editor of the Comwallis Papers^ Mr. Ross, in 
 enumerating with others (iii. 319), one Samuel Turner, 
 who received a pension of 300 a year at the same 
 time as MacNally, declares that he has been unable to 
 obtain any particulars of this man. There can be no 
 doubt that Mr. Turner belonged to the same school as 
 MacNally. 
 
 * Irish Magazine, April, 1811, p. 45. ' 
 
 t \VTio is the " Catholic orator" referred to in the following 
 note trom Sir A. Wellesley to Lord Hawkesbury ? (p. 291> 
 
 "Dublin Castle, 8th Jan., 1808. 
 " The extracts of letters sent to you hy Lord Grenville, were 
 
 sent to us by , the Catholic orator, two months ago. 
 
 The mentioned is a man who was desirous of being em- 
 ployed by government as a spy ; and his trade is that of spy to all 
 
 parties. He offered himself to , Lord Fingal, and others, 
 
 as well as to us ; and we now watch him closely". 
 
, ' TURNER. .:.;: .-. ' 
 
 The old Dublin directories, in the list of "judges 
 and barristers", record the name of Samuel Turner, 
 Esq., who was called to the bar at Easter Term, 1788 ; 
 and the following paragraph, which we exhume from 
 the London Courier of December 5th, 1803, suggests 
 a painful glimpse of the grounds on which Mr. Turner 
 obtained a pension at the same time as MacNally : 
 
 " On Friday last, Samuel Turner, Esq., barrister-at- 
 law, was brought to the bar of the Court of King's 
 Bench, in custody of the keeper of Kilmainham prison, 
 tinder a charge of attainder, passed in the Irish Par- 
 liament, as one concerned in the rebellion of the year 
 1798 ; but, having shown that he was no way concerned 
 therein, that he had not been in the country for a year 
 and seven months prior to passing .that act, i.., for 
 thirteen months prior to the rebellion, and therefore 
 could not be the person alluded to, his Majesty's 
 Attorney-General confessed the same, and Mr. Turner 
 was discharged accordingly". : '.. 
 
 To return to MacNally : 
 
 A gentleman who conducted the leading popular 
 paper of Dublin some forty years ago, in a communi-. 
 cation addressed to us, observes: "It was in 1811,' 
 during the prolonged trial of the Catholic delegates 
 (Lord Fingal, Sheridan, Burke, and Kirwan) that 
 doubts were first entertained of MacNally's fidelity. 
 MacNally took a leading part In the counsels of the 
 delegates and their friends. We observed that the 
 Orange Attorney-General, Saurin, always appeared 
 wondrously well prepared next day for the arguments 
 which we had arranged. MacNally, no donbt, used to 
 communicate to the law officers of the crown all the . 
 secrets of his confiding clients". 
 
 MacGuicken, the attorney of the United Irishmen, of 
 whom we shall speak presently, was also subsidized. 
 
 The world now knows the guilt of MacNally and 
 MacGuicken. Their memory has been execrated. But 
 
254 ADDENDA. 
 
 surely the seducer of these once honourable men de- 
 serves a share of the obloquy. Who was the man who 
 first debauched the counsel and solicitor of th6 United 
 Irishmen? 
 
 JOHN POLLOCK. i 
 
 In the Memoirs and Correspondence of Marquis Corn- 
 wallis (vol. iii. p. 320), a letter appears addressed by 
 Mr. Secretary Cooke to the Lord Lieutenant, in which 
 various persons are recommended, including MacNally 
 and MacGuicken, as fit recipients for a share in the 
 1,500 per annum which in 1799 had been placed for 
 secret service at his excellency's disposal. Mr. Cooke 
 thus concludes : " Pollock's services ought to be 
 
 thought of. He managed Mac and MacGuicken, 
 
 and did much. He received the place of Clerk of the 
 Crown and Peace, and he has the fairest right to indem- 
 nification". Mr. Charles Ross, the editor, reminds his 
 readers that "Mac" is "Leonard MacNally, Esq., a 
 barrister of some reputation, who was regularly em- 
 ployed by the rebels, and was entirely in their confi- 
 dence. He was author of various plays and other 
 works; born 1752, died 1820". 
 
 It may interest the students of that eventful period 
 of Irish history to learn some account of the unscrupu- 
 lous and wily person who succeeded in corrupting the 
 counsel and solicitor of the unhappy men who staked 
 their lives and fortunes in '98. On this nogociation 
 some important events hinged. For almost every name 
 mentioned in the Cornwallis Correspondence Mr. Ross 
 has furnished an explanatory foot-note. In the page 
 following the mention of Mr. Pollock's name the editor 
 says : " It has been found impossible to ascertain any- 
 thing in regard to most of these individuals" ; and as 
 
POLLOCK .. 255 
 
 we have no note relative to Mr. Pollock, it may be 
 presumed that Mr. Ross knows little or nothing of him. 
 
 Half a century ago John Pollock was a well-known 
 solicitor in Dublin. In the Dublin Directory for 1777 
 his name appears for the first time, and his residence is 
 given as 31 Mary Street. In 1781 he removed to 12 
 Anne Street, and in 1784 to Jervis Street. In 1786, 
 Mr. Pollock was appointed " solicitor to the trustees of 
 the linen manufacture" ; in 1795 we find him Clerk of 
 the Crown and Peace for the province of Leinster, and 
 Clerk of the Peace for the County of Dublin. In the 
 year 1800, Mr. Pollock is gazetted to the enormous 
 sinecure of Clerk of the Pleas of the Exchequer. 
 
 The MS. volume, already noticed, containing an 
 " account of secret service money expenditure employed 
 in detecting treasonable conspiracies", chronicles the 
 frequent payment of pecuniary stimuli to Mr. Pollock. 
 On December 11, 1797, 300 is recorded; "April 20, 
 1798, John Pollock, 110", appears. June 15, 109 
 7s. 6d. ; August 18, 56 17s. 6d ; August 28, ditto ; 
 September 14, do. ; and on January 18, 1799, the large 
 sum of 1,137 10s., arrests attention. There are, how- 
 ever, various other payments to Mr. Pollock, which it 
 would be redious to enumerate. 
 
 As soon as he received the bloated sinecure of De- 
 puty Clerk of the Pleas, Mr. Pollock removed from 
 Jervis Street to No. 1 1 Mountjoy Square East, where, 
 
 as I am informed by M S , Esq. he lived in a 
 
 style of lavish magnificence, and spent not less than 
 9,000 a-year. This reign of luxury lasted until the 
 year 1817, when Mr. Pollock was suddenly hurled from 
 his throne. 
 
 The sinecure office of Clerk of the Pleas of the Ex- 
 chequer had been " in some measure created for Lord 
 Buckinghamshire" as a reward for his important services 
 in India,* as well as in Ireland, when discharging the 
 
 * Sketches of Irish Political Characters, London, 1799, p. 49 
 
256 ADDENDA. 
 
 services of Chief Secretary. Sir J. Newport declared in 
 parliament, on April 29, 1816, that his lordship's fees 
 had amounted to 35,000 per annum. Lord Bucking- 
 hamshire died on Feb. 5 in that year. From the Dublin 
 Evening Post of February 20, 181 7, we leam that " Mr. 
 Pollock still continues to fulfil the duties of the office, 
 . and the writs which had been authenticated by the sig- 
 nature of ' Buckinghamshire', are now signed ' John 
 Pollock'". The duties of the office were indolently, 
 inefficiently, and often fraudulently discharged : "Pur- 
 chasers can have no security", observes the same 
 authority ; " we have been informed of a judgment of 
 10,000 omitted in a certain certificate. It is one of 
 the most lucrative and unnecessary offices in the 
 country", continues the Post : " all the duty is per- 
 formed by the deputy, Mr. Pollock, who derives about 
 5,000 a-year. All this is made up of fees on the dis- 
 tribution of justice in a single court of law. If this 
 unnecessary office were now extinguished, how much 
 would it cheapen justice to the public ! What a number 
 of poor suitors would then procure justice who are now 
 . excluded from its benefits by their poverty !" 
 
 But the estimate of the Post would seem to have been 
 " under the mark". On Monday, April 29, Leslie Fos- 
 ter declared that Mr. Pollock " drew 10,000 out of 
 the profits, and on which he ought to pay the salaries 
 of the other clerks ; but, instead of this, he pocketed 
 the whole of the money, leaving them to raise the fees 
 upon the suitors on no other authority than their own 
 assumptions !" 
 
 The son of a late eminent solicitor, in a letter ad- 
 dressed to us, dated Sept. 25th, 1865, thus refers to 
 Mr. Pollock and the lax practices then prevalent : 
 
 "In 1816 my father died. Long before his death 
 " my mother used to hear him and other professional 
 " men talk of the general extravagance and demorali- 
 " zation that existed among the officials of the Four ; 
 
PECULATION. 257 
 
 * Courts ; several of whom, from poor clerks, were 
 " floated up to wealth by the rise of the times. Most 
 " of the higher class among them habitually antici- 
 " pated their incomes, availing themselves of the faci- 
 " lities for doing so then afforded by the paper-credit 
 " or kite-flying* system. As to Pollock, he lived mag- 
 " niflcently in Mountjoy Square and in the country ; 
 " and like those, for the most part, who spend freely, 
 " he was not, indeed, disliked ; though if, in taxing an 
 " attorney's costs, he received a note, in order, after 
 " deducting what was due him, to return the balance, 
 " he would, as it were by way of a joke, laugh, and 
 " say, ' We '11 talk of this another time', and keep the 
 " note the attorney not daring to object, lest he should 
 " be proportionately a suflferer when he 'd next have to 
 " get his costs taxed ! But, in time, the attorneys be- 
 " came sufficiently up to the great co^t-taxer's failing 
 " as regards note-keeping, to be on their guard against 
 " it, by not letting him finger more than he was actually 
 "entitled to receive. Like 'robbers all at Parga', it 
 " should be added, that others of those gentry of the 
 " courts, Papists as well as Protestants, were Pollocks 
 " in their way, ' feathering their nests well', and even- 
 " tually purchasing estates. At last a government 
 " commission came, and reformed this very cormpt 
 " system". 
 
 The peculation upon which Mr. Pollock had so long 
 fattened soon began to enkindle a wide sensation. A 
 commission of inquiry was held, and some startling 
 facts came to light. Mr. Leslie Foster, afterwards 
 Chief Baron Foster, observed : "To show the progress 
 
 * This phrase greatly puzzled a member of the English bar, 
 Lord Bedesdale, who was sent to Ireland as Chancellor, Plun- 
 ket endeavoured to explain. " In England, my lord, the wind 
 raises the kite, but in Ireland the kite raises the wind". " I 
 feel no better informed yet, Mr, Plunket", replied the matter- 
 of-fact Chancellor, Possibly our readers may say the same, 
 -W.J, F. 
 
 - . .: - -.. .^ . 17 
 
258 ADDENDA. ; 
 
 of abuse, he might pursue the history of the place held 
 by this deputy. In 1803, his profits amounted to 
 3,000 a year. After that time the office was placed 
 under regulations which reduced its emoluments to 
 one-third ; and in consideration of what was called the 
 vested right of the possessor, he received a compensa- 
 tion of 2,000, which, joined to his fees, made up 
 3,000, his original income. Instead of being worth 
 3,000 at present, the office yielded 7,000 a year, 
 having increased 5,000 since 1803 ; which, with a 
 compensation of 2.000 for anticipated loss, amounted 
 to the 7,000 mentioned. All these abuses spring 
 from the circumstance that the power of taxation is 
 lodged in the hands of officers who were interested in 
 the sums they imposed, or in the Abuses they con- 
 nived at". 
 
 At this time, as appears from the Directory^ Mr. Pol- 
 lock not only held the lucrative office of crown solicitor, 
 but various sinecures besides The Comwallis Papers 
 had not then divulged that all this emolument and 
 peculation was nothing more or less than the wages 
 earned by the corruptor of MacNally and MacGuicken ! 
 
 It further appeared that 13,000 extra had been 
 seized upon and squandered by understrappers. The 
 commissioners pursued their inquiries. " They unex- 
 pectedly discovered", says the Pot of May 4, 1817^ 
 * an apparently humble satellite who obtained an in- 
 come of 1,300 per annum from fees, and who, with- 
 out being ambitious of even the celebrity which an 
 almanac confers, quietly revolved about the brilliant 
 orb of his superior, as much unknown to the public as 
 any of the satellites of Jupiter". A more monstrous 
 labyrinth of inveterate abuses had never before been 
 explored. Impeachment became unavoidable ; and we 
 find the Attorney-General, Saurin, bringing forward 
 nine distinct charges against Mr. Pollock. One para- 
 graph will suffice for a specimen : " With respect to 
 
RETRIBUTION. ' , 259 
 
 the taxation of costs, the officer has exercised an arbi- 
 trary and discretionary power in demanding fees ; and 
 that the fees received have, in some instances, exceeded 
 the amount of the costs themselves". In the Court of 
 Exchequer, July 1, 1817, the Chief Baron O'Grady, 
 afterwards Lord Guillamore, passed judgment on Mr. 
 Pollock. He thus concluded : " We are obliged to 
 declare, from the acts lately for the first time come to 
 our knowledge, that he has abused his duty abused 
 his discretion he has done acts without authority 
 by accepting gratuities he has degraded the court he 
 has permitted fictitious charges, a^d has raised the fees 
 of this court to bring them to the level of higher fees of 
 other courts, instead of bringing down what was highest 
 to the level of those that were lower these acts have 
 tended to a perverse and mal-administration of justice ; 
 and it is, therefore, due to the public to the ends of 
 justice to the authority and purity of the court to 
 the maintaining of the court's authority over its own 
 officer and to the end of the officer presiding with 
 effect over those under him, that Mr. Pollock be re- 
 moved, and he is therejjy removed from the office of 
 Deputy Clerk of the Pleas of this C( urt". The Cor- 
 respondent and Saunders, of the day, do not report the 
 case. The foregoing has been extracted from the 
 Freeman^s Journal. At the period in question, it does 
 not seem to have been always easy for reporters to 
 obtain access to courts of law during the progress of 
 peculiar cases. The Freeman of July 12, 1817, devotes 
 a leading article to the discussion of a petulant remark 
 made by Mr. Jackson (Lord Chief Justice Norbury's 
 registrar) to the effect that " he would prevent the court 
 from being turned into a printing office". 
 
 Mr. S tells me that he remembers having noticed, 
 
 with some pain, the once swaggering and influential 
 John Pollock reduced to comparative poverty and pros- 
 tration. Mr. Pollock did not long survive Ms humilia- 
 
260 ADDENDA. I 
 
 . . .i 
 
 tion. In 1818, Leonard MacNally siuv his seducer 
 consigned to the grave. 
 
 It may be worth adding, that Chief Baron O'Grady 
 claimed the right of patronage in the appointment of 
 successors to Lord Buckinghamshire and Mr. Pollock ; 
 and having named his son and brother to the overgrovn 
 sinecures, much comment was excited, which resulted 
 in an elaborate public trial of the judge's right. Saurin 
 contended that the king, not the court, had the right of 
 appointment. 
 
 WALTER COX. 
 
 The seduction of the once indomitable patriot Watty 
 Cox, who was eventually bought up by the Eichmond 
 government, was also due to Mr. Pollock. 
 
 Mr. John Pollock, in a letter addressed to Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley, dated January 12, 1809, directing his atten- 
 tion to MacNevin's Pieces of Irish History* goes on to 
 say (p. 534) : 
 
 " Whether this book was originally printed in New 
 York is for the present immaterial ; it is now in print 
 in Dublin, and, no doubt, will be circulated through 
 the country with indefatigable zeal. My information 
 says it is the precursor of a French invasion ; and oer- 
 tainly the whole object of the book it calculated^ cmd with 
 great ability eaxcuted, in order to show the necessily of 
 a separation of this country from England^ and to pro- 
 cure a French army to be received here as allies. Yoiir 
 means of information are, no doubt, most ample ; it 
 may, however, not be improper in me to say to you that 
 if you have Cox\ (who keeps a small book-shop iti 
 
 Civil Correspondence and Memoranda of F. M. Ar 
 of Wellington ; edited by his son. 
 
 t Mr. Pollock was no stranger to Cox. who in his.3/a^aztn 
 1811, pp. 353, 434, makes reference to him. 
 
WRIT:RS BBIBED. 261 
 
 Anglesea Street), he can let you into the whole object 
 of sending this book to Ireland at this time ; and fur- 
 ther, if you have not Cox, believe me that no sum of 
 money at all within reason would be misapplied in 
 riveting him to the government. I have spoken of this 
 man before to Sir Edward Littlehales and to Sir Charles 
 Saxton. He is the most able, and, if not secured, by 
 far the most formidable man that I know of in Ireland". 
 He was " secured" accordingly ; but Lord Mulgrave, 
 afterwards Marquis of Norman by, on his accession to 
 the viceroyalty, deprived Cox of his pension. Under 
 the regime of the Duke of Richmond was also accom- 
 plished the seduction of an able Roman Catholic satirist, 
 Dr. Breanan, who continued until his death to enjoy 
 a pension of 200 a year for ridiculing in his Milesian 
 Magazine the Catholic leaders of that day. 
 
