ARREST OF JÄGERHORN IN LONDON--THE PLOT THICKENS--TURNER SHOT THROUGH
THE HEAD
In 1799, Turner's stealthy steps can be traced once more in London. It
will be remembered that Lord Edward Fitzgerald had met, by appointment
near Whitechapel, M. Jägerhorn, a secret envoy of France, and gave
him, in full detail, information regarding every point on which that
agent had been charged to inquire. Jägerhorn was 'the estimable Swede'
named by Reinhard, the French minister at Hamburg, when writing the
intercepted letter. This document, dated July 12, the editor of the
'Castlereagh Papers' assigns to the year 1798;[231] but as Lord Edward
was dead at that time,[232] it must belong to the previous year. Other
secret missives were sent to Dublin at the same time by the Home
Office, in order to guide the course of the Irish Government. These
papers, filling forty pages of the book,[233] were the result of a
successful stroke of espionage at Hamburg.
M. Jägerhorn is of course the person alluded to by Mr. Froude when
describing the nocturnal visit to Lord Downshire. 'He [Lord Edward]
had been watched in London, and had been traced to the lodgings of a
suspected agent of the French Directory, and among other papers which
had been forwarded by spies to the Government, there was one in French
containing an allusion to some female friend of Lady Edward, through
whom a correspondence was maintained between Ireland and Paris.'
Hamburg was Turner's usual residence, and Jägerhorn had an estate near
that place.[234]
Although the case of M. Jägerhorn is opened in the first volume of the
'Castlereagh Papers,' and misplaced among the incidents of another
year, we do not find until far in the second the letters addressed to
him in 1797 by General Valence and Lord Edward. In 1799 Jägerhorn had
sought to renew his perilous enterprise. The same keen scent which
traced Lord Edward, in 1797, to the lodgings of the confidential envoy
in London, was once more on his track. Wickham, writing from the Home
Office on March 28, 1799, has news for Castlereagh in Dublin: 'I have
the satisfaction to inform your lordship that we have secured M.
Jägerhorn, who was coming over here on a mission similar to that which
he undertook some two years since, when he met Lord Edward Fitzgerald
in London.'
A full report is given of Jägerhorn's examination, in which he is
asked: 'Were you not charged to deliver to Lord Edward Fitzgerald a
letter from somebody?' and he replied, 'Madame Matthiessen.' This was
the lady, nearly connected with Lady Edward, and alluded to by Mr.
Froude as a name found in secret papers. He is further questioned
about Lord Edward, Lady Lucy, General Valence, and a number of other
persons whose names had cropped up in the interview between Turner and
Downshire; but, though the queries were searching, and Jägerhorn now
seemed completely in Pitt's power, nothing material was wrung from him.
England and Russia were at this time allied, and Jägerhorn, pretending
that he had a pension of 2,000 roubles as a spy of Russia, rather
dumb-foundered his examiners, and he at last regained his liberty. All
this is to be found, with full details, in the 'Correspondence of Lord
Castlereagh.'
The paltry sum which Turner received for his services now comes to
be considered. This man, who had every facility of access to Lady
Edward's house at Hamburg and its rebel _entourage_, held the key of a
position so incalculably important that he never himself discerned
its marketable value. Thousands would doubtless just as readily have
been paid to him as 'the cool 500_l._' that he modestly asked. 'To get
the information had cost him,' he said, 'three times that sum, and to
keep up the acquaintances and connections he had at Hamburg he could
not live on less.' 'Small profits and quick returns' seems to have been
his motto.
'Fresh evidence of the person's power to be useful,' writes Froude,
'made Pitt extremely anxious to secure his permanent help.' The
Cornwallis papers record, but without any attempt to identify him, that
the pension Samuel Turner received--dating from 1800--was but 300_l._
a year. Wellington when Irish Secretary addressed to Portland a letter
in which a present payment of 5,000_l._, and 'not more than 20,000_l._
within the year,' appears guaranteed to one nameless informer.[235]
Another case may be cited. A document placed in my hands by Sir W.
