Secret Service Under PittFitz-Patrick, William J. (William John)
History
Secret Service Under Pitt
Fitz-Patrick, William J. (William John)
Ireland -- History -- 1760-1820; Pitt, William, 1759-1806; Secret service -- Ireland
In 1780, the Spanish ambassador to London was, we learn, 'Count Fernan
Nunez, who had committed himself to a conversation from which Mr.
Hussey drew very promising expectations.'[622] But in 1789 we find
him succeeded by no less a person than the Marquis del Campo, whose
previous attitude, as sub-Premier of Spain, had filled the British
Cabinet with alarm.[623] Orde, writing to Nepean, of the Home Office,
five years before, tells him to be very watchful over this minister;
and O'Leary's friend, Plowden, whatever he means by it, says that it
was only after giving repeated proofs that the secret conditions had
been complied with, that O'Leary received a large arrear of his pension.
'A Narrative of the Misunderstanding' between O'Leary and Hussey
shows that the appointment of the former as Hussey's colleague was
forced upon the latter, and that Hussey distrusted and despised him,
confirming the old adage, two of a trade never agree. O'Leary complains
that on Good Friday, in presence of a crowded congregation numbering
many Protestants, Hussey sent
one of the boys who attend the altar, twice into the pulpit to
interrupt me in the most pathetic part of my discourse by chucking
the sleeves of my surplice and ordering me to come down under
pretence that the ceremonies of the day were too long. Thus a scene
was exhibited of which neither the congregation nor myself had ever
been spectators before.
And again:--
By the manner in which he concerted his plans, in waiting until
the eve of the days on which I was to appear in public, and
then sending me, on a sudden, verbal messages by his clerk, and
afterwards such insulting notes as no Prelate would send to the
meanest clergyman in his diocese, one would be apt to imagine that
he played the part of a skilful general, who amuses an enemy the
better to decoy him unprepared into an ambuscade.
I was surprised at such peremptory mandates from a man who, at
most, could pretend but to an equality.... But his view was, either
to disgust me with the chapel, or to commit me with the public, in
thus thwarting me in the exercise of my functions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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