 A correspondent, Mr. C. C. Hoey, sends us the follow- 
 ing note touching Walter Cox : 
 
 " Scattered through the pages of Cox's (Watty) 
 Irish Magazine from 1807 to 1814, now extremely 
 scarce, may be found a great amount of uncol- 
 lected information that may be advantageously read 
 with the light of the fTelUngton Correspondence. Though 
 Cox was finally bought up to silence, he did good 
 service for his creed and country. In those years, 
 and that principally on the veto question, the career of 
 this man was extraordinary, and notwithstanding his 
 weak points, he is entitled to a distinct biography. 
 The ' Shrewd Man' and the ' Gunsmith', alluded to un- 
 der Secretary Trail's letter, was no other than Walter 
 Cox. Cox's father was a bricklayer, who was dragged 
 to prison by order of Lord Oarhampton, and suffered 
 some indignities and even torture, which never left the 
 mind of his son, and finally made him resolve on turning 
 author, to retaliate for the severities he witnessed in 
 1798. Cox himself was originally a gunsmith ; he sup- 
 plied military data to Lord Edward Fitzgerald, enjoyed 
 
262 ADDENDA. I 
 
 his confidence as well as others in the Directory, and 
 afterwards became his lordship's biographer in the 
 pages /)f his own magazine. Cox, though a youth in 
 1792, held the command of the second company of 
 the Goldsmiths' Corps of Volunteers, whose last meet- 
 ing was announced to take place on the parade ground 
 of St. Michael le Pole^ Great Ship Street, but was pre- 
 vented by a proclamation of the government and a 
 turn out of the whole garrison, similar to the Clon- 
 tarf affair of *48. This, I believe, was the last at- 
 tempted meeting of the volunteers in Dublin. Dr. 
 Madden inserts a query in the fourth volume of the 
 last edition of his United Irishmen (p. 599) as to 
 whether some Mr. Cox who received secret service 
 money in 1803 was identical with Watty Cox ; but it 
 is not likely, as from Lord Hardwick's official vindi- 
 cation of his government it appears that it was medi- 
 tated in 1803 to place the formidable gunsmith under 
 arrest as a dangerous democrat. Cox suffered imprison- 
 ment and the pillory several times for his writings in 
 the Irish Magazine; the most noted was " the Painter 
 Cut ; a Vision", of which he was found guilty and sen- 
 tenced to pay a fine of three hundred pounds, and enter 
 into security himself for one thousand, with two others 
 of five hundred pounds each, to keep in good behaviour 
 for seven years, as well as suffer one year's confinement 
 in Newgate. A great portion of the priesthood exerted 
 themselves in striving to put down his Magazine for the 
 part he took against the veto, and he attacked the go- 
 vernment so severely that Crown Solicitor Pollock sug- 
 gested he should be bought up as being the most formid- 
 able character of the time. Archbishop Troy and Bishop 
 Milner (who subsequently became an anti-vetoist) and 
 Lord Fingal received no quarter at his hands. In his 
 Magazine may be found a good deal of matter connected 
 with those men, not to be found elsewhere. Sir Jonah 
 Barrington comes in for a share of castigation for his 
 
WALTER COX. 263 
 
 shortcomings and backslidings ; he accuses him of bring- 
 ing forward a motion in the Irish House of Commofts 
 " to confiscate the property of Doctor Esmond, who 
 headed the rebel force at Prosperons, and thereby de- 
 prived his infant children of bread". He says Sir Jonah 
 Barrington printtd his History of the Union in Dublin 
 in 1802, but, as he did not give it to the public then, 
 we presume he gave it to another quarter. There 
 is also some matter connected with the career of 
 Reynolds, O'Brien, Hepenstal, and many other?, which 
 I think has not met the notice of the historians 
 of 1798. The admirably executed caricatures pub- 
 lished in his Magazine were done by Mr, Brocas, who 
 afterwards was appointed head master of the Govern- 
 ment School of Design, Royal Dublin Society. After 
 lying for some years in Newgate, Cox was at last bought 
 over. He resided for awhile in the house No. 12 
 Clarence Street, off Summer Hill, which still goes by 
 the name of " Cox's Cot", and his name appears on some 
 old leases connected with that quarter. He finally re- 
 tired to Finglas,. where he spent many years, and 
 mixed much in the sports and May-pole amusements 
 of that old village. I am hunting up for some infor- 
 mation concerning his latter day, and I find that there 
 is at present alive a nephew of his, a working brick- 
 layer". Cox died in 1837, having been prepared for 
 death by the Rev. Matthias Kelly, P.P. of St. Mar- 
 garet's, Finglas. From some letters of Cox not gene- 
 rally accessible, we select a few in illustration of his 
 epistolary style : 
 
 New York, December 18, 1819. 
 
 " MT DEAR FRIEND, I am as uneasy as possible by re- 
 maining here, and I am determined to leave this hideous 
 climate and most detestable race of rascals, who call it 
 their own, and boast of it as a gift of Heaven, though 
 the wretches are hardly out of school when they die of 
 old age, or are swept away by yellow fever, which has 
 
264 ADDENDA. ' 
 
 not spared any one within the range of its devouring 
 limits on the sea coast, from Boston to New Orleans. 
 The last summer, I escaped by flying to Quebec a 
 distance of 562 miles; and from its lofty walls I des- 
 patched a letter to you on the 12th of October, and 
 returned here on the 11th of November, to see the 
 sickly wretched Yankees removing the fences that en- 
 closed a considerable portion of this city, when, in their 
 fright, they attempted to put limits to the common 
 enemy, as judiciously as the wise men of Gotham at- 
 tempted to keep in the sparrows, by placing a strong 
 railing round their town. They have perished in 
 thousands, and, in my opinion, the yellow fever would 
 confer a blessing on the human race by continuing its 
 capers. 
 
 "A work of interesting curiosity, I have almost 
 ready, to consist of two volumes, which, if I live until 
 summer, will be in the Irish press. I have seen Mr. 
 O'Connell's letter to the Catholics, and have got it 
 printed here. There never was a better or more season- 
 able State Paper, a dignity it most eminently deserves. 
 Remember me to your child ; to B. Tell Mr. James 
 Crosbie, Attorney General to Toll-houses, that I hope 
 he is alive and well ; but if he is dead, say nothing 
 about it until I call in person. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 " WALTER Cor. 
 
 " A considerable number of Dublin men are here, 
 captains, colonels, etc., who ran away from Generals 
 D'Evereux and L'Estrange, and from the burning sands 
 of Margaritta, famine and yellow fever, which the 
 orators and prophets of the Board of Health instituted 
 in Dublin for taking care of sick friends at a distance, 
 forgot to predict". 
 
 Mr. Cox did not continue an O'Connellite. In 1835 
 ve find him brought up before the magistrate at Arran 
 
COX TURNED NOVELIST. 265 
 
 Quay Police Office, charged by the reverend gentlemen 
 of Church Street Chapel with having personally de- 
 nounced in very violent language the collection of the 
 O'Connell Tribute during its progress in the Chapel 
 Yaxd. 
 
 < New York, Nov. 20, 1819. 
 
 " I have determined to return home, nor am I pre- 
 pared, by my very sad experience, to encounter any 
 more of the frightful climate and other miseries incident 
 to the infernal state of society in this country, with the 
 wretched penury to be met with in all parts of this 
 land. 
 
 " You may conceive some faint idea of the health of 
 this place, when I assure you even New York, the most 
 salubrious city here, was entirely reduced to a solitude 
 during the last summer, which, to avoid, I made a most 
 expensive excursion to Quebec, a distance of 570 miles. 
 Not an Irishman in Savaniiah that did not fall a victim 
 to the yellow fever, among them, Mr. John Walsh, 
 late of Usher's Quay, and his son and daughter ; not 
 an acre of ground occupied by white men in this exten- 
 sive region, that did not feel the scourge of every 
 species of fever hitherto known, besides thousands of a 
 new variety. 
 
 "Cobbett has gone home, and then surely I may 
 venture, as I would prefer the dry gallows at home 
 to an inglorious sweating death under American 
 blankets. 
 
 '* P.S. I will have ready for publication, on my 
 arrival, a novel in true Irish style, which, I will venture 
 to say, will be much superior in originality, style, and 
 composition, to any of Lady Morgan's. What will the 
 world say, when it is known I am turned novelist ? 
 Laughable, certainly, but true, as the existence of 
 Essex Bridge. 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 "WALTEB Cox". 
 
266 ADDENDA. 
 
 We are not aware that the formidable rival to 
 CfDonitM and Florence MacCarthy ever appeared. 
 
 From other letters of ('ox in our hands, we find him 
 in June, 1821, residing at " Ingouville, Havre de Grace". 
 He expresses himself in very laudatory termg of La 
 belle France; invites some old friends to visit him 
 " for three months", and by way of inducement pro - 
 mises no end of sparkling champagne. i 
 
 ABSTRACTION OF PAPERS FROM THE 
 CASTLE ARCHIVES. ; 
 
 We have received from Mr. S. Redmond, a respect- 
 able gentleman connected for many years, first with the 
 Irish and later with the English press, the following 
 letters, correcting the account given at p. 1 33, ante^ of 
 the disappearance from the Castle Archives of the 
 Secret Service Money Book. It is right to premise, how- 
 ever, that having submitted Mr. Redmond's letter to 
 Charles Haliday, Esq., J.P., perhaps the most exten- 
 sive coUector of rare and curious books illustrative of 
 Irish history, he informs me that the Secret Service 
 Money Book is in his keeping, and that Mr. Redmond's 
 impression is somewhat erroneous. Mr. Redmond was 
 a very young man in 1838, and probably the story told 
 him did not lose in the carriage by Mr. Byme. " The 
 "Secret Service Money Book", writes Mr. Haliday, 
 *' was sold with other very curious documents as waste 
 
 paper". 
 
 " 46 Salisbury Street, Liverpool, 
 " 22nd October. 
 
 ** SIR, Although I have not the honour of your 
 personal acquaintance, I am very well aware of your 
 name and character. I trust you will excuse me for 
 addressing you on a subject which you have ventilated, 
 and which is of deep historical interest. It is in refe- 
 rence to the foot note, referring to what your friend 
 
SECRET SERVICE MONEY BOOK. 267 
 
 Dr. '- told about the Secret Service Money Book. 
 Perhaps the following facts may be of use to you, and 
 if so, you are at liberty to make any use you think 
 proper of them The document in question was not 
 ' cleared out and sold' by any official in the Castle it 
 was stolen \\ ith some other valuable documents, but it 
 came into the hands of poor John Fegan in an honest 
 and legitimate manner. Ue kept a stall at the corner 
 of Off Lane and Henry Street, and was a man of great 
 natural intelligence, had a limited education, but im- 
 proved it wonderfully by self-culture. The doctor, I 
 think, has made a mistake by stating that it was pub- 
 licly exhibited for sale. No man in the world knew 
 the value of such a document better than poor Fegan. 
 He showed it to Mr. Edward Byrne (since dead), who 
 kept a tavern at No. 6 Capel Street. I was then a very 
 young man, connected with the reporting staff of the 
 Morning Register newspaper (and subsequently for 
 nearly ten years on the Freeman^s Journal)^ and 
 Mr. Byme sent for me and showed it to me. Al- 
 though young, I was immediately alive to the value 
 of the treasure that lay before me, and I at onoe 
 resolved to possess it. 1 appointed to meet Mr. Byrne 
 and Fegan in the evening, and did so ; but imagine 
 my surprise when I found the treasure had flown. 
 Mr. Byme had taken it back to the Castle ! Between 
 the time I had seen him in the forenoon and my visit 
 in the evening, a person from the Castle called on 
 Mr. Byme, and threatened to have him transported 
 if he did not give up the document ! Mr. B. was a 
 very timid man, and at once proceeded to the Castle 
 and delivered it up. It seems that, in consequence of 
 the gossip raised by poor Fegan about it, it was missed 
 from the Castle, and hot search made after it. The 
 above is the result. This was in the latter end of 
 1 838, or beginning of '39. I have often regretted the 
 loss, for had I got it, no pressure would have extracted 
 it from me. 
 
268 ADDENDA. 
 
 " It may be interesting to you, when I state that many 
 of Lever's and Carleton's best stories are founded on 
 tales told them by Fegan. He was obliged to quit 
 Dublin in '48, and subsequently kept a book-stall at 
 the Custom House here. He lost his life, with his wife 
 and three children, in a fire in the house where he lived 
 in Shaw's Alley, in this town, three or four years ago. 
 I wrote a short memoir of him in the journal to which 
 I am attached. The public raised a handsome monu- 
 ment to the family, in Saint Anne's Church, Edge Hill. 
 
 " I have frequently seen the slab (a black stone, either 
 marble or heavy dark limestone) over the grave of 
 Higgins, in Kilbarrack Churchyard, but little did I 
 tiiink who lay beneath it. The last time I saw it (gome 
 years ago), it was partly on its side, apparently turned 
 over. What a gigantic scoundrel he was, and to have 
 done such a multiplicity of novel villanies in a life, 
 comparatively short, surpasses comprehension. One 
 would think that, to conceive and mature such an 
 amount of Hell-born crimes, would have taken a couple 
 of centuries ; but when we find a human being capable 
 of acting them, and dying at fifty-five, our astonishment 
 becomes altogether lost. Poor Magee ! ought he not have 
 a statue some place dboiet CoUeg Green f Fearfully as 
 I felt my gorge rise at the treble-dyed damnation of 
 Iscariot Higgins, I must say, with the utmost sincerity, 
 that in all my life I never enjoyed such hearty laugh- 
 ter as I did at the description of the fetes at Fiat Hill ; 
 and when I meet with anyone troubled with the hipSy 
 I shall turn doctor and order the patient to read that 
 part of the work twice, and I will insure him a radical 
 cure. Many a day have I gambolled about these spots, 
 little thinking that the ground was sacred to Olympic 
 pig races f or that I would, in this country (to use a well- 
 known phrase), nearly burst my sides reading of the 
 that were enacted on that now memorable hill. 
 " I am, etc. 
 
 '' SYLVESTER REDMOND". . 
 
HELL- FIRE CLUB. 269 
 
 Mr. Haliday, as we have said, is positive in his im- 
 pression that the document in question, with many 
 other curious manuscripts, long preserved in the archives 
 of the Castle, were sold as waste paper. The Duke of 
 Wellington, in his Irish correspondence, more than onoe 
 complains of the abstraction of papers from their legiti- 
 mate repository. Among the curious papers alluded 
 to by Mr. Haliday, is a volurtinous correspondence 
 between influential persons and viceroys of the day, 
 soliciting place, promotion, pay, and patronage. One 
 letter from Compton Domvile, Esq., M.P., of Santry 
 House, addressed to the Duke of Richmond, asks for 
 the peerage of Santry. The Lord Lieutenant writes 
 across the letter " A modest request ! Answer 
 this letter evasively. Richmond". But the applica- 
 tion was not, after all, very unreasonable, for an ances- 
 tor of Mr. Domvile's possessed the peerage of Santry, 
 which he lost, according to O'Reilly's Beminiscenots of 
 an Emigrant Milesian* from having at a meeting of 
 the Hell-Fire Club, in Saul's Court, Fishamble Street, 
 compelled an unfortunate man to swallow brandy until 
 his throat filled to overflow, when a lighted match was 
 applied, and the suflerer slowly blazed into eternity If 
 But what little reliance can be placed upon hearsay 
 stories, and how likely men are, after the lapse of many 
 years, to confound the details of utterly distinct inci- 
 dents, is exhibited in this Eeminiscence. Lord 
 Santry was tried by his peers, not for the above dia- 
 bolicsd escapade, which, we believe, he never com- 
 mitted, but for having, at the village of Palmerstown, 
 stabbed a man named Loughlin Murphy, who died of 
 his wound on September 25th, 1738. The report of his 
 
 * VoL ui., page 290. 
 
 t The Hell- Fire Club of Dublin was succeeded by the Chero- 
 kee Club. The late Mr. John Fatten told us that the late esti- 
 mable Earl of Charlemont was a member of it, and dressed in 
 red and black the devil's livery 1 Lords Ormond, Enniskillen, 
 and Llandaff also belonged to it. 
 
270 ADDENDA. - 
 
 ' 
 
 trial is now before us. Lord Santry was sentenced to 
 death ; but there is an authentic tradition to the eflfi-ct, 
 that his cousin, Mr. Compton Domvile, having threat- 
 ened to deprive Dublin of water, the noble convict's life 
 was pardoned by the viceroy. The title, however, was 
 forfeited, and Lord Santry's estates passed to Sir 
 Compton Domvile. 
 
