Secret Service Under Pitt

397

John Keogh, Edward Byrne, and Richard McCormick.

398

Diplomacy sought to paralyse the more influential arm of the movement. This same Viscount Mountgarret was promoted to an earldom on December 20, following!

399

Anon. (Thomas Collins) to Cooke, August 27, 1792.

400

[Collins] to 'J. G.,' November 20, 1793.

401

[Collins] to Cooke, November 29, 1792.

402

Idem, November 30, 1792.

403

As in the case of Lord Mountgarret subtlety was employed in the hope of moderating the tone of Sir Charles Ffrench. He had much influence with the Irish Catholics; and in 1798 a peerage was conferred on his aged mother, who, in her simplicity, said to a cousin, 'I don't know what I have done that they should make a Lord of me.' In point of lineage few had higher claims.

404

A Protestant Cathedral in Dublin used by the Catholics until the Reformation.

405

Himself.

406

Italics in original.

407

Endorsed by Cooke, 'U. I., Jan. 29, '93.'

408

[Collins] to Cooke, February 28, 1793.

409

Letter of January 4, 1793.

410

The zealous subserviency of Collins, as in the case of Reynolds and Magan, originated in pecuniary straits. A letter of January 24, 1792, to Giffard, speaks of the accommodation he had received at his hands; and addressing Mr. Cooke (June 26, 1793), he dilates on his 'embarrassments.'

411

Beresford Correspondence, ii. 26 (unpublished).

412

Autobiography of Archibald Hamilton Rowan, p. 183.

413

Rowan, until the willing hands were found, remained in Mr. Sweetman's house, now known as Rosedale, Raheny.

414

Mr. Froude says that the proclamation named '£2,000 for Rowan's apprehension' (Hist. iii. 119). The proclamation, dated May 2, 1794, offers '£1,000 to any person or persons who shall apprehend the said Hamilton Rowan, wherever he may be found, or to so discover him that he may be apprehended or committed to prison.'

415

Autobiography of Hamilton Rowan, p. 220.

416

In December 1796 Tone accompanied the French fleet to Bantry Bay. Mr. Froude and other historians think that it was Grouchy who failed to attempt a landing. 'Then, as twenty years later, on another occasion, no less critical,' he writes, meaning Waterloo, 'Grouchy was the good genius of the British Empire' (iii. 205). In point of fact, Grouchy was not at Bantry. M. Guillon, in France et Irlande, written with full access to the papers of the French Admiralty, makes it clear that Bouvet, and not Grouchy, was the man who ought to have been named.

417

Several persons named Collins, and described as silk mercers, appear in the Dublin Directory between the years 1770 and 1800. Thomas Collins vanishes in 1793; and 'Samuel Collins, silk and worsted manufacturer, 35 Pill Lane,' is also found for the last time in the Directory for 1793. They seem to have been brothers. A bill of Samuel, duly receipted, for goods supplied to Dr. McNevin, a leading rebel, is enclosed by Thomas in one of his secret missives to Cooke.

418

Other entries follow: 'Thomas Collins' bill, from London, 54l. 3s. 4d.' is entered on September 22, 1798. These payments continue to be made until 1799, when they become very frequent.

419

Autobiography of Hamilton Rowan, p. 318.

420

Camden to Portland, July 29, 1795.

421

The late Colonel the Right Hon. FitzStephen French, whose brother became Lord De Freyne, informed me that his father, Arthur French, M.P. for Roscommon from 1785 to 1820, had been threatened with arrest by Lord Carhampton. French lived at French Park, where 'Priest Phillips' also resided.

422

The English in Ireland, iii. 161.

423

Anglice 'darling priest' John Banim has given to the ballad poetry of Ireland a well-known piece under this title.

424

Cooke to Pelham, Dec. 4, 1795.

425

United Irishmen, i. 537.

426

Vide Notes and Queries, October 8, 1859.

427

Curran and his Contemporaries.

428

Life of Curran, by his Son, i. 384.

429

McNally had spoken against time for an hour and three-quarters, as he states in an autograph note. This has been enlarged into 'three hours and a half' by Dr. Shelton Mackenzie in his Life of Curran, p. 228, while professing to quote from McNally's note as given by Thomas Davis in Curran's Speeches, p. 365.

430

Life of Curran, v. i. 397.

431

From Curran's lines, 'The green spot that blooms on the desert of life.'

432

The Freeman's Journal, October 13, 1817.

433

Curran and his Contemporaries, p. 376. (Blackwood, 1850.)

434

Cornwallis Papers, iii. 320.

435

Sirr Papers, MS., Library, Trinity College, Dublin.

