1806.

pact been observed, no arrangement with Sir Michael Smyth could have taken place involving the interests of Mr. Curran. From the moment it was entered into, Mr. Curran acted up to the conditions, spirit and principles of it with punctilious fidelity. He had the merit of provoking and despising the personal malice of every man, who was the known enemy of the country. Without the walls of the courts of justice, his character was pursued by the most persevering slander, and within those walls, though he were too strong to be beaten down by any judicial malignity, it was not so with his clients. His consequent professional losses exceeded 30,000l.* Such were the claims,

It is impossible to view this treatment of Mr, Curran in any other view, than that of the darkest malice and intrigue against the rights and welfare of Ireland. If the circumstances already detailed had not proved it, the winding up of the piece would have completed the demonstration. In order to prevent a recurrence to so ungracious a subject, this note will anticipate a -reference to some circumstances, which strict chronological or der will not justify. The intermediate time between July 1806, and Lady Day 1807, went over with little intercourse between the Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls; and no sort of explanation; the subject was uninviting to each party. Within very few days of the 25th March 1807, Mr. Elliott sent to Mr. Curran to find out the names of the persons belonging to Sir Michael Smyth, and forward them to him, that the business might be settled before the government should resign. Sir Michael Smyth happening to come to town on that very day, Mr. Curran -apprized him of Mr. Elliott's message, and Sir Michael sent to -the Secretary the names he desired. Vague reports reached his Honor, that the promised pensions had not been granted, though the government continued till the end of April 1807; that the Chancellor spoke of it with regret, as a circumstance vexatious

which Ireland had upon the Bedford administration to place Mr. Curran in a situation, in which his

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to Sir Michael Smyth, but without any allusion whatever to an expectancy,, that they were to be made good by his successor. The Duke of Bedford personally interposed as little in this, as on any other act of government. It was a matter merely between Sir Michael Smyth and the Chancellor, or those, to whom his Lordship had referred it. Mr. Elliott's message shewed, that the settlement of it had devolved upon him, as Secretary. The first intimation to the Master of the Rolls of any expectation from, or call upon him, was some time after the change of ministers; when a friend of the Chancellor's in a private conversation, as it were accidentally, lamented the disappointment of Mr. Ridgeway, and the other subaltern officers of Sir Michael Smyth's court. His Honor expressed his ignorance of the cause of it; but received no information upon the subject. A second conversation (also apparently accidental) took place, in which it was thrown out as a casual suggestion of that friend's mind, not as an authorized overture from Mr. Ponsonby, whether his Honor did not think something ought to be done for them? Suffice it here to say, that Mr. Curran protested against any knowledge, or even surmise of a personal compact with his predecessor, which in any manner affected him or his appointment. If Mr. Ponsonby had without his knowledge or consent answered for him in any manner, he had treated him most unkindly by not apprizing him of the responsibility, which he had volunteered on his behalf. He felt no call upon him to assume a charge of 80001. for having accepted a situation, which he considered as the reverse of an act of kindness, as a direct breach of an honorable compact, and as the purchase of an imputation on his character, by falsely admitting himself to have been a corrupt trafficker of a judicial office.

As no settlement had been made upon the displaced officers by the government, on the faith of which they had consented to resign on the before mentioned terms, they naturally applied to those, with whom they had treated, whilst in office. None of them applied to Mr. Curran, as no treaty with him had ever ex

1806.

་

splendid talents would display the towering genius of Ireland, his vigilance prevent her interests from

