not fact; but to relate all the facts, and let them go to the decision of men of sense and virtue, who will weigh and balance well the items of seeming guilt, with the strong and irresistible circumstances of indubitable inno

cence.

Elizabeth Furlong, against whose testimony the slight and illiberal suspicion on the score of relationship cannot be alleged, has also sworn in direct opposition to Tuttle and his accomplice. She well remembers the 23rd of June, 1798, (which by the way, was the day before the battle of Castlecomber) it was, she says, on Saturday, and the eve of St. John's day; it was customary to light bonfires on that evening; but the disturbed state of the country prevented a compliance with the old custom on that day. Look into the natural occasions of her visit to the prisoner's house, hearing that the entire country had been sentenced to almost universal devastation, she repaired to Shelbeggan, as a place of refuge, and to be exempted from the general destruction, and where she hoped the owners would receive and protect her little property; there she said she saw me, though, if you believe Tuttle and his accomplices, I am said to be at Kellymount, above 26 miles distant.

Surely, gentlemen, it cannot now appear to you to be necessary for me to expatiate at greater length on the testimony of Tuttle. You cannot forget the acrimony of his prosecution; by the terms of reproach and obloquy with which he vented himself against me, be fore this honourable Court: But, whatever credit you may give to the bitterness of his zeal against me, you cannot, I presume, give any to his evidence, contradicted as it stands by the whiter testimony of miss Reily, miss Devereux, Elizabeth Furlong, Mr. Hearne, and major Newton, and the dates of the official communications made by sir Charles Asgill to government, on the battle of Casflecomber, which is a matter of universal notoriety, and on record.

The next witness who has appeared before you, is a woman who now calls herself Elizabeth Jacob. In her direct examination, she swore first, that I was at the battle of the Three Rocks, and with the rebels the entire of the day. Opposed to her on this fact stands Andrew Keegan, the confidential steward of general Fawcett, who saw me at my father's house at eleven o'clock on the same day. Miss Reily also has stated to the Court, that the night preceding the battle of the Three Rocks, she sat in dread and terror in my room at Shelbeggan, the whole of the night, and that she saw me early the following day in the morning, and at breakfast.

Elizabeth Jacob swore that she saw me on every part of the next day after the battle: that she could not miss of seeing me, and that at Taghunon, I had ordered an Orange-man to be shot.

Andrew Keegan has on the contrary sworn, that he saw me from an early hour in the

morning, to a late hour in the evening of the day next after the battle of the Three Rocks with the general, at Duncannon Fort.

Elizabeth Jacob swears, that she saw me at Scullabogue, giving directions to have the barn burned, and that Miss Nesey Lett was burned in it by my order personally given, and that she thinks this took place the night before the battle of Ross. It is gentlemen a fact about which there is no controversy, that the battle of Ross took place at five o'clock in the morning, on the fifth of June, 1798, and you have the testimony of Richard Grandy, a witness for the prosecution, of whom one would suppose, that he was brought forward for the purpose of discrediting Elizabeth Jacob, that the barn was burned between eight and nine o'clock on the morning of the 5th of June, and on the very day of the battle of Ross, and during the battle itself: so that, gentlemen, if you believe Elizabeth Jacob at all, you must credit this monstrous circumstance, that I was employed on two barbarous but dissimilar acts, burning the king's subjects at Scullabogue, and fighting against his troops at New Ross, and that she, as well as myself, were at two separate and distinct places at the very same time.

Elizabeth Jacob has sworn that she was at the battle of Ross; that it began at five o'clock in the morning, and ended at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the rebels were beaten to Corbett-hill; that she saw me there all that time dressed in a white coat, with a sash and gorget on, a sword in my hand, riding about and encouraging the rebels to fight.

Miss Reily has proved, that at seven o'clock on the morning of the battle of Ross, I came to the house of Mr. John Chapman, that we both proceeded (she riding behind me) to Houseland, the place of Mr. Thomas Chap man, and distant from New Ross about sixteen miles.

Miss Devereux has proved, that I arrived with miss Reily, at Mr. Thomas Chapman's, about nine o'clock in the morning of the same day, namely the day of the battle of Ross, and that I remained at Mr. Chapman's till about twelve o'clock of the same day; Mr. Chapman himself has proved, that he saw me at his house on that day about the hour of eleven, after he came in, for he had not been in the house on my arrival. I cannot pass over the testimony of Mr. Chapman, without requesting the Court to recollect that part of it, which relates to his asking my opinion on the very day of the battle of Ross, as to the answer which he should give to the requisition the rebels made to him of sending them provisions. On that very day, critical as it was, I did not disguise my sentiments, when I could pronounce them with security;-I expressed myself coarsely, but that very coarse and homely cast of expression sprang from the sincerity which I felt; I did then dissuade him from giving them the smallest assistance, and it is needless to observe, that if I had

been secretly well-disposed to the rebel cause, I need not have taken pains to dissuade a man from giving them assistance, and the more so, when there were so many plausible reasons to urge, touching the risk of refusal, and others too, which I might have used with perfect security to myself.