 It may be asked, how Mr. Domvile could deprive 
 Dublin of water. The supply came from the Dodder 
 at Templeogue, and ran through the Domvile property. 
 By damming up or turning off this stream, which then 
 was the sole conduit of supply to the Earl of Meath's 
 Liberty and Dublin City, formidable inconveniences 
 could not fail to arise. 
 
 The corporate records are said to contain some 
 curious details of a quarrel in which Mr. Compton 
 Domvile and the executive were occasionally engaged. 
 It was more than once brought to a crisis by Mr. Dom- 
 vile cutting off the water supply, sometimes in pique, 
 sometimes in salutary pressure on the powers that 
 were. On one occasion, as we are assured by au 
 officer of the Corporation, the Lord Lieutenant was 
 constrained to send out horse and foot, and forcibly 
 wrest the water from the custody of Domvile's re- 
 tainers. In 1775 the insufficiency of the supply from 
 the Dodder, which for several centuries was the sole 
 resource of Dublin, led the Corporation to resort to the 
 Grand Canal. But matters were not much mended 
 
 by the change. Dr. W of Dublin, who is still 
 
 living, saw the troops cut the canal, when, owing to a 
 dispute, the directors refused to continue to give water. 
 A pure and abundant supply of soft water was long 
 desired by Dublin, and this boon has been recently 
 obtained for it through the energy of Sir John Gray. 
 
A CUNNING EDSE SPOILED. 271 
 
 '"' .:-'"- ' ' ',:'."'' 
 
 TREASON IN ULSTER HOULTON. 
 
 The repeated mention of Houlton's name ia the 
 history of the Sham Squire, leads to the query whether 
 the miscreant named Houlton, described by Plowden, 
 as having personated a rebel general in 1 798, was con- 
 nected with the colleague of Francis Higgins. Mr. 
 Houlton, after an interview with the Irish Privy Council, 
 Lord Redesdale presiding, was equipped with a superb 
 rebel uniform, including a cocked hat and feathers, 
 which was paid for by government, and sent on a 
 mission to Belfast, to tempt, to prosleytize, to dupe, 
 and to betray. An orderly dragoon repaired with in- 
 structions to General Sir Charles Ross, who comman- 
 ded in Belfast, that Houlton was a confidential servant 
 of the government, and on no account to be molested, 
 Houlton, however, having set off on his mission in a 
 postchaise and four, arrived at Belfast long before the 
 advice of his advent, and the result was that, when in 
 the act of spouting treason with startling volubility at 
 a tavern, Houlton was arrested by the local authorities, 
 paraded in his uniform round the town, and sent back 
 under a strong guard to Dublin.* 
 
 A fine field for the profitable pastime of betrayal 
 was spoiled by this contrariety. The North of Ireland, 
 at one time ripe for revolt, never rose. Some interest- 
 ing papers, formerly in the possession of General 
 Nugent, who had the chief command in the North, are 
 now in our hands, and reveal the formidable length to 
 which the organization reached in Ulster. 
 
 The conspiracy was not confined to the men who had 
 nothing to lose. Among those who staked their lives 
 and fortunes on its issue, was Mr. Stewart of Acton, 
 a, gentleman of large property, noticed at considerable 
 
 * Post-Union History, f. i. p. 22S. 
 
272 ADDENDA. 
 
 length in " the Private and Secret" letters of Under 
 Secretary Cooke, addressed to Lord Castlereagh, and 
 published in the correspondence of the latter.* 
 
 The letters in question boast of possessing informa- 
 tion calculated to criminate Mr. Stewart, but the 
 details or even substance of the information is not 
 given. The following letters are now printed for the 
 first time. Lord Castlereagh's, we may add, was en- 
 closed in the larger communication addressed by Lord 
 Wm. Bentinck to General Nugent, Commander in Chief 
 in Ulster. 
 
 (Secret.) " Dublin Castle, June 24. 
 
 " MY LORD, The information upon which I granted 
 a warrant against Mr. Stewart, stated him, a very short 
 time previous to the rebellion, to have accepted the 
 situation of Adjutant -General for the County of 
 Armagh in the rebel army. 
 
 " Tour lordship's knowledge of the public mind of 
 the North confirms me in a hope I have for some time 
 entertained, that there has a salutary change of senti- 
 ment taken place amongst the Dissenters. I am not 
 sanguine enough to hope that Mr. Stewart can, in so 
 short a space of time, have become a good subject; 
 however, under all the circumstances, it appears to me 
 desirable that Mr. S. should, at least for the present, 
 remain at large, under his bail, as taken by your lord- 
 ship. Should any circumstance arise to make it advis- 
 able to proceed otherwise, I shall have the honour of 
 communicating on the subject with your lordship before 
 any steps are taken. . 1 . * 
 
 " I have the honour to be, 
 
 " Your lordship's very obedient servant, 
 
 " CASTLIBEAJQE. 
 " To Lord William Bentinck". 
 
 * Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh^ T L 253- 
 fiO. See also the Personal Recollections of Lord Cloncurry, 2d 
 Edit., pp. 64 and 66. ' 
 
STEWART OF ACTON. 273 
 
 "Armagh, July 27, 1798. 
 
 " DEAU GENERAL NUGENT, I send under the charge 
 of one of our quarter masters, Mr. Stewart, a prisoner 
 who was a man of very good property at the time he 
 was apprehended under a warrant from Lord Castle- 
 reagh. 
 
 " I was at the time so convinced that all the leading 
 people of this town whom I had known to be violent 
 United Irishmen about a year and a-half ago, with the 
 exception of one or two, had now changed their opinion, 
 that upon their offer of very large bail I took upon 
 myself to liberate him, and informed Lord Castlereagh 
 that I had done so. And it is my opinion that the 
 having liberated this man when I did, contributed very 
 much to keep the people here in good humour, and as 
 far as I can leam, they never had any intention of ris- 
 ing. Mr. Stewart confessed to me privately that he was 
 an United Irishman, which confession appears to me, 
 as being unnecessary and infamous to himself, is a 
 proof of his innocence as to an insurrection. I send 
 you Lord Castlereagh's letter to me. When I liberated 
 him, I of course knew nothing of the charge against 
 him, and since his release I cannot discover that he has 
 been concerned in any way whatever with the rebels. 
 
 " You have a man of the name of Jackson at Belfast 
 whom I apprehended here, and against whom by a 
 letter from a Mr. Hamilton at Belfast, there appear to 
 be no charges. It is of very material importance to the 
 tranquillity of this part of the country that he should 
 not return. He has always been remarkably active 
 among the people, he is in all particulars very like 
 Munro, who was hanged at Lisburn. He is the great 
 leader here. 
 
 'I am, dear General, yoiirs truly, 
 \ W. BENTINCR". 
 
 "Lisburn, June 27th, 1798. 
 
 " SIR, I am directed by Major-General Goldie to 
 
 18 
 
274 ADDENDA. 
 
 send to you to Belfast, William Kean, a man who 
 acted as aide-de-camp to Munro, and who was formerly 
 a clerk in the Star* office at Belfast. James Petticrew, 
 Eobert Fullerton, Charles Keanan, and John Sinclare, 
 all prisoners, are positive evidence against him ; Hugh 
 Orr and Christopher Williamson, likewise prisoners, 
 are circumstantial evidence against Kean. When Kean's 
 trial is over, the General wishes you to send back these 
 evidences, as they give information against people who 
 are confined here. Hugh Eeid is likewise sent, but 
 the General desires me to say that he does not wish 
 that this man should be brought to tiial, as he is a 
 very principal evidence against many people ; and you 
 will be so good as to send him up here when you are 
 done with him. A man of the name of Fleeting is 
 likewise sent, who says that he was employed by Dulry, 
 who is now on trial with you, to make pikes, for whom 
 he made about fourteen. Please to send him back 
 when Dulry's trial is over. j 
 
 " I have the honour to be, Sir, etc., 
 
 " ALEX. McAuLET, M.B". 
 
 Antrim, Dec. 20th, 1798. 
 
 " DEAR GENERAL, I enclose the examination against 
 the man who was sent to Belfast yesterday, of the name 
 of Duggan. The person who gave it may be heard of 
 from Mr. MacGuicken, at the Sign of the Cock, in this 
 place. 
 
 " I have also enclosed a state of our ammunition, and 
 an application to have the deficiency made up. 
 
 " Information has just been given me of an intended 
 meeting near Donegal Moat, about four miles from 
 hence, this evening. I shall send out a party, which 
 I hope will be successful. 
 
 " I remain, dear General, etc., i 
 
 "D. Lisuii". 
 
 * The Northern S/< r, editd by San^.uel Feilson. ., 
 
275 
 
 DUGGAN THE INFORMER. 
 
 The allusion to Duggau and MacGuicken, in the 
 foregoing letter, reminds us that of both we have 
 something curious to tell. 
 
 MacGuicken, already alluded to, and to whom we 
 promised to return, invariably acted as solicitor to the 
 United Irishmen. He performed with much skill the 
 part of an ardent patriot, possessed the entire confidence 
 of the popular party, was a member of the Northern 
 Directory of United Irishmen, and long subsequent to 
 1798 spoke with much spirit at Catholic meetings. 
 The CornwaUis Papers confirm the almost incredible 
 statement, that MacGuicken revealed to the govern- 
 ment, for money, the secrets of his clients and friends. 
 In the trials which followed the partial outbreak in 1798, 
 MacGuicken constantly figured as legal adviser for the 
 rebel leaders of Ulster. This man was, as we have 
 said, tampered with, corrupted, and eventually pen- 
 sioned. He survived until 1817. Exclusive of his 
 pension, he received, as gentle stimulants, various sums 
 amounting altogether to nearly 1,500. 
 
 Bernard Duggan, a native of Tyrone, took a leading 
 part in the rebellions of 1798 and 1803. Sir Richard 
 Musgrave describes him as mounted on a white horse 
 at the battle of Prosperous, and boasting that he was as 
 good a man as the military conimander of that district. 
 Captain Swayne. In Robert Emmet's conspiracy of 
 1803, Duggan wns a zealous ally. He wrote a narra- 
 tive of his connection with that movement, and presented 
 it to Mr. John C. O'Callaghan, who has kindly handed 
 it to us for publication. Duggan was arrested and im- 
 p_risoned ; but he seems to have made terms with the 
 government : no trial took place, and he was set at large 
 " like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devoar". 
 For forty years subsequently, we find Duggan regarded 
 by the national party as a venerable and uncompro- 
 
276 ADDENDA. i 
 
 mising patriot. It awakens painful emotions to attempt 
 to estimate the extent of the mischief of which this 
 hoary-headed wretch was the father. It must, indeed, 
 have been enormous ; but, thanks to the vigilance of 
 Dr., now Sir John Gray, Duggan was at last unmasked. 
 On August 25th, 1858, we noted some interesting facts 
 regarding this discovery, communicated to us in con- 
 versation by Sir John Gray, who, in reply to a question 
 from us as to whether we are at liberty to publish them, 
 is good enough to reply aflirmatively. We append the 
 original jottings, which Sir John Gray pronounces to 
 be perfectly accurate : I 
 
 Spoke of the receipts for secret service money. Dr. 
 Gray went to Connaught in 1843, to see his father, 
 who was ill, and called on the Kev. Joseph Darcy Sirr, 
 rector of Kilcoleman, biographer of Archbishop Trench, 
 and son of the notorious Major Sirr. Dr. Gray found 
 him examining a mass of old documents spread over 
 his study table. " Here, you rebel repealer",* said Mr. 
 Sirr playfully, " some of these will interest you: they are 
 chiefly the communications of informers to my late 
 father". Dr. Gray read some of them over, and having 
 observed one particular letter, he started, saying, *' I 
 have seen that .handwriting before can you tell me 
 who is ' D' ?" The letter, communicating the result of 
 
 * Repealer and rebel Were not unfrequently regarded as 
 synonymous words, and the organs of Earl de Grey and the 
 Orangemen urged in prose and verse, that the Bepealers should 
 be dealt with as Lords Camden, Castlereagh, and Clare dealt 
 with the United Irishmen. In November, 1843, the Packet 
 sang : 
 
 " These, these are the secrets 
 
 Of peace in our land 
 The ecourge for the back, 
 
 For the forehead the brand ; 
 The chain for the neck, 
 
 And the gives for the heel ; 
 Till the SCAFFOLD lets loose 
 1 he base blood of Repeal !" 
 
A STAETLING DISCOVERY. 277 
 
 some mercenary espionage to the Major, was merely 
 signed " D." " There are many other letters from the 
 same party", observed Mr. Sirr. " I cannot discover who 
 he can be; his letters extend over upwards of thirty years, 
 and I think the writer has not less than thirty oliases. 
 He was a most remarkable man, and if you wish to 
 unravel the mystery, you can have all facilities, so send 
 home your conveyance, and remain for the day". Dr. 
 Gray embraced the proposal, and devoted several hours 
 to following up the scent. He was familiar with the 
 writing, though he could not recal to mind the name or 
 individuality of the writer. At last a receipt for^a 
 small amount was discovered, signed "B. Duggan', 
 the date of which was about 1806. Dr. Gray, in 
 ecstacy, exclaimed : " I have him ! I know him well ! 
 he was with me yesterday !" " Impossible", cried Mr. 
 Sirr, " he must be dead long since". A comparison of 
 the handwriting left no doubt of the identity of the 
 scoundrel. The spy, who had grown hoary, and to out- 
 ward appearances venerable, in his infamous employ- 
 ment, had repeatedly addressed letters to Dr. Gray 
 breathing a strong spirit of patriotism and nationality. 
 Dr. Gray, as editor of a highly influential organ of 
 O'Connell's policy, was specially marked out for game 
 by the designing Duggan, who, for forty years, enjoyed 
 the reputation of an earnest and zealous patriot, was 
 even entertained at dinner by a member of the Catholic 
 Association, and contrived to insinuate himself into 
 the confidence of many of the national party. 
 
 He was introduced by letter to Dr. Gray, by a 
 leading member of the Young Ireland section of the 
 Repeal Association Committee, who described him as a 
 rebel of '98, who could assist Dr. Gray by his personal 
 memory of events, in perfecting some notes on the 
 history of the United Irishmen, on which Dr. Gray was 
 then engaged. Dr. Gray soon ascertained that Duggan 
 possessed much traditionary knowledge of the events 
 
278 ADDENDA : I 
 
 ''"' I ' - : 
 
 'I ' . ' 
 
 and of the men of the period, and gave Duggan a small 
 weekly stipend for writing his " personal recollections". 
 He observed before long that Duggan's visits became 
 needlessly frequent, and that he almost invariably en- 
 deavoured to diverge from '98 and make suggestions as 
 to '43. This tendency excited more amusement than 
 suspicion, and the first real doubt as to the true cha- 
 racter of Duggan, was suggested to his mind thus; 
 Duggan said he was about to commence business, and 
 ^*as collecting some subscriptions. Dr. Gray handed 
 him two pounds, and Duggan at once handed across a 
 sheet of blank paper, saying : " I will have twenty pounds 
 in three days, if you write the names of ten or twelve 
 gentlemen on whom I may call : they won't refuse if 
 they see their names in your handwriting".* Almost in 
 th'e same breath he named half-a-dozen members of 
 the Repeal Association, most of them members of the 
 Young Ireland section, adding : " I know these gentle- 
 men will aid me for all I suffered since '98". The 
 former efforts of Duggan to get into conversation as to 
 present politics at once flashed across the Doctor's 
 memory, and he politely declined to 'write the required 
 list, which, possibly, was designed by Duggan and his 
 abettors to flourish at some future state trial, as the 
 veritable list of the Provisional Government of Ire- 
 land, in the handwriting of the proposer of the project 
 for forming arbitration courts throughout Ireland, as 
 substitutes for the local tribunals, that were deprived of 
 popular confidence by the dismissal of all magistrates 
 who were repealers. It was during the same week 
 that Dr. Gray discovered Duggan's real character in 
 the course of the visit to the parsonage already des- 
 cribed. All the facts as here given, were rapidly told 
 to his reverend friend, who ascribing the discovery to a 
 special providence, begged the " life" of Duggan, ex- 
 
 * Mr. P'Callaghan informs us that Duggan also solicited him 
 to afix his signature to a document. 
 
EXPOSURE COMING. 279 
 
 plaining that the papers before him showed that the 
 late of detected informers in '98 was death. The 
 sincerity with which the good parson pleaded for the 
 life of Duggan, was a most amusing episode in the 
 little drama. His fears were, however, soon allayed 
 by the assurance that Dr. Gray belonged to the O'Con- 
 nell section of politicians, and that the only punishment 
 that awaited Duggan was exposure. The parson would 
 not be convinced, and under the plea that Dr. Gray 
 was allowed as a private friend to see the papers that 
 convicted Duggan, he extorted a promise that there 
 should be no public exposure of Daggan, but allowed 
 Dr. Gray within this limit to use the information he 
 acquired at his own discretion. 
 