Cope, Bart., records that his grandfather was told by Under-Secretary
Cooke to stop at no sum, not even 100,000_l._, in urging Reynolds to
turn approver. Reynolds, not realising the importance of his evidence,
consented to take 5,000_l._ and 1,000_l._ a year, with the post of
British consul. The tergiversation of Reynolds did not take place until
1798, long after Turner had sold the pass.
The services of 'Downshire's friend' were more timely and, perhaps,
more valuable. He told what he knew in 1797: the names he gave of the
Executive Committee (p. 7, _ante_) proved more important than might
appear at first sight. Reynolds, it is true, gave the hint that a
Committee would be found sitting at Bond's on March 12, 1798, but he
does not seem to have disclosed names; his son says that the names were
inserted in the warrant purely 'on speculation.'[236]
As regards the more distinct whisper of Turner, the betrayal of the
Belfast Directory, at the very hour that Tone was leaving Brest with
a French fleet, proved in itself a paralysing blow, and one worth its
weight in gold. But the arm that dealt it struck from behind unseen.
However, as most of the information that Downshire's friend gave
concerned the Northern organisation, he may, perhaps, be credited with
this exploit. The loss of Ulster was the loss of the right arm of the
rebellion. Turner made his disclosures on October 8, 1797. Besides
the list of the Executive Directory, there can be no doubt that in
the information which followed he named, with others, John Hughes of
Belfast, the date and place of whose arrest tally with the presumption
that to Turner it was due. The 'History of Belfast' records: 'October
20, 1797--John Hughes, bookseller, having been apprehended _in
Newry_[237] on a charge of high treason, was brought in here escorted
by a party of light dragoons.'[238] Mr. Froude says that 'Downshire's
friend' kept him informed of everything.[239]
How well Turner knew Hughes is proved by the sworn testimony of the
latter,[240] in which he describes a breakfast in June 1797, with
Samuel Turner, Teeling, Macnevin, etc., when the fitness of the country
for an immediate rising was debated. Hughes had been a great patriot
previously, but now to save himself became a mercenary informer, and
even sought to criminate Grattan, who thereupon was dismissed from the
Privy Council, though, as Stanhope[241] admits, without just cause.
There had been no more zealous propagandist of the rebellion than
Hughes, and he names a long list of men whom he himself had sworn in
on a prayer-book. In 1802 John Hughes retired to the United States and
became a slave-owner.
Wickham's letter of June 8, 1798, enumerated, for the information
of Lord Castlereagh, a number of men whose arrests in England seem
consequent on the information furnished by Downshire's visitor. These
names include McGuckin, the attorney, who had been concerned for
O'Coigly at Maidstone. The subsequent career of this once determined
rebel, but who soon after his arrest in 1798 became a spy for the
Crown, enhances the importance of Turner's information at a great
crisis. The first recorded payment to McGuckin of secret service money
is March 5, 1799.[242] His son migrated to France, and was created a
baron by Louis Philippe.
The peril of assassination which shadowed every step made by Turner
was not adequately weighed by Pitt when estimating the value of his
services. The risk he ran was not confined to Ireland. The life of an
English spy abroad was deemed equally unsafe, and there is much reason
to fear that more than one met with short shrift. Even a successful
diplomat, if his subtlety touched French interests, could not regard
his life as safe. The disappearance of Benjamin Bathurst, a kinsman
of Earl Bathurst, has never been explained. Bathurst was sent on a
secret mission to Vienna, at the time that England before opening the
Peninsular campaign sought to persuade Austria to declare, by way of a
distraction, war against France. Austria soon after crossed the French
frontier, and Bathurst received hints of threatened personal doom.
