Secret Service under Pitt ... Second edition, enlarged

Front matter

Two vols. Cm. 8vo. with Portrait, 36s. THE PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE AND MEMOIRS OF DANIEL O'CONNELL, M.P. By WM. J. FITZPATRICK, F.S.A. KXT. ST. GREG. GT. ' In these volumes there is nothing tedious, and they are well put together.' Standard. * Mr. Fitzpatrick, who has done more than any living1 writer for Irish hiography, has in this, his latest and most important work, earned the gratitude of all students of Irish politics.'— Daily Telegraph. ' This work stands high above the extravagant and indiscriminatine eulogies of O'Connell, accompanied by ignorant and malignant denunciations of all opposed to him, hitherto given to the world by patriotic biographers.' — Times. ' Inspired by love and admiration, pursued with lahorious and indefatigable industry, and guided by honesty and good judgment.

It gives a higher and, we believe, a truer view of O'Connell's character than has been given to the world before.' — Vanity Fair. ' Fresh light is thrown upon a most interesting period of Irish history by this publication, in which Daniel O'Connell reveals his innermost thoughts upon great public questions, as well as on themes of sacred and private import. Courts and Cabinets— the intrigues ofjptVblj a inen>nd the subtleties of political organisations —are aUke laid open to tjre^. nblic gjazfe^DAiLY Chronicle. 'To Mr. Fitzpatrick is dug)thg;gfAlStade of all students of history, of truth, and of human character for the/ patience and., pertinacity with which he has collected these letters, and the knoyvledge, discretion, and tact of his arrangement. He has let O'Connell tell his own story, aud .the connecting thread is slight and scientific, such as only minute knowledge 6T"his period could make it.

Tbe reader is hardly conscious of its presence, yet it suffices to weld a huge mass of miscellaneous correspondence into an authentic biography and lifelike portrait of the man who, of all others, made the greatest mark on his country and his generation.' — Athenæum. ' Mr. Fitzpatrick, while presenting to us a collection of moderate extent, has not only woven them into a web of fair average continuity, but has, as a'sculptor would, presented to us his hero " in the round," so that we may consider each of his qualities in each varied light, and judge of their combination into a whole, whether it is mean or noble, consistent or inconsistent, natural or forced. . Few indeed, as I think, of those who give a careful perusal to these pagesj will withhold their assent from the double assertion that O'Connell was a great man, and that he was a good man.

Preface

These notes — begun long ago and continued at slow in tervals — •were put aside during the onerous task of editing for Mr. Murray the O'Connell Correspondence. The recent publication of Mr. Lecky's final volumes, awakening by their grasp a fixed interest in pre-Union times, and confirm ing much that by circumstantial evidence I had sought to estabhsh, affords a reason, perhaps, that my later researches ought not to be' wholly lost. Mr. Lecky's kindness in frequently quoting me ' merits grateful acknowledgment, not less than his recognition of some things that I brought to light as explanatory of points to which the State Papers afford no clue. This and other circumstances encourage me in offering more. My sole purpose at the outset was to expose a well-cloaked case of long-continued betrayal by one of whom Mr. Froude con fesses that all efforts to identify him had failed ; 2 but afterwards it seemed desirable to disclose to the reader a wider knowledge of an exciting time.

In various instances a veil will be found lifted, or a visor unlocked, revealing features which may prove a surprise. Nor is the story without a moral. The organisers of illegal societies will see that, in spite of the apparent secrecy and ingenuity of their system, informers sit with them at the same council-board and dinner-table, ready at any moment to sell their blood ; and that the wider the ramifications of con spiracy, the greater becomes the certainty of detection. I felt that it was better to lay before the reader my facts 1 Vide England in the Eighteenth Century, vii. 211 ; viii. 42-44, 45, 191, 240, etc. 2 See Froude's English in Ireland, vol. iii. sec. vi. VI SECRET SERVICE UNDER PITT and proofs, solid and unvarnished, than to dissolve them in a flowing narrative, more pleasing to the eye, though less satisfactory as evidence.

Had it been possible for my researches to have taken a chronological rather than a biographic shape, the result might have proved easier reading. Yet if there is truth in the axiom that men who write with ease are read with difficulty, and vice versa, these chapters ought to find readers. Every page had its hard work. Tantalising delays blocked at times the search for some missing — but finally discovered — link. Indeed, volumes of popular reading, written currente calamo, might have been thrown off for a tithe of the trouble. ' If the power to do hard work is not talent,' writes Gar field, ' it is the best possible substitute for it. Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.' Headers who, thanks to Froude and Lecky, have been interested by glimpses of men in startling attitudes, would naturally like to learn the curious sequel of their subsequent history.

This I have done my best to furnish. The present volume is offered as a companion to the two great works just alluded to. But it will also prove useful to readers of the Welling ton, Castlereagh, Cornwallis, and Colchester Correspondence. These books abound in passages which, without explanation, are unintelligible. The matter now presented forms but a small part of the notes I have made with the same end. A word as regards some of the later sources of my in formation. The Pelham MSS. were not accessible when Mr. Froude wrote. Thomas Pelham, second Earl of Chichester, was Irish Secretary from 1795 to 1798, but his correspondence until 1826 deals largely with Ireland, and I have read as much of it as would load a float. Another mine was found in the papers, ranging from 1795 to 1805, which filled two iron clamped chests in Dublin Castle, guarded with the Government seal and bearing the words ' Secret and Confidential : Not to be Opened.' These chests were for a long time familiar objects exteriorly, and when it was at last permitted to disturb the rust of lock and hinge, peculiar interest attended the

PREFACE.

