man of the name of Cockayne. At the beginning of the French revolution he went over to France, where he resided for several years, and recommended himself to the revolutionary authorities as a man of political information and talent. He was now destined to be the first agent in those negociations between the French government and the Irish patriots which fill so important a place in the history of the ensuing years, and the first victim of that infamous spy system which was beginning to develope itself as a leading feature in the Irish policy of government. Early in 1794, Jackson was sent to England as a secret envoy from the Comité de Salut Public, instructed to inquire into and report upon the political condition and temper of Great Britain and Ireland, with especial reference to the probabilities of popular support in the event of a French invasion of propagandism and fraternity. On his arrival in London, he opened the object of his mission to Cockayne. Cockayne, judging that the trade of government spy and informer was a safer and more lucrative business than treason, revealed the whole matter without delay to Mr. Pitt, and received the minister's instructions to attend Jackson to Ireland as a spy (a king's messenger going with them as a second spy on both), to aid and abet all his projects until they should be sufficiently matured to amount to legal treason, and to draw as many of the patriots as possible within the meshes of the law. The object of Mr. Pitt, as the progress of the affair showed, was less to detect treason for the sake of prevention or suppression, than to create it for the uses of a policy of terrorism; it was not to watch and check the machinations of one man, but to manufacture the discontents of many into a conspiracy that might be available for strengthening the hands of government. The proceeding was, as a recent writer calls it, a voyage of discovery in search of treason, under the superintendence of Mr. Pitt, who allowed his emissary to proceed to Ireland, not to detect a conspiracy, but to form one, and thus increase the dupes of one party and the victims of the other-a singular instance of perfidy and cruelty.'

66

Our Voyagers landed in Ireland on the 1st of April, 1794. Their discoveries were of less importance and extent than their employer probably expected. The result clearly shows that, whatever vague hopes and dim prospective anticipations might have begun to dawn on the minds of certain leaders of the patriots, there did not exist in Ireland at this time any such thing as a French party, seeking domestic revolution through foreign intervention. Jackson's mission was unexpected by the popular leaders; his very name was unknown to them; he had not even an introduction to any individual of note or influence; and his overtures were received, for the most part, with suspicion and distrust. His only political acquaintance in Ireland was one Mr. Leonard M‘Nally, a barrister and flaming United Irish patriot; through whom alone he was enabled to effect that limited amount of mischief of which his visit was productive. It is not necessary to recount all the details of this wretchedly weak and foolish business; the patriotic dinings at M'Nally's house, where Cockayne would pretend to be asleep (only the shrewd footman could see "the glistening of his eyes through his fingers") while the guests were warming into treason over their winet-the prison colloquies with Rowan-the proposals

* "Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Right Hon. Henry Grattan," vol. iv., p. 165. + See "Life of Curran," vol. i., p. 289. From a manuscript note in Rowan's copy of Emmet's and Macneven's "Pieces of Irish History," it appears that Lord Edward

of a French embassy to Tone-the intercepted letters of Jackson to his employers, &c. The result of one month's labour was that, on the 28th of April, Jackson was committed to Newgate on a charge of high treason; Tone retired to his house in the country, to write historic memoirs, while his aristocratic friends were negociating with the government to get him permission to leave Ireland as soon as he could arrange his affairs; Rowan escaped from prison; and Mr. M'Nally was found, on his death some years afterwards, to have been for a considerable time in the enjoyment of a yearly pension from government of 3007.*

From various causes, Jackson's trial did not take place until a year after his commitment. It is but just to say that during the whole of this period he was treated with every possible indulgence, and was allowed the free enjoyment of the society of his friends. At length, on the 23rd of April, 1795, he was tried, and convicted on Cockayne's evidence. It is worth noting that this trial, the first for high treason that had taken place in Ireland during more than a century, established a precedent of portentous significance for the legal history of the following years-viz., that, in Ireland, one witness was sufficient to convict of high treason. As the act of 7 William III., requiring two witnesses in cases of treason, did not extend to that country, the point remained to be decided on the principles of common law; with a dictum of Lord Coke on one side, and counter dicta of Judge Foster and Sergeant Hawkins on the other. It was at the expense of poor Jackson that this nice question was set at rest.‡

A week after his conviction, on the 30th of April, 1795, Jackson was brought up for judgment; when a scene ensued, equalling, in dramatic strangeness and horror, anything that is to be found in the Causes Célèbres.

"On the morning of the 30th of April, as one of his counsel was proceeding to court, he met in the streets a person warmly attached to the government of the day. The cir cumstance is trivial, but it marks the party spirit that prevailed, and the manner in which it was sometimes expressed: 'I have (said he) just seen your client, Jackson, pass by on his way to the King's Bench to receive sentence of death. I always said he was a coward, and I find I was not mistaken; his fears have made him sick-as the coach drove by, I observed him, with his head out of the window, vomiting violently.' The other hurried on to the court, where he found his client supporting himself against the dock. His frame was in a state of violent perturbation, but his mind was still collected. He beckoned to his counsel to approach him, and making an effort to squeeze him

Fitzgerald was marked out as one of Cockayne's victims; but he declined to hold any conversation on the subject. See Madden's "United Irishmen," Second Series, vol. ii., p. 44. * Dr. Madden ("United Irishmen," vol. i., pp. 206-7) mentions this and other instances in which the government adopted the nefarious policy of pensioning the legal advisers of the United Irishmen.