Hoping to avoid assassination, he took a northerly route in returning
to England, and on reaching Perleberg in Brandenburg, he visited, in
his agitation, the commandant of cuirassiers, requesting that sentries
might mount guard at the inn where he stopped. These were supplied,
and Bathurst spent the day in writing and destroying letters. Shortly
before his carriage came to the door in the dark of a November evening,
he told some troopers who escorted him that they might withdraw. While
all the household was on the alert to see him off, he walked beyond the
circle of the lantern glare, and was lost to sight at the heads of the
horses. This occurred on November 25, 1809, and Bathurst was never seen
or heard of more, notwithstanding that, as we are reminded by Baring
Gould, England offered 2,000_l._ reward, and Prussia 100 Friedrichs
d'or, for the discovery even of his remains.
To trace the spy with whom these chapters mainly deal seemed, at the
outset, almost as hopeless as to find Bathurst's bones. Of all the
Government informers not one has been more ingeniously guarded from
discovery. Wellington, with all his astuteness, supposed that the fact
of a man's name appearing in the Banishment Act was conclusive evidence
against him of having been a rebel,[243] and therefore disqualified
from claiming any favour from the Crown. But had he known the secret
history of Turner's case, it would have opened his eyes. A Fugitive
Bill was passed in July 1798, enumerating the rebel leaders who had
fled from justice. In this bill we find Samuel Turner named. During
the following year Parliament was asked to lend itself to the fraud of
branding as a traitor the same Samuel Turner, by passing against him
an Act of Attainder. From 1797 he lived abroad, posing as an 'exile of
Erin.'[244]
The sealed chest in Dublin Castle which was opened a few years ago
contained the only letter I ever saw signed with Turner's name. It
related to his pension, and it was necessary to lay the mask aside
for once. We have already seen him styled Furnes, Richardson, and
especially 'Lord Downshire's friend.'[245] A new name is now adopted
to puzzle posterity. He directs that 500_l._ be lodged to the account
of 'J. Destinger,' and this sum he was to draw through a third party.
Turner's letter is addressed, not to Dublin Castle, but to Cooke in
London, that gentleman having been succeeded, as Under-Secretary for
Ireland, by Mr. Marsden.
_Rt. Honᵇˡᵉ Mr. Secretary Cooke._[246]
Hamburg: May 18, 1802.
Sir,--In consequence of letters I've had the honour of receiving
from Lord Castlereagh and Sir James Craufurd, I take the liberty of
intruding relative to a pension of 300_l._ per annum the Government
has thought proper to bestow on me for information on Irish affairs.
His lordship states that you have been so kind as to offer to pay
the pension to any person I would name as agent--or in any way I
was to propose. At present there is no person in Ireland I'd like
to trust, and till some mode is adopted, I should be extremely
obliged if you'd take the trouble of lodging in any bank in London
the sum of 500_l._ (British) on account of J. Destinger--the name I
shall draw it under--through Sir Geo. Rumbold.[247]
Now that the war is over, and it is _supposed_ all persons in my
line are discharged, I make it a point to spend much more money
than heretofore in order to do away any idea of my being employed
and income diminished, and it is for that reason I request your
attention, and beg the honour of a line through Sir George to say
where the draft is to be sent.
Hoping one day or other to merit your good opinion, I remain, most
respectfully, &c. &c.
S. TURNER.
Turner spent money freely, and often when he could ill afford it. He
had a social status to maintain: he was the son of a county magistrate;
had distinguished himself in college; belonged to an honourable
profession. He was the trustee of marriage settlements. He was 'Lord
Downshire's friend!' If he continued to wear his mask well, why might
he not aspire to attain, in America at least, the high official rank of
his late colleague and fellow-prisoner, Thomas Addis Emmet, whom she
at last honoured by a public funeral and a monument raised by national
subscription?
The 'Dublin Directory' for 1804 describes Samuel Turner's address as 58
St. Stephen's Green, in that city. The volume must have been compiled
during the previous year, and it may be that the Irish Government, in
1808, removed him to Dublin, with the object of picking the brains
of those who had been concerned in Emmet's rebellion of that year.