But, as if my witness were incompetent to establish the fact of my absence from the battle of Ross, and as if it were a matter of Divine interference, that all the witnesses for the prosecution should be at variance with, and in contradiction to each other, John Cody has been produced, to show the multiplied perjury of this Elizabeth Jacob, and to prove, in opposition to her swearing, that between the hours of twelve and one that day, I was several miles distant from the battle, on the Tintern road, between Mr. Chapman's, and Shelbeggan, and mounted on a bay horse.

This peasant, ignorant as he obviously is in the English language, whatever difficulty he may find in understanding the import of the words, in which, as he says, I addressed him, yet it is not so probable that he could be mistaken in seeing my person. Cody had, he swears, a second person with him, David Neville-why was he not produced to corroborate what Cody had sworn, if he could have substantiated my words to him? There is no doubt but the judge advocate, whose zeal, as I am told, led him into the county of Wexford to search for witnesses against me, after the prosecution terminated, would have willingly brought him forward. How far it is probable that I, at one o'clock of the day of the battle of Ross, which battle began at 5 in the morning, at a considerable distance from the place of action; at a time too, when the fortune of the day prevailed against the rebels, should have set about raising one recruit only for the rebel army, the most ordinary judgment may without difficulty decide; but when the words which I made use of but a few moments before to Mr. Chapman, on the rebel requisition to him for provisions, shall be considered; and when the credibility of his testimony comes in the balance against the misinterpretation of an ignorant peasant; those circumstances will receive their proper consideration from the enlightened and just mind of this Court.

Elizabeth Jacob has sworn, that miss Nesey Lett, her cousin, whose identity she has ascer tained by the maiden name of her mother (Goff) was by me pushed into the barn of Scullabogue, before it was set on fire, and that there she perished in the flames. If I were not satisfied in the most positive degree of certainty, that that young lady is at this very moment in existence, and that she never was at that barn, I should not have exposed my self to the circumstance of calling on the interference of the general officer of this garrison to compel her attendance before this Court: nor if it were my intention to have suborned any body to personate her, should I have resorted to him to be the instrument VOL. XXVII.

of producing an impostor. I have done my utmost exertions to produce her in evidence; the general has done so likewise, but she yet withstands the authority of this Court, and both his efforts and mine have been ineffectual to produce her. Mr. Lawrence Chapman, who has served her with the summons to attend here, has given evidence of that fact, and at the very time that he has ascertained the falsehood of her being destroyed, as Elizabeth Jacob has sworn; he has 100 proved her identity, by swearing, from the best possible information, that of miss Nesey Lett herself, that her mother's maiden name was Goff.

As to what she has sworn, in conjunction with her accomplice Tuttle, respecting the transactions of Kellymount and Castlecomber, I shall offer no new observations, having already refuted every circumstance contained in their testimonies beyond the power of contradiction.

If any new instances of this woman's perjury were necessary to stamp her with everlasting infamy, they lie so profusely before the Court, that there is almost a difficulty in selecting them. This Elizabeth Jacob swore she knew my uncles, and my two first cousins. Miss Reily and Miss Devereux have proved to the Court the rank impossibility of such a circumstance, for that I have neither uncles nor cousins. Elizabeth Jacob has sworn that she never was at Duncannon Fort; that she never was married to a man of the name of Henry Roberts, of the artillery; and yet, gentlemen, observe what a brave and loyal soldier (Sheppard) has sworn in the most direct and manifest contradiction. Sheppard knew this Elizabeth Jacob; he saw her a few days before the beginning of the rebellion at Duncannon Fort, where she said she never was; and he saw her come with this identical Roberts, of the artillery, whom she swears she never knew, into the fort, where she swears she never was; and he gave her money, and sent proper persons with her to see her married to that very same Henry Roberts, to whom she swears she never was married. I cannot but refer you, gentlemen, to your notes on this part of the gross perjury of Elizabeth Jacob, the simple order of Sheppard's testimony, will speak more forcibly to your conviction, than volumes of comment.