436

Secret Aid. 75l. would be a quarter's pay.

437

Cornwallis, ii. 350.

438

This letter, signed 'J. W.', speaks of Father Quigley, dressed à la militaire. The Cyclopædian Magazine for 1808 says that McNally had lived at Bordeaux, and spoke French well (p. 537). The proceedings of the Whig Club are reported. McNally was a member of this club.

439

Halliday Collection, Royal Irish Academy, vol. 613.

440

MS. now in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy.

441

The attorney for the Ulster United Irishmen (see ante, p. 36).

442

Cornwallis Papers, iii. 320. See Appendix to present work for some account of Mr. John Pollock, who first succeeded in seducing the once staunch patriot.

443

Lecky, vii. 139.

444

Lecky's England, vii. 140. (Longmans, 1890.)

445

The Grand Juries of Westmeath, from 1727 to 1853, by J. C. Lyons, p. 200.

446

Madden, iii. 37.

447

This letter reports an early meeting of the rebel conclave, and is dated March 30, 1792. (MSS., Dublin Castle.)

448

Life of Curran, by his Son.

449

For a notice of James Tandy, afterwards stipendiary magistrate for Meath, see Appendix.

450

Lecky, vii. 141.

451

Dr. Madden assigns Conner's death to the year 1796, but McNally's report is dated September 17, 1795.

452

Moore's Journal, &c., vii. 75. Edited by Lord John Russell.

453

Cyclopædian Magazine, 1808, p. 539. A sensational and detailed account of the rescue, evidently supplied by McNally, is culled from a contemporary newspaper, and, in response to the present writer, appears in Notes and Queries, of May 19, 1860, p 293.

454

Recollections of John O'Keefe, ii. 45.

455

McNally's name is amusingly mentioned by the Saturday Review (lxvi. 516) in a paper on the 'Immortals of 1788.'

456

Mr. Lecky thinks that, had not McNally become a spy, he might have risen to the judgment seat. This, with the testimony of Phillips and Staunton before us, is doubtful: but I am bound to say that many contemporary Irish judges were bad lawyers, who owed their promotion solely to political claims. Higgins does not seem to have known that McNally was also a spy. He often reports him to Cooke: 'Counsellor McNally told me this night at Parisoll's, that Government had offered a sinecure employment, which he rejected. I offered to hold him 100 guineas that his services were never sought for, which completely put him down.' – Francis Higgins to Cooke, November 18, 1797. MSS. Dublin Castle.

457

Sketches of Irish Political Characters, 1799.

458

Personal Memoirs.

459

This passage has been culled by Mr. Lecky.

460

Sermon on Concealment of Sin.

461

J. W. to Cooke, June 5, 1798.

462

Lecky, vii. 142, 401.

463

All these men, Keogh alone excepted, though never brought to trial, underwent a prolonged term of imprisonment. Keogh was the highly influential leader of the Catholics, and the Crown, probably, wished to make an exception in his favour.

464

Lecky, vii. 55.

465

Ibid. p. 337.

466

See O'Connor's letter (United Irishmen, ii. 234), saying that in 1797 he expressed abhorrence of the Union Star, which had urged assassination; whereupon Cox, its editor, instantly discontinued it. Then, as regards Macnevin and Lord Edward, they are described by Reinhard as 'of the moderate party.' See the Castlereagh Papers, i. 283.

467

Lecky, p. 423.

468

Ibid. p. 331.

469

Ibid. p. 462.

470

Plowden's Historic Review, ii. 537.

471

Berwick to Grattan. See Life of Grattan, vol. v.

472

'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 officer of the yeomanry or militia, who had sworn, in his Orange lodge, eternal hatred to the people over whom he was thus constituted 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. The subsequent Indemnity Acts deprived of redress the victims of this widespread cruelty.' – Lord Holland's Memoirs of the Whig Party.

473

This despatch is dated merely 'Tuesday, 25th'; but a second on the same subject bears 'April 27, 1798.' (MSS. Dublin Castle.)

474

In 1810, Sir William Stamer, who seized John Keogh's papers in 1803, gave a masquerade. McNally went as Æsop, but scorned to wear a mask. Huband, whom he often reports, went as Pan; Dogherty, afterwards Chief Justice, as Jeremy Diddler; Wolfe, afterwards Chief Baron, as a hair-dresser; Sir Jonah Barrington as a friar; and 'Doctor Turner' (no doubt Samuel, LL.D.), as Punch. For a full account, see Hibernian Magazine for 1810, p. 125.

475

Lecky's History of England, vii. 142.

476

The Metropolis (Dublin, 1806), p. 43, second edition.