Until the very night of its outburst, in July 1808, the existence of a
slumbering volcano had not been suspected. After the vain attempts to
convict and hang Tandy, Turner had returned to his old quarters.[248]
The Irish Government were wholly unprepared for Emmet's revolt. No
wonder that Wickham, with the experience he had acquired, confessed
amazement that the secret should have been kept so well.
The Secretary of State cried out with astonishment to think that
such a preparation for revolution could be carried on in the very
bosom of the seat of Government, without discovery, for so long a
time, when any of the party could have made their fortunes by a
disclosure of the plot; and remarked, at the same time, in presence
of Mr. Stafford and the two Mr. Parrots, John and William, that it
was because they were mostly all mechanics, or working people, that
the thing was kept so profound; and said that if the higher orders
of society had been connected, they would divulge the plot for the
sake of gain.[249]
Turner was at once set in motion: but how? We find him put into the
same gaol with a swarm of State prisoners, many of whom had been active
in 1798. All daily met for exercise in the yard of Kilmainham Gaol, and
had every opportunity for converse. Here Robert Emmet himself had been
confined until the very day of his execution.
The execution was followed by that of several of his confederates. Let
us look back. Martial law is proclaimed; a dead calm prevails. Turner
is now traced stealthily making his way to the Secretary of State's
Office, Dublin Castle. Anxious to avoid committing himself in writing,
especially with a true signature, he seeks the safer medium of oral
communication. Mr. Marsden cannot be seen; he is engaged just then in
conference with the chief law officer of the Crown. Turner scribbles
the following and sends it in; no signature is attached, but the paper
and enclosure are endorsed, by Marsden, 'Mr. Samuel Turner':--
Understanding the Attorney-General is just with you, I take the
liberty of sending in a letter of Mr. Ball, but wish to speak on
other matters.
Sergeant Ball's letter is dated
Temple St., October 3, 1803.
I have looked into the Act of Parliament and considered in what
manner you should proceed in order to do away the effect of the
attainder thereby passed against you. Nothing short of an Act of
Parliament, reversing the former as far as it affects you, will be
sufficient to enable you to sue for your property in our courts
of justice. I think you mentioned that some other plan had been
suggested as sufficient. If you will let me know what it is, I will
give it the most attentive consideration.
How Marsden and the Attorney-General settled the difficulty, no
correspondence exists to show; but the London 'Courier' of December 5,
1803, most lucidly reveals the facts:--
On Friday last, Samuel Turner, Esq., barrister-at-law, was brought
to the bar of the Court of King's Bench, in custody of the keeper
of Kilmainham Prison, under a charge of attainder, passed in the
Irish Parliament, as one concerned in the Rebellion of the year
1798; but having shown that he was no way concerned therein, that
he had not been in the country for a year and seven months prior
to passing that Act--_i.e._ for thirteen months prior to the
rebellion--and therefore could not be the person alluded to, his
Majesty's Attorney-General confessed the same, and Mr. Turner was
discharged accordingly.[250]
The 'Dublin Evening Post' of the day states that Turner's arrest was
due simply to his indiscretion in visiting Ireland on business arising
from the death of his father.[251] But as the 'Post' in 1803 had been
subsidised by the Crown, this account was probably meant to mislead.
The Castle archives bulge with the brimful letters of its editor, H.
B. Code. Turner's committal to Kilmainham was only another act in the
great drama, one scene of which Mr. Froude has so powerfully put before
us. 'Samuel Turner, Esquire,' of imposing presence and indomitable
mien, a veteran in 'the cause,' the man who had challenged the
Commander-in-Chief, the envoy to France, the exile of Erin, the friend
of Lord Edward and Pamela, the disinherited by his father, the victim
of State persecution, now stood before his fellow-prisoners the 'Ecce
Homo' of martyrdom, commanding irresistibly their confidence.
