Dowdall, in Dublin, who was Colonel Despard's agent ; namely, that some preparation had been begun there, to second the Colonel's effort. Information of Dowdall's proceedings, on the other hand, had reached the refugees in Paris, by whom Robert Emmet was sent to Dublin to ascertain the state of things then. He fell into the hands of men, by whom he was advised to go on with the necessary preparations for an effectual rising, with a solemn promise of every assistance in money and advice. Mr. Emmet came over first, Hamilton next came, and Quigley about the same time. Hamilton was sent back

to Paris, to bring over Russell, who came over immediately; and I soon was placed in close communication with him. Mr. Emmet, soon after his arrival, had lodgings at Harold's Cross, in the house in which he was ultimately taken, after having quitted Butterfield-lane. Both Emmet and Russell were strongly opposed to the party called 'foreign aid men,' and I had been so from the beginning.

"Situated as the Irish exiles were in Paris, they were easily duped into a fresh struggle, by the information they received from some of the higher order in Ireland, who had some suspicion of what was going on, but no precise knowledge of the design.

"Some persons in connection with Talleyrand in 1802, gave the Irish refugees to understand that Buonaparte was in treaty with the British government to banish them from France, their residence there not being considered favourable to Buonaparte's imperial views. A fabricated letter came to the north, dated from Paris, about this time, purporting to be from a captain of a French lugger, off the Giant's Causeway, having 10,000 stand of arms on board, for the service of the United Irishmen. The letter was in bad English, the paper, however, was English manufacture; it was fabricated by our enemies. The fire of 1798 was not quite extinguished, it smouldered, and was ready to break out anew. There were persons of distinction in the confidence of our leaders, who kept up communication with them in exile, and were in league with the oligarchy at home, which Russell and Emmet, from the purity of their intentions, never suspected.

"At my first interview with Mr. Emmet, on his arrival from France, he told me that 'some of the first men of the land had invited him over;' he asked me my opinion, was I for an ap

peal to arms?' I replied 'I was.' After some further conversation, he said, 'his plan was formed.'

"On my second interview with Mr. Emmet, he told me he would require my constant assistance, and said that two stores were taken, and workmen had been selected. Mr. Emmet engaged in this attempt in consequence of promises from the upper ranks, of assistance to make the preparation general over the island; when money failed, however, treachery in the upper ranks began to appear, as in all former struggles. No money was forthcoming, and Mr. Emmet had no alternative but to shut the stores and discharge the men, which must be attended with the worst consequences, or go to work with what resources he had, which, if properly directed, were fully sufficient to take the city and castle of Dublin.

“On making a remark to Mr. Emmet respecting the defection of Colonel Plunket, he said, 'there were many who professed to serve a cause with life and fortune, but, if called on to redeem their pledge, would contrive to do it with the lives and fortunes of others; for my part,' said he, 'my fortune is now committed, the promises of many whose fortunes are considerable are committed likewise, but their means have not been, as yet, forthcoming. If I am defeated by their conduct, the fault is not mine; even my defeat will not save the system which I oppose, but the time will come when its greatest advocates cannot live under the weight of its iniquity, until which time, my reasons for the present attempt will not be fully understood, except by the few who serve, and may suffer, with me. The elements of dissolution are gathering round the system by which these three islands are governed, and the Pitt system will accelerate its fall.'

'Having been Mr. Emmet's constant attendant for some months, on our way from the Depot in Dublin, to his house in Butterfield-lane, many conversations of this kind have passed, and many things that I learned from him are sealed up by his last request. In conversing on the state of the country, I expressed an opinion to Mr. Emmet on the subject of the rights of the people in relation to the soil, which, until they were recognized, it would be in vain to expect that the north would be unanimous. On expressing this opinion at some length to Mr. Emmet, his answer was, 'I would rather die than live to witness the calamities which that course would bring on help

less families; let that be the work of others, it shall never be mine. Corruption must exhaust its means, before equity can establish even its most reasonable claims.'

"Russell and Hamilton were of Mr. Emmet's opinion on that subject. This conspiracy,' said Russell, 'IS THE WORK OF THE ENEMY, we are now in the vortex, if we can swim ashore let it not be through innocent blood, if the people are true to themselves, we have an overwhelming force, if otherwise, we fall and our lives will be a sufficient sacrifice.' 'One grand point,' said Mr. Emmet, at least will be gained. No leading Catholic is committed with us, we are all Protestants, and their cause will not be compromised.' Shortly after the preceding conversation, I was ordered to go with Russell to the north, a week before the outbreak, and on the following morning Russell and I left Mr. Emmet's house before day. When I left Dublin, Arthur Develin was appointed in my place to attend Mr. Emmet. There was a gentleman from Cork, and also one from the County Meath, in Mr. Emmet's company the day before we left him.*

"Mr. Emmet's great object was to attack the castle, and make hostages of the Viceroy and officers of government, but the Kildare men were the only men who were at hand; there was a party of Wexford men, under M- B- † (now in France,) at Ringsend, or the neighbourhood of it. Mr. Emmet relied too much on the north when he sent Russell there. The man who was to supply my place, and entrusted with the arrangements between the people of Dublin, and those who were expected from Wicklow, was sent to communicate with Dwyer, but that man remained at Rathfarnham, and his doing so, caused all the plans to fail, for instead of the organized party which was expected, a body of stragglers only appeared in Thomas-street, who killed Lord Kilwarden, and a Clergy

*

Hope says the only two persons of distinction he saw at Emmet's were Mr. Fitzgerald, the brother of the Knight of Glin, and a nobleman, Lord W- the son of a Marquis, who, subsequently, in the county of Meath, offered him, through his steward, the means of leaving the country, which Hope declined to accept.

