appear by reference to the proceedings of the general courts martial hereunto annexed, before whom the culprits were tried, prior to the breaking out of the rebellion, and to the trial of Henry and John Sheares before a fpecial commiffion lately held.

Their attempts to fruftrate the administration of justice have already been mentioned. It will be proper to state some farther particulars. From feveral authentic reports of their own proceedings, it appears that confiderable fums of money were fubfcribed for the purpose of defending fuch of their associates as fhould be brought to trial: that they had itinerant committees who went circuit as regularly as judges: that a bar of lawyers were retained to undertake the caufe of all perfons in the grofs committed for state offences. Entries of money appear in their proceedings as paid to procure, as well as to buy off witneffes: in many cafes to gaolers for being guilty of breaches of trust, and even to under-fheriffs for returning partial pannels: handbills to intimidate jurors were circulated, and every species of indecent management practifed in the courts, to exclude from the jury-box perfons unconnected with their party.

In the hope of diminishing the refources of the state, inftructions were given to the people to abstain from the consumption of excifeable articles, which are productive to the revenue, and every endeavour made to depreciate the value of Government fecurities in the estimation of the public, to stop the raising of the fupplies of the year by the fale of the quit-rents, and to prevent the circulation of the bank paper.

Before your Committee proceed to ftate the traitorous correfpondence carried on by the leading members of the confpiracy with the enemy, they think it necellary to advert to a new organization of the fociety which took place in August 1797, the reafons for which change will beft appear by an infpection of the printed paper at that time circulated as an inftruction to the body; and your Committee beg leave to refer to the examination upon oath before the Secret Committee of the Houfe of Lords of Doctor M'Nevin, who ftates himself to have been a member of their Executive Directory for the detailed application of this new fyftem for military purposes.

The evidence of the fame perfon, together with that of two other members of the Executive, namely, Mr. Emmet and Mr. Arthur O'Connor, delivered upon oath before the faid Secret Committee of the Lords, and who as well as the faid Dr. M'Nevin have been examined fince before your Committee, has completely developed the connexion of the party with the French Directory. From their teftimony it appears that so early as the year 1796, the party defpairing of carrying their plans into execution through the medium of a democratic reform, avowedly directed their efforts to revolution, and having received an inti. mation

1

mation from one of their fociety, and whom your Committee have very good reason to know to be Mr. Theobald Wolfe Tone already mentioned (a fugitive from this country on account of his treasonable conduct), then at Paris, that the tate of the country had been reprefented to the government of France in fuch a light as to induce them to refolve on fending a force to Ireland for the purpose of enabling it to feparate itfelf from Great Britain, an extraordinary meeting of the Executive of the Union was convened to take the propofal into confideration.

This meeting was held in the fummer of 1796, and the refult of their deliberations was, to accept of the affiftance thus held out to them by the French Directory.

In confequence of this determination an agent was dispatched to the Directory to acquaint them with it. He was inftructed to ftate the difpofitions of the people, and the arrangements of the Union for their reception, and received fresh affurances from the French government that the armament fhould be fent as fpeedily as it could be prepared. The agent above alluded to appears to your Committee from various channels of information to have been the late Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who, accompanied by the faid Mr. A. O'Connor, proceeded by Hamburgh to Switzerland, and had an interview near the French frontiers with General Hoche, who afterwards had the command of the expedition against Ireland, on which occafion every thing was fettled between the parties with a view to the defcent. The reafon the perfons employed on this miffion did not pafs into France was, left the Irish government fhould gain intelligence of the fact, and cause them to be apprehended on their return.

About October 1796, an accredited meffenger from the French republic arrived, who faid he came to be informed of the state of the country, and to communicate to the leaders of the United Irithmen the intention of the French to invade Ireland fpeedily with fifteen thousand men, and a great quantity of arms and ammunition; which attempt fo announced was accordingly made in the month of December following, when the French fleet with a large body of troops on board arrived in Bantry Bay.

Your Committee do not think it neceffary to advert to the early and frequent communications of a treafonable nature that took place between the difaffected who had fled from this country to France, and the leaders of the party here: it is fufficient to fet forth the leading attempts of the Union to prevail on the French Directory to fend a force to their affiftance. It is neceffary however to obferve, that although, previous to the fummer of 1796, no formal and authorized communication appears to have taken place between the Irith Executive and the French government, yet the trial of Dr. Jackfon convicted of high treafon in the year 1795, proves that even then the enemy had agents in this king

dom,

dom, who were addreffed to the most active members of the Irish Union for information and affiftance; and the treasonable statement refpecting the interior fituation of Ireland then drawn up to be tranfmitted to France, appeared on the trial to have been the joint production of Theobald Wolfe Tone, heretofore mentioned as the framer of the original conftitution of United Irithmen, aflifted by A. Hamilton Rowan, Efq. who frequently appeared in their publications as the chairman of the fociety; to which treafon, Lewins, whom your Committee from various channels of information are enabled to state to be now their refident agent at Paris, appears to have been privy.

From the period of the failure of this expedition, the difaffected either actually did expect, or, with a view of keeping up the fpirits of their party, pretended to expect, the immediate return of the enemy; and affurances to this effect were induftriously circulated in all their focieties. However, in the fpring of 1797, the Executive of the Union thinking the French dilatory in their preparations, did then difpatch Mr. Lewins above mentioned as a confidential perfon to prefs for affiftance. This agent left London in March, and proceeded to Hamburgh, but did not reach Paris until the end of May, or beginning of June, from which time he has continued to be the accredited minifter from the Irish Union to the French Directory.