Of his detention in Kilmainham Dr. Madden knows nothing; but he
mentions that Turner accompanied the State prisoners--nineteen in
number--to Fort George in Scotland, the final scene of their captivity.
Here Turner's work was so adroitly performed that we find a man of
incorruptible integrity suspected instead. Arthur O'Connor told John
Patten that Thomas Addis Emmet 'gave information of a letter which
O'Connor was writing, through which means Government became acquainted
with the circumstance.' A long correspondence on the subject has been
published by Madden. Emmet at last challenged O'Connor. Patten,[252]
the brother-in-law of Emmet, was told to bring a certain pair of
duelling pistols to Fort George; but, thanks to the efforts of Robert
Emmet to allay the dispute, the weapons were not used. It was Patten's
impression that Turner's machinations had set the two friends by the
ears. Although O'Connor apologised, and both parties shook hands, it is
painful to add that half a century after, when the upright Emmet had
been more than twenty years dead, O'Connor, in his book 'Monopoly,'
stigmatised him as a man of bad faith. A suspicion more baseless was
never uttered. In this book the name of his fellow-prisoner, Turner,
is not once mentioned. Indeed, the inference is that he thought well
of Turner; for O'Connor, after criticising the Catholic members of the
Directory, declares that he had much greater reliance on the _Northern_
chiefs. O'Connor, Emmet, Neilson and others were detained at Fort
George until the Peace of Amiens, and then enlarged on condition that
they should expatriate themselves for ever.[253]
In 1807 Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, entered on
his duties as Irish Secretary. A letter, dated Dublin Castle, December
5, 1807, and addressed to the Admiralty, recommends a midshipman in the
navy, Francis Turner, for promotion. 'He is the son of a Mr. Turner in
this country, who has strong claims to the favour of the Government
for the loyalty and zeal with which he conducted himself during the
rebellion in Ireland.'[254] Doubtless the new hand merely wrote in this
letter what the permanent officials prompted.[255]
Downshire, although a staunch Tory of the old school, uniformly
supported the Catholic claims. This example probably influenced his
_protégé_. O'Connell, while inculcating moral force in his struggle for
civil and religious liberty, was fond of enlisting in his bodyguard
men who in more troubled times had staked their lives and fortunes for
Ireland. He had himself been a 'United Irishman,' as will be shown. The
rebel General Clony presided as chairman at the Catholic Association.
Rowan, Teeling and 'Con' McLoughlin sat at the Council board, or stood
on the National platform. What confidence must not O'Connell have
reposed in the man who, as will appear, avowed himself ready to die for
his chief!
An aged gentleman, Patrick O'Byrne, who was born at Newry, almost under
the shadow of Turner's patrimonial gable, but who never once doubted
his fidelity to the cause in which O'Byrne himself has been no silent
ally, supplies a fact of sufficiently curious import:--
When the Orange ascendancy faction resolved to put O'Connell out of
the way [he writes], and their champion, the unfortunate D'Esterre,
horsewhip in hand, was ostentatiously parading the streets of
Dublin, accompanied by leering friends, to compel O'Connell to
fight him, Mr. Samuel Turner took up his position in a hotel where
it was known D'Esterre would go to seek O'Connell. He had not been
there long before D'Esterre and his staff entered and inquired for
O'Connell. Immediately Mr. Turner advanced and stated that his
friend Mr. O'Connell was not there, but he--Mr. Turner--was there
to represent him. No: they did not want Mr. O'Connell's friend;
the Liberator himself was the object of their search. Mr. Turner,
with the same spirit that he had challenged Lord Carhampton, now
declared that he adopted Mr. O'Connell's words, publicly uttered,
and made himself responsible for his actions. In vain; none but
O'Connell himself would serve their purpose, and Mr. Turner was
denied the opportunity of doing battle for his friend.[256]
All this time it cannot be said that, although undiscovered, Turner
was still a happy man. The dread spectre of assassination ceased not
to haunt him. 'After long experience of the world,' says Junius, 'I
affirm before God I never knew a rogue who was not unhappy.' Nor was
Turner's presentiment surprising. McSkimmin's History of Carrickfergus,
103-73, in his 'History of Carrickfergus,' states that the pistol and
the dagger were no uncommon means of dealing with informers; and he
supplies a list of men who thus suffered.
