no leakage beforehand, and then the affrighted and indignant British
citizen will turn on his faithful band of thirty and rant and rave at
them for their want of capacity and performance. The fault will be
the want of a perfect system of Secret Service, properly financed.
If plots are to be discovered in time—and already there are some
whisperings of coming danger—they can only be discovered through
information coming from those associated with them. As I have shown,
the men engaged in them are very highly paid. If it is to be made
worth their while to speak, then the price offered by the British
Government must be higher than that of the other paymasters. There is
no use in thinking that mere tools like Callan and Harkins—the men
now in prison in connection with the Jubilee Explosion Plot—would
be of any service. These men know nothing. It is the Millens and the
Moroneys of the conspiracy who should be in Government pay, and they
have no mean price. Imagine offering either of these men a retainer
of £20 a month with a very odd cheque for expenses thrown in! The
idea is ridiculous. I have heard it urged that the thought of Secret
Service is repugnant to the British heart, wherein are instilled
the purest principles of freedom. The argument has sounded strange
in my ears when I remembered that London, as somebody has said, is
the cesspool of Europe, the shelter of the worst ruffians of every
country and clime. America is called the Land of the Free, but she
could give England points in the working of the Secret Service, for
there there is no stinting of men or money.
LIV.
This, then, is my story; and in it must be found the justification,
if such be needed, for the part I have played. I have no apology to
make for my twenty and odd years’ work in the Secret Service. I took
up that work from a conscientious motive, and in a conscientious
spirit I pursued it to the end. I have in no sense been an informer,
as the phrase is understood. I allied myself with Fenianism in order
to defeat it; I never turned from feelings of greed or gain on the
men with whom I at first worked in sympathy. I never had any sympathy
with Irish Revolutionists. Quite the opposite. Nor have I been an
_agent provocateur_. Although I always voted for politic reasons
on the side of the majority, even to the joining in the vote which
meant dynamite, on no single occasion was I instrumental in bringing
an individual to the commission of crime. True, I had to take many
oaths. But what of that? By the taking of them I have saved many
lives. Which counts the weightiest in the balance of life? And who is
it that sneers at me for my conduct in this regard? An honest man’s
criticism I can accept; but for the judgment of these double-oathed
gentlemen who, having first taken the Fenian oath, then rushed to
Westminster to swear allegiance to the Crown and Constitution they
had aforetime sworn to destroy, I have nothing but contempt and
derision. Away with such rubbish and cant as they indulge in to the
regions where common-sense finds no place.
I said I have saved lives by my action as a Government agent. I hope
I shall have done more by my appearance in the witness-box. To me
no more satisfactory result could attend my disclosures than the
realisation by the poor deluded Irish in the States of the way in
which they have been tricked and humbugged in the past years. For
these poor weak people, animated by the purest, if the most mistaken
of patriotic motives, who give their little all in the hope and trust
that the day will come in their lives when Ireland will be a land
flowing with milk and honey, I have the deepest and the most sincere
sympathy. To know these people, to come into contact with them,
and to discuss with them the eternal subject of Irish nationality,
is to respect their honesty of purpose, no matter how much we feel
called upon to condemn their methods of procedure. But, for the
blatant loud-voiced agitator, always bellowing forth his patriotic
principles, while secretly filling his pockets with the bribe or the
consequences of his theft, there can be no other feeling but that of
undisguised loathing.
I speak of what I know from personal experience, when I say there
is no greater fraud in this nineteenth century of ours than the
modern Irish patriotic agitator in America. Gold is his god, his
patriotic principles—save the mark!—his breviary and his beads,
holding aloft which he stands at the corner of the market-place so
that he may be seen of all men, and paid tribute to by some. By
jobbery, trickery, treachery, and delusion of the meanest and most
despicable type he works his way along, rising higher and higher in
the ranks of his fellow-conspirators, till at last, in the position
of responsibility and power, he sells the votes he can command, and
pockets the funds over which he has control. Brave and blustering
in speech, he advocates, in the safety of his American city, three
thousand miles from the seat of danger, the most desperate of
enterprises; and without the slightest pang of compunction or twinge
of conscience he rushes his poor dupes across the water to their fate
on the scaffold or the living death of penal servitude; while his
lips unctuously mumble of the righteousness of their beloved cause,
and his whisky-laden breath blasphemously calls for the blessings of
Heaven upon the foul enterprise.
