[244] The original of 'The Exile of Erin' was said to be an obscure democrat named McCann; but it is just as likely to have been that finished actor, Turner himself. So prominent and conversable a man must have been well known to Thomas Campbell, then a strong Radical, and who, as he tells us, wrote the 'Exile,' at Altona, near Hamburg, in 1801; and it suggests conflicting emotions to speculate as to how far the figure of Turner, in his slouched hat, gazing wistfully from the beach, in search of prey, may have influenced the beautiful idea of the poet:-- 'There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin, The dew on his raiment was heavy and chill; For his country he sighed, when at twilight repairing To wander alone by the wind-beaten hill. But the day-star attracted his eye's sad devotion, For it rose o'er his own native isle of the ocean; Where once, in the fire of his youthful devotion, He sang the bold anthem of Erin-go-Bragh.' [245] Also 'Jean Thomas,' _ante_, p. 20. Compare also Wellington's _Irish Correspondence_, p. 357, regarding a letter received in 1808 'from ---- _alias_ ----.' [246] This letter was forwarded by Cooke to Marsden for his guidance. [247] Sir George Rumbold was Consul-General at Hamburg. Died 1807. [248] A small box of papers, labelled 'Curious and Selected,' is preserved in the Record Tower, Dublin Castle. Two unsigned letters supplying private information in 1803 have puzzled their official custodians. St. John Mason--a cousin of the ill-fated Robert Emmet--is the man mainly sought to be incriminated. The letters are endorsed 'R.' and I observed, in holding up one against the light, that the capitals 'S. T. 1801,' appear as the watermark. 'R' is the cypher by which Castlereagh points to 'Richardson,' _alias_ Turner, in his letter to Wickham (p. 46, _ante_). The case of St. John Mason and his prolonged imprisonment without trial was brought before Parliament in 1812. The Duke of Richmond--then Viceroy--wrote a despatch and made allusion to the above letters. 'Who the writer may have been I know not,' observes his Grace, 'but he appears to have been some secret informer of the Government.' This despatch was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed June 2, 1812. [249] MS. recollections, communicated by one of Emmet's officers, Bernard Duggan. [250] This Attorney-General was Standish O'Grady, afterwards Lord Guillamore. The author of _Ireland and its Rulers_ states of him (i. 126): 'He was a quaint joker; a shrewd and old-fashioned wit, with a vein of dry humour. As a judge he enjoyed a plebeian popularity, for he took great sport in baffling the Crown lawyers.'