The following anecdote is highly honourable to him :-" A short time before his trial, one of his friends remained with him to a late hour of the night. When he was about to depart, Mr. Jackson accompanied him as far as the place where the gaoler usually waited upon such occasions, until all his prisoners' visitors should have retired. They found the gaoler in a profound sleep, and the keys of the prison lying beside him. 'Poor fellow!' said Mr. Jackson, taking up the keys, let us not disturb him; I have already been too troublesome to him in this way.' He proceeded with his friend to the outer door of the prison, which he opened. Here the facility of escaping naturally struck him. He became deeply agitated; but, after a moment's pause, I could do it,' said he, but what would be the consequences to you, and to the poor fellow who has been so kind to me? No! let me rather meet my fate.' He said no more; but, locking the prison door again, returned to his apartment."-"Life of Curran," vol. i., p. 275.

6

The law of the two countries has since been assimilated, by an act introduced by the late Lord Holland.

with his damp and nerveless hand, uttered in a whisper, and with a smile of mournful triumph, the dying words of Pierre,

"We have deceived the senate.'

The prisoner's counsel having detected what they conceived to be a legal informality in the proceedings, intended to make a motion in arrest of his judgment; but it would have been irregular to do so until the counsel for the crown, who had not yet appeared, should first pray the judgment of the court upon him. During this interval, the violence of the prisoner's indisposition momentarily increased, and the Chief Justice, Lord Clonmell, was speaking of remanding him, when the Attorney-General came in, and called upon the court to pronounce judgment upon him. Accordingly, the Rev. William Jackson was set forward,' and presented a spectacle equally shocking and affecting. His body was in a state of profuse perspiration; when his hat was removed, a dense steam was seen to ascend from his head and temples; minute and irregular movements of convulsion were passing to and fro upon his countenance; his eyes were nearly closed, and, when at intervals they opened, discovered by the glare of death upon them, that the hour of dissolution was at hand. When called on to stand up before the Court, he collected the remnant of his force to hold himself erect; but the attempt was tottering and imperfect: he stood rocking from side to side, with his arms, in the attitude of firmness, crossed over his breast, and his countenance strained by a last proud effort into an expression of elaborate composure. In this condition he faced all the anger of the offended law, and the more confounding gazes of the assembled crowd. The clerk of the crown now ordered him to hold up his right hand. The dying man disentangled it from the other, and held it up, but it instantly dropped again. Such was his state, when, in the solemn simplicity of the language of the law, he was asked, 'What he had now to say, why judgment of death and execution thereon should not be awarded against him, according to law?' Upon this Mr. Curran rose, and addressed some arguments to the court in arrest of judgment. A legal discussion of considerable length ensued. The condition of Mr. Jackson was all this while becoming worse. Mr. Curran proposed that he should be remanded, as he was in a state of body that rendered any communication between him and his counsel impracticable: Lord Clonmell thought it lenity to the prisoner to dispose of the question as speedily as possible. The windows of the court were thrown open to relieve him, and the discussion was renewed; but the fatal group of death-tokens were now collecting fast around him; he was evidently in the final agony. At length while Mr. Ponsonby, who followed Mr. Curran, was urging further reasons for arresting the judgment, their client sunk in the dock."*

The conclusion of this frightful scene is given as follows, in Ridgway's Report of the Trial (London, 1795) :

"Lord Clonmell:-'If the prisoner is in a state of insensibility, it is impossible that I can pronounce the judgment of the Court upon him. If Foster had not mentioned a like instance (the case of an old woman brought up at the Old Bailey) humanity and common sense would require that he should be in a state of sensibility.'

"Attorney-General:- On that ground I have no objection to his being re

manded.'

*

*

"Here the prisoner becoming perfectly insensible, Dr. Thomas Waite, who was present in the court, was desired to go into the dock to him. He, after some examination, informed the Court, there was every apprehension he would go off immediately.'

"Mr. Thomas Kinsley, who was in the jury-box, said he would go down to him; he accordingly went into the dock and in a short time informed the Court that the prisoner was certainly dying.

"The Court ordered Mr. Kinsley to be sworn.-He was sworn accordingly.
"Lord Clonmell: Are you in any profession?'

"Mr. Kinsley: 'I am an apothecary and druggist.'

“Lord Clonmell :—'Can you say you understand your profession sufficiently, so as to speak of the state of the prisoner?'

"Mr. Kinsley: I can. I think him verging to eternity; he has every symptom of

death about him.'

"Lord Clonmell: 'Do you conceive him insensible, or in that state as to be able to hear the judgment, or what may be said for or against him?'