 Duggan was, in truth, a master of duplicity. In 
 the Sirr papers he is found writing under various sig- 
 natures. " At one time", said Dr. Gray, " he personatexi 
 a priest, and on other occasions a peddler and a smug- 
 gler. He wrote to major Sirr for a hogshead of tobacco, 
 and for 15 to buy a case of pistols for personal pro- 
 tection. In one year alone he got 500". 
 
 " As soon", added Dr. Gray, "as I discovered the 
 character of this base spy, I returned to Dublin, and 
 lost no time in apprising Duffy, Davis, Pigot, O'Cal- 
 laghan, and every member of the national party, of 
 the precipice on which they stood, and undertook to 
 O'Connell that I would cause Duggan to make himself 
 scarce without violating my promise to Mr. Sirr that 
 be should not be exposed to public indignation". 
 
 A letter addressed to us on August 20, 1865, by Mr. 
 Martin Haverty, the able author of The History of 
 Ireland Ancient and Modern,, supplies an interesting 
 paragraph on the point we are now handling : 
 
 " One day, during the memorable repeal year 1843, 
 Sir John Gray invited me to breakfast, telling me that 
 I should meet a very singular character a relic of '98, 
 but intimating that he had his doubts about this per- 
 
280 ADDENDA. ' 
 
 son, 'and that the object of my visit was chiefly that 
 their interview should not be without a witness. 
 
 " I may tell you that I never belonged to any politi- 
 cal party in Ireland. I always felt an innate repug- 
 nance for the manner, principles, etc., of the Young 
 Irelanders, and was convinced that I loved my country 
 at least as sincerely, tenderly, and ardently, as any of 
 them. I never had much faith in mere politicians, 
 though my sympathies were O'Connellite, and Sir John 
 Gray had perfect confidence in me. 
 
 " We were after breakfast when Bernard Duggan was 
 brought into the room. I was introduced to him as a 
 friend of Ireland before whom he might speak freely. 
 It was easy enough to bring him out. He spoke at 
 random about the pike-training in '98 that the people 
 were now ready enough to fight they only wanted to 
 be called out and the pike was the best thing for them. 
 He appeared to me ridiculously sanguine of success, 
 and to regard the men of the present day as poltroons 
 for not taking the field. 
 
 " I believe I am too ' green' to detect dishonesty reiy 
 readily ; and the first impression the scoundrel made on 
 me was two-fold that he was a singularly hale old fel- 
 low for his age, and that he was an infatuated old fool ; 
 but, if I could have felt sure that he was an informer, 
 I would have shrunk from him as from a murderer. 
 Sir John Gray evidently understood the fellow better, 
 and seemed perfectly able for him". 
 
 The grand finale of this curious episode remains to 
 be told. Shortly after he introduced Duggan to Mr. 
 Haverty, and after the old spy had time to- develop the 
 views indicated in Mr. Haverty's letter, the Doctor 
 suddenly, with his eye fixed on him, as though he 
 could read his inmost soul, exclaimed : " Barney, you 
 think I do not know you. I know you better than you 
 know yourself. Do you remember when you were 
 dressed as a priest at Dundalk?" He writhed, and 
 
THE SPY'S OCCUPATION GONE- 281 
 
 tried to tTirn the conversation. Dr. Gray probed and 
 stabbed him, one by one, with all the points which he 
 had gathered from the informer's own letters to Sirr. 
 It was pitiable to watch the struggles and agonies 
 of the old man ; he was ghastly pale, and he shook 
 in every nerve. He finally lost all self-command, 
 and flung himself on his knees at the feet of Dr. Gray, 
 imploring mercy. He seemed to think that pike-men 
 were outside ready to rush in and kill him. " Give 
 me", he said, " but twelve hours : I will leave the 
 country, and you will never see me again !" He tot- 
 tered from the room, left Ireland, and did not return 
 for many years. Amongst his first visits was one to 
 Dr. Gray, to whom he confessed his guilt, adding that 
 he was near his end. He received some trifling relief, 
 and shortly after died. 
 
 Preserved with Duggan's letters to Sirr, a note in 
 the autograph of the latter exists, stating that Duggan, 
 no doubt, shot Mr. Darragh, Terrorist, at his own hall- 
 door, in 1791, when in the act of pretending to hand 
 him a letter ; and further, that Duggan was the man 
 who attempted the life of Mr. Clarke, in Dublin, on 
 July 22nd, 1803. In the London Courier^ of the 30th 
 July following, we find this paragraph in a letter from 
 Dublin, descriptive of the then state of Ireland : 
 
 "Mr. Clarke, of Palmerstown, a magistrate of the 
 county of Dublin, as he was returning from his atten- 
 dance at the Castle, was fired at, on the quay, and 
 dangerously wounded, several slugs having been lodged 
 in his shoulder and breast. The villain who discharged 
 the blunderbuss at Mr. Clarke immediately cried out, 
 'Where did you come from now?' It appears that two 
 of them, taken by Mr. Justice BeU and Mr. Wilson, 
 were residenters in the neighbourhood of Mr. Clarke, 
 and had come to this city from Palmerstown". 
 
 That the man who, in 1803, was overflowing with in- 
 dignant disgust at the idea of a magistrate discharging 
 
282 ADDENDA . ' 
 
 his duty by communicating at the Castle news of sedi- 
 tious proceedings, should suddenly tergiversate, and, 
 throughout a period of nearly half a century, become 
 a mercenary spy to the Castle, opens a wide field for 
 thought to those who like to study weak humanity. 
 
 We rather think that the long letter published in 
 the Duke of Wellington's Irish correspondence, dated 
 Nenagh, 6th Feb., 1808, is from Duggan. The letter is 
 addressed to an understrapper of the Castle, not to the 
 Duke, who, however, prefaces it by saying that it 
 " comes from a man who was sent into the counties of 
 Tipperary and Limerick to inquire respecting the or- 
 ganization of Liberty Eangers". "They are damned 
 cunning in letting any stranger know anything of their 
 doings", writes the spy. "I assure you I could not 
 find anything of their secrets, though I have tried every 
 artifice, by avowing myself an utter enemy to the pre- 
 sent constitution, and even drinking seditious toasts, 
 though they seemed to like me for so doing, and still 
 I could not make any hand of them anywhere, more 
 than to find they are actually inclined to rebellion in 
 every quarter of the country through which I have 
 passed. Even in the mountains they are as bad as in 
 the towns". 
 
 Duggan, during the political excitement of the Re- 
 peal year, contrived to get himself introduced to many 
 of the popular leaders ; and when the intervention of a 
 mutual friend was not attainable, he waived ceremony 
 and introduced himself. Among others on whom he 
 called in this way was John Cornelius O'Callaghan, 
 author of the Green, Book^ and designer of the Repeal 
 Cards, to whom the Attorney-General made special 
 reference in the state trials of the time. Mr. O'Cal- 
 laghan did not give Duggan much encouragement ; 
 but, in order to strengthen his footing, Duggan pre- 
 sented him with the following MS., written entirely in 
 his own hand, which is now published for the first time. 
 
DUGGAN'S NAURATIVE. 283 
 
 The reader must bear in mind that the writer was 
 originally an humble artizan, who had received no edu- 
 cation beyond that furnished by a hedge school. 
 
 It will be observed that he speaks of himself through- 
 out, not in the first person, but as " Bernard O'Dougan". 
 
 PERSONAL NAERATIVE OF BERNARD DUGGAN. 
 
 "At the time that Mr. Robert Emmet commenced 
 his preparations for a revolution in Ireland, in the year 
 1803, he was after returning from France, and there 
 came a few gentlemen along with him, Mr. Russell, 
 and Counsellor Hamilton,* and Michael Quigley,t who 
 had been nominated one of the rebel captains of 1798, 
 and had signed the treaty of peace along with the 
 other oflScers of the rebel party of the camp that lay 
 at Prosperous, in the county of Kildare ; where the 
 Wexford and Wicklow men came and met the Kildare 
 men, who were all invited by a flag of truce from go- 
 vernment, and hostages given by the generals of the 
 King's troops namely. Major Cope and Captain Court- 
 ney, of the Armagh militia, who were kept in custody 
 and in charge with Bernard Dougan, for the space of 
 two hours, until eighteen of the rebel officers of the 
 Wexford, Wicklow, and Kildare, returned back after 
 sigrdng the articles of peace, which was then concluded 
 between the government and th'e people, and which 
 put an end to the rebellion. The conditions were, a 
 free pardon to all men acting in furtherance of the re- 
 bellion, except officers, who were to give themselves 
 up to government, and to remain state prisoners until 
 government thought it safe to let them go into any 
 
 * Dacre Hamilton is noticed in Mpore's Memoirs (i. 62), as 
 the attached friend of Emmet, though "innocent of his plans". 
 There can be little doubt, however, that, like Russell, who losi 
 his head, he was fully implicated in them W. J. F. 
 
 t Quigley survived until the year 1 849. Successive notices of 
 him appear in the Nation of that year, p. 137 et seg. 
 
284 ADDENDA. 1 
 
 CQuntry they pleased, that was not in war with his 
 Majesty, which conditions they had to sign, and it was 
 called the Banishment Bill. They got three days of a 
 parole of honour, to take leave of their friends, before 
 they gave themselves up as prisoners. The breach of 
 any part of these conditions was, not only to forfeit 
 their pardon, but to be treated in any kind of way that 
 the government should think proper. Now, Mr. Quigly 
 broke these articles when he returned to Ireland after 
 signing the Banishment Bill at his liberation and de- 
 parture according to agreement, which caused him to 
 assume the name of Graham in all companies, and none 
 knew to the reverse but his own companions who were 
 in the depot, and his particular acquaintances in the 
 country, who were all true to the cause of his return 
 with Mr. Emmet ; and none ever discovered or informed 
 in any kind of way previous to the failure of the efforts 
 for freedom on the 23rd of July, 1803, which caused 
 great consternation to the government. The Secretary 
 of State, Mr. Wickham, cried out with astonishment, to 
 think that such a preparation for revolution could be 
 carried on in the very bosom of the seat of government, 
 without discovery, for so long a time, when any of the 
 party could have made their fortunes by a disclosure 
 of the plot, and remarked at the same time, in presence 
 of Mr. Stafford, and the two Mr. Parrots, John and 
 William, that it was because they were mostly all 
 mechanical operatives, or working people of the low 
 order of society, that the thing was kept so profound ; 
 and said, that if any or a number of the higher orders 
 of society had been connected, they would divulge the 
 plot for the sake of gain. These expressions occurred 
 at the Castle, when Quigly, Stafford, and the two Par- 
 rots were brought prisoners to Dublin from Artfry, in 
 the county of Galway, where they fled to after the 
 death of Mr. Emmet. Bernard O'Dougan was also at 
 Artfry, but had escaped from being arrested by his 
 
EMMET WEAVES HIS PLANS. 285 
 
 going in a sailing boat across the bay of Galway, to 
 make out a place of retirement for the whole party, 
 five in number, until they would get an account from 
 Dublin, where they sent a messenger, who had been 
 arrested and detained a prisoner, although being a 
 native of the county Galway, and no way connected 
 with Mr. Emmet, only going on a message to Dublin 
 for these five men, who passed off as bathers at the 
 salt water. The messenger was only known to some 
 of the party where he was sent, and could not be arres- 
 ted without information of some of that party, who 
 have been found out since, and will be treated of in 
 another place. Mr. Emmet wished to get acquainted 
 with the men that distinguished themselves most in the 
 year 1798, and he was aware that Quigly knew these 
 men, which was one cause for bringing him (Quigly) 
 along with him from France. Mr. Emmet had also the 
 knowledge of the other men that had been in confi- 
 dence in the year 1798 as delegates, some of whom 
 he employed as agents to forward his plans. James 
 Hope, from Belfast, was one that he, perhaps, got an 
 account of from some of the United Irishmen that 
 were in. France. Although Hope did not distinguish 
 himself in battle, he was trustworthy, and lived in 
 Dublin at that time ; he was a true patriot, and he 
 was soon found out for Mr. Emmet, and sent to Ber- 
 nard O'Dougan, who lived in Palmerstown. At this 
 time, after O'D. had been liberated out of Naas gaol, 
 where he had been a state prisoner, he was obliged 
 to quit the county Kildare, where he had been tried 
 for high treason and the rebellion of 1798, the mur- 
 der of Captain Swain, and the battle of Prosperous. 
 These facts were sworn against him and another young 
 man of the name of Thomas Wylde, and proved to the 
 satisfaction of the court, as may be seen by Lord Long- 
 ville's speech in the first Parliament after the union of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, but were both honourably 
 
286 ADDENDA. 
 
 acquitted by the Amnesty Act (though detained as state 
 prisoners), which had been framed according to agree- 
 ment of the peace between the government and the 
 rebels, as hath been explained heretofore. O'Dougan 
 was called on also much at the same time by Quigley 
 and Wylde, on the same business as Hope had with 
 him, giving him to know what was intended by Mr. 
 Emmet. On this invitation, B. O'Dougan came into 
 Dublin and met Mr. Emmet's party. At the same time 
 there was but few in number, about five or six ; but 
 they were confident in the disposition of all such of 
 their countrymen, as far as their infiuence went, which 
 was not a little at that time, that they would have 
 numbers to join their cause, and was the chief part 
 that did come at the day appointed. Henry Howley 
 , was brought by O'Dougan, and Edward Condon also ; 
 \ II. Howley took the dep6t in Thomas Street, with its 
 ) entrance in Marshal Lane ; then John Bourk, of Naas, 
 { and Kichard Eustace, from the same place, and also a 
 , young man of the name of Joseph White, from the 
 { county Kildare, near Rathcoffey; there was another 
 ^ person of the name of Christopher Nowlan. These 
 men continued to collect into the depSt pikes from the 
 different places where the smiths would leave them 
 concealed ; and also to bring in the timber for the pike 
 handles ; and also powder and balls, and to make them 
 into cartridges, and put handles into the pikes. These 
 men, for the most part, were always attendant on the 
 depot, preparing the pikes and cartridges, and bringing 
 in guns, pistols, and blunderbusses, and all other 
 v' requisites for rockets, etc. jJPat Finerty was also em- 
 ployed in the depot ; and occasionally these men could 
 bring several of their own particular friends into the 
 depot, to help the manufacture of cartridges and other 
 preparations for rockets, making pikes, and putting 
 handles in them. O'Dougan, Bourk, and Condon, 
 brought in the powder and balls from the different 
 
EMMET PREPARES FOR ACTION. 287 
 
 but for the most part from Hinchey's, at the 
 corner of Cuffe Street, who was licensed for selling 
 gunpowder, and got it from the government stores, so 
 that there was a yast preparation ; and all things went 
 on well until the explosion of the depot in Patrick 
 Street, on the evening of the 16th, which deranged the 
 projects that were in contemplation. O'Dougan, Bourk, 
 and Condon, were ordered by Mr. Emmet to go down 
 to Patrick Street depot to get the rockets filled. It 
 should be remarked that the men of the other depots 
 had no recourse to the one in Thomas Street, but the 
 particular men of Thomas Street had recourse to all 
 places ; and O'Dougan often went as a guard to protect 
 Mr. Emmet, lest he should be surprised by any of 
 Major Sirr's or any other spy from government. 
 O'Dougan was appointed aide-de-camp to Mr. Emmet, 
 but the circumstance of derangement from the time of 
 that explosion put everything in confusion and die- 
 order. When these three men came into the depot in 
 Patrick Street, the preparation was not in readiness for 
 the rockets, and many other disorders existed, which 
 caused O'Dougan, Bourk, and Condon, to return back 
 to the depot in Thomas Street, as nothing could be 
 done at that time. It was Mclntosh, and the Keenans, 
 Arthur Develin, and George McDonald, and a few 
 others, that were blown up at the time of the explosion, 
 some of whom expired in Madame Steevens's hospital 
 afterwards ; these were all in the dep6t, and it is a great 
 wonder they were not all blown up. O'Dougan, Bourk, 
 and Condon, were only about a quarter of an hour gone 
 when the explosion took place. It was occasioned by 
 the experiments trying on the fuses to know the length 
 of time they would burn, and by neglect, let the fire 
 get into the joint of the table where there had been 
 some meal powder which communicated to some salt- 
 petre that had been out all day before the sun dry- 
 ing, after it had been purified, and which exploded. 
 