isted. Mr. Ponsonby gave a draft for 8001. to make up the first yearly payment of their stipulated annuities, without having made any communication upon the subject with Mr. Curran. The first intimation of that circumstance reached Mr. Curran's ears from reports of frequent conversations, in which the magnanimous generosity of Mr. Ponsonby was extolled, for paying out of his own pocket the price of Mr. Curran's promotion and life interest in the rolls. This occasioned Mr. Curran to write a letter to his friend Mr. Grattan,, in which he made a full and candid statement of the whole transaction. Copies of it were cautiously confided to some of his friends. It is highly esteemed by those, who have seen it, for the national interest of its contents, the force of its reasoning, and the elegant simplicity of its composi tion. In that letter he entreated Mr. Grattan to communicate with Mr. G. Ponsonby, and learn from him, if he conceived himself to have any claim in justice or in honour upon Mr. Curran; hoping that if he had, Mr. Ponsonby would have the kindness to state the grounds of it specifically and distinctly; and, if Mr. Curran's judgment acquiesced in the claim, he would comply with it instantly. If not, he would concur in referring it to Mr. Grattan, Lord Moira, Lord Grey, Lord Erskine, Lord Holland, or Lord Ponsonby, or any other common friend, or friends, that might be appointed. He wished them to decide upon the most liberal principles of justice and of honor, what ought to be done under all the circumstances of the case. Whatever that decision should be, he would perform most promptly. In doing so, he should have the satisfaction of acting rightly, and be relieved from the painful apprehension of being thought by any man ca pable of acting otherwise.

*

4

Lord Moira, Lord Holland, and Mr. Grattan, were named as referees by Mr. Ponsonby, and acceded to by Mr. Curran. Mr. Ponsonby and Mr. Curran appointed each a confidential friend to lay their respective cases before the referees; and after repeated urgency upon the part of Mr. Curran to have Mr. Ponsouby's statement submitted to them, Mr. Ponsonby finally declined.

being betrayed, and his tried fidelity secure her a most powerful and incorruptible advocate in the Imperial Parliament,

1806.

the Tyrone

Scarcely had the new ministers entered upon Mr. Wilson their functions, than in those parts of the coun- magistrate. try, where Orangeism more particularly prevailed, despondency became general, that their fond hope of redress would be frustrated. Those even of the slightest reflection readily distinguished between the slow and complicated movement of the legislative body, on which the great question of emancipation depended, and the quick and unincumbered action of the executive, on which alone rested the removal of the personal grievances they suffered from the corrupt oppression of the magistracy. The case of burnt out O'Neile the hatter has been before mentioned, and shortly commented upon. That and several more atrocious acts of barbarity and injustice committed by Orangemen on the Catholic inhabitants of Tyrone and that neighbourhood, gave rise to a correspondence between Mr. Wilson the Tyrone magistrate, and

the

managers of the Irish government, which has brought to light truths awfully affecting the existing state of Ireland. Mr. Wilson is a gentleman of landed property in his native county of Tyrone: and he informs ust, that in the year 1802, he had had frequent conversations with Mr. Windham upon the subject of the Catholic claims, per

Vide Introd. p. 48 & 51.

Introd. to his correspondence with Mr. Elliott and Mr. Ponsonby.

1806. secutions, &c. and that in his last visit to England, he had repeatedly conversed with Lord Eldon (the Chancellor) upon the same subjects, who had expressed his wish, that he should upon his return to Ireland communicate his sentiments fully and freely to his Lordship upon the state of that county; with which desire Mr. Wilson had complied but what the noble Lord thought of his communications he had still to learn. Soon after he had settled in Ireland, fifteen hundred young Roman Catholic inhabitants of his parish, offered through him their services to government to he employed in any part of Europe, provided Mr. Wilson were placed at their head. Their address he conveyed to Mr. Wickham. The answer that gentleman wished Mr. Wilson to return to the addressers was, in his own words, "that government "had already received from other ibodies of the Roman Catholics many similar offers, but that, as no decision had yet been made upon these "previous ones, it could not accept of this pre

Continnance of Mr.

“as

sent one, and therefore could only thank the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Clanfecle for "their loyal offers of service, &c.".

Some time after Mr. Wickham had been reWilson's placed by Sir Evan Nepean, with whom Mr. Wil cations with son was well acquainted, he related to him a most

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govern

Bent.

outrageous assault on a Roman Catholic by an Orangeman, and a public rescue of the offender in defiance of all his endeavours to punish him, by armed Orangemen. When he had related that bu siness, and many other acts of like tyranny withip