John Henry, Earl of W., born, 1765, succeeded to the title of Marquis of L. May the 7th, 1805, his Lordship married the widow of D- G, of Castle Jordan, county of Meath in 1805; died without issue November 15, 1809. In 1803 the Earl of W, was 39 years of age. + General Byrne,

man, named Wolfe, (whom they should only have detained as prisoners ;) and Mr. Emmet seeing nothing but disorder, and having no communication with any regular body, some of whom remained all night under arms, he, with a few friends, returned to Rathfarnham, and the people shifted for themselves. The reason he went to Rathfarnham was, that he had despatched the messenger, (Arthur Develin,) to Dwyer in the Wicklow mountains, and expected him by day-light, but Dwyer got no intelligence until he heard of the defeat, or rather miscarriage of Emmet's attempts on Dublin. Arthur Develin

was a relative of Dwyer's, and went with him to Botany Bay. Another man, a cousin of his, named Michael Dwyer, had been likewise sent on a message to Dwyer, and he also neglected his orders, he pretended to go, and stopped near Dublin.

"In the several Depots there were to my knowledge no less than forty men employed, only three or four of whom became traitors, and that not till their own lives were in danger. The men behaved with the greatest prudence, none seeming to wish to know more than concerned their own department, each man's duty was kept separate and secret from the other. I was first attached to the Rocket Depot, in Patrick-street, and then had to superintend the ammunition in its making up and delivery, and the transporting arms and gunpowder to the country. Barney Duggan was chiefly an out-door emissary, employed in carrying on communications. I was in the habit of calling on Mr. Emmet when I wanted instructions through the day, and reporting progress at night. Mr. Emmet had arranged with H. Howley to take the store in Thomas-street in the name of the latter. In this store the pikes, fire-arms, and various implements of war were deposited. M'Intosh, a Scotchman, about forty years of age, took the house in Patrickstreet as another store, for the rockets, grenades, and a depot for gunpowder.*

*The Dublin papers, of the 4th of October, 1803, state, that John M'Intosh, lately convicted of high treason, was executed in Patrickstreet, opposite the Depot, of which he had the charge. The London Chronicle of October, 8, 1810, states that "he made a very important communication to the Sheriff Pounden, in consequence of which Major Sirr repaired to M'Intosh's former residence, (I presume the house which was the Depot in Patrick-street,) where he discovered a concealed door, artfully formed by bricks built in a frame, plastered over to resemble the adjoining wall, which was covered with shelves, and

"Michael M'Daniel, a dyer by trade, who had some chemical knowledge, made the rockets. It was by his misconduct the explosion took place in Patrick-street. He was arrested in Wicklow, in November, 1803, and sent up from Rathdrum to Dublin. The Depot of Robert Emmet, Marshalsea-lane, was at the rear of the Bull Inn, kept by Mrs. Dillon, (on the right hand side of a court off Thomas-street, between the numbers 138 and 139). There was a private entrance to the Depot from this inn; the chief entrance was from Marshalsealane.*

Owen Kirwan," says Hope, was a tailor by trade, a dealer likewise in cast-off clothes, and lived in Plunket-strcet. Information was given against him by a neighbour, who appeared as a witness against him. When under sentence, his wife went to the jail to take leave of him. They were a very good-looking couple, and both of them devoted to the cause for which the former was then suffering imprisonment, and soon suffered on the scaffold. The wife was heard saying to her husband, at parting with him, in reference, probably, to some proposal made to him, 'Owen, dear, I hope you will never disgrace your name and your family.' The young woman was dashed away with great violence, without giving her leave to say another word. The husband stripped off his coat, and threw it to his wife at the door of the cell, saying to her, 'Sell that for something for our children.' He appeared at the place of execution without a coat. His body was given up to the family. His wife, by her industry, contrived to rear turned upon hinges and castors. Upon opening this door a tier of closet rooms appeared communicating by trap doors and scaling ladders through the different stories of the house, they were spacious enough to conceal forty men, and were provided with air holes communicating with the outer wall. In these rooms were found from 300 to 400 pikes of a peculiar construction, having an iron hinge at about half their length, by which they doubled up, and though when extended they were six feet long, yet by this contrivance it was possible to carry one of them undiscovered under a man's coat. A quantity of sulphur was likewise found, and every appearance of much more serious preparations having gone forward in the house. Major Sirr brought away the door as a curiosity, it now lies at his office in the castle.".

*There is a small room in the house which was the Bull Inn, on the ground floor, where Robert Emmet was in the habit of writing, and in that room he is said to have written his manifesto, on the eve of the 23rd of July.