Secret Service Under Pitt. Fitzpatrick William John

209

See Carhampton's command to Turner, when at Newry, to remove his green neckcloth, p. 11, ante. Reinhard, writing to De la Croix, says that these 'imprudences' compelled Turner to leave Ireland.

210

These are his words: 'Pauvre de forme et bien simple de style, mais d'une puissance d'autant plus entraînante, surtout sous le charme d'une voix qui jetait toute l'intensité de la passion Anglaise dans les accens de douleur et de colère, toujours un peu vagues et flottans, de la fantaisie celtique. L'air et les paroles ne me sortaient point de l'oreille; et, comme toute impression d'ensemble se concentre toujours sur un détail unique, il y avait surtout une strophe étrange qui me hantait.'

211

The London Post-Office Directory, eighty years ago and later, gave the names of those only who were engaged in trade. But Holden's Triennial Directory for 1808 includes the name 'Samuel Turner, Esq. 21, Upper Wimpole Street.' The name disappears from the Dublin Directory about the same time.

212

The Conduct of the Senate at Hamburg revealed, by William Corbet (Paris, 1807). The number of copies privately printed was small; the pamphlet is very scarce, and obtains no place in the Halliday Collection, R.I.A.

213

Corbet's Narrative. (Paris, 1807.) General Corbet did not live to see the day when the recovery of such treasure was regarded as feasible. In 1889 appeared the prospectus of the Aboukir Bay Company for recovering the treasure sunk in the 'L'Orient,' destroyed by Nelson at the Nile.

214

Ibid.

215

File in possession of the writer. The British Museum, so rich in other respects, does not embrace the Courier for 1798-9.

216

Castlereagh Correspondence, ii. 94-6.

217

Howell's State Trials, xxvii. 1194-1243.

218

John Wolcot is a rare name. All have heard of John Wolcot, well known as 'Peter Pindar,' the merciless assailant of George the Third.

219

The intercepted memorial from Morres to the French Government, preserved in the Castlereagh Papers (ii. 96), urges: 'In case of future attempts on Ireland on the part of France, the province of Munster, which abounds in good havens, and whose men are the best republicans in Ireland, is the point to be looked to.' The capture of Cork is proposed, i. 295.

220

See Appendix, 'James Tandy.'

221

Cornwallis Papers, iii. 284.

222

See memoir of Blackwell in Cox's Irish Magazine of Neglected Biography for 1811, p. 32.

223

Life of Napoleon.

224

English in Ireland, iii. 488.

225

Appeal to the Public, by James Tandy (Dublin, 1807), p. 108, 2nd ed. Halliday Pamphlets, vol. 915, R.I.A.

226

This is probably the same Mr. Elliot (see ante, p. 77) who states that instructions had been sent to have Tandy arrested on the neutral ground of Hamburg. Elliot, who applied the term 'insignificant' to Tandy, must have read the informer's letter (since published in the Castlereagh Papers, pp. 405-9), where Tandy is described, among other contemptuous epithets, as 'insignificant'! Elliot is styled in the Castlereagh Papers, 'Military Secretary to Lord Cornwallis, the Viceroy.' 'Cornwallis Elliot' is a favourite name in the St. Germans family. Tandy addresses his assailant merely as 'Mr. Elliot.' The Elliots formed a powerful diplomatic coterie.

227

Elliot, writing to Lord Castlereagh, says: 'The Americans absolutely refuse to admit the Irish traitors into their territories' (Castlereagh Papers, i. 405, 411, 413, 415, 421). This is the letter which refers to the contemplated arrest of Tandy at the Hague, and in it he further says: 'I have begged Pelham to come to London immediately.' Succeeding letters describe Elliot and Pelham closeted together at various places.

228

The Society of United Irishmen had no treasonable design when first formed, as the following letter admitting the O'Conor Don would almost in itself convey.

Tandy writes to Charles O'Connor from Dublin, December 8, 1791: —

229

Bingham's Correspondence of Napoleon, ii. 96. (Chapman and Hall, 1884.)

230

Castlereagh Correspondence, i. 282.

231

Lord Edward Fitzgerald died on June 4, 1798.

232

Castlereagh Correspondence, i. 270-309.

233

Castlereagh Correspondence, ii. 265.

234

Letter of Sir A. Wellesley to the Duke of Portland: dated 'Holyhead, June 19, 1808.' Civil Correspondence of the Duke of Wellington (Ireland), pp. 454-5.

235

Life of Reynolds, by his Son, ii. 153.

236

Newry had been Turner's home.

237

History of Belfast, p. 478.

238

Immediately after the rebellion Downshire received 52,500l., nominally as compensation for borough seats. The magnitude of the sum has excited historic surprise; but in making this payment other services were, no doubt, weighed, including the timely information of which Turner made him the channel.

239

Before the Secret Committee of the House of Lords, 1798.

240

See Life of Pitt, ante, p. 36.

241

Account of S.S. Money applied in detecting Treasonable Conspiracies per affidavit of Mr. Cooke.

242

Vide Irish Correspondence, p. 386.

243

The original of 'The Exile of Erin' was said to be an obscure democrat named McCann; but it is just as likely to have been that finished actor, Turner himself. So prominent and conversable a man must have been well known to Thomas Campbell, then a strong Radical, and who, as he tells us, wrote the 'Exile,' at Altona, near Hamburg, in 1801; and it suggests conflicting emotions to speculate as to how far the figure of Turner, in his slouched hat, gazing wistfully from the beach, in search of prey, may have influenced the beautiful idea of the poet: —