It is a disgusting labour to pass through such scenes of vice and perjury; and I doubt not but it must already have shocked the honourable mind of this Court to have contemplated so long, so very loathsome a detail. Innocent and virtuous minds are at a loss to account for those acts of wickedness, the motives to which do not immediately present themselves on the surface; but I conceive that the intention of this conspiracy against my life, does not lie very deeply concealed. I must beg pardon of the honourable name of soldier; when I take the liberty of stating, that the two male witnesses who have appeared for the prosecution, belong to the Wex4 G

ford regiment of militia, and that Elizabeth Jacob is the wife of a soldier in the same regiment. This circumstance must naturally have given them a facility in digesting their conspiracy. They knew that it they could affix to me the horrid and abominable facts of the murders they have recited, that their service in convicting me of them, would be considered (as indeed it ought if I were guilty) with public gratitude; that their own regiment afforded an easy convenient mode of reward in promotion, if no other means occurred-two of them speculating for themselves, and Elizabeth Jacob for her husband. For one year they were in possession of this secret of my crimes, as they have alleged :for that year I was in the country publicly; often at Duncannon Fort, employed in a business not likely to conciliate one's neighbours, while I was raising recruits for the king's army. I was on the very spot which is alleged to have been the theatre of my barbarities;-scrutinous investigation into my conduct was made by my most avowed and personal enemy-yet no one came forward against me. One of your members has told you, that I stood open breasted against the calumnies levelled at me, and that I defied them; I did defy them, and I do defy every thing but perjury; that I cannot guard altogether against. During this time that I stood open and unconcealed, that I lived in the very scene where my crimes were said to have been acted, where were my perjured prosecutors, Templeton, Tuttle, and Jacob? They never showed themselves, although every one of them say they knew my person and place of residence. They never mentioned my name until the accident of my leading recruits for the king's service to Chatham, brought me to the Cove of Cork, and then hearing that a person of the obnoxious name of Devereux, was on board the vessel with recruits, the detail of crimes you have heard was laid hold of, and the guilt of them fastened upon me. But even then, gentlemen, there was an indecision in their guilt, and after swearing informations against me, they unanimously and with common consent went off with the transports to Jersey; and an eagerness for active service is the alleged cause of their departure; but could this have been the motive of Elizabeth Jacob? and even with regard to the men, this honourable Court shall determine whether this apology be sufficient for their shrinking from a prosecution at the instant it was about to commence, and for their stealing away from their country in disobedience to the most positive orders to remain behind. Gentlemen, I have been for several tedious months the inhabitant of a prison; my prosecutors having quitted the kingdom, were brought back in order to give evidence against me; they were all in the same regiment, and came over in the same ship for the avowed purpose of my prosecution; and yet they have concurred in swearing to one fact, which I con

tend, it is morally impossible should be true, namely, that they never had a syllable of conversation together upon the subject of my imputed crimes, or of the evidence which they had it in their power to give towards my conviction. To your good sense, gentlemen, I put it, whether you can believe that fact, and whether persons so swearing, can in your minds be entitled to even the smallest degree of credit.

There is, gentlemen, one circumstance that has occurred upon the trial, which I deem it peculiarly necessary to notice, and which cannot fail to make due impression upon the minds of honourable and intelligent men :After Elizabeth Jacob had told this court of my having been at almost every battle that was fought, and at which she represented me, as much distinguished by my activity, as by my attire; after she had thus sworn to my ubiquity in the rebellion, it was suggested to my counsel, by an honourable member of this court, that a serjeant of his regiment had been taken prisoner, and remained some time with the rebels, whom I might examine if I thought fit, and if the fact would bear me out, might show by his negative evidence, that the positive swearing of Elizabeth Jacob was false.-To this suggestion, humanely intended I am sure, my acquiescence was instantaneous and undisguised, and I answered with that confidence which innocence alone can inspire, if the man be an honest man, let him be produced and examined, for I am in dread of nothing but perjury; he was, gentlemen, examined, and has sworn during the time he remained with the rebels, and in the number of places he was taken to, he never saw me (although, if you believe Elizabeth Jacob, I was pretty conspicuous), nor even ever heard the mention of my name; my feeling, gentlemen, upon this incident was, that I could run no risk from integrity and truth, and that it was only from falsehood and perjury my danger was to be apprehended; but, gentlemen, perjury, however confident, ceases to be obnoxious; whereas in my case, it is detected and exposed. Of the atrocities ascribed to me, I have said by my plea-I am not guilty; and that plea I have supported by the clearest and most satisfactory proof: at the time they are said to be perpetrated, I have shown that I was at home, endeavouring to give comfort and succour to a father worn down by age and infirmity, and labouring under a deprivation of sight, and at the same time to afford protection to a family of weak and defenceless females, liable to insult and outrage from a set of ruthless desperadoes, who in a state of savage nature, had let themselves loose upon the country, regardless of the restraints of all law, and loosening every bond of society. Under these circumstances, gentlemen, and when savages of this description had gotten possession of the country, when his majesty's forces were unable to afford protection to its