THOMAS REYNOLDS: SPY, AND BRITISH CONSUL
No greater contrast could be found to the idiosyncrasy of Magan
than that of Thomas Reynolds. If the former was shy, shrinking, and
unobtrusive, Reynolds had indomitable _audace_, a fondness for display
and luxury, a love of society, and an effrontery which no rebuff could
disconcert. After several arrests had been made, and when a suspicion
of infidelity rested on him for the first time, Neilson, a powerful
man, meeting him unarmed at night, grasped him by the throat, and,
presenting a pistol, exclaimed, 'What should I do to the villain who
has sought my confidence to betray me?' Reynolds, with perfect _sang
froid_, replied, 'You should shoot him through the heart!' Neilson,
struck by the reply, changed his purpose and suffered Reynolds to go.
Fourteen delegates from Leinster, as they sat in council at Bond's,
had been arrested on Reynolds's information, and the sickening fact is
told by Dr. Madden that some days after the arrests he paid a visit of
condolence to Mrs. Bond, and caressed the babe she held in her arms.
But let it not be supposed that he had any share in the betrayal of
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Reynolds held an advantageous lease of lands
under the Leinster family, warmed to Lord Edward, and, during the
period of his outlawry, gave him some money to meet a pressing call.
The Geraldine little dreamed from what source it was derived. Before
the payment of the 5,000_l._ to Reynolds he received, early in 1798,
500_l._ from Dublin Castle.
Reynolds, a silk mercer, had been persuaded to inform by Mr. W. Cope,
an eminent merchant, who exercised great influence over him, under
circumstances that will be soon apparent. His grandson, Sir William
Cope, Bart., has sent me the correspondence which attained this end.
Cope, in a memorandum, dated 1799, writes:--
I exerted my influence, and, though Mr. Cooke said
to me, 'You _must_ get him to come forward; stop at
nothing--100,000_l._--anything,' etc., I conditioned with
Government for him for only 5,000_l._ and 1,000_l._ per year, and
he is satisfied. He came forward at my repeated intercession.
The 'Life of Thomas Reynolds,' by his son, was issued in 1839, with
a view to whitewash a sullied memory; the biographer--not supposing
that the Cope papers existed--states that, as compensation for heavy
losses, a bulk sum of but 500_l._ was paid to Reynolds, 'with an
annuity of 1,000_l._ Irish, with reversion to my mother, my brother and
myself.'[685]
The accounts of Secret Service Money have also turned up to bear out
Cope's statement and confront Reynolds junior. It appears, under date
of March 4, 1799, that Reynolds received on that day not 500_l._,
but the completion of a sum of 5,000_l._ As regards the pension, it
continued to be paid for near forty years, and it has been computed
that he drew altogether 45,740_l._
The information which had been dropping from Reynolds, sometimes not
as freely as had been hoped, received a stimulus by his arrest at
Athy on May 5, 1798. He writes to Mr. Cope that he has been thrown
into a dungeon, and demands from the Government, what they well
know he merits, instant enlargement. He refers to the great and
essential services he had rendered to Government, and adds that by his
confinement he is totally prevented from obtaining and giving further
knowledge. Then it was that Cope settled the terms with Cooke. Cope's
powerful influence over Reynolds was due to the fact that the latter
had gradually become his slave as a creditor to a large extent. Sir
William Cope[686] has sent me a letter from Reynolds's wife to show the
falsity of the biographer's assertion that he had made no terms with
the Crown for his information. It appears from a letter of Reynolds
that the wife was empowered to act for him, and among the terms
required were, 'that he might settle in any part of England he liked,
receive from the Government letters of introduction, recommending him
and family to the particular attention of the gentry of the place;'
the pension to commence on June 25, 1798, with 5,000_l._ in hand; in
conclusion she begs Cope to advance on loan 1,000_l._[687]
These and other references to monetary transactions led me to search
the Registry of Deeds Office, and the following result appears:
'1794--Thos. Reynolds of West Park Street Dublin to Wm. Cope.
Consideration 5041_l._ 14_s._ 5_d._ Lands of Corbetstown, King's Co.'