477

McNally always describes himself, in his secret letters, as 'my friend.'

478

Spy as he was, McNally trembled throughout the troubles, and is not likely to have delivered the defiant reply which he claims to have done. On May 24, 1798, he describes his family as 'all females – all live in terror.' He has moved them a short way from Dublin. He hopes that Cooke's interest will prevent the impending evil of free quarters on his house. It was astutely felt at Dublin Castle, however, that the more McNally seemed to suffer persecution for justice sake, the more freely would popular confidence be reposed in him. On June 27, 1798, he writes to Cooke, bitterly complaining that his house had been attacked by soldiers, who refused to respect Castlereagh's protection.'

479

Life of Curran, by his Son, ii. 148-9. Compare Lecky, viii. 24, where MacNally seems humanely to lament the theft by soldiers, from a Dublin barrister, of a stand inscribed 'Erin go bragh.'

480

J. W. (secret), September 19, 1800.

481

Wickham seems to allude to this fact in the Colchester Correspondence, i. 456.

482

Mr. Ross, in his preface to the Cornwallis Papers, states that Wickham's papers are destroyed. His grandson tells me that the papers are safely in his possession.

483

Now the cemetery at Harold's Cross, Dublin.

484

Madden's United Irishmen, iii. 330.

485

J. W. to Mr. Secretary Cooke: endorsed 'November 1797.' McNally adds, of a subsequent Whig Lord Chancellor, on whom he had his eye: 'Geo. Ponsonby is not of the private meetings at Grattan's or Curran's.'

486

Life of Curran, by his Son, ii. 385.

487

The same manuscript further records, under the respective dates, March 16, 1803, and November 26, 1803, two sums of 100l. each, paid to 'J. W.'

488

Mr. W. B. Kelly, who held the copyright of a book of mine called The Sham Squire, got it reprinted in Edinburgh many years ago. I had no opportunity for revising the proofs, and I am anxious to correct the strange misprint at p. 250, of '1,000l.' instead of '100l.' to McNally. The original edition, at the same page, states the amount correctly.

489

Camden to Portland, December 2, 1797.

490

Most of McNally's letters are endorsed by Cooke. This is marked by Pelham, 'November 8, 1797.'

491

McNally himself.

492

Cloncurry did not see Ireland again until his liberation from the Tower. The object of his mission to England was mere surmise. Pelham assumes that he carried a despatch to the French Republic (Froude, iii. 287); but Cloncurry, ignorant of the above letters, tells his law adviser: 'No papers on politics were found on me, for I never had such' (Memoirs, p. 138). Previously, he casually mentions that his father 'insisted upon my going to London to keep my terms at the Temple, which I accordingly did in November, 1797,' the very date of McNally's letter. (Memoirs of Lord Cloncurry, p. 57.)

493

Endorsed, 'M. secret. November.'

494

Personal Recollections of Lord Cloncurry, p. 219.

495

Not one of McNally's letters is dated beyond the day of the week; but many have a correct date endorsed. Some conjectural dates, supplied in late years by an official pencil, are often wrong.

496

In 1807-8 he appears as a defendant in several judgments 'marked' by the King's Bench. To Benjamin Bradley, 38l. 4s. 9d.; to Thomas Shaw, 56l.; to the administrators of Hatch, and others; and the search, if continued, would show the same results in after years. Curran frequently accommodated him, as well as William Godwin and others.

497

Wellington Correspondence (Ireland), p. 192.

498

Wellington Correspondence (Ireland), pp. 99-100.

499

Ireland, 1810, August to December, No. 648, State Paper Office.

500

History of Ireland since the Union, by Francis Plowden, iii. 896.

501

The late Michael Staunton to W. J. F.

502

Ireland, 1811, January to June, No. 652. Peter Finnerty, who, in 1798, had been pilloried as editor of the Press, was now (1811) in Lincoln Gaol for a libel on Lord Castlereagh.

503

Mr. Lecky thinks that, so early as 1795, McNally reported to the Government a secret conference of Curran and Grattan. Hist. vii. 145.

504

Life of Curran, i. 147.

505

These papers are exclusively quoted in the Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell (edited by W. J. F.), ii. 420.

506

For details, see Ireland before the Union, p. 8. (Dublin: Duffy.)

507

The Correspondent, November 4, 1817.

508

Letter of Mrs. John Philpot Curran, dated 'The Priory, Rathfarnham, September 14, 1872.'

