William Fitzpatrick - Secret Service Under Pitt

For proofs of the intimacy between Reinhard and Turner at Hamburg, see Castlereagh Papers , i. 277 et seq. ; and my chapter on McNevin, infra .

In August, 1798, Humbert and 900 Frenchmen arrived in Killala Bay.

'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.

' 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.'

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.

See Castlereagh Papers , i. 231-6.

Of course one of Turner's many aliases. See p. 97, infra .

Castlereagh Correspondence , ii. 1-7.

Ibid. i. 178.

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.

Trial of Arthur O'Connor and James Quigley at Maidstone. Howell's State Trials , vols. xxvi. and xxvii.

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.

Memoirs of the Whig Party. By Lord Holland, afterwards a Cabinet Minister.

Froude's English in Ireland , iii. 321.

See p. 31, infra .

In the Pelham MSS. is a letter signed Frederick Dutton, regarding his Vice-Consulate, and dated Dec. 19, 1825.

See Castlereagh Papers , i. 251. See also chapter vii. of the present volume.

Froude, iii. 301.

See M. de Talleyrand , par M. de Villemarest, ch. viii.; Hist. du Directoire , par M. de Barante, liv. iv.

Of infidelity to the rebel cause.

Mr. Froude, speaking of 'the second arrest of two of the leading committees of Belfast,' says (iii. 237) that 'Lake seized papers which revealed the correspondence with France, the extent of the revolutionary armament, and the measures taken for the seduction of the army and militia. The papers were sent to Dublin and were laid before a secret committee.' See also correspondence in re McNevin's Memorial, ch. vii. infra .

The spy sought to deceive the French Government in this report. The Cromwellian Settlers never thought of joining the United Irishmen. One of Turner's objects seems to have been to get a written undertaking from Talleyrand that the estates of these Settlers should be left intact, and money sent to promote an alleged treasonable conspiracy of Cromwellian Settlers against England, but which, in point of fact, did not exist. The Ulster Presbyterians were, no doubt, rebels; but these men were the descendants, not of the Cromwellian adventurers, but of King James's Planters.

This phrase is assigned to Talleyrand by Harel in the Nain Jaune ; but the thought had been previously expressed by another bishop, i. e. Jeremy Taylor.

The contractions 'he'd' and 'sha'n't' are entirely consistent with Turner's 'you'll' in the letter to Downshire, transcribed by me from the Pelham MSS. See p. 50, infra ; also Turner's acknowledged letter to Cooke, p. 97.

This alternate blowing of hot and cold worked its end. A long letter from the Home Office furnishing secret items to Dublin Castle goes on to say ( Castlereagh , ii. 361): 'Lewins had often complained that the conduct of the French Government had been hitherto so indecisive with respect to Ireland that all their projects had naturally failed.' However, it was admitted by Talleyrand that 'Ireland was the only vulnerable part of the British Empire.'

The Cabinet, Mr. Froude says, was kept in utter ignorance of his name, and in the most secret despatches of the Home Office he is known only as 'Lord Downshire's friend.' These precautions will remind us of the cipher of the Louvais despatches, which has hitherto baffled all efforts to identify the Man in the Iron Mask.

The narrative of Edward J. Newell – the spy who turned against his employers – states (London, 1798, p. 59) that he was asked to give information 'against Charles Rankin and others for high treason.'

Our spy often refers to Rankin and others of Belfast: 'He [the betrayer] had fled with others from Belfast at the general dispersion of the leaders,' writes Mr. Froude, iii. 280.

Whatever he knew of Lord Edward Fitzgerald is told in the first letter. See pp. 5, 6, ante .

This was Henri Grégoire, the celebrated Bishop of Blois – a most influential member of the National Convention, and afterwards of the Council of Five Hundred. The aplomb of our spy in hailing such men as friends will be appreciated. Grégoire was a cautious man, who voted against the divorce of Napoleon and Joséphine, and opposed the Emperor's marriage with Marie-Thérèse. During the 'Reign of Terror,' when urged to follow the Archbishop of Paris and abjure his priestly duties, he refused. B. 1750, d. 1831.

Stone, see p. 33 infra .

Duckett, an Irish rebel agent, falsely suspected by Tone of being a spy, will figure in chapter x.

See p. 110 infra .

Possibly John Jeffrey, brother of Francis. He was a Scotchman, and usually resided in America ( Life of Jeffrey , by Lord Cockburn, i. 50). How completely a Republican spirit possessed him is shown by his brother's letters to him in 1797, beginning 'My dear Citizen' (ii. 30 et seq. ). The subsequent Lord Jeffrey was also a democrat, and his movements may have been shadowed, as those of Coleridge notoriously were.

See Froude, iii. 283, or ante .

Compare letter from 'Castlereagh to Wickham,' p. 44 ante .

Mémoires de Sainte-Hélène.

The precise and careful wording is that of a lawyer, which Turner was.

Mr. J. P. Prendergast, in his Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland , prints, from original MSS., a 'list of adventurers for land in Ireland' (p. 417). Among them we find: 'Samuel Turner of London, merchant taylor, £200.' 'Richard Turner, senior and junior, taylors, £200.' These persons are also found subscribing the same sum, he adds, as 'adventurers, for the sea-service' (p. 417). The hereditary feelings and predilections of a Cromwellian Settler can be traced in the letter to Talleyrand.