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
Of his detention in Kilmainham Dr. Madden knows nothing; but he
mentions that Turner accompanied the State prisoners--nineteen in
number--to Fort George in Scotland, the final scene of their captivity.
Here Turner's work was so adroitly performed that we find a man of
incorruptible integrity suspected instead. Arthur O'Connor told John
Patten that Thomas Addis Emmet 'gave information of a letter which
O'Connor was writing, through which means Government became acquainted
with the circumstance.' A long correspondence on the subject has been
published by Madden. Emmet at last challenged O'Connor. Patten,[252]
the brother-in-law of Emmet, was told to bring a certain pair of
duelling pistols to Fort George; but, thanks to the efforts of Robert
Emmet to allay the dispute, the weapons were not used. It was Patten's
impression that Turner's machinations had set the two friends by the
ears. Although O'Connor apologised, and both parties shook hands, it is
painful to add that half a century after, when the upright Emmet had
been more than twenty years dead, O'Connor, in his book 'Monopoly,'
stigmatised him as a man of bad faith. A suspicion more baseless was
never uttered. In this book the name of his fellow-prisoner, Turner,
is not once mentioned. Indeed, the inference is that he thought well
of Turner; for O'Connor, after criticising the Catholic members of the
Directory, declares that he had much greater reliance on the _Northern_
chiefs. O'Connor, Emmet, Neilson and others were detained at Fort
George until the Peace of Amiens, and then enlarged on condition that
they should expatriate themselves for ever.[253]
In 1807 Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, entered on
his duties as Irish Secretary. A letter, dated Dublin Castle, December
5, 1807, and addressed to the Admiralty, recommends a midshipman in the
navy, Francis Turner, for promotion. 'He is the son of a Mr. Turner in
this country, who has strong claims to the favour of the Government
for the loyalty and zeal with which he conducted himself during the
rebellion in Ireland.'[254] Doubtless the new hand merely wrote in this
letter what the permanent officials prompted.[255]
Downshire, although a staunch Tory of the old school, uniformly
supported the Catholic claims. This example probably influenced his
_protégé_. O'Connell, while inculcating moral force in his struggle for
civil and religious liberty, was fond of enlisting in his bodyguard
men who in more troubled times had staked their lives and fortunes for
Ireland. He had himself been a 'United Irishman,' as will be shown. The
rebel General Clony presided as chairman at the Catholic Association.
Rowan, Teeling and 'Con' McLoughlin sat at the Council board, or stood
on the National platform. What confidence must not O'Connell have
reposed in the man who, as will appear, avowed himself ready to die for
his chief!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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