VII exploration. Among the contents were 136 letters from Francis Higgins, substantially supporting all that I had ven tured to say twenty years before in the book which claimed to portray his career. But neither the Pelham Papers in London nor the archives at Dublin Castle reveal the great secret to which Mr. Froude points. That so many documents have been preserved is fortunate. Mr. Boss, in his preface to the Cornwallis Correspondence, laments that ' the Duke of Portland, Lord Chancellor Clare, Mr. Wickham, Mr. King, Sir H. Taylor, Sir E. Littlehales, Mr. Marsden, and indeed almost all the persons officially concerned, appear to have destroyed the whole of their papers.' ' He adds : ' The destruction of so many valuable documents respecting important transactions cannot but be regarded as a serious loss to the history of these times.' I have freely used the Begistry of Deeds Office, Dublin — a department peculiar to Ireland.

Originating in penal times, its object was to trace any property acquired by Papists — such being liable to ' discovery and forfeiture.' This office served as a valuable curb in the hands of the oppressor, and ought to prove a not less useful aid to historic inquirers ; but, hitherto, it has been unconsulted for such purposes. Few unless legal men can pursue the complicated references, and — unlike the Record Office — fees attend almost every stage of the inquiry. Here things stranger than fiction nestle ; while the genealogist will find it an inexhaustible store. I have to thank the Bight Hon. the 0"Conor Don, D.L. ; Sir William H. Cope, Bart. ; Mrs. John Philpot Curran ; Daniel O'Connell, Esq., D.L. ; D. Coffey, Esq. ; Jeremiah Leyne, 1 To these names may be added that of Lord Clonmell (see Grattan's Life, ii. 145).

A fatality seemed to attend other valuable collections. The late Lord Londonderry, referring to a voluminous correspondence with his brother, Castlereagh, writes : ' Many years since, I placed this collection in the hands of the Rev. S. Turner, who was at that time nominated and going out as Bishop of Calcutta. This excellent divine had been tutor to my son Castlereagh ; and, f eeling a deep interest in the family, he had undertaken to arrange these papers. . . . The vessel, however, that sailed to India with Mr. Turner's baggage, papers, etc., was unfortunately wrecked.'— Memoirs, etc., of Viscount Castle reagh, London, 1848, i. 143. a SECRET SERVICE UNDER PITT Esq. ; the late Lord Donoughmore, and the late Mr. Justice Hayes for the communication of manuscripts from the archives of their respective houses.

The Bev. Samuel Haughton, F.T.C.D., kindly copied for me some memoranda made in 1798 by the Bev. John Barrett, Vice-Provost T.C.D., regarding students of alleged rebel leanings. So far back as 1880 Sir Charles Bussell, when M.P. for Dundalk; Mr. Denis Caulfield Brady, Newry, Mr. James Matthews, and Bev. J. O'Laverty, P.P. Holywood, obligingly made inquiries respect ing the object of my suspicion — Samuel Turner.1 Mr. Lecky transcribed for me a curious paper concerning Aherne, the rebel envoy in France, and has been otherwise kind. My in debtedness to Sir Bernard Burke, Keeper of the Becords, Dublin Castle, dates from the year 1855. Xhe late Brother Luke Cullen, a Carmelite monk, left at his death a vast quantity of papers throwing light on the period of the Eebellion. No writer but myself has ever had the use of these papers, and I beg to thank the Superior of the Order to which Mr. Cullen belonged for having, some years ago, placed them in my hands.

There is a figure in this book of whom I wish to say a final word. Mr. Froude brands the Bev. Arthur O'Leary with having been a spy (p. 230, post). After a very protracted inquiry, throughout which I carefully weighed all available evidence, I am of opinion that the charge against this priest has not been proven. An examination of the circumstances that surrounded his career also proved useful in turning up some of those things which my critic in the ' Saturday Beview ' described as ' curiosities of history.' 49 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin: September, 1892. On this point see p. 383, post. CONTENTS CaiPTBB PAOB I. A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR 1 II. ARRESTS MULTIPLY 8 III. FATHER O'COIGLY HANGED 15 IV. THE BETRAYER'S INTERVIEW WITH TALLEYRAND . . 24 V. LORD CLONCURRY SHADOWED 35 VI. THE MASK TORN OFF AT LAST . . . . . . 44 VII.

DR. MACNEVIN'S MEMORIAL INTERCEPTED . . .52 VIII. GENERAL NAPPER TANDY 70 IX. ARREST OF JAGERHORN IN LONDON — THE PLOT THICKENS — TURNER SHOT THROUGH THE HEAD . 91 X. EFFORTS TO EXCITE MUTINY IN THE ENGLISH FLEET . 105 XL THE BETRAYER OF LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD . . 116 XII. WILLIAM TODD JONES — EMMET'S REBELLION . . 156, XIII. THOMAS COLLINS — PHILLIPS, THE SACERDOTAL SPY . .163 XIV. LEONARD MCNALLY 174 XV. FATHER ARTHUR O'LEARY 211 XVI. ARTHUR O'LEARY IN LONDON X CHAPTER PAGE XVII. THE REGENCY— STRUGGLE BETWEEN WHIG AND TORY CAMPS— O'LEARY AND THE PRINCE OF WALES . . 253 XVIII. BISHOP HUSSEY 280 XIX. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS DEEP IN TREASON — PLOT AND COUNTER-PLOT 290 'XX. THOMAS REYNOLDS : SPY, AND BRITISH CONSUL . . 301 XXI. ARMSTRONG AND THE SHEARESES — GENERAL LAWLESS 308