The fact that Reynolds was obliged to borrow this sum shows the
erroneousness of Lord Castlereagh's statement in Parliament, 'that
he was a gentleman in considerable circumstances.' Fresh proof of
the wisdom of the proverb (xxii. 7), 'the borrower is servant to the
lender,' is afforded by this episode. In the case of Higgins and
Magan, the treachery of the latter to Lord Edward was entirely due
to the fact that Higgins had bound him, hand and foot, in bonds more
inextricable than those by which Mephistopheles sought to enchain his
victim. Shamado got the lion's share of the blood money earned by that
betrayal. Cope, though a man of great wealth, and professing to have
influenced Reynolds solely from a sense of moral duty, obtained a
pension of 1,000_l._ a year for his wife, with reversion to his three
daughters.[688] Cope survived until December 7, 1820, when he died at
his house in Hume Street, Dublin. His three daughters never married.
The foregoing inquiries have been invited by the son and biographer
of Reynolds, who, seeking to pillory Dr. Taylor, author of the 'Civil
Wars,' writes:--
'Perhaps Mr. Taylor could furnish me with the records from which he
discovered that my father was distressed from want of money.' He
may, perhaps, consider Mr. Moore's 'Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald'
as a record, or Mr. Moore himself as an historian, of small value;
but I shall notice his work in another place, I shall confine
myself for the present to Mr. Taylor. 'From what source,' he asks,
'did Mr. Taylor discover that my father had been an active member
of the Union? and, above all, from what record did he receive the
foul slander that he had sold the secret to Government? Could not
the same record have supplied him with the price also; and, if so,
why did he not name it? From what records did he learn that my
father had insured to himself by his conduct even the slightest
reward? The whole accusation is as false as it is malicious.'[689]
Among other damaging things alleged against Reynolds on the trials of
Bond, Byrne, and McCan were that he had stolen his mother's jewellery
and had afterwards poisoned her, and that he had broken several oaths;
and it was sworn by five respectable witnesses that they did not
believe him worthy of credit on his oath.
A small incident, which has never appeared in print, may perhaps be
given here. The guard which seized the fourteen delegates at Bond's
house entered by means of a password. This we shall presently know,
and Major Sirr had Reynolds to thank for the information, though the
father of a late police magistrate--Mr. Porter--lay for a time under
the stigma. Wm. Porter--in whose house Dignan will be remembered as
having had a narrow escape from arrest--met Oliver Bond one day on
Cork Hill, Dublin, and asked him, as a United Brother, for a list of
the signs and passwords employed on special occasions. Bond replied:
'Call at my house on Monday evening next, making sure to ask as you
enter, "Is Ivers from Carlow come?"' Porter was on his way to keep
this appointment when he met Luke White--the founder of the Annaly
peerage --who asked him to accompany him to Crampton Court close by,
where some business was transacted between the two--one being a printer
and the other a publisher. An hour was thus consumed, and Porter on
arriving at Bond's--it was Monday, March 12, 1798--found a cordon of
soldiers round the house. Reynolds, who held the rank of colonel in the
rebel organisation, was not then suspected; and it was Oliver Bond's
conviction, freely expressed, that William Porter had betrayed the
password to Sirr. For this suspicion he made frank atonement. Bond's
trial did not come on for three months, and the interval proved one of
much anxiety to Porter. Then it was that Reynolds excited much surprise
by entering the witness-box. Bond, recognising Porter in court,
stretched forth his arm across the necks of his keepers, and shook the
hand of the man he had wronged.[690]
Reynolds, unlike Magan, who seemed content with the crumbs which
fell from 'Shamado's' hand, was less easily satisfied. In 1810 he
got the postmastership at Lisbon, the emoluments of which for four
years amounted to 5,600_l._, after which he became British Consul at
Iceland; but, not liking the post, he coolly returned to London without
leave, when the following scene took place between himself and Mr.
Cooke, formerly Under-Secretary at Dublin Castle. Reynolds's son thus
tells what passed: '"You are a madman; you are an imprudent; I tell
you so to your face; and you were always an imprudent man, and never
will be otherwise. I tell you, you are considered as a passionate,
imprudent man." "Mr. Cooke," said my father, "if I was not so, perhaps
Ireland would not at this day be a part of the British Empire: you did
not think me passionate or imprudent in 1798." "I tell you again,"
said Mr. Cooke, "you are mad. Well, what do you intend to do now?"