Books which treat of 'Ninety-eight' often mention Byrne of Dundalk.
In 1869 the late Mr. John Mathews of that town gathered from Byrne's
representative, Mr. P. J. Byrne, Clerk of the Crown, several facts,
and, in enclosing them to me, styled his informant 'the highest
authority on the unpublished history of the County.' Two days later
Mr. Byrne was no more. The inquiries I then made had no reference to
Samuel Turner, but some passing notices of this man which occur in the
manuscript are useful in now supplying missing links. Mr. Mathews was
an ardent patriot, and he described, not without emotion, how Turner
died. Regarding him as a rebel true to the end, he writes:--
Turner went to the Isle of Man, and having quarrelled there with a
Mr. Boyce, agreed that the dispute should be settled by an appeal
to arms. Both, with their friends, repaired to the field of honour,
and as Turner was preparing for the struggle his adversary shot him
through the head; and [adds Matthews] thus terminated the career
of a man whose only regret was that his life was not lost in the
service of his country.[257]
Was the vengeance wreaked by Boyce meant as a tardy retribution? Was
the John Boyce, who with five other prisoners was consigned in 1797
to Carrickfergus Gaol, connected with the Boyce who shot Turner?
What Boyce had against Turner was a secret which died with both. No
proceedings seem to have been taken against the man by whose hand
he fell. And possibly this forbearance was not uninfluenced by the
fact that the Crown had need no longer for their informer's services,
but, on the contrary, gained by his death. Turner was a clever man,
troublesome to deal with, haughty, touchy, and resentful; and, like
Maguan,[258] Bird and Newell, he might at any moment publicly turn upon
his employers and betray them with as little compunction as he had
already sold his comrades.
A word as regards Lord Downshire, through whom Turner's disclosures
were at first conveyed. This peer, who at one time had wielded
potential influence at Whitehall, and had the ear of Pitt, lived to
fall into deep disfavour with Government. He steadily opposed the
Legislative Union, and helped to form a joint-stock purse with the
object of out-bribing Dublin Castle. In chastisement he was dismissed
from the Lord Lieutenancy of Down, deprived of his rank as colonel,
expelled from the Privy Council, and threatened with a parliamentary
inquiry into his conduct. These blows told, and on September 7, 1801,
he breathed his last.
FOOTNOTES:
[231] _Castlereagh Correspondence_, i. 282.
[232] Lord Edward Fitzgerald died on June 4, 1798.
[233] _Castlereagh Correspondence_, i. 270-309.
[234] _Castlereagh Correspondence_, ii. 265.
[235] 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.
[236] _Life of Reynolds_, by his Son, ii. 153.
[237] Newry had been Turner's home.
[238] _History of Belfast_, p. 478.
[239] Immediately after the rebellion Downshire received 52,500_l._,
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.
[240] Before the Secret Committee of the House of Lords, 1798.
[241] See _Life of Pitt_, _ante_, p. 36.
[242] Account of S.S. Money applied in detecting Treasonable
Conspiracies per affidavit of Mr. Cooke.
[243] Vide _Irish Correspondence_, p. 386.
[244] 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:--
'There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin,
The dew on his raiment was heavy and chill;
For his country he sighed, when at twilight repairing
To wander alone by the wind-beaten hill.
But the day-star attracted his eye's sad devotion,
For it rose o'er his own native isle of the ocean;
Where once, in the fire of his youthful devotion,
He sang the bold anthem of Erin-go-Bragh.'