509

John Egan, a member of the Irish Parliament, lost a judicial office he held by voting against the Union, and died in poverty. A staunch patriot to the end, he belonged to the set which numbered Curran and McNally. Curran's first acquaintance with him was in an affair of honour. Egan, a large man, complained of the great advantage which Curran's diminutive figure gave him. 'I scorn to take any advantage of you, whatever,' replied Curran. 'Let my size be chalked out on your side, and I am quite content that every shot which hits outside that mark should go for nothing.'

510

It is a question whether 'Mac,' in society, drank as much as he may have pretended to do. See ante, p. 185.

511

Life of Curran, 1820, ii. 380. Italics in original.

512

He seems not to have been so badly maimed as he gave Phillips to believe. John P. Prendergast, a nonagenarian, remembers McNally saying at the Trim Assizes in 1817, 'I have a finger and thumb to tweak the nose of any man who dares to question my acts.' Luckily the present writer did not live in those days. How one thumb went, see p. 177.

513

Letter of J. J. Scallan, Esq., M.D., to the author. Black Rock, April 23, 1890. The Doctor may not be quite right in his assumption.

514

Mr. Lecky says that 'McNally had specially good opportunities of learning the sentiments of Grattan' (vii. 281). Grattan died May 14; McNally on February 13.

515

Rev. John Kearney, P.P., St. Catherine's, to the author, February 10, 1860.

516

McNally and Father Smith seem to have been old chums. So far back as 1805, 'J. W.' writes, in one of his undated letters: 'Smith, the priest whom I have before mentioned, informed me last night that a person arrived here from France within these few days. The intelligence he brings is an assurance of a Descent by the French, and that the Fleet is now in the Atlantic with this object. I do not give credence to his Information. I found it impossible to extract particulars or names, but I am to see him to-morrow (Sunday).'

Smith, suspecting McNally to be a spy, is likely to have charged his news with sensationalism, and 'Mac,' no doubt, found him useful as a scout. That he was an open-mouthed gossiping man, his account of his very solemn mission to the death-bed of the spy shows. He never received promotion, and in the end became so deaf that when officiating in his confessional he always reiterated audibly the character of the sin disclosed, so as to be sure he heard it correctly, and the result was very painful embarrassment to such neighbouring worshippers as could not fail to become en rapport with the conscience of the penitent. Compare Wellington Correspondence (Ireland), pp. 192-3, and the 'Information of a Priest regarding threatened Invasion.'

517

Lyons, in his Grand Juries of Westmeath, records, deprecatingly, that Leonard McNally's people were engaged in trade; but, according to their tombstone at Donnybrook, they once owned the castle and lands of Rahobeth. Like other Irish gentry of the proscribed faith, they sank during penal times, and the name of Leonard McNally is found in the official list of 'Papists' who 'conformed' early in the reign of George III. How this came about is traceable in Sheil's notice of McNally in 1820: 'His grandfather made a very considerable personal property, which he laid out in building in Dublin; but having taken leases liable to the discovery of this property, in consequence of a bill under the popish laws, he was stripped of it. His father died when he was an infant, at which time the bill of discovery was filed, and little attention was paid to his education.' The 'will of Leonard McNally, Dublin, merchant,' who died in 1756, is preserved at the Record Office.

518

William Smith, B.L., died at Torquay, April 29, 1876.

519

See Life of Grattan, by his Son, ii. 272.

520

One of the more voluminous of the secret reports signed 'J. W.' is dated March 24, 1797, and details twenty-three propositions of a plan, through which the United Irishmen were to act with Grattan. The proceedings took place at a meeting at Chambers's, one of the Rebel Directory. (MSS. Dublin Castle.)

521

United Irishmen, iii. p. vi.

522

Mr. Froude, with the letter before him which he found, could adopt hardly any other impression. Mr. Macdonough, in Irish Graves in England, follows Froude, and speaks of O'Leary's 'traitorous conduct.' He, however, errs in assigning 1811, instead of 1802, as the date of his death. See Evening Telegraph, February 6, 1888.

523

The omitted matter is merely a compliment.

524

Plowden's Ireland since the Union, i. 6. (Dublin, 1811.)

525

Mr. Lecky, who examined the State Papers, tells us that seven years later, i. e. 1791, 'The chief members of the Irish Government made it their deliberate object to revive the religious animosities which had so greatly subsided, to raise the standard of Protestant ascendancy, and to organise through the country an opposition to concession.'

526

Vol. vi. 369.

527

Vide Lecky, iv. 491.

528

'If 30,000 men under the denomination of French troops landed in Ireland,' writes O'Leary, '15,000 Protestants from France, Germany, Switzerland, &c., would make up half the number. Neither are you to confide in their promises of protection.' – O'Leary's Tract, p. 104.