*"Life of Curran," vol. i., pp. 277-281.

"Mr. Kinsley: 'Quite the contrary. I do not think he can hear his judgment.' "Lord Clonmell: Then he must be taken away. Take care, in sending him away, that you do not any mischief. Let him be remanded until further orders.' "The Sheriff informed the court that the prisoner was dead.

"Lord Clonmell: Let an inquisition, and a respectable one, be held on the body. You should carefully inquire when and by what means he died.'"

The court then adjourned; the body of the prisoner remaining in the dock, unmoved from the position in which he had expired, until the following day, when an inquest was held. A large quantity of poison was found in his stomach. It appeared in evidence that, on the morning of his being brought up for judgment, the wretched man had taken arsenic and aquafortis in his tea. The verdict of the jury spared the insults which law then awarded to the felo de se. There was a splendid funeral, attended by several barristers and members of parliament.

We know not of anything in history, or in fiction, more sternly terrible and tragic than this: dry points and precedents of law debated in presence of a man in the agonies of a hideous death-writs and captions learnedly discoursed on, while arsenic and aquafortis were in active service of a process unknown to the law books-motion for arrest of judgment argued with nicest legal casuistry, while the culprit was already far on his way out of reach of all judgment except one-a dead man remanded until further orders.

The prosecution of Rowan and the treason of Jackson give significant indication of the ripening of events towards their crisis. On the one side, the packing of juries, the hiring of evidence, and the employing of spies and informers to manufacture crime for ministerial uses; on the other, agitation turning into conspiracy, and French connexion substituted for conventions of Volunteer delegates; these are the new elements which, from the year 1794, begin to develope themselves in the distracted world of Irish politics. Both parties are drawing closer to each other, coming to a clearer understanding of the real practical question between them, taking their ground, marshalling and recruiting their forces, and getting ready for the ultimatum of rebellion and civil war.

On the 4th of May, in this year, the Dublin police visited Taylor's Hall in Back Lane-where the United Irish meetings had succeeded to those of the Catholic Convention-dispersed the assembled patriots, seized their papers, and dissolved the first Society of United Irishmen. When we hear of "United Irishmen" again, it will be not of agitators but of conspirators. In place of strong resolutions and eloquent addresses, we shall have illegal oaths, secret pass-words, military reports, midnight drillings, French correspondence, and all the other apparatus of incipient rebellion.

CHAPTER IX.

A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE-EARL FITZWILLIAM AND CONCILIATIONGENEROUS CREDULITY OF THE IRISH PEOPLE-DOUBTS AND FEARS -THE RECALL.

The 4th of January saw

THE year 1795 opened brightly for Ireland. the arrival at Dublin Castle of a liberal and honest Lord Lieutenant-the friend of Burke and Grattan, the political ally and colleague of the Duke of Portland, the nephew of the Marquis of Rockingham-a man of known integrity and kind-heartedness, and far-going liberal opinions, whose name was itself a pledge of a thorough change of men and measures in all departments of the state. Rumour positively affirmed-what EARL FITZWILLIAM's acceptance of office sufficiently implied—that he came over as the minister-plenipotentiary of peace and justice, emancipation and reform; empowered to give to the Catholics religious equality, to the whole Irish people just and paternal government. In particular, it was known that the leaders of the Liberal party in parliament had been sent for to England the previous autumn, to assist, with their suggestions and advice, in the new arrangement of the Irish ministry-that Grattan had been closeted with Mr. Pitt on the Catholic question (by special desire, not of the patriot, but of the minister)-and that the result of the interview was considered satisfactory. On the whole, it seemed to be an understood thing, that the Catholics were to receive the last instalment of their emancipation, immediately on demand; and it was presumed that the rest of the new policy of which the new Viceroy was the representative, would be pervaded by the same spirit of justice to Ireland.

Earl Fitzwilliam was received with enthusiastic delight by all classes and parties of the people-the extreme ascendency bigots, and the ultras of the discomfited and dispersed United Irishmen, alone excepted. Addresses of congratulation poured in from all the principal cities and towns of the kingdom; which addresses the Viceroy answered in as explicit language, on the subject of popular government in general, and the Catholic claims in particular, as was consistent with the decorum of viceregal etiquette. All Ireland rejoiced, with a unanimity which it had not known for thirteen years past, at the return to power of the men of 1782. Not one Protestant corporation-scarcely one individual-came forward to interpose objections to the expected emancipation and reform, which were to complete at last the work that the Volunteers had left imperfect. Everything looked bright and full of promise. By this mission of Earl Fitzwilliam, Mr. Pitt had ensured the speedy and entire pacification of Ireland-if he meant to keep faith with Ireland; if not, it was a master-piece of perfidy and incendiarism, a provocative of rebellion, of more stimulant efficacy than the whole penal code together.

The opening of parliament (22nd of January) was full of happy augury for the character and work of the session. The viceregal speech did not, it is true, say a great deal, but there was a tone of unwonted earnestness and heartiness even in its generalities; and it had one paragraph in par