It has been in fighting such scoundrels as these that I have spent
the last quarter of a century. From them I would fain deliver their
poor dupes ere I completely efface myself from Irish affairs. I
have no stronger, no sincerer wish than to see an end put once
for all to the delusion which is practised upon thousands of poor
Irishmen throughout the States by the men of whom I have written.
With the rank and file it has assuredly been a case of “theirs not
to reason why, theirs but to do and die.” I hope it may not be so
in the future. I trust that what I have penned, and what the sad
murder of Cronin has writ large upon the page of history, may not be
without its effect; and that to-day men may pause ere they continue
in such a way as I have pictured, the mere tools of an unscrupulous
faction, the miserable dupes of a reckless and improvident executive.
Gallahers, Dalys, and Mackay Lomasneys there always will be—men
inspired with fanatical hatred of all things English, and ready at
all times to risk freedom and life in working out their designs; but,
apart from them, there are thousands whose criminality reaches no
further point than the paying of those subscriptions so frequently
and so persistently demanded.
With such men I hope these words of mine will have weight; and
if, awakening to a true sense of their situation, and realising
that their combination and support help not Ireland but Ireland’s
professional mendicants, they turn to a better path, and a clearer
and more honest view of Irish matters as they really are, then shall
I feel that I have not struggled or written in vain.
APPENDIX.
I.
THE STORY OF THE JUBILEE PLOT.
Fully two months before the celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee in
London, reliable intelligence reached the Scotland Yard authorities
that a gang of skilful and unscrupulous conspirators in America were
devising a plan for carrying out acts of murder and destruction in
London. The names of the principal persons engaged for this purpose
were known to the police, and the individuals were closely watched
even during their voyage across the Atlantic. The headquarters of
the organisation were established in Paris, and both there and in
Boulogne their movements were under strict observation. The direction
of the conspiracy rested with General Millen, a well-known Fenian
agent, who, finding the police espionage unbearable, had latterly
kept out of England. Had he returned, he would have been immediately
arrested. Last Saturday he left Amsterdam for New York, being watched
by English detectives down to the time of the vessel sailing. After
the Jubilee celebration, some of the gang crossed the Channel and
came to London, their plans previous to the Jubilee celebration
having been disconcerted. The most prominent of the arrivals in
London was the man Melville, said to be the shrewdest of the whole
gang. The police do not believe that those conspirators were in
communication with O’Donovan Rossa, or acting with his cognisance.
Cohen’s presence in London was known to the police some time prior
to his death. There was only one of the gang of whose presence they
were not aware. Strangely enough, the police were on their way to
arrest the deceased [Cohen] at the moment of his death, and had they
been twenty minutes earlier they would have captured the unknown
individual who left the death chamber just previously.
The man Melville came to London as an agent of Millen, and took
modest lodgings in Gladstone Street, but at the time was deficient
in funds. The police, however, watched him closely, and found that
on two occasions he called on Mr. Joseph Nolan, M.P., at the House
of Commons. He had for his companion the man Harkins, and both of
them were seen in company with the dead man Cohen, upon whom an
inquest was held yesterday [26th October 1887]. The police suspicions
of Melville’s business were confirmed. His assertion, that he
represented Mr. Philips, of Philadelphia, proved entirely false.
Afterwards Melville went to Paris, and there met a man named Dennehy,
who, with a man named Maloney, sailed for America on August 17.
Dennehy is a member of the Clan-na-Gael, and his address is known to
the police. Melville then returned to London and stayed at the Hotel
Métropole with a Miss Kennedy, of 53 Charles Street, Boston, with
whom he travelled through Ireland, and afterwards to Paris, where he
called upon General Millen at the Hôtel du Palais, and was also seen
in a cab with a man remarkably like the deceased man Cohen, who was
absent from his lodgings about five weeks ago. He sailed for America
from Havre on September 17, and on reaching New York, his companion,
Miss Kennedy, was arrested for smuggling a large quantity of
valuable goods. Melville’s hurried departure upset the plans of the
Clan-na-Gael, and closely following this Cohen died. Harkins admitted
yesterday that he called at the House of Commons with Melville, and
that he had written for money to Burchall. Melville’s address in
America is known to the police—viz., Mr. J. J. Moroney, 925 Tenth
Avenue, New York.—_Daily Press_, 28th October 1887.