It appears to your Committee that in the fummer of 1797, the Executive of the Union, apprehenfive left a premature infurrection of the north before the promised fuccours from France could arrive, might difappoint their profpects, thought it neceffary to fend a fecond agent to Paris, to urge with increased earneftness that the promised affiftance fhould be immediately fent: accordingly a moft confidential member of their body, whoin your Committee have grounds to ftate to have been Doctor M'Nevin, who had hitherto acted as fecretary to the Executive, was difpatched on this miffion; he left Dublin in the end of June, and presented himself with the neceffary letters of credence to the French minifter at Hamburgh.-Meeting with fome difficulty in obtaining a paffport to proceed to Paris, he delivered to the minister of the republic a memoir to be forwarded to the Directory, the fubftance of which appears in Doctor M'Nevin's examination, as taken on oath before the Secret Committee of the Lords. It is unneceffary to make any obfervation upon this moft curious ftatement-it is in itself a complete picture of the desperate purposes of the party; and the Houfe will obferve that the statement of their own resources is ftudiously exaggerated in proportion to the anxiety felt by them, that the fuccours might be fent before the vigorous measures adopted by Government in the north fhould difconcert their projects.

This

This agent was authorized to give France affurances of being repaid the full expenfes of any future armament fhe might fend to Ireland, as well as of the laft which had mifcarried, the fame to be raised by the confifcation of the lands of the church, of the property of all thofe who fhould oppofe the measures of the party. He was alfo particularly charged to negotiate, if poffible, a loan on the above fecurity, to the amount of half a million, or at leaft three hundred thousand pounds, for the immediate purposes of the Union; and directions were given, that in cafe France could not be prevailed on to advance fo large a fum, he fhould addrefs himfelf to the court of Spain for that purpose.

It appears to your Committee, that the Executive Union, though defirous of obtaining affiftance in men, arms, and money, yet were averfe to a greater force being fent than might enable them to fubvert the government, and retain the power of the country in their own hands; but that the French thowed a decided difinclination at all times to fend any force to Ireland, except fuch as from its magnitude might not only give them the hopes of conquering the kingdom, but of retaining it afterwards as a French conqueft, and of fubjecting it to all the plunder and oppreffions which other countries, fubdued or deceived by that nation, have experienced. A remarkable illuftration of which fentiment in the Directory of France occurs, in the fubftance of a letter faid to be received from Lewins, the Irish agent at Paris, and fhown by Lord Edward Fitzgerald to John Cormick, a colonel in the rebel army, who fled from juftice on the breaking out of the rebellion, and whofe voluntary confeffion, upon his apprehenfion in Guernsey, before Sir Hugh Dalrymple, is given in the Appendix. This letter, although written apparently on money bufinefs, which is the cloak generally made ufe of by the party to hide their real views, is perfectly intelligible, when connected with, and explained by the memoir prefented by Dr. M.Nevin, the Irish agent to the French Directory. The letter ftates, that the truftees (that is, the Directory) would not advance the five thousand pounds (that is, the fmaller number of troops afked for in M Nevin's memoir); faying, they would make no payment fhort of the entire fum (that is, the larger force), which they always declared their intention of fending, and that this payment could not be made in lefs than four months from that time.

The demands of the party by their first agent went to a force not exceeding ten thousand men, with forty thousand stand of arms, and a proportionate fupply of artillery, ammunition, engineers, experienced officers, &c.

A ftill larger fupply of arms was folicited by the fecond-meffenger, on account, as he stated it, of the growing number of

their

their adherents, and of the difarming of the north, in which province above ten thousand stand of arms, and as many pikes, had been furrendered to the King's troops.

It appears that an attempt was made, about the fame time, to procure the affiftance of fuch Irish officers, then in foreign fervice, as might be prevailed upon, by receiving high rank, to engage in the fervice of the Union, and that a negotiation was actu ally fet on foot for this purpose; but it has been stated, that, from the over-caution of the agent who was employed in conducting this tranfaction, nothing in confequence of it was effected.

A fecond memoir was prefented by this confidential agent, upon his arrival at Paris, in which he urged fuch arguments as he conceived most likely to induce the Directory not to poftpone the invafion. He endeavoured to demonftrate, that fo favourable a disposition as then existed in the Irish mind was in no future contingency to be expected; and he artfully reprefented, that the delufions held out by reform might ceafe from delay, and thus render more difficult to France and the true republicans of this country, their endeavours to feparate the two kingdoms, and to establish a republic in Ireland.

Previous to this miffion from Ireland, a confidential perfon was fent over by the French Directory, to collect information refpecting the state of Ireland. Failing to obtain the neceffary pafsports in London to pass into Ireland, he wrote over to request that one of the party might meet him in London. A perfon was accordingly fent over, whom your Committee know, from various channels of information, to have been the late Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and who, it is to be prefumed, did not fail to furnish the French agent with every necessary intelligence.

The Directory gave the Irish agents fent to Paris the strongest affurances of fupport, and did accordingly, during the fummer, make preparations of a very extenfive nature, both at the Texel and at Breft, for the invafion of Ireland; and in the autumn intelligence was received by the Executive of the Union, that the troops were actually embarked in the Texel, and only waited for a wind.

In confequence of this communication, great exertions were made by the party, and in the beginning of October, when the Dutch fleet was upon the point of failing, the approach of the enemy (as will appear by reference to the provincial reports from Ulfter of that date) was announced to the focieties as at hand.

The troops had been actually on board, commanded by General Daendels, but were fuddenly difembarked. The Dutch fleet, contrary to the opinion of their own admiral, as is generally believed, was, at the inftance of the French government, obliged to put to fea, which led to the ever-memorable victory of the 11th of October 1797.

VOL. VII.

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