"Really," said my father, "I intend to do nothing at all; I suppose
Lord Castlereagh, on his return, will settle my resignation." ... "Lord
Castlereagh," continued Mr. Cooke, "knows you to be a very imprudent
man, and he would certainly hesitate at allowing you to be in London,
where your imprudence would give advantage to your enemies to bring you
into trouble, and him too. He does not like you to be in London: I tell
you fairly that is the feeling."'[691]
Lord Castlereagh then filled the critical post of Minister for Foreign
Affairs. A formidable Opposition daily questioned and tormented him.
The horror of Mathias on hearing 'the Bells' can hardly have been
greater than that of Castlereagh whenever Reynolds's ring sounded at
his door. Reynolds refused to freeze any longer in Iceland, and, after
some delay, was appointed consul at Copenhagen. He soon got tired of
it, and coolly installed his son there as vice-consul; but, on Canning
succeeding to Castlereagh, after the suicide of the latter, he sent
young Reynolds adrift. Meanwhile the sire divided his residence between
Paris and London. He constantly crossed Castlereagh's path, posing
before him as an ill-used man and largely helping to drive him mad. The
cupidity of Reynolds is described as insatiable. In 1817, Thistlewood,
Watson, and Hooper were indicted for treason; true bills were found by
the grand jury of Middlesex; but the name of Thomas Reynolds having
appeared on the panel, much wrath found vent, and a feeling of disgust
passed over England. The press took up the subject, and Parliament
resounded with 'Reynolds, the Irish informer.'
Society snubbed him, but still his chariot went round the Row day by
day. After Castlereagh's death he removed permanently to Paris, where
he loved to parade his pompous person, and became as well known in the
Champs-Elysées as Charles X. or Louis Philippe. Some lines scribbled at
this time illustrate the feelings with which thinkers of a certain type
watched his diurnal progress:--
Lolling at his vile ease in chariot gay,
His face, nay, even his fearful name, unhidden!
Uncloaked abroad, 'neath all the eyes of day,
Which--as he passeth--close, while breath is hushed,--
Unspat upon, untrampled down, uncrushed,
I've seen the seven-fold traitor! &c.
Reynolds had a habit of leaving his card on men the buckles of whose
shoes he was unworthy to burnish. Amongst others whom he thought
that by doing so he honoured, was Dr. Daniel Haliday, of Paris, who
represented a family distinguished in Irish letters. In Haliday's hall
there hung a fine portrait of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Turning its
face to the wall, and sticking Reynolds's card on it, he said to his
servant: 'When he again comes, refer him to this picture.' Reynolds, of
course, repeated the visit, and felt the rebuff the more because Lord
Edward was not among the men he had betrayed. The late Charles Haliday,
to whom I owe this story of his uncle, shared the rather general belief
as to Reynolds having informed against the Geraldine, while the now
convicted Magan, who lived close to Charles Haliday on the banks of the
Liffey, failed to incur his suspicion.
One fine day in August 1836, when Paris was _en fête_, Reynolds died,
and his remains were brought to England and consigned to the vaults
of Wilton Church, Yorkshire. By a coincidence Dr. Haliday died at the
same time, as appears from his epitaph in the picturesque graveyard of
Dundrum near Dublin. When struck down by death at Paris, he had been
engaged on a History of the Irish Brigade.
FOOTNOTES:
[685] _Life of Reynolds_, by his Son, ii. 514. Mr. A. F. Reynolds,
the biographer, died in 1856, after having long filled the post of
stamp-distributor for the East Riding of Yorkshire.
[686] Sir W. Cope died Jan. 9, 1892.
[687] The full text of the correspondence I have published elsewhere.
The letters of Reynolds are full of bad spelling.
[688] _Cornwallis_, ii. 375.
[689] _Life of Thomas Reynolds_, by his Son, i. 103.
[690] Frank Thorpe Porter, police magistrate, to W. J. F., May 30, 1860.
[691] _Life of Thomas Reynolds_, by his Son, ii. 445.