THOMAS CALLAN, 46, labourer, and Michael Harkins, 30, grocer, were
placed upon their trial at the Central Criminal Court, London, on
February 1, 1888, upon an indictment of various counts, charging them
with maliciously conspiring with Joseph Melville and Joseph Cohen,
and other persons, to cause, by an explosive substance, an explosion
in the United Kingdom of a nature likely to endanger life, and to
cause serious injury to property, and with having in their possession
and under their control an explosive substance with intent by means
thereof to endanger life and cause serious injury to property within
the United Kingdom, and with having in their possession and under
their control an explosive substance in such circumstances as to give
rise to a reasonable suspicion that they did not have it in their
possession and under their control for a lawful object.
The prisoners were found guilty, and each sentenced to fifteen years’
penal servitude.
* * * * *
The SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to consider the regulations applicable
to the admission of strangers to the HOUSE OF COMMONS met again on
Thursday, the 19th inst., Viscount EBRINGTON presiding.
Mr. JAMES MONRO, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police,
examined by the Chairman, said:—Melville’s real name is Moroney,
of Philadelphia, New York, and a member of the Clan-na-Gael. He was
sent over here in pursuance of instructions, and for the purpose of
committing an outrage in the Jubilee week. He came over with Callan
and Harkins in the steamer _City of Chester_. They did not arrive in
England until June 21. They had missed the previous steamer, all the
berths being engaged, and they did not arrive until the Monday. They
came at once here, only to find that General F. F. Millen had been
rendered powerless by the operations of the police. Melville was the
man who was chief in giving them dynamite, in enabling them to get it
in here. and in giving them instructions how to dispose of it. The
dynamite was brought over by other persons to Melville—two men, and
also a person of the name of Callan, and another man, I believe. The
other man we have not been able to get hold of. But Melville and this
fifth man arrived on May 15; so that when Melville and his associates
came on June 5, Callan was here to meet them.
The House of Commons was one point in these dynamite operations.
One of these men was sent down on two occasions to Windsor Castle
to “prospect” the State apartments, taking with him a watch for the
purpose of finding out how long it would take him to effect his
purpose and get away. On both occasions the State apartments were
closed. He did not go back again, because I suppose he thought he
would be identified. General Millen was a man known twenty years ago
in Fenian matters. He was connected with the Fenians in 1867. He was
what was called a military member of the Clan-na-Gael, and he was
sent over to this country on a secret mission in 1879. He reported
his progress to his associates under the name of Robinson.
He was in communication with Melville. That is to say, he met
Melville on one occasion in Paris, not in this country. He met
Melville in Paris in September 1887. Melville was sent over. He left
in April and arrived in France about the end of April. He was in
England before that. He left this country in January 1887, and went
to America. He left America and arrived in this country in April. I
forget the exact date.
General Millen had no home in England, but he had relatives—his
daughters, living in London for a certain time. On August 4, Melville
and Harkins came to the House of Commons, and sent up their cards,
or rather, Mr. Melville sent up his card to Mr. Joseph Nolan. Mr.
Nolan came out to them and saw them in the central lobby. After a
little conversation they went away. On the 5th of August the visit
was repeated by the same two men. They sent up their card to Mr.
Joseph Nolan. Mr. Nolan came out and disappeared with them; by that
I mean the police did not follow them. He took them, it is believed,
to the gallery. Now it is known that he did so, as the entry in the
Strangers’ Gallery book shows. They were not seen to leave that night
by the ordinary entrance. They were for some time on the terrace.
They must have gone down with a member?—They were accompanied by Mr.
Joseph Nolan.
About how long did they remain?—About twenty minutes or half an
hour, as far as I can remember. They were under observation by my
men; they were seen by the House of Commons police. They were under
observation outside.
