CHAP. X.]

THE SPY SYSTEM.

335

charmed by your converse-enlivened by your playful humour-edified and improved by your elevated and generous sentiments! Neither the tyrant of the poor, nor the sycophant of the great; but

"Dextrous the craving fawning crowd to quit,

And pleased to escape from flattery to wit.'

When I recollect that your tears fell over the fleeting moments of Ireland's dying patriot,* how must you not have felt when you beheld the ghastly wounds of your tortured countrymen! But though, in this life, your virtue was its sole reward, ere now you have received the deserved recompense for your charitable and pious officesthe blessing that awaits the just and the good"Where they alike in trembling hope repose, The bosom of their Father and their God."

The system of spies and informers† which, in the worst times of the Roman empire disgraced and destroyed that people, was adopted in Ireland with all its horrors, and discovered a new and frightful picture in the catalogue of her calamities. The Irish minister, accustomed to bribery within the doors of Parliament, now tried it from without; and accordingly, the vilest set of beings were kept, fed, and paid at the public expense; and very quickly, and very easily they prepared themselves to swear against the lives of their fellow-creatures. They assumed various names and dresses. Common servants were passed off as gentlemen informers; bankrupts, and culprits as gentlemen and officers; and though on several occasions their perjuries were proved,

* He was with Mr. Grattan in his last illness, and expired the day after Mr. Grattan died, 5 June, 1820.

The list Lord Moira produced was as follows: Bird, alias Smith, alias Johnson; Dutton, O'Brien, Clarke, Feris, Newell, M'Can, Collier, Cusack, Burke, M'Dermott, Maguire, Lynch, M'Gauley.

Dutton was one, Cooper another, Hughes a third.

336

EXPOSURE OF THE SYSTEM OF [CHAP. X.

yet they still were continued in the employ of Government, and were generally known by the appellation of "The Battalion of Testimony." Among these there happened to be an Englishman of the name of Bird, who passed likewise under those of Smith, and Johnson. In consequence of his information, Samuel Neilson, and Russell had been arrested, and detained in prison for eighteen months, without any charge proved against them, or any trial permitted. Kennedy, Shanahan, and others, had also been apprehended on his statement, by Lords Downshire, Westmeath, and Londonderry, aided by an attorney* of the name of Pollock, accompanied with a retinue of troops and magistrates, and a parade that terrified the neighbourhood of the north. These men had remained in gaol for seventeen months; and when their trial approached, Bird's conscience smote him, he left his blood-stained trade-fled from the protection and pay of Government, "aversusque fugit fœda ministeria." Stung with remorse, he revealed his crimes, and their conduct. He published a letter which he had received from the Castle, addressed to him under the name of Johnson, sending him money,-saying where he was to find lodgings in Dublin, for which Mr. Cooke (the Secretary) was to pay four guineas a-week; and in his letter to Cooke, accounting for his absence from the trial, he says:

"Insurmountable obstacles presented themselves to prevent the completion of the unfortunate business, which necessity, imperious necessity, urged me to begin; but when I seriously reflected on the dreadful phalanx of perjured monsters, wallowing in riot and debauchery, ready at a nod to sacrifice any man however innocent, who might be obnoxious, I trembled, I could not support the idea of having my

* See Rev. Steele Dickson's narrative, and his account of this person and of the informer Hughes.

+ Ponsonby, Curran, Emmett, and Sampson were their counsel.

CHAP. X.]

SPIES AND INFORMERS.

337

name enrolled in the annals of eternal infamy with theirs, and their well adapted Major (Sirr.) I absented myself purely for the motive above mentioned-neither applied to nor tempted by the hope of reward. I confess, my heart was never for a moment in your cause- -a reference to my letters, though apparently madly loyal, will convince you of that. Should any of your myriads of spies discover me, I would be more unfortunate than in my first loss-my papers and manuscripts, curious and interesting, are in other hands than mine!!

