perfect justice would be received by the Irish peo for fresh commands to the castle, before he could dispose of his prisoner. He soon received an order to send O'Connor to Dublin, under charge of a military officer; and he arrived there on the 23d of July escorted by Captain Roche of the thirtieth regiment of Infantry. It here becomes requisite to observe, that the eldest brother, Mr. Robert Longfield O'Connor, who with the name possessed the full spirit of his uncle, was eminently active in forwarding the system. His former merit had been rewarded by a valuable civil appointment, and his further services were `remunerated by a military command, both of which to this day he enjoys. On the morning of the 24th of July, O'Connor had a long conference with Mr. Pelham on the subject and tenor of his letters to Lord Camden and himself, which lay open and arranged on the Secretary's desk; upon the whole of which Mr. Pelham expressed himself satisfied with O'Connor's statements and explanations. They were then whole and perfect and spoke for, themselves. No difficulties upon them arose in the mind of the Secretary, whilst the complete context explained the particular parts. But O'Connor grievously complained afterwards that Mr. Toler, (then Attorney General, now Lord Norbury) did on the 21st of February, 1799 maliciously garble and distort passages in them, in order to add venom to a most impassioned invective against him in the House of Commons, when he opposed a motion of Mr. O'Donnell, misrepresented in the government prints as a motion for the liberation of O'Connor out of custody: whereas it was a motion highly important to the personal liberty of the subject, for producing before the house the several warrants, upon which O'Connor had been arrested in England, thence transmitted to Ireland, remitted to Engiand, and thence again transmitted to and imprisoned in Irelend. The motion was negatived. The warrants were never produced. The next subject of conversation turned upon what is so incorrectly termed the examination of Hebert, a French prisoner at Dunmanway. It bore date the 1st of June 1797, was written on a loose scrap of paper, and was neither attested nor 1801. 1801. ple as a boon; and that under colour of lenity, sworn. It was the production of Mr. Robert L. O'Connor. It purported to give an account of Hebert's having come in the dead of a winter's night to Gonnorville to take dispatches from O'Connor to the French Government, and that O'Connor then swore in the Frenchman an United Irishman, and lent him a horse to ride back to his quarters. Whereas the real fact was, as O'Connor stated to, and Mr. Pelham gave him full credit for, and as it afterwards appeared by the affidavits of Mr. Hebert himself, and his wife's uncle Mr. Dogherty; that Hebert, whom O'Connor had never before nor since seen came to O'Connor at night in February accompanied by a tradesman, who worked for some of his servants, to ask advice, as from a professional man, whether he could take his father, (a fellow prisoner with him) in execution. Hebert the son had married an Irish young woman of some fortune: a part of which he had lent to his father on the security of his bond and warrant to confess a judgment: and he wished to commit his own father to goal. The father expected to be included in a cartel for exchange of prisoners, which if it took place, the son despaired of ever recovering his money. On hearing the case, O'Connor rang the bell, and ordered the man instantly out of the house: and if his servants supplied him with a horse, it was without his privity or approbation. The reason of his coming by night, was because Connorville lay beyond the boundaries of his parole. After Mr. Pelham had scrupulously sifted the case of Hebert, he liberated O'Connor, and told Captain Roche, that he needed no longer to attend him as a prisoner: desiring O'Connor not to leave town till three o'clock on that day: after which hour, if he should not hear from him, he was at liberty to go whither he pleased. Before O'Connor had left Mr. Pelham on the 24th, he remarked, that the information, which Government appeared to receive and act upon was most extravagantly false and inconsistent. With reference to himself, he entreated a favor to be candidly told, if the information against him did not proceed from one individual, he should name. The Secretary indulged him conciliation, and justice, the still predominating as to a single nomination, and Robert L. O'Connor was fixed upon and allowed to be the only informer in Hebert's matter. Whilst O'Connor was confined in Bandon, he had heard some incredible sayings reported of his brother Robert; which having been uttered in the presence of Captain Roche, he determined to bring the truth of the report to the test, and begged Mr. Pelham to call him in. Captain Roche without any preface was asked, whether or no in his presence and hearing, some very extraordi nary sayings of Mr. R. L. O'Connor had not been uttered rela tive to his brother. Upon which Captain Roche asserted, " that as he and two of his brother officers were riding opposite Con" norville house, they met Mr. R. L. O'Connor, of whom one of them enquired, to whom that beautiful place belonged. He "answered to himself. Captain Roche replied, he thought it was the seat of Mr. O'Connor, who had quitted the country. "Oh! replied Mr. Robert L. O'Connor it was his, but now it's "mine. I am told he has come back to Ireland, and I hope soon "to see the villain hanged." The feelings of O'Connor and Captain Roche may be imagined, After a pause, even Mr. Pelham said with apparent emotion, "Don't be uneasy about the mon"ster. We have received intelligence of the sort of man he is, " and henceforth we shall pay no attention to any information from him." I The reason, why Mr. Pelham requested O'Connor not to leave Dublin before three o'clock on the 24th was this. Whilst O'Connor was confined in Bandon, Mr. Robert L. O'Connor sent for Cullinane the approver, who had informed against O'Connor's steward in April, and after having expressed great personal regard for him, he insidiously and falsely told him, that O'Connor was going to Dublin to give information against 24 United Irish-men, at the head of whose list stood Cullinane: and therefore to save himself, he recommended to him to swear against O'Connor, and offered immediately to take his information. This happened on Thursday the 20th of July. Cullinane for some time resisted, alleging, that such information would not be credited, after be had sworn in April before Lord Bantry and Mr. Silleto, that O'Connor was not in any way implicated in the 1801. 1801. spirit and principles of division, acrimony, and Union. He was however so vehemently urged to make this cautionary information in self-defence, and o solemnly assured, that it should never be used, but to defend him against the intended information of O'Connor, he at last began to hesitate : and on the faith of this loyal and zealous Magistrate, in order to keep up all proper appearances, he consented to take home with him a summons for the next day in his pocket, to ward off all suspicion of his being an hired informer: and promised in the mean time to think of the business. On the next day he attended the summons. The fabrication of this information took up the whole day, and it was not finished before Captain Roche's departure. Brigadier General Coote, who played a principal part in this mysterious drama, was privy to the manufacturing of the information by Mr. R. L. O'Connor, and sent å letter to Mr. Pelham by Captain Roche, stating the difficulty and length of the information, and promising, that it should be infallibly in Dublin on Monday the 24th by the post, which then arrived about two o'clock in the afternoon. It did arrive at that hour: but after all Mr. Pelham had on that very morning heard and said concerning the veracity, credibility, and feeling of Mr. Robert L. O'Connor, he could not on the first impulse annex any serious consequence to the operations of fraternał malice upon ignorance and iniquity. He not only did not send to O'Connor before three o'clock on the day he received the information, but on the next day he wrote to the Cork General to this effect. "My dear Sir, Captain Roche will report to you "his arrival here with Mr. O'Connor. They will return tomorrow, but Mr. O'Connor is discharged from any arrest, and "is out on the bail he entered into at Mallow." Brigadier General Coote on the day he received this letter from Mr. Pelham, instantly sent a copy of it to Mrs. O'Connor, presuming, that it would give her pleasure to hear of her husband's liberation. Captain Roche was not accompanied back to 'Cork by O'Connor, who had another interview with Mr. Pelham on the 26th of July, at which he told O'Connor of his having received a very serious information against him, not long after his leaving him on Monday, but added, we shall pay no " consequent debilitation would be concealed from 1801. attention to it, as it comes from your brother. The Secretary al- |