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Secret Service Under Pitt. William J. Fitz-Patrick
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isbn 4064066153380
Автор произведения William J. Fitz-Patrick
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We have seen that when severely tried he resorted to snuff. He had other small consolations. Even in his irons he talked irony. One of several letters of protest addressed by the priest to Portland, shortly before his death, tells him that he is 'one of his Grace's envoys to the other world, charged with tidings of his mild and merciful administration.'
As O'Coigly's memory has been all but beatified as a martyr's, it is due to the interests of historic truth to add—especially after the remarks of Lord Holland—the following from a letter written by Arthur O'Connor in 1842:—
Though there was not legal evidence to prove that the paper found in Coigly's coat-pocket was Coigly's, yet, the fact is, it was his, and was found in his riding-coat; for when the five prisoners were brought to Bow Street, a report was spread that the papers taken on the prisoners were lost; for the first time Coigly said it was fortunate the papers were lost, for that there was one in his pocket that would hang them all. He never made a secret to his fellow-prisoners that he got that paper from a London society. In my memoirs I will clear up this point.
O'Connor's promised work, however, never appeared.
As regards Dutton, the witness who swore to O'Coigly's handwriting, his subsequent career was cast on a spot also frequented by Turner.[63] He is found at Cuxhaven, not very far from Hamburg, and, until 1840, holding office in its postal and diplomatic departments, and the husband of a lady well connected.[64] Cuxhaven, as gazetteers record, was from 1795 a place of the utmost importance for the maintenance of intercourse between England and the Continent.
FOOTNOTES:
[39] The English in Ireland, iii. 312.
[40] Allen, a draper's assistant in Dublin, afterwards a colonel in the service of France.
[41] Report of the Secret Committee, p. 31. (Dublin, 1798.)
[42] Life of the Reverend James Coigly, p. 28. (London, 1798.) Halliday Collection, R.I.A., vol. 743.
[43] The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
[44] The Home Secretary.
[45] Camden to Portland, March 1, 1798. English in Ireland, iii. 310.
[46] Portland to Camden, March 7, 1798.
[47] In O'Connor's valise were found 900l., a military uniform, and some papers relating to Lord Edward Fitzgerald.—W. J. F.
[48] Life of Thomas Reynolds, by his Son. (London, 1839.)
[49] For proofs of the intimacy between Reinhard and Turner at Hamburg, see Castlereagh Papers, i. 277 et seq.; and my chapter on McNevin, infra.
[50] In August, 1798, Humbert and 900 Frenchmen arrived in Killala Bay.
[51] 'The person' is the name by which Downshire's friend, the betrayer, is usually styled in the letters from the Home Office to Dublin Castle. The words, 'while he was in this country,' show that he had left England, as Downshire's friend admittedly did, in panic.
[52] 'I.e. in October 1797, when he called upon Downshire; and again in March 1798, when Portland offered him large sums if he would openly prosecute.'
[53] Mr. Lecky describes this arrest, and rather suggests that it may have been due to Higgins in Dublin (vide viii. 55). The above evidence points surely to the Hamburg spy.
[54] See Castlereagh Papers, i. 231–6.
[55] Of course one of Turner's many aliases. See p. 97, infra.
[56] Castlereagh Correspondence, ii. 1–7.
[57] Ibid. i. 178.
[58] Dutton, on his examination, said that he had sworn in Ireland against one 'Lowry.' This is the man whom Turner, in his letters, constantly points to. Dutton admitted that he had previously sworn secrecy to the Society of United Irishmen, but the oath had been sworn only on a spelling-book.
[59] Trial of Arthur O'Connor and James Quigley at Maidstone. Howell's State Trials, vols. xxvi. and xxvii.
[60] Foulkes was the attorney whom Lawless engaged to defend O'Coigly. Lord Cloncurry, in his Memoirs, writes very inaccurately of the facts. He says that the arrests took place at Whitstable, instead of Margate, and that O'Coigly was hanged on May 7, whereas he should have written June. See p. 67.
[61] Memoirs of the Whig Party. By Lord Holland, afterwards a Cabinet Minister.
[62] Froude's English in Ireland, iii. 321.
[64] In the Pelham MSS. is a letter signed Frederick Dutton, regarding his Vice-Consulate, and dated Dec. 19, 1825.
CHAPTER IV
THE BETRAYER'S INTERVIEW WITH TALLEYRAND
The