288 ADDENPA. I 
 
 and almost burst the house, and killed and wounded 
 three, and was near destroying all that were in the 
 place. The other powders escaped the ffame, and nearly 
 all was got safe out of the place unperceived, but was 
 attacked by the watchmen who were soon knocked 
 over. There were some secret cells in the depot that 
 were not found out until after the arrest of Quigley, 
 which will be treated of elsewhere. Some of the men 
 that belonged to the depot of Patrick Street were 
 brought prisoners to Thomas Street depot, and kept 
 confined until the night of the 23rd, particularly George 
 McDonald ; but this shall be treated of in another place. 
 There was great apprehension entertained for fear of 
 discovery from that time of the explosion, and there 
 was great inquiry and look out on the part of Major 
 Sirr and his satellites, which caused a precipitant move- 
 ment in Mr. Emmet's affairs. [The men in the different 
 counties might hare time to act, as their look out was 
 the city of Dublin to free itself; but the orders from 
 the generals contiguous to the city, either not having 
 sufficient time to collect their men, or from other 
 neglect, prevented them from coming in according to 
 order and promise. Q)wyer was to come with his moun- 
 tain battalions, and the Wexfords were to come in 
 thousands ; but none of them made their appearance 
 up to four or five o'clock, nor ai^y account of them ; 
 none showed their faces but the men of the county Kil- 
 dare, and part of the county Dublin that lay adjacentT] 
 They came from Naas, Prosperous, and Kilcullen, a few 
 from Maynooth and Leixlip, and Lucan a few ; Pal- 
 merstowB turned out almost to a man.* This was the 
 place where O'Dougan lived from the time of his libera- 
 tion from prison for complicity in the rebellion of 1798, 
 and he had great infiuence among the people of that part 
 of the neighbourhood of Dublin, and they were very 
 
 * Duggan's attempt on the life of Mr. Clarke, of Palmers- 
 stown, p 281, will be remembere^. W. J. F, 
 
EMMET PREPARES FOR ACTION. 289 
 
 much attached to him ; and O'Dougan had his friends 
 on the close look out, kno\\ing as he did the artfulness 
 and the intrigue of government, being a state prisoner, 
 where experience teaches the depth of the artful 
 schemes of government, which no one can fathom ex- 
 cept an experienced state prisoner or some supernatural 
 intelligence to instruct them.* O'Dougan was given 
 to*understand that Mr. Clarkt and Captain Willcock, 
 two magistrates of the county, were in the knowledge 
 of what was going on in Dublin by Mr. Emmet. 
 O'Dougan immediately let Mr. Emmet know of this ; 
 whereupon Emmet, seeing how all the other expecta- 
 tions were likely to fail, which they did, ordered O'Dou- 
 gan to do it himself, which caused him to take a few of 
 the bravest men he had in confidence, and placed some 
 between the Castle and the barracks, to stop any 
 despatch from one to the other, and a guard to keep 
 any communication to or from the commander-in-chief.f 
 There was but little time to be lost on either side. The 
 government had summoned a privy council to delibe- 
 rate on what was best to be done on their part. Things 
 came so sudden on them, it seems they did not know 
 well how to act until they would consult. Mr. Emmet 
 thought on taking the whole of the privy council as 
 they sat in the Council Chamber,! and accordingly 
 
 * These observations are eminently rich when read in con- 
 junction with Duggan's real history. W. J. F. 
 
 t See the attempt on the life of Mr. Clarke, by Duggan, p. 
 281. W. J. F. 
 
 J This was not, after all, a very visionary scheme. Mr. 
 Fitzgerald, in a narrative supplied to Dr. Madden, mentions 
 that he walked through the Castle Yard, at half-past seven 
 o'clock on the evening of Emmet's emeufe. " There were no 
 preparations ; the place was perfectly quiet and silent ; the gates 
 were wide open !" Charles Phillips, in Curran and his Contem- 
 poraries, says, that on the night of Emmet's outbreak, there was 
 not a single ball in the Royal Arsenal would fit the artillery. 
 This apathetic neglect coutrasts curiously with the activity dis- 
 played in fortifying the Castle in 1848, and more recently 
 during the Fenian conspiracy. W. J. F. 
 
 19 
 
290 ADDENDA. 
 
 despatched Henry Howley for six double coaches to 
 carry six men in each coach, making in all thirty-six, 
 with blunderbusses and short pikes that sprung out 
 at full length with brass ferrules on them, to keep 
 them straight at full extent ; but when Howley was 
 coming with the first coach, and got as far as the 
 lower end of Bridgefoot Street, a circumstance oc- 
 curred that deranged the whole project. A soldier 
 and a countryman had a dispute and began to fight. 
 Howley stopped to see how the fight would end ; 
 meantime Cornet Brown came up and took part with 
 the soldier ; at seeing this, Henry Howley opened the 
 coach and advanced to this interfering oflScer, and a 
 struggle ensued, and Howley pulled out his pistol 
 and shot Cornet Brown on the spot, and suddenly per- 
 ceived a sergeant and a party of soldiers coming over 
 Queen's Bridge, which caused him to withdraw and 
 leave the coachman and coach there and then ; it was 
 then getting late, and no time to procure the coaches. 
 As the business of the coaches was left to Howley, 
 none else was sent, and all things seemed disappoint- 
 ment. A trooper, with despatches, was killed in Thomas 
 Street, and also Lord Kilwarden. There appeared no 
 better way to Mr. Emmet and his staff than to retreat 
 to the country and make their escape. They had a 
 little skirmish with the military at the upper end of 
 Thomas Street and Francis Street, and a little on the 
 Coombe. There were a few lives lost at their departure ; 
 and they went out of town as far as the mountain 
 foot. At Ballinascorney they separated. Mr. Robert 
 Emmet returned into town, and his staff repaired to 
 the county Kildare. When O'Dougan returned from 
 his post, where he and his party kept the pass, and 
 cut off all communication to or from the commander- 
 m-chief, it was past eleven o'clock, and all silence 
 ^ver the city ; he came as far as the depot, and went 
 past through Marshal Lane and into Thomas Street, 
 
SIR JONAH HARRINGTON. 291 
 
 as far as Crane Lane, where there was a guard of the 
 army stationed, which he could tiiscern by stooping, 
 which he did frequently, for it was darkness all over 
 the town, and the pikes lay in the street up and down, 
 where they were cast away, and the men fled, every 
 one to the best place they knew. O'Dougan did not 
 know where they went, nor did he hear for the space of 
 three days their destination ; but on the third day he 
 got intelligence and went to RathcofFey, where he found 
 a number of them who in a few days were proclaimed, 
 and three hundred pounds reward offered for them; 
 and, after Mr, Emmet's execution, all separated and 
 went to different parts to conceal themselves from 
 arrest, as they well knew their fate, for there was death 
 without mercy, and the innocent as well as the guilty 
 suffered^ and the innocent suffered far more than the 
 guilty,\/or there were but few concerned with Mr. 
 Emmet that suffered, while numbers were hung on the 
 evidence of Ryan and Mahaffy, who swore for the sake 
 of getting fifty pounds for every one they hungj Mr. 
 Emmet and Howley died for the cause; Redmond 
 and Felix Eourke died friends to the cause, but they 
 were not intimately concerned in the insurrection ; all 
 the rest", adds Duggan, " were hung innocent on false 
 evidence !" 
 
 SIR JONAH BA.RRINGTON, 
 
 Sir Jonah Barrington, whose name we have fre- 
 quently mentioned, published a work entitled Personal 
 Sketches, containing many anecdotes illustrative of the 
 Sham Squire's times ; but we have beea sparing in 
 our references to that book, for, however pleasant as 
 light reading, it is not wholly reliable as historical 
 authority. The truth is, that Sir Jonah was in needy 
 circumstances when the Personal Sketches appeared. 
 
292 ADDENDA. 
 
 and no doubt exaggerated his already hyperbolical 
 style, in order to raise the wind still higher, though he 
 says in his introduction : " It was by no means com- 
 menced for mercenary purposes" (p. v. i.). "We have 
 heard the late Mr. P. V. Fitzpatrick say, who as a bon 
 raconteur might be styled " Sir Jonah Harrington 
 secundus", that he heard him tell the stories very dif- 
 ferently from the sensational style of their subsequent 
 appearance, and that he knew Thomas Colley Grattan, 
 the novelist, to claim the chief merit of the Personal 
 Sketches^ as having suggested the work and manipulated 
 the MS. But even in personal conversation, as we 
 have been assured by the late John Patten, Sir Jonah's 
 statements were always distrusted ; although a judge, 
 he was not a man of truth or principle, and many plea- 
 sant anecdotes might be told illustrative of this remark, 
 but the Blue Book ordered by the House of Commons 
 to be printed the 9th of February, 1829, pillories Sir 
 Jonah on the most legitimate authority. This volume 
 has not been consulted by the writers who have hitherto 
 noticed the eccentric knight. Before examining it, we 
 may observe that the result of the disclosures therein 
 contained, was Sir Jonah's dismissal from the bench. 
 This was inconvenient, as the salary dropped at the 
 same time ; but the knight's inexhaustible astuteness 
 in a dilemma proved, as usual, wonderful. 
 
 Barrington bethought him of a letter which he had 
 received, many years before, from the Duke of Cla- 
 rence, who was now reigning as William the Fourth. 
 Barrington had shown considerable kindness to Mrs. 
 Jordan, at a time when his bar contemporary, Gould, 
 and others, had treated her slightingly, and even intro- 
 duced her to his own family. The 'Duke wrote a warm 
 letter of thanks to Barrington, and expressed a hope 
 that it might be in his power, at some future day, to 
 attest his appreciation of kindness so disinterested. 
 Barriiigtpn overhauled his papers ^which, by the way 
 
A LIGUT-FINGERED JUDGE. 293 
 
 he sold as autographs a few years later and having 
 found the old letter in question, forwarded it to the 
 King. A rather stiff reply came by return of .post, to 
 say that no one knew better than Sir Jonah Barrington 
 the very material difference which existed between the 
 Duke of Clarence and the King of England, and that 
 it was impossible to recognize, in his then position, 
 every acquaintance whom he might have known when 
 acting in a comparatively subordinate capacity. His 
 Majesty, however, who possessed a heart of unusual 
 warmth, and a memory of past friendship singularly 
 Acute and retentive, wrote a private letter to Sir Jonah 
 by the same post which conveyed the official answer, 
 recognizing the claim, and bestowing upon him a pen- 
 sion from the Privy Purse, exactly equal in amount 
 with the forfeited stipend.* 
 
 To come now to the Blue Book. 
 
 Referring to the ship Nancy and its cargo, which were 
 sold by the marshal under a commission of appraise- 
 ment in December, 1805, we read : " It appears that 
 in this cause alone Sir Jonah Barrington appropriated to 
 his own use out of the proceeds 482 8s. 8d. and 200, 
 making together 682 8s. 8d., and never repaid any 
 part of either ; and that the registrar is a loser in that 
 cause to the amount of 546 11s. 4d."t 
 
 In the case of the Sedstrand, Sir Jonah also netted 
 some booty. On the 12th January, 1810, the sum of 
 200 was paid into court on account of the proceeds 
 in this cause^ " and the same day", adds the report, 
 ** Sir Jonah Barrington, by an order in his own hand- 
 writing which has been produced to us, directed the 
 registrar to lodge that sum to his (the Judge's) credit 
 in the bank of Sir William Gleadowe Newcomen, which 
 lie accordingly did. Subsequently a petition having been 
 presented to the court by Mr. Henry Pyne Masters, one 
 
 * Cprnmunicated by the kte P, V. Fitzpatrick, Esq. 
 t Eighteenth Report en Courts of Justice tn Ireland, p. 9. 
 
294 -SPDENDA. { ' ' ' 1 
 
 ''''. i . - ' 
 
 of the salvagers, Sir Jonah -wrote an order at foot of it, 
 bearing date the 29th day of May, 1810, directing the 
 registrar to pay to the petitioner a sum of 40 ; and 
 at the same time he wrote a note to Mr. Masters, re- 
 questing that he would not present the order for two 
 months ; at the close o'f which period Sir Jonah left 
 .Ireland, and never since returned" Ibid., p. 10. 
 
 Sir Jonah's circumstances at this time were greatly 
 embarrassed, and his last act on leaving Ireland was 
 one of a most unscrupulous character, as shall appear 
 anon. In the Dublin Patriot, then edited by Richard 
 Barrett, we read the following paragraph, which is 
 quite in Sir Jooah's style, having evidently for its object 
 the diversioa of suspicion from the real grounds of his 
 exile. " His ehest", it is true, was not in a satisfactory 
 state, but it was the money chest rather than the bodily 
 trunk which seems to have been chiefly afiFected. 
 . " Sir Jonah Barrington has resided at Boulogne for 
 the last three years. His health, we regret to state, is 
 by no means perfect, but, on the contrary, has for some 
 years been very precarious. Under his patent he has 
 the right of appointing surrogates to act for him<^a 
 right of which he cannot be deprived. The duties of his 
 situation have been, and continue to be discharged, in 
 his absence, by the very competent gentlemen who 
 have been appointed, Mr. Jameson, Mr. Mahafiy, and 
 Mr. Holwell Walshe".* 
 
 The commissioners requested Sir Jonah's attendance 
 in Dublin in order to give him every opportunity of 
 rindication ; but he declined on the plea of infirmity 
 and the difficulty of transit, for which, in 1828, he may 
 have had some excuse. The commissioners, before 
 closing their report, strained a point and enclosed to 
 Sir Jonah copies of the evidence. On the 2nd August^ 
 
 * See Patriot of December 29th, 1822, and Carrick's J/orwagp 
 Post, January 1, 1823. 
 
A TEEACHEKOUS MEMORY. 295 
 
 1 828, after acknowledging the receipt of the minutes, 
 he wrote : 
 
 " Be assured, not one hour shall be unnecessarily lost 
 " in transmitting to you my entire refutal ; and I am 
 *' too impatient to do away any impression that such 
 ** evidence must have excited, that I cannot avoid an- 
 " ticipating that refutal generally, by declaring solemnly, 
 " ' So help me God', before whom age and infirmity 
 *' must soon send me, that the whole and entire of that 
 " evidence, so far as it tends to inculpate me, is totally, 
 " utterly, and unequivocally false and unfounded". 
 
 " This, and passages of a similar tendency in subse- 
 quent letters", observe the commissioners, " are however 
 the only contradiction or explanation of the foregoing 
 facts given by Sir Jonah ; and, undoubtedly, although 
 unsworn, so distinct and unqualified a contradiction 
 would have had much weight with us, had the alleged 
 facts been supported by the parol testimony only of the 
 officer. But when we find the handwriting of Sir Jonah 
 himsdf supporting the statement of the witness, we cannot 
 avoid giving credit to his evidence, and miist lament that 
 the judge did not adopt measures for reviving his recoUec- 
 tion, previously to committing himself to a general assertion 
 c/ tiie falsehood of the entire evidence of Mr. Pineau, so 
 far as related to him, which is all that on this subject 
 iais numerous and very long letters have afforded us". 
 
 Some of Sir Jonah's defalcations in the Court of 
 Admiralty were made good at the time by the registrar, 
 Mr. Pineau, hoping to screen the judge from exposure, 
 and trusting to his honour for reimbursement at a 
 moment of less embarrassment. Mr. Pineau wrote to 
 remind him of the liability ; and in a letter dated 
 Boulogne, 4th August, 1825, we find Sir Jonah coolly 
 saying : " I have no doubt you will believe me, I have 
 not the most remote recollection of the circumstance in 
 question".* And again : "Age (closing seventy) and 
 
 * Report, p. 154. Italics in orig. - * 
 
296 ADDENDA. ' 
 
 much thought has blunted my recollection of numerous 
 events". 
 
 The registrar drew up an elaborate statement of the 
 circumstances, with facts and figures, but Sir Jonah's 
 memory was still unrefreshed. In a letter dated 5 
 Rue du Colys^e, Paris, 3rd Oct., 1827, he writes : " It 
 is not surprising that (after closing twenty years) the 
 concern you mention is totally out of my memory".* 
 
 Any person who has read the works of Sir Jonah 
 Harrington, cannot fail to have been struck with the 
 marvellous retentiveness of his memory for minute de- 
 tails. The Rise and Fall o/ the Irish Nation was pub- 
 lished in 1831 six years after his letters to Mr. Pineau 
 and in 1830 appeared the memorable Personal 
 Sketches of his own Timesj in which, after alluding to & 
 misunderstanding between Messrs. Daly and Johnson, 
 Sir Jonah adds : " One of the few things I ever forgot 
 is the way in which that affair terminated: it made 
 little impression on me at the time, and so my memory 
 rejected it".t The embezzlement of considerable sums 
 could only be rejected by an eminently treacherous 
 memory, although Sir Jonah in his memoirs tells us : 
 " I never loved money much in my life".| 
 
 Harrington's habitual exaggeration in story-telling 
 would appear to be an old weakness. Describing the 
 events of the year 1796, he says that " Curran and he" 
 coined stories to tell each other ; the lookers on laughed 
 almost to convulsion.! An indulgence in exaggera- 
 tion, Sir Jonah seemed to regard both as a predominant 
 passion and a venial sin. Sir Richard Musgrave, we 
 are told, '^understood drawing the long bow as well as 
 
 * Report, p. 156. Sir Jonah goes on to say " the 
 Government have NO sort of authority to order any returns fruoi 
 the officers of my court, and I decline such authority", 
 
 t Ibid, Personal Sketches, vol. L, p, 405. 
 
 J Ibid., vol. L, p. 227. 
 
