The information which led to the arrest of O'Connor, O'Coigly, and his companion cannot have come from Ireland, because in the 'Book of Secret Service Monies expended in the Detection of Treasonable Conspiracies' no entry appears connected with the above incident, unless 'Dutton's Expenses going to England to attend Quigly's Trial,' and where he had merely to swear to the priest's handwriting. For his courage in doing this--having once seen him sign a lottery ticket at Dundalk--50_l._ is paid to 'Dutton on June 12, 1798.' The names of Newell and Murdoch certainly appear in the 'Secret Service Money' book about that time; but it is clear from Newell's narrative--doubtless a genuine and frank confession--that neither he nor Murdoch had any hand in tracing the movements of O'Coigly and O'Connor. Lord Castlereagh was now acting for Pelham as Chief Secretary for Ireland. On July 25, 1798, a secret letter--printed in the 'Castlereagh Papers'--is addressed to him from the Home Office:-- I am directed by the Duke of Portland to inform your Lordship that I have received intelligence from _a person very much in the confidence of [Reinhard] the French Minister at Hamburg_,[49] that several French officers and soldiers have lately arrived at that place, where they have purchased sailor's dresses, clothed themselves in them, and gone on to Denmark and Sweden, from whence it is intended that they should embark for the North of Ireland.[50] I know not what credit is to be given to this information, which must be received with caution, as it does not appear to have reached his Majesty's Minister at Hamburg. It comes, however, from a person[51] whose reports while he was in this country[52] were known to his Excellency as singularly accurate and faithful--_the same who gave such an accurate account of the proceedings of O'Connor and Coigly_ whilst they were in this country, and on whose authority those persons were apprehended.[53] Some of the letters of 'Lord Downshire's friend,' not being forthcoming in the official archives, Mr. Froude assumed that they had been destroyed; but, however masked, they are recognisable in the 'Castlereagh Correspondence.' Several anonymous papers, furnishing information of the movements of the United Irishmen about Hamburg and elsewhere, crop up in that book, having been enclosed from Whitehall for the guidance of Dublin Castle. One of these letters makes special reference to information already sent to Lord Downshire.[54]