[245] Also 'Jean Thomas,' _ante_, p. 20. Compare also Wellington's
_Irish Correspondence_, p. 357, regarding a letter received in 1808
'from ---- _alias_ ----.'
[246] This letter was forwarded by Cooke to Marsden for his guidance.
[247] Sir George Rumbold was Consul-General at Hamburg. Died 1807.
[248] A small box of papers, labelled 'Curious and Selected,' is
preserved in the Record Tower, Dublin Castle. Two unsigned letters
supplying private information in 1803 have puzzled their official
custodians. St. John Mason--a cousin of the ill-fated Robert Emmet--is
the man mainly sought to be incriminated. The letters are endorsed 'R.'
and I observed, in holding up one against the light, that the capitals
'S. T. 1801,' appear as the watermark. 'R' is the cypher by which
Castlereagh points to 'Richardson,' _alias_ Turner, in his letter to
Wickham (p. 46, _ante_). The case of St. John Mason and his prolonged
imprisonment without trial was brought before Parliament in 1812. The
Duke of Richmond--then Viceroy--wrote a despatch and made allusion to
the above letters. 'Who the writer may have been I know not,' observes
his Grace, 'but he appears to have been some secret informer of the
Government.' This despatch was ordered by the House of Commons to be
printed June 2, 1812.
[249] MS. recollections, communicated by one of Emmet's officers,
Bernard Duggan.
[250] This Attorney-General was Standish O'Grady, afterwards Lord
Guillamore. The author of _Ireland and its Rulers_ states of him (i.
126): 'He was a quaint joker; a shrewd and old-fashioned wit, with a
vein of dry humour. As a judge he enjoyed a plebeian popularity, for he
took great sport in baffling the Crown lawyers.'
[251] 'Mr. Turner only returned to this country within the last few
weeks on account of the death of his father, who left his property to
younger children thinking the elder could not return, or that, if left
to him, it would be laid hold of by Government by virtue of the Act of
Attainder.'--_Dublin Evening Post_, November 29, 1803.
[252] John Patten, librarian to the Royal Dublin Society, survived
until the year 1864. He furnished me with many facts, duly noted at the
time. Some appear in the _Sham Squire_.
[253] For a curious poem which O'Connor distributed _en route_ to Fort
George, see Appendix.
[254] _Civil Correspondence of the Duke of Wellington (Ireland)_.
[255] The promotion urged by Wellington would seem to have been made,
and merited. _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for July, 1813, under the head
of 'Admiralty, May 30,' records the capture by some boats, under the
command of Lieutenant Turner, of a French privateer, after a severe
conflict and loss of life. I am bound to say, however, that the Turner
mentioned by Wellington as having strong claims on the Government since
1798, is not satisfactorily shown to be Turner who gave important
information during the Rebellion.
[256] Letter of Mr. Patrick O'Byrne to W. J. F., Dublin, September
6, 1880. D'Esterre was a practised duellist. He and O'Connell at
last met in a field near Naas, and D'Esterre fell January 31, 1815.
Lord Whitworth, the famous diplomat, was then Lord Lieutenant. The
_Sentinel_, an independent newspaper, declared that the most memorable
event which occurred in his Vice-royalty was this duel. It had
engrossed the attention of all Ireland, and ought to engross that
of Parliament also. Everyone asked why the outrage which led to the
catastrophe, being so public and protracted, had not been restrained by
some one of the many members of his Government who had observed it. But
vainly the friends of peace inquired why D'Esterre had not been placed
under arrest.
[257] Turner was very treacherously served by his impulsive foe.
Perhaps Boyce thought that had O'Connell accepted Turner's services in
that lonely field in Kildare, he might have been tempted, like Iago, to
deal a stealthy stab.
[258] Maguan of Saintfield is not to be confounded with Magan.