He then describes the informer Newell, also in the pay of Government, who went about in a mask pointing out the persons to be arrested. He next addressed a letter to Lord Camden, stating, that against Russell and Neilson there was no charge whatever that could be supported that they were both in prison without even the shadow of a crime. He importuned Lord Camden for their release, and threatened to place the documents in Lord Moira's hands. All this he disclosed to

Neilson, and begins :

"In what language can I address a gentleman I have so deeply injured. * Happiness has been a stranger to me since the fatal day when poverty and something worse urged me to accept the wages of infamy-how these men may feel, in whose hands I have been made an instrument of ruin, I cannot say.

"The first gleam of happiness which for twelve months has visited my breast, has been since I have ceased to work among the number of those sanguinary monsters who are destroying the very system they are seeking to support. * * If my utmost exertions to serve the men I was hired to destroy can entitle me to pardon from you, I should once more feel myself restored to peace and happiness."

Newell, too, recoiled from the work in which he was employed, and wrote in the following repentant strain, to the Under-Secretary (Mr. Cooke)Though I cannot deny being a villain, I hope clearly to prove I had the honour of being made one by you. Though you did not circulate enough of your principles to make it lasting. I have no occasion now for

66

338

DISCLOSURES BY INFORMERS.

[CHAP. X. pistols-my bosom is what it has not been this long time, and I thank my God for having saved me from impending ruin."

on

Bird's letter to Lord Camden led to Neilson's liberation from prison in February 1798, condition that he should not thenceforth belong to any treasonable association; but though it procured the liberty of one man, it caused the incarceration of another. The letter appeared in the Press newspaper of the 20th of February; and the House of Lords immediately summoned Stockdale, the printer, to their bar, for publishing in the paper of that day an attack on one of their body. They ordered him to be imprisoned for six months, and fined 500/. Some members wished it to be 1000/.; but Lord Clare restrained their ardour-like Tiberius, when he moderated the servility of the Roman senate,-" quanto quis illustrior, tanto magis falsi et festinantes." As that paper had also announced an intention to publish a letter attacking Lord Clare, a party of military entered the house of the printer, seized and carried off the impressions, and destroyed the presses and machinery. Two numbers were published notwithstanding, and were circulated with avidity: they will be found in the American edition, Number 68; the letter, "To the Author of Coercion," which describes Lord Clare, is equal to any of the compositions of Junius. Moore, in his Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, mentions that he wrote in the Press. The paper was ably supported, but very violent, and very inflammatory.

On Lord Moira's arrival in Ireland in the preceding November, he was supplied with documents containing extraordinary and horrid disclosures*

* An affidavit was made in the King's Bench, January, 1798, by a prisoner in the Castle of Dublin, praying the court to remove him from Birmingham Tower, in order to avoid the threats held out to make him become King's evidence.

CHAP. X.]

BIRD'S DISCLOSURES.

339

respecting the Government informers, by Bird, who offered to be examined as a witness before the House of Lords in support of his statements. The Rev. Mr. Berwick, I believe, together with Mr. Grattan, assisted in getting this intelligence. It filled thirty-two large pages, each signed by Bird, and countersigned by Mr. Grattan. From the letters that passed between Lord Moira and Mr. Sampson, it appears that these documents passed to the hands of Mr. Sheridan; but farther than that I have been unable to trace them. Bird was subsequently followed by Government, discovered, and imprisoned; he then wrote from gaol to apprise MrGrattan of the attempts made to effect his destruction:-this being discovered by the Government, Bird was loaded with irons, and sent out of the kingdom. To the knowledge he obtained through this man, together with the suggestions from Lord Dufferin, which will be mentioned presently, may be attributed in a great degree Mr. Grattan's escape from the vengeance of his enemies. Both these persons -the one of the highest honour, and the other of the basest habits-apprised him what he might expect. Fortune, too, seemed to be on his side, and the summons to Maidstone probably saved his life. At a late period he mentioned to me the circumstance of receiving the letter from Bird; but said he took no notice of it. The danger was past; and his mind had no relish for revenge. Part of the intimation meant to be conveyed, I imagine, was, that Hughes, the spy of Government, who went to Tinnehinch with Neilson when the latter was released from gaol, had gone thither at the instance of those whom Bird calls Mr. Grattan's "venal persecutors," though perhaps not, as he says, "the most celebrated."

*See Sampson's Memoirs.