 ^ Personal Skf tckeS) V.I 
 
SIR JONAH'S FAREWELL DODGE. 297 
 
 most people".* Sir Jonah possessed a large share of 
 "cheek", and both as a marvellous story-teller and 
 successful negociator in money transactions, this 
 quality stood his friend. So early as 1799, the author 
 of Sketches of Irish Political Characters says : " He is 
 supposed to have pretty much the same idea of blush- 
 ing that a blind man has of colours". 
 
 One very amusing illustration of Sir Jonah's astute- 
 ness as a trickster is not included in the Blue Book. He 
 had pledged his family plate for a considerable sum, to 
 Mr. John Stevenson, pawnbroker. " My dear fellow**, 
 said the knight, condescendingly, as he dropped in one 
 day to that person's private closet, " I am in the d 1 
 of a hobble. I asked, quite impromptu, the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant, Chancellor, and Judges, to dine with me, for- 
 getting how awkwardly I was situated ; and, by Jove, 
 they have written to say they '11 come ! Of course I 
 could not entertain them without the plate ; lend it to 
 me for one day, and lest you should have any fear on 
 the subject, come yourself to dinner, for, as a member of 
 the Corporation, you are perfectly admissible. Bring 
 the plate with you, and take it back again, at night". 
 The pawnbroker was dazzled; although not usually 
 given to nepotism, he obligingly yielded, and embraced 
 the proposal. During dinner, and after it. Sir Jonah 
 plied "his uncle" well with wine. The pawnbroker 
 had a bad head for potation, though a good one for 
 valuation ; he fell asleep and under the table almost 
 eimultaneously ; and when he awoke to full conscious- 
 ness. Sir Jonah, accompanied by the plate, had nearly 
 reached Boulogne, never again to visit his native land ! 
 
 Sir Jonah made another " haul" before leaving Ire- 
 land. Mr. Fennell Collins, a rich saddler, who resided 
 in Dame Street, lent "the Judge" 3,000, on what 
 seemed tolerable security ; but one farthing of the 
 money was never recovered. A hundred similar stories 
 
 * Personal Sketches, V. i. p. 211. 
 
298 ADDENDA. 
 
 might be told.* Everybody has heard of Barrington, 
 the famous pickpocket ; but the equally dextierous 
 though more refined achievements of his titled name- 
 sake will be new to many. 
 
 " The unrighteous borroweth and payeth not again", 
 saith Psalm xxxii. v. 21. Sir Jonah could not even 
 return a book. To assist him in his work on the 
 Union, the late Mr. Conway lent him, for a few weeks, 
 the file of the Dublin Evening Post for 1798; but it 
 never could be got back, and was afterwards sold with 
 Sir Jonah's effects. 
 
 We wish we could be sure that Sir Jonah's dis- 
 honourable acts were no woise than pecuniary jug- 
 gling. Dr. Madden is of opinion that Barrington, 
 although a pseudo patriot, deserves to be classed 
 among the " bloodhounds of '98". In April, 1798, he 
 dined in Wexford at Lady Colclough's, and on the fol- 
 lowing day with B. Bagenal Harvey. Popular politics 
 were freely talked ; and on Sir Jonah's return to Dub- 
 lin, as he himself tells us, he informed Secretary Cooke 
 that Wexford would immediately revolt. Nearly all 
 Sir Jonah's friends whom he met at the two dinner 
 parties-^ one a relation of his own were hanged within 
 three months ; and on his next visit to Wexford, he 
 recognized their heads spiked in front of the jail ! 
 
 Colclough and Harvey were Protestant gentlemen of 
 very considerable landed property in Wexford. Their 
 discovery in a damp cave on the Saltee Islands, through 
 the bloodhound instinct of an old friend, Dr. Waddy, 
 a physician of Wexford, is invested with a painfully 
 romantic interest. George Cruikshank has executed 
 an effective sketch of this tragic incident. | ; ' ' ; 
 
 ' '..: ' 
 -_ ^ 
 
 * See Life of Thomas Reynolds, by his Son, p. 353, v. ii., etc. 
 
299 
 
 . EMMET'S INSURRECTION. 
 
 Emmet's revolt exploded on the evening of July 23, 
 1803. Mr. Phillips, in Outran and his ContemporarieSy 
 writes : 
 
 "Lord Kilwarden, the then Chief Justice, was re- 
 turning from the country, and had to pass through the 
 very street of the insurrection. He was recognized, 
 seized, and inhumanly murdered, against all the en- 
 treaties and commands of Emmet. This is supposed 
 to have disgusted and debilitated him". 
 
 A curious reason is assigned in a MS. before us for 
 Lord Kilwarden " passing through the very street of 
 the insurrection". The MS. autobiography of the late 
 Serenus Kelly, a well-known monk, was placed in our 
 hands by the writer, on his death-bed, at TuUow, in 
 1859. Serenus was in Lord Kilwarden's house on the 
 evening of his death : 
 
 " Colonel Finlay sent a message to Lord Kilwarden 
 at seven o'clock on the evening of his lordship's la- 
 mented death, apprising him that Dublin was about to 
 be disturbed by a second rebellion, and an attempt to 
 take the Castle. Lord Kilwarden ordered his carriage, 
 and went over to speak to Colonel Finlay on the sub- 
 ject, to satisfy himself of the truth of the report. He 
 took with him into Dublin his daughter and nephew, 
 and directed the coachman to drive to the Castle 
 through Dolphin's Barn, to avoid paying turnpike from 
 his seat called Newlands, situate between Tallaght and 
 Clondalkin, on the Naas road". [Here the usual details 
 of the emeute are given.] " One of the insurgents asked 
 who came there. The coachman answered, ignorant 
 of their design, * Lord Kilwarden'. With that they 
 pulled his lordship out, saying it was he condemned 
 
300 ADDENDA. 
 
 the Sheares,* and they gave him, upon the spot, fourteen 
 pike stabs, of which 'he died about eleven o'clock next 
 morning. Mr. Downing, the gardener, went to see his 
 lordship, and he heard Major Sirr say he would hang 
 a man for every hair on his head : to which his lordship 
 replied : * Let no man suffer in consequence of my 
 death unless by the regular operation of the laws'. 
 
 " This was said about eight o'clock on Snnday morninc^, 
 while he lay in a guard-bed in Vicar Street, weltering 
 in his gore. As to Emmet, I did not wish to witness his 
 execution ; but I saw the gallows erected, and a thrill of 
 horror pervaded my blood as I observed the noose, 
 black and greasy Irom the numbers it had launched 
 into eternity". 
 
 . ^ . . I 
 
 EMMET'S INFORMER. 
 
 The person who received 1,000, on 1st November, 
 1803, for the discovery of Robert Emmet, stiU pre- 
 serves his incognito. Dr. Madden, quoting from the 
 Secret service money Record, says that " the above sum 
 was paid into Finlay's Bank to the account of Richard 
 Jones" : and he adds that the circumstance of lodging 
 the money in the hands of a banker leads to the con- 
 clusion that the informer was not of humble rank. 
 
 " Who was this gentleman Richard Jones ?" asks Dr. 
 Madden. For whom was the money paid to account of 
 Richard Jones? 
 
 *' In the county Wicklow there was a family of the 
 name of Jones, of Killencarrig, near Delgany. In 1815 
 there was a brewery kept there by a family of that 
 name. They were Protestants quiet people, who did 
 not meddle with politics. I . 
 
 The mob confouaded Lord Kilwarden with Lord Carleton. 
 See p. 224, ante. I :,' 
 
EMMET'S INFORMER. 301 
 
 " In the County Dublin, at Ballinascorney, near 
 where Emmet was concealed for some time, there was 
 also a family of the name of Jones, small fanners, 
 Catholics. 
 
 "There was a gentleman of the name of Jones, the 
 Right Hon. Theophilus Jones, a member of the Privy 
 Council, a collector of revenue. In 1800, being in 
 Parliament, he voted for the ' Union', and he was a 
 person of some distinction in 1798. He lived at Cork 
 Abbey, Bray. He was a humane, good man in ' the 
 troubles', and interested himself much for the people. 
 
 " There were two attorneys of the name of Richard 
 Jones living in Dublin at the period of Emmet's cap- 
 ture" (v. i. p. 392). 
 
 As Dr. Madden desires to ventilate this question, we 
 will drop a suggestion, tending, perhaps, to throw some 
 light on it. In the Dublin Evening Post of March 
 2nd, 1784, particular reference is made to Richard 
 Jones, Esq., a very efficient justice of the peace, con- 
 stantly on the foot in support of law and order, and 
 . praised by the Castle journals for his activity. 
 
 A receipt for secret service money, signed Malachy 
 Dwyer, appears in the new edition of the Lives and 
 Times of the U. I. M., v. i. p. 391. " There is", writes 
 Dr. Madden, "a very curious account of a person 
 named Malachy (no surname mentioned) in those very 
 remarkable papers entitled Robert Emmet and his Cotem- 
 poraries^ published in the London and Dublin Magazine 
 for 1825, and probably written by the late Judge 
 Johnston, the author of Roche Fermoy^s Commentary 
 'on Toners Memoirs. The ]\Ialachy therein mentioned 
 is described as the betrayer of his friend, Robert 
 Emmet". 
 
 On the strength of these papers, suspicion has been 
 raised against a brave and honourable man, the late 
 Malachy Delany a suspicion which we ourselves con- 
 
302 ADDENDA. 
 
 tagiously imbibed some years ago ;* and we deem it 
 due to the living and the dead to say, that the papers 
 cited by Dr. Madden are neither from the pen of Judge 
 Johnson, nor historically true in any one particular. 
 In correcting this oversight, it is right to add that Dr. 
 Madden is an author of great research and truth, and 
 most conscientious in his conclusions, and that the 
 above exceptional correction ought not to impugn his 
 general accuracy. Following the example usually set 
 by Dr. Madden, of giving the best authorities for every 
 allegation advanced, we subjoin the following conclu- 
 sive letter from the editor of the Liverpool Daily Post, 
 an influential organ : 
 
 " Daily Post Office, 25 Lord Street, 
 
 " Liverpool, Sept. 14, 1858. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, In reply to your note of the 12th, I 
 beg to say that the author of Robert Emmet and his 
 CotemporarieS) etc., was your humble servant. It was 
 originally intended for two volumes, but was cut down 
 for the magazine. It was a dull affair, so dull that Dr. 
 Madden has taken it for veritable history : see Life of 
 Emmet (orig. edn.) pp. 8, 195, 197, etc). 
 
 "When writing it, I could get no intelligence of 
 Emmet, or what manner of man he was. The remnant 
 of the cursed Celt is still in Ireland, for, like the Orien- 
 tals, they have (that is, the Irish) no appreciation for 
 
 * In the Telegraph newspaper of November 10, 1855, a long 
 letter appears in vindication of the character of Malachy 
 Delany ; and Dr. Madden, in the second edition of his United 
 Irishmen, v. i. p. 393, makes honourable compensation for some 
 ambiguous references to Mr. Delany, published in the 1st ed., 
 3rd s., V. iii. p. 197. The vindication was signed " A Milesian" ; 
 and the writer shortly after introduced himself to us personally 
 as Mr. Luke Cullen, a monk of the Monastery of Mount St. 
 Joseph's, Clondalkin. Mr. Cullen died suddenly, in January, 
 1857, leaving behind him an immense collection of MSS. il' 
 trative of the histories of '98 and 1803.; 
 
EMMET'S UNINSCRIBED TOMB. 303 
 
 departed greatness. They are impressed only by the 
 present. A living ass in their estimation is better than 
 a dead lion. . 
 
 " Dear sir, your obedient, 
 
 " M. J. 
 " W. J. Fitzpatrick, Esq.". 
 
 THE MYSTERY ENSHROUDING EMMET'S 
 GRAVE. 
 
 Robert Emmet, when asked if he had anything to say 
 why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon 
 him, delivered an eloquent oration, which thus con- 
 cluded : " Let no man write my epitaph ; for, as no 
 man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, 
 let not prejudice nor ignorance asperse them ; let them 
 rest in obscurity and peace ! Let my memory be left 
 in oblivion, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until 
 other times and other men can do justice to my char- 
 acter. When my country takes her place among the 
 nations of the Earth, then, and not till then, let my 
 epitaph be v;ritten. I have done ! " 
 
 Notwithstanding the interest attaching to the name 
 of Emmet, the locality of his final resting-place and 
 uninscribed stone still remains undetermined. 
 
 A correspondent of the Irishman newspaper has re- 
 quested information as to whether the "uninscribed 
 " tomb of Robert Emmet is the one pointed out in St. 
 " Michan's churchyard ? I am aware that the question 
 " has been often asked, and, as appeared to me, not 
 " satisfactorily answered. I arrived at thii conclusion 
 " owing to the absence of any information by members 
 " of the Emmet family. My reason for asking the ques- 
 " tion is, being in the vestry of St. Peter's, Dublin, some 
 " short time ago, I was told by the men connected 
 
304 ADDENDA. 
 
 " therewith that Emmet was positively interred close to 
 "the footpath (left gate), or near to where the old 
 " watch-house stood, and was pointed out to them, as 
 " they stated, by some member or acquaintance of the 
 ** family from America some few years ago. If there 
 " be nothing for it but the uninscribed tomb of Michan's, 
 " I would be inclined to think that Peter's was the 
 " place, as tombs of the above description are not so 
 "very rare". 
 
 It is not the remains of Robert Emmet, the gifted 
 orator and insurgent leader, but of his father, Robert 
 Emmet, State Physician, which are interred in St. 
 Peter's churchyard. The latter died on the 9th of 
 December, 1802, and was buried in St. Peter's, three, 
 days afterwards, according to an official certificate fur- 
 nished to Dr. Madden. The mother of young Robert 
 Emmet is likewise interred in the same grave. 
 
 Another correspondent of the journal first quoted 
 said : " No allusion has been made to James's parish 
 cemetery. The sexton told me about two years ago 
 that there was a registration of his having been in- 
 terred there. This is not at all improbable, it being so 
 near the place of his execution. It is a sad thing that 
 such discrepancy should exist as to the place where 
 lie the remains of that pure-minded martyr". 
 
 Owing to this suggestion, we carefully examined the 
 Burial Register of St. James's Church, held by the 
 parish clerk, Mr. Falls, but no trace of Emmet's inter- 
 ment can be found in it. 
 
 We had the pleasure, soon after, of a conversation, 
 with John Patten when in his eighty-seventh year. 
 This gentleman was the brother-in-law of Thomas Addis 
 Emmet. He told me that having been a state prisoner 
 in 1803, he was not present at Emmet's funeral. He had 
 no authentic information on the subject, but, according 
 to his impression, Robert Emmet had been buried in 
 Bully's Acre also known as the Hospital Fields ; and 
 
'. A MIDNIGHT BUEIAL. 305 ' 
 
 that the remains were from thence removed to Michan's 
 churchyard, where the ashes of Bond and the Sheareses 
 rest. He added that Doctor Gamble, the clergyman 
 who attended Emmet in his last moments, was a very 
 likely person to have got the remains removed from 
 Bully's Acre to St. Michan's. The uninscribed tomb is 
 said to have been set up in St. Michan's churchyard, 
 soon after the period that Mr. Patten believes the re- 
 mains of Emmet to have been exhumed from Bully's 
 Acre. 
 
 A literary friend of ours, Mr. Hercules Ellis, was 
 speaking of Emmet and the uninscribed tomb at a 
 dinner party, when a gentleman present corrected the 
 error under which he conceived Mr. Ellis laboured 
 respecting the place of his burial. 
 
 " It was not in Michan's churchyard", he said, " but 
 in Glasnevin, and I speak on the best authority, for my 
 late father was the incumbent there at the time, and I 
 repeatedly heard him say that he was brought out of 
 his bed at the dead of night to perform the burial ser- 
 vice over Emmet. There were only four persons pre- 
 sent, two women and two men. One of the men he 
 understood to be Dowdall, the natural son of Hussy 
 Burgh, and one of the ladies Sarah Curran, who 
 had been betrothed to Emmet. The corpse was con- 
 veyed through a little narrow door leading into the old 
 churchyard of Glasnevin from the handsome demesne 
 of Delville, formerly the residence of Dean Delany". 
 
 With interest awakened by this tradition we visited 
 the classic grounds of Delville, and the old graveyard 
 adjacent, accompanied by Mr. Ellis, the great-grandson 
 of the wife of Dean Delany, to the memory of both of 
 whom a tablet, almost smothered in ivy, is set in the 
 churchyard wall the boundary which divides their 
 former residence from their final resting place. We 
 learned from the gardener who acted as cicerone that 
 there was a tradition precisely to the effect of the state- 
 
306 ADDENDA. 
 
 I 
 
 ment made by the clergyman's son. Our conductor 
 having unlocked a narrow door which leads to the little 
 cemetery, pointed out a grass-grown grave and unin- 
 scribed head-stone inimediately to the left on entering. 
 The entire aspect of the place forcibly recalled to 
 our mind the beautiful description given by Moore of 
 Emmet's grave : 
 
 " Oh, breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade 
 Where, cold and unhonoured, his relics are laid ; 
 Sad, silent, and dark, be the tears that we shed. 
 As the night-dew that falls on the grass o'er his head. 
 