At that time were you aware of any business in which they were
engaged in this country?—We had not identified Harkins at that time,
but I knew Melville was a dangerous character. On his visit here my
information was that he might be looked for in the House of Commons.
That information was received in connection with his relation with
Millen. He was met in Paris afterwards, and Melville was actually
in Paris in the month of July, but I am not prepared to say he met
Millen then, but they were connected. There was another man in Paris
in regard to whose movements I was apprised in connection with
Millen’s relations in Ireland; and it is also a fact that General
Millen was in communication with Mr. Joseph Nolan by means of
letters conveyed by Millen’s daughters, who were then in London and
under observation. One of these letters so conveyed was a letter of
introduction to Melville.
Was that prior to the visit to the House of Commons?—That was prior
to the visit; that was on the 14th of July, on which date Millen’s
daughters visited the House of Commons. They saw Mr. Joseph Nolan and
repeated the visit on the 15th. Millen is their real name. They had
been living here for some time before that.
THE HOME SECRETARY.—Did they visit the House on that occasion, or
did they remain in the central hall?—Witness: On the first occasion
they were taken by Mr. J. Nolan to the Ladies’ Gallery, and on the
second occasion they were taken by Mr. Nolan to the bar of the House
of Lords, and after they left they were accompanied by Mr. Nolan some
little up the street on both days.
They did not go over the House of Commons?—I cannot say they did.
They then left for Paris, where Millen then was, and, as I said
before, on the 4th of August Melville then appeared.
Did you follow up this matter by any inquiries of Melville
himself?—Melville was traced to his lodgings, and on the 8th of
August he was interviewed. After Melville’s interview we interviewed
Mr. Joseph Nolan on the 16th of August. He was asked whether Melville
had visited him and whether he knew him. Mr. Nolan said Melville was
a stranger to him, that he had brought no letter of introduction,
that he had mentioned the names of several gentlemen known to him
(Mr. Nolan) in America, among them a gentleman named Stack, who had
been successful in life and was over in England on a trip; that he
(Stack) seemed to be well acquainted with the oil wells and silver
mines in the Rocky mountains, that he seemed to be a man well read
in history, and altogether was a rather well-informed man; that
he had come with this letter of introduction, and that he (Nolan)
treated him with the same civility that he would expect in America.
We made inquiries, and we came in the Strangers’ Gallery book, upon
an entry which we believed to be in Mr. Nolan’s handwriting. We had
the handwriting submitted to an expert, and he said it was the same
as that on a remittance sent by Mr. Nolan. We had no doubt on the
subject, because when Mr. Nolan was examined he said it was in his
handwriting. We made inquiry of Mr. Stack, and had him interviewed
on the 26th of January this year. He said he did not remember
anything in connection with the registry in the book at the gallery
in the House of Commons, and did not remember anything about the
man Melville. The writing in the book appeared, he said, to be his
own, but he was certain he never gave an order to Mr. Joseph Nolan,
M.P. and Mr. Nolan knew nothing about his signature. It was an
understood thing among the Irish party that everything possible was
to be done for Americans who might wish to see the House of Commons,
and the consequence was that there was scarcely a day passed without
application being made for admission to the House by Americans. This
matter would stop that kind of thing. If the Irish members were aware
of it they would shun an American as they would poison, and it would
be detrimental to the party generally.
By MR. FORREST FULTON.—One of the letters conveyed by the daughter
of General Millen to Mr. Joseph Nolan, who was in communication with
General Millen, was a letter of introduction of Melville to Mr.
Nolan. Millen introduced Melville as a friend.
Is there any statement at all as to what Melville was doing in this
country?—No, not so far as I am aware.
THE CHAIRMAN.—I think you spoke of letters passing?—Yes, more than
one. This was one of the letters conveyed to Mr. Nolan from General
Millen by his daughters.
And these letters passed on various occasions?—Yes, they passed on
more than one occasion.
By MR. FULTON.—Mr. Nolan said he knew nothing at all about Melville,
and had not received any letter from him?—Yes.
MR. FULTON.—You say you know where the daughters of General Millen
reside. Do you know that they were visited by Mr. Nolan at any
time?—Not at the period referred to, so far as I know.