 But the night-dew that falls, though in silence it weeps, % 
 fcjhall brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps". 
 
 This description, by the early friend and college chum 
 of Emmet, is entirely applicable to the picturesque green 
 grave near classic Delville and the deserted village of 
 Glasnevin,* but is inappropriate to the huge flat tabu- 
 lar flag, excluding every blade of grass, in St. Michan's, 
 Church Street, Dublin. It is not easy to understand 
 how a tomb thus situated could " brighten with ver- 
 dure". Moore would appear to have had rather the 
 grass-grown grave at Delville in his mind than the flat 
 dusty stone in a back street of Dublin. 
 
 The following letter from Dr. Petrie, to whom Irish 
 history and archaeology are much indebted, tends the 
 more to corroborate our views,, as it was written by 
 
 * Many a pleasant day Addison, as he tells us, passed among 
 these picturesque grounds. Tickell, his executor, resided in the 
 adjacent demesne, now known as the Botanical Gardens, and 
 Parnell. the poet, was vicar of a neighbouring hamlet. Swilt has 
 celebrated the beauties of Delville in prose and verse, to the in- 
 spiration of which Stella not a little contributed. In a retired 
 grotto may be seen a fine medallion likeness of Stella, in excel- 
 lent preservation, from the artistic hand of Mrs. Delany, with 
 the inscription " Fastiyia despicit wriis", composed by Swift. 
 Several old basement rooms are shown as the site of the private 
 printing presses employed by Swift and Delany. 
 
NAPOLEON AND EMMET. 307 
 
 the Doctor, before lie had seen the above, or even heard 
 the substance of it : 
 
 *' 7 Gharlemont Place, 
 " 10th Nov., 1865. 
 
 " Mt DEAR SIR According to my recollections and 
 belief, derived from the best local authorities, the grave 
 of poor Emmet is in the churchyard of Glasnevin, and 
 is situated at one side, the left as I think, of a private 
 doorway, which gave to the family occupying Delville 
 House a direct passage to the church, and thus enabled 
 them to avoid coming round through the town to the 
 service. . 
 
 "Believe me, my dear sir, 
 
 " most truly yours, 
 
 " GEORGE PETRIE. . 
 
 "P.S. ^The above was vv^ritten before I read the 
 printed paper which you enclosed !" 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE OF NAPOLEON I. WITH 
 
 EMMET. 
 
 Some time since we received from Colonel GJendowyn 
 Scott the following letter of inquiry. We believe that 
 by publishing it we are best helping to promote the 
 interesting object to which the Colonel wishes well. 
 We may add that he is the son of Mr. Scott, an eminent 
 barrister who defended one of the state prisoners 
 arrested with Arthiir O'Connor, at Margate, in 1798. 
 
 " Ballentra House, Donegal, 
 
 " 11th June, 1864. 
 
 " MY DEAR MR. FITZPATHICK, I have a friend in Paris 
 who is on the Committee appointed to collect such cor- 
 respondence of Napoleon J. as can be discovered. He 
 deems it probable that the Emperor was in corres- 
 
308 ADDENDA. 
 
 pondence with parties in Ireland, especially with 
 Emmet, in 1802-3, and that the letters are in the 
 possession of parties in Ireland belonging to the fami- 
 lies of those to whom they were addressed. Any one 
 having such letters in his possession, and being dis- 
 posed to lend them for perusal, will receive the most 
 positive assurance of their being safely returned. lam 
 desirous of rendering what assistance I can, and as I 
 know of no one equally competent with yourself to 
 direct me in the search, I venture to ask if you could 
 kindly point out any channel through which access could 
 be got to the documents ? It seems there is good reason 
 to believe that such documents were in existence. 
 " Believe me, sincerely yours,- 
 
 "W.G. SCOTT". 
 
 All communication between Bonaparte and the 
 Irish Executive Directory was maintained through 
 Thomas Addis Emmet. As far as we have been able 
 to ascertain, no documents of the character in question 
 exist in Ireland ; and it would appear from the follow- 
 ing extract of a letter addressed to us by the Hon. 
 Kobert Emmet, Judge of the Supreme Court in New 
 York, that the archives of the Emmet family in America 
 are equally destitute : 
 
 "At all events, it would be out of my power to 
 furnish anything of the kind, if it existed, as I unfor- 
 tunately placed my father's papers and correspondence 
 in the hands of the late Wm. Sampson, Esq., who then 
 desired to prepare and publish a sketch of my father's 
 life and career^ I have never been able to get them 
 since, and I presume they could not now be found. I 
 was with my father in France in 1 803-4, and saw my 
 uncle Eobert up to the time of his leaving us to return 
 to Ireland and engage in his ill-fated undertaking ; but 
 I was then too young to have known anything that could 
 be appropriate or interesting in the work you are en- 
 
LORD HARDWICKE. 309 
 
 gaged on. I shall look forward eagerly to its publica- 
 tion, and am truly sorry that I cau send you nothing 
 but my best wishes for its success and your own. 
 
 " I am, etc., 
 
 " ROBERT EMMET. 
 " W. J. Fitzpatriek, Esq.". 
 
 JUDGE ROBERT JOHNSON. 
 
 The history of Judge Johnson, whose name occurs in 
 a previous page, discloses some curious features. 
 
 In "The Step-ladder" of General Cockburne, we 
 obtained a view of the Backstairs Cabinet, who carried 
 on the government of Ireland, to the almost utter ex- 
 clusion of the Viceroy, during the reign of terror. This 
 clique was succeeded by another, less sanguinary but 
 equally mischievous. Lord Hardwicke, who became 
 lord lieutenant in 1801, was a prim but pliant nonentity, 
 personally amiable, though easily niade a tool of by 
 designing men. He stood a vapid cipher in the midst 
 of a cluster of figures. Every newspaper in the country 
 applauded his policy. Even the Dublin Evening Post, 
 the long recognized organ of Irish nationality, flung the 
 censer with unceasing energy. The fate and aim of 
 ithe United Irishmen found a sympathy in the Post of 
 '98, but when the unfortunate Emmet, five years 
 later, lay ironed in his cell, charged with attempting to 
 carry out their objects, he was denounced by the organ 
 of nationality with a violence which saddened his last 
 days, and doubtless influenced the result of the trial. 
 Emmet's speech one of the most eloquent and touch- 
 ing on record was suppressed, with the exception of a 
 
310 ADDENDA. 
 
 I .-.. 
 
 few garbled passages, more calculated to damage his 
 position than to serve as his vindication.* 
 
 To the plausibility of Lord Hardwicke's government, 
 men hitherto considered as staunch patriots fell victims. 
 Grattan eulogised him, Plunket accepted office. The 
 press teemed with praise ; the people were cajoled. One 
 man only was found to tear aside the curtain which 
 concealed the policy and machinery of the so-called 
 Hardwicke administration. A judge, with 3,600 a 
 year from government, was perhaps the last man likely 
 to take this course. And yet, we find Judge Johnson 
 penning in his closet a series of philippics under the 
 signature of " Juverna". He declared that Lord Hard- 
 wicke was bestrode by Mr. Justice Osborne, Messrs. 
 Wickham and Marsden, and by " a Chancery Pleader 
 from Lincoln's Inn", which was immediately recognized 
 as Lord Chancellor Eedesdale. Giving rein to his in- 
 dignation and expression to his pity, he exhorted Ire- 
 land to awaken from its lethargy. The main drift of 
 the letters was to prove that the government of a 
 harmless man was not necessarily a harmless govern- 
 ment. The printer was prosecuted, but to save himself 
 he gave up the Judge's MS.f Gieat excitement gieeted 
 
 * Frequent payments to " H. B. Code" appear in the Secret 
 Serrice Money Book, in 1802 and 3. This individual was en- 
 gaged to conduct the Post during the long and pjiinful illness of 
 John Magee, hut for paltry hrihes he quite compromised its 
 politics, until John Magee, junior, rescued the paper from his 
 hands. Mr. Code subsequently received, under Mr. Beresford, 
 an appointment of 900 a year in the revenue. A notice of 
 him appears in Watty Cox's Magazine for 1813, p. 131. 
 
 t Lord Cloncurry, in his Personal Recollections, says (2nd ed. 
 p. 253) : " The manuscript, although sworn by a crown witness 
 to be in Mr. Johnson's handwriting, was actually written by 
 bis daughter. This circumstance he might have proved ; but as 
 he could not do so without compromising his amanuensis, the 
 jury were obliged to return a verdict of guilty". We have been 
 assured, however, by Miss Johnson herself, that the MS. was 
 really in the autograph of her father. She added that the judge 
 having taught her to write, their hands closely assimilated. 
 
. JUDGE JOHNSON. 
 
 this disclosure, and Judge Johnson descended from the 
 bench, never again to mount it. 
 
 A public trial took place, of which the report fills 
 two portly volumes ; and the Judge was found guilty. 
 Before receiving sentence, however, the Whigs came 
 into power, and Johnson was allowed to retire with a 
 pension. But he con.sidered that he had been hardly 
 dealt with ; and the prosecution had the effect of lash- 
 ing the Judge into downright treason. He became an 
 advocate for separation, dressed a la militaire^ and wrote 
 essays, suggesting, among other weapons of warfare to 
 be used in " the great struggle of national regenera- 
 tion", bows, arrows, and pikes. The Journals and Life 
 of Tone, the ablest organizer of the United Irish Pro- 
 ject, was published at Washington, in 1628. Public 
 attention was immediately called to it by a book, 
 printed in English at Paris, entitled A Commen" 
 tary on the Lije of Theobald Wol/e Tone, which 
 has always been confidently pronounced as the 
 work of Judge Johnson.* The Memoirs of Tone, and 
 the Commentary -which succeeded it, appearing at a 
 crisis of intense political excitement, and displaying 
 conclusions of singular novelty and daring, produced a 
 powerful impression. The Duke of Wellington, then 
 premier, assured Eogers that he had read the Memoirs 
 of Tone, from cover to cover, with unflagging interest. 
 But it is doubtful if the Duke would ever have seen it 
 had not " the Commentary" reached him from the 
 British Ambassador at Paris. An interesting letter 
 from the late Robert Cassidy, Esq., narrates the fact, 
 previously a secret, that the material only came from 
 Judge Johnson, and that Mr. Cassidy edited the MSS. 
 The letter was written in reply to one irom the present 
 
 * See Recollections o/ Lord C/oncurry, p. 2<i3 ; Moore's 
 Jouinal^ V. vi. p. 146 ; Dauiit's Jiecollections of O'Conite/l, v. i. 
 p. 18 ; Irish Quarterly Review, v. ii. p. 10 ; Irish Monthly 
 ' Mayazine^ p. 120, eic. 
 
312 ADDENDA. 
 
 writer, mentioning that he had purchased, at the sale of 
 Mr. Conway's library, a volume of scarce pamphlets, 
 containing the " Commentary" with Mr. Cassidy's 
 autograph, and offering it to his acceptance. 
 
 " Monasterevan, July 3, 1856. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, I have received, and have also to thank 
 you for, your very considerate, as usual, communication 
 of 30th June. 
 
 " The Commentary on the Life of Wolfe Tone was 
 published under very peculiar and gather strange cir- 
 cumstances. The papers forming it were detached, ahd 
 not arranged. In a state just out of chaos, they were 
 entrusted to me, to make such use of for the advance of 
 this country as I might deem useful. 
 
 " The dedication, written in Paris, puzzled the few 
 French printers able to print English.* Didot, under 
 guarantees supplied by my banker (D. Daly), published 
 the book almost malgre luL I had to attend more than 
 one summons at the Palais de (in-) Justice in 1828, to 
 protect the printer. 
 
 "The Paper caused some sensation. Every am- 
 bassador in Paris paid for the sheets as printed some 
 for ten copies, before bound. One hundred copies 
 were sold in sheets. 
 
 " I had to correct the press for French compositors, 
 and brought over fifty copies. I have made a look 
 through my books this day, and, to my surprise, find I 
 have not a copy of the original exemplaire. 
 
 " To repossess the copy most probably lent Conway, 
 is desirable. I shall receive it from you not as a resti- 
 tution, but as a gift. 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " To W. J. Fitzpatrick, Esq.". " ROBERT CASSIDY. 
 
 * They could not, for the life of them, imagine why an Eng- 
 lish book, dedicated to all the Blockheads iu the service of his 
 Britannic Majesty, should be printed in an alien country. 
 Svbsequent communication f ram Mr. Casiidy, 
 
0'CONNELLIN1798. 313 
 
 Judge Johnson was a fluent correspondent, and some 
 of his letters on the capability of Ireland for efiective 
 warfare appear in the Personal Recollections of Lord 
 Cloncurry. His 'grandson, Eobert Alloway, Esq., now 
 holds an interesting selection from the judge's papers. 
 It may scandalize surviving poUticiajis of the old Tory 
 schoel to hear that among his chief correspondents were 
 John Wilson Croker and the King's brother, the Duke 
 of Sussex. ; 
 
 O'CONNELL A UNITED IRISHMAN". 
 
 The uncompromising attitude of hostility maintained 
 by O'Connell towards the advocates of physical force, 
 specially evidenced in his censure of the men of '98 
 at the Repeal Association on May 21st, 1841, and 
 which led to the resignation of some influential re- 
 pealers in America, imparts additional interest to the 
 fact, hitherto hardly known, that he himself had 
 been a United Irishman. We are indebted to the late 
 Mr. Peter Murray of the Registry of Deeds Office, Dub- 
 lin, a man of scrupulous veracity, for the following 
 curious reminiscence of O'Connell in 1798: "My 
 father, a respectable cheesemonger and grocer, residing 
 at 3 South Great George's Street, was exceedingly in- 
 timate with O'Connell, when a law student and during 
 his earlier career at the bar. Mr. O'Connell, at the 
 period of which I speak, lodged in Trinity Place adja- 
 cent, an almost unexplored nook, and to many of our 
 citizens a terra incognita. I well remember O'Connell, 
 one night at my father's house during the spring of 
 1 798, so carried away by the political excitement of the 
 day, and by the ardour of his innate patriotism, calling 
 for a prayer-book to swear in some zealous young men 
 as United Irishmen at a meeting of the body iu a 
 
314 ADDENDA. ' 
 
 1 ' ' 
 
 neighbouring street. Counsellor was there, and 
 
 offiered to accompany O'Connell on his perilous mission. 
 My father, although an Irishman of advanced liberal 
 views and strong patriotism, was not an United Irish- 
 man, and endeavoured, but without effect, to deter his 
 young and gifted friend from the rash course in which 
 he seemed embarked. Dublin was in an extremely 
 disturbed state, and the outburst of a bloody insurrec- 
 tion seemed hourly imminent. My father resolved to 
 exert to the uttermost the influence which it was well 
 known he possessed over his young friend. He made 
 him accompany him to the canal bridge at Leeson 
 Street, and after an earnest conversation, succeeded in 
 persuading the future Liberator to step into a turf boat 
 which was then leaving Dublin. That night my father's 
 house was searched by Major Sirr, accompanied by the 
 Attorneys' Corps of Yeomanry, who pillaged it to their 
 hearts' content. There can be no doubt that private 
 information of O'Connell's tendencies and haunts had 
 been communicated to the government". 
 
 Mr. O'Connell's intimacy with Mr. Murray is con- 
 firmed by Mr. John O'Connell's memoirs of his father, 
 p. 14 ; and Sir Jonah Barrington, in the third volume 
 of his Personal Sketches, p. 396-, gives a very animated 
 description of the sacking of Murray's house by the 
 Attorneys' Corps, or " Devil's Own". The Perscnal 
 Recollections of G'Connell^ Avritten by Mr. Daunt, and 
 mainly devoted to a record of conversations with his 
 great leader, describe O'Connell as in Dublin during 
 the spring and summer of 1798, and lest some oflScious 
 persons might endeavour to implicate him in their dis- 
 affection, " quitting the city in a potato boat, bound 
 for Courtmasherry", (vol. i. p. 117). But the circum- 
 stances detailed by Mr. Murray are not given. 
 
: 315 
 
 ' -^ ' S. '- '" ' 
 
 THE REBELLION IN KILDARE. ' 
 
 We are indebted to the Rev. John O'Hanlon, the 
 able Biographer of Archbishops O'Toole and O'Mor- 
 ghair, for the following traditional reminiscence of his 
 grandfather's connection with the Rebellion in Kil- 
 dare : 
 
 " In 1798, soon after the general rising, a comfort- 
 able grazier named Denis Downey, who held a consi- 
 derable tract of land, on which stood the Gray Abbey 
 ruins, near the town of Kildare, had been induced by 
 a relative to take up arms and join the insurgent ranks. 
 Having been engaged in some of the desultory affairs 
 previous to the Curragh massacre, and his helpless 
 wife, with two small children, having been daily ex- 
 posed to insults, and the rapacity of the military ibrce, 
 during his absence from home, it was at length found 
 necessary to abandon the farm-stead. His wife and 
 her infant charge sought a temporary place of refuge 
 in Derryoughter, near the river Barrow. Here her 
 aged father and mother resided. The insurgent hus- 
 band found means for communicating to her his inten- 
 tions of surrendering, with others at the Gibbet Rath 
 on the 3rd of June. It is a fact, well remembered and 
 handed down by tradition amongst the townspeople of 
 Kildare, that on the very day before, several of Lord 
 Roden's Foxhunters, in a riotous and drunken brawl, 
 appeared in the streets, carrying articles of apparel on 
 the top of their fixed bayonets, and swearing most 
 vehemently, ' We are the boys who will slaughter the 
 Croppies to-morrow, at the Curragh !' This announce- 
 ment deterred many rebels from proceeding to the spot, 
 and proved instrumental, no doubt, in saving their lives. 
 Amongst the unnotified, however, Downey, in hopes 
 of obtaining pardon, and mounted on a fine horse, 
 
316 ADDENDA. ; 
 
 - ' r ' - 
 
 went to the fatal trysting place. Having sxirrendered 
 his arms, and an indiscriminate slaughter of the 
 rebels having commenced, he at once got on horseback, 
 and was endeavouring to escape, when he observed a 
 near relative running away on foot. The horseman 
 stopped for a moment, but when stooping for the pur- 
 pose of mounting his friend behind, a bullet brought 
 Downey to the ground, when his horse galloped wildly 
 forward towards Derryoughter, where it had been pre- 
 viously stabled. Meantime, Mrs. Downey, whose mind 
 had been filled with alarm and anxiety to leam the 
 state of her husband, remained up nearly the whole 
 of that night, immediately preceding the 3rd of June. 
 Towards morning, wearied and careworn, she had been 
 induced to take a brief rest. The most strange event 
 of all then occurred, as afterwards frequently certified 
 by herself and those with whom she at that time resi- 
 ded. About the very hour when the massacre took 
 place on the Gibbet Kath, she started from a troubled 
 sleep, during which she had a frightful dream or vision 
 of her husband weltering in his blood. Her instant 
 screams drew all the family to her bedside. In vain 
 did the aged father represent to her, that such a dream 
 was only the result of her disordered fancies, and that 
 better news might soon be expected. She wept bitterly 
 and in utter despair of ever seeing her husband alive. 
 The old man, taking his walking stick, turned down a 
 retired road branching from his house towards the more 
 public thoroughfare, leading from the Curragh. Almost 
 the first object he encountered on the way was Downey's 
 horse covered with foam and galloping furiously, without 
 any rider, yet bridled and saddled. This unwonted sight 
 furnished a sad presentiment of his son-in-law's fate. 
 Soon again he observed numbers of country people 
 running along the high road in a state of wild excite- 
 ment. The old man asked some of them what news 
 from the Curragh. 'Bad newsl bad news!* they 
 
MASSACRE ON THE CUBBAGH. SIT > 
 
 exclaimed, * our friends were all slaughtered on the 
 Curragh to-day !' This heartrending intelligence was 
 afterwards conveyed to his unhappy daughter. With 
 all the energy of despair, Mrs. Downey insisted on 
 having one of the common farm cars prepared. In 
 this she proceeded to the scene of this diabolical mas- 
 sacre. She afterwards stated, that on the blood-stained 
 plain, she turned over at least two hundred dead bodies 
 before she recognized that of her husband. This latter 
 she deposited in the car, covering the corpse with 
 straw and a quilt. Thus placing it beside her, the 
 forlorn widow escaped without molestation to the 
 house of a relative of her husband, living near the old 
 burial place, named Dunmurry, near the Red Hills of 
 Kildare. Preparations were made for the interment. 
 That very night, however, a rumour went abroad, that 
 the military were searching every house throughout 
 the district. Wherever a rebel corpse was found, it 
 was reported that the house containing it would be 
 consigned to the flames. Hastily acting on such infor- 
 mation, a grave was dug in an adjoining family burial 
 place of Dunmurry, whilst the body of Denis Downey - 
 was wrapped in a shroud and covered with sheets, for 
 time would not allow of a coffin being made. In this 
 manner the remains were consigned to their last rest- : . 
 ing place, and covered with earth. The poor woman 
 soon returned to find her former comfortable home a 
 perfect wreck. For nights in succession, with a ser- / 
 vant maid, she was obliged to rise from bed and allow ..' 
 the ruffian soldiery to despoil her of almost every rem- ; 
 nant of property. Desponding and broken-hearted ia ; 
 her unprotected situation, and happily wishing a retire- 5 
 ment from the scenes of former happiness, the farm was i 
 afterwards sold to a purchaser, and the desolate widow, ' 
 with her small infant charge, removed to the neigh- 
 bouring town of Monasterevan. Rarely could she be 
 induced, in after years, to recur to this earlier period 
 
318 ADDENDA. 
 
 :i 
 I 
 
 of her life, without tears moistening her eyes and steal- 
 ing down her cheeks; nor could she ever regard a 
 soldier without feelings of deep aversion. The fore- 
 goinj5 narrative furnishes a dark illustration of baneful 
 events, connected with the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It 
 is no isolated episode", adds Mr. O'Hanlon ; " for many 
 other family afflictions, equally deplorable and tragic 
 in results, must have chequered the lot in life of thou- 
 sands who became victims during this sad period of 
 civil commotion and disorder". 
 
 T. 
 
 PROJECTED REBELLION IN CORK SECRET 
 SERVICES OF FATHER BARRY. 
 
 The appendix to the ne^v edition of the first volume 
 of The Lives and Times of the United Irishmen displays, 
 under the head " secret service money revelations from 
 original accounts and receipts for pensions", a curious 
 selection from these documents, to each of which, with 
 some few exceptions. Dr. Madden supplies interesting 
 details regarding the circumstances under which the 
 pension was earned. At page 395 appears a receipt 
 from the late Rev. Thomas Barry, P.P. of Mallow, who 
 enjoyed a secret stipend of 100 a year; and as no 
 explanatory statement is volunteered, it perhaps be- 
 comes our duty to supply the omission, while furnish- 
 ing at the same time a note to the remarks of our own 
 which appear at page 146 of The Sham Squire. 
 
 The following letter, addressed to the Very Rev. Dr. 
 Russell, Roman Catholic Dean of Cloyne, by the Rev. 
 T. Murphy, of Mallow, containing the result of some 
 inquiries instituted at our suggestion among the oldest 
 inhabitants of Mallow, will be read with interest : 
 
A PENSIONED PRIEST. 319 
 
 " Mallow, October 2nd, 1865. 
 
 " VERY EEV. AND DEAR Siit, After many inquiries 
 about the subject matter of your kind letter of Sept, 
 9th, I thought it well to await the return of an old 
 inhabitant who was absent from Mallow until yester- 
 day. 
 
 " The following is the substance of his account of 
 the eme'ute, which I believe to be the most authentic. 
 Shortly after the Insurrection of '98, the Royal Meath 
 Militia were stationed in Mallow. They had conspired 
 with the disaffected to blow up the Protestant Church, 
 when the yeomanry troops were at service on a certain 
 Sunday. Abundant materials were at hand, as Mallow 
 contained several parks of artillery at the time in a field 
 near the Protestant Church, and hence called Cannon 
 Field to this day. 
 
 " On the Saturday preceding, two of the wives of 
 the militia, who lodged at one Canty's, at Ballydaheeri, 
 were noticed by Canty's wife stitching or sewing the 
 extremities of their petticoats together, and Mrs. Canty 
 (wife of Canty, a cooper) expressed her astonishment. 
 The soldiers' wives were equally surprised, and asked 
 her did she not hear of the rising about to occur next 
 day. An expression of more unbounded surprise was 
 the response. The poor Meath women expected they 
 could fill more than their pockets. Canty (whose son 
 still lives in Ballydaheen) communicated the news to his 
 gossip. Lover (a convert). Lover went to confession 
 on that Saturday, and Father Barry refused to absolve 
 him except he disclosed the case extra tribunal. His 
 wishes were complied with, and both Lover and Father 
 Barry went forthwith to General Erskine (sic} ? who 
 lived on Spa Walk. As soon as the plot was revealed, 
 Sergeant Beatty Avith nineteen men on guard for that 
 night (all implicated), aware of the treachery, imme- 
 diately decamped. The yeomen pursued them in their 
 flight to the Galtees, and when one of Beatty's men 
 
320 ADDENDA. ^ j 
 
 could no longer continue the retreat, his wish of dying 
 at the hands of Beatty was complied with. Beatty 
 turned round and shot him ! The body of this poor 
 fellow was brought back to Mallow next day, and lies 
 interred near the Protestant Church, and Sergeant 
 Beatty himself, (God be merciful to him), was taken 
 finally in Dublin, and hanged. Lover had four sons. 
 They all emigrated after arriving at manhood. I am 
 sorry to say one of them became a priest and died a 
 short time since in Boston. j 
 
 " The father received a pension of 50 a year for 
 life, and Father Barry was in receipt of 100 a year 
 until 1813, some years before his death,* when a dis- 
 pute arose between him and the Protestant minister of 
 Mallow, about the interment of some Protestant who 
 became a convert on his death bed. Father Barry 
 insisted on reading the service in the Protestant church- 
 yard, was reported to government for not persevering 
 in proofs of loyalty, deprived of his pension, and died 
 and is buried in our Catholic cemetery adjoining the 
 church. The only prayer I ever heard offered for him 
 was " God forgive him !" , . . 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 "T. MUKPHT. 
 
 To the Very Rev. Dean Euesell". . 
 
 ' . . I 
 
 Dean Kussell, in enclosing his correspondent's letter 
 to us for publication, corrects an error into which the 
 Rev. Mr. Murphy fell, in stating that Lover received 
 50 a year in recognition of his timely information. A 
 previous letter from the Dean observes : 
 
 " Protestant gratitude, unfortunately for Mr. Barry's 
 
 * The pension was finally restored to him, as his receipts 
 prove. In the Secret Service Money Book, now held by Charles 
 Haliday, Esq , and from which iJr. Madden has quoted the 
 salient points, we find Father Barry's name frequently figuring 
 as a recipient of various gratuities exclusive of his pension. 
 W. J. F. 
 
O'CONNELL AND BARRY. 321 
 
 character, obtained for him a 100 a-year, but poor 
 Lover never received a farthing. Having been reduced 
 to great poverty, a petition was sent to government, 
 signed by twenty-five gentlemen, stating his services. 
 The answer was, they knew nothing of him ; but the 
 rebellion was then smothered in the blood of the people". 
 
 The Dean adds, that this and other information 
 recently reached him from clergymen who were bom 
 in Mallow or its vicinity. He adds : 
 
 " I do not think that Mr. Murphy's informant knew 
 much of the fate of Sergeant- Major Beatty and his men 
 after they left Mallow. I recollect, when a boy, and I 
 am now nearly seventy-two, to hear a highly respectable 
 and intelligent clergyman speak in raptures of the sin- 
 gularly gallant retreat of that poor Sergeant and his 
 men. A few worn out by fatigue were unable to per- 
 severe. They of course were captured by the cowardly 
 yeomanry, who satisfied their loyalty by looking at the 
 Sergeant, but dare not approach near him". 
 
 It would be difficult to find a pastor who presented a 
 more venerable and paternal aspect than the late Father 
 Thomas Barry of Mallow. His flowing white hair and 
 thorough benevolence of expression impressed most 
 favourably all who came in contact with him, and com- 
 manded their entire confidence. The late eminent and 
 lamented Daniel O'Connell, on being shown one of 
 Father Barry's receipts for " blood money", as it was 
 then somewhat erroneously presumed to have been, 
 started, and, to quote the words of our informant, who 
 still holds his receipts, " became as white as a sheet !" 
 For thirty years O'Connell had been on terms of close 
 intimacy with Father Barry, and reposed imbounded 
 confidence in his counsel. In the Dublin Evening Post 
 of the day an obituary notice appears of Father Barry, 
 who died January 18th, 1828. The singular fact is 
 mentioned, that the priest's pall was bome by six Pro- 
 testants. Having directed the attention of Dean Russell 
 
 21 
 
ADDENJDA. ,: 
 
 to this article, he writes : " The statement that Mr. 
 Barry's coffin was borne to the grave by six Protestants, 
 can hardly be correct, as nothing was known of the 
 pension he received till some time after his death. He 
 was buried in the same respectful way in which 
 Catholic clergymen are usually buried". 
 
 Conspirators and informers will coexist until the 
 crack of doom. Some of the seemingly staunchest 
 hearts in Smith O'Brien's movement of '48 were false 
 to their chief and colleagues ; and when the crisis 
 came suggested to the police magistrates, that in order 
 to preserve consistency and keep up the delusion, they 
 ought to be arrested and imprisoned.* Even while we 
 write, the ranks of the Fenians, although knotted as it 
 seemed by the most binding oaths of secrecy, are broken 
 and betrayed by internal spies. Nor are the informers 
 confined to Ireland. One of the American correspon- 
 dents of the Times, in a letter dated Philadelphia, Octo- 
 ber 24th, 1865, writes : " The Fenian Congress con- 
 tinues its sessions, and has so much business to attend 
 to that they are protracted far into the night. The 
 green-uniformed sentinels still guard its doors closely., 
 and hope to keep the secret of the deliberations within. 
 They have changed their weapons to loaded muskets, 
 in order to terrify attempting intruders, but their watch- 
 fulness is of little avail, for not only are there informers 
 inside in the interest of your Government, but I learn 
 that others assist in the deliberations who are in the 
 interest of our own, who send daily reports of the 
 proceedings to Washington, that the Government may 
 know in time the adoption of any measures tending to 
 violate the peace between England and America". 
 
 In concluding a book which deals largely with Irish 
 Informers, we have no desire to convey the inference 
 that treachery or duplicity, for what Shakspeare calls 
 " saint seducing gold", is a speciality of the Celtic cha- 
 
 * Commuuicated by F. T. P., Esq., ex police magistrate. 
 
- 
 
 * INFORMERS EVERYWHERE. 323 
 
 raoter. The records of every age and nation furnish 
 ample illustrations of both, even in the most aggravated 
 form. Philip of Macedon said that he would " never 
 despair of taking any fortress to which an ass might 
 enter 'laden with gold". The physician of Pyrrhus 
 informed the Koman general Fabricius, that he was 
 ready to poison his royal master for pay. King Charles 
 the Second received large douceurs from the French 
 monarch, and shaped his foreign policy accordingly. 
 Sydney was secretly subsidized by France, and Dal- 
 rymple's memoirs disclose many similar cases. The 
 publication of the French Official Records shows to 
 what a great extent the members of the English legis- 
 lature were in the pay of Louis XIV. To come down 
 to a later period, we learn from Napier's narrative of the 
 Peninsular war, that Wellington had paid informers 
 on Soult's staff, and Soult had similar channels of 
 information through officers on Wellington's* staff. 
 Again, we are assured by Barry O'Meara, the Bos- 
 well of Napoleon at St. .Helena, that the wife of an 
 English statesman was subsidized by the Emperor, to 
 the extent of 2,000 a month, for revealing to him the 
 secrets of the British cabinet. 
 
 * The Duke, in one of his conversations with Rogers, des- 
 cribes an informer, called Don Uran de la Rosa, and sometimes 
 Ozelle, who, during thd progress of the Peninsular war, was 
 wont to dine with the English and the French alternately. 
 " When I was ambassador at Paris", added Wellington, " he came 
 and begged me to make interest with Soult for the settlement 
 of his accounts. ' How can I ?' I said, laughing, ' when we made 
 such use of you as we did?' They were settled, however, if we 
 could believe him. After his death, a Frenchman came to me 
 in London, and when he had vapoured away for some time, de- 
 claring that Ozelle had won every battle and saved Europe, he 
 said, ' Here are his memoirs ; shall we publish them or not?' I 
 saw his drift, and said, *Do as you please ; he was neither more 
 nor less than a spy'. 1 heard no more of them or of him". For 
 full details, see Recollections by Samuel Rogers, pp. 198-201. 
 
CORRIGENDA. i 
 
 At page 119, for " Dolphin's Barn" read " Portobello". 
 
 At page 160, beginning with iine 15, a misprint occurs, which may be thus 
 corrected : 
 
 " movement, it possessed no more staunch partizan. But flesh is weak ; 
 and we find Cox, dnrlng thirty-five years that he personated the character 
 of an indomitable patriot, in the receipt of a secret stipend". 
 
 At page 371, it was intended to have inserted the following note as an 
 additional illustration : 
 
 " In the interval which elapsed between the French expedition to Bantry 
 Bay and their arrival at Killala, the Mayor of Drogheda hired a staff of spies, 
 whom he dressed up in French uniforms, and despatched through the 
 country to entrap the unwary peasantry''. 
 
 J. F. FowLKR, Printer, 3 Crow Street, Dame Street, Dublin.