On other occasions?—On a previous occasion they were.
When was that?—In January of the previous year; but I had not
commenced observations then.
The Committee adjourned till three o’clock in order to give MR.
JOSEPH NOLAN, M.P., an opportunity of replying to the evidence of Mr.
Monro.
THE CHAIRMAN communicated to Mr. Nolan the statements made by Mr.
Monro. Mr. Nolan said he had no wish to go back upon the evidence
he had given in Court in connection with the dynamite trial. He had
received no introduction of any one from General Millen.
You visited the House with two daughters of General Millen on the
14th or 15th of July, and showed them over the House, and that one of
them gave you a letter from her father introducing a man who would
come subsequently—a man named Melville. Is it true that the two
daughters of General Millen were there on the 14th or 15th of July,
and were shown over the House by you?—It is true that I showed two
ladies named Millen over the House.
The daughters of General Millen?—I do not know about that.
Were they strangers to you at that time?—One of them was.
One of them you did know?—Yes.
She was the daughter of General Millen?—That I do not know.
Did you meet her in London?—I met her in London, I think, in 1886.
She has been living in London.
Did you know General Millen?—I know him by repute.
As what?—As an officer in the Mexican Army, and as correspondent of
the _New York Herald_.
Have you ever met him?—Yes.
When?—In 1886.
In England or abroad?—In England.
Was he a stranger to you then?—He was.
Where did you meet him; at a private house?—He called upon me at my
own house.
Was that the only occasion on which you ever saw him?—Yes.
MR. LAWSON.—Called upon you doubtless as many Americans do?—Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN.—Is it true that the ladies brought a letter of
introduction about Melville?—It is not true.
Or a letter of any kind?—No.
The statement was a letter written by the General?—No; not that I
remember; in fact there was no necessity for it, because one of the
ladies knew me.
It is said they brought a letter to you at the House introducing
Melville to you on a future occasion?—That is not so. One of the
ladies said she had not seen her father for years, and she believed
he was ill at the time in Europe, and that she intended to call upon
him.
Have you had any communication with him?—No.
THE HOME SECRETARY.—Are you aware that Melville and Millen had met
each other?—No, and I may say that I had never heard that General
Millen had any connection whatever with what is known as the dynamite
party. It has been stated, I believe, that he has, but I never heard
it previous to the recent case. On the contrary, I heard that General
Millen as an Irish officer was clearly opposed to the policy of that
party.
THE HOME SECRETARY.—That has nothing to do with it. Did Melville
come from America; he had been in London for some months?—I did not
know that.
Did Melville speak about Millen?—No.
Were you aware that they were acquainted?—No. I knew a number of
Irish Americans who have visited me at the House. They asked for
admission, and I have been told that he was among the number. I
remember that a policeman or gentleman who said that he belonged to
the detective force called upon me in the House, and made inquiry
about some one or two men who had visited the House. I told them all
I knew at the time.
MR. LAWSON.—It is said you did not acknowledge the handwriting on
the Speaker’s Gallery ticket as yours, and you said it was not your
handwriting?—I simply said I could not swear to the writing as being
mine.
THE HOME SECRETARY.—Have you any doubt about it?—I rather think it
was I who wrote it, but I could not positively swear.—_The Times_,
20 April 1888.
II.
THE STORY OF THE CRONIN MURDER.
The Cronin murder trial ended yesterday, after prolonged deliberation
on the part of the jury, in the conviction of four of the five
prisoners arraigned. By the laws of the State of Illinois the jury
not only decide the issues of guilty or not guilty, but also award
the punishment of the convicts. To this fact is probably due the long
delay in the present case in the announcement of the verdict. The
jury have acquitted John F. Beggs. They have awarded imprisonment
for life to Daniel Coughlin, Martin Burke, and Patrick O’Sullivan,
whom they convict of murder; and imprisonment for three years to John
Kunze, whose offence is reduced to manslaughter, and whose part in
the crime was shown to be of a very minor kind.[7] Now that the case
is over, it seems desirable to state in a connected form the theory
upon which this remarkable trial was instituted by the State of
Illinois.