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and proofs, solid and unvarnished, than to dissolve them in a flowing narrative, more pleasing to the eye, though less satisfactory as evidence. Had it been possible for my researches to have taken a chronological rather than a biographic shape, the result might have proved easier reading. Yet if there is truth in the axiom that men who write with ease are read with difficulty, and vice versa, these chapters ought to find readers. Every page had its hard work. Tantalising delays blocked at times the search for some missing-but finally discoveredlink. Indeed, volumes of popular reading, written currente calamo, might have been thrown off for a tithe of the trouble.

If the power to do hard work is not talent,' writes Garfield, it is the best possible substitute for it. Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.' Readers who, thanks to Froude and Lecky, have been interested by glimpses of men in startling attitudes, would naturally like to learn the curious sequel of their subsequent history. This I have done my best to furnish. The present volume is offered as a companion to the two great works just alluded to. But it will also prove useful to readers of the Wellington, Castlereagh, Cornwallis, and Colchester Correspondence. These books abound in passages which, without explanation, are unintelligible. The matter now presented forms but a small part of the notes I have made with the same end.

A word as regards some of the later sources of my information. The Pelham MSS. were not accessible when Mr. Froude wrote. Thomas Pelham, second Earl of Chichester, was Irish Secretary from 1795 to 1798, but his correspondence until 1826 deals largely with Ireland, and I have read as much of it as would load a float. Another mine was found in the papers, ranging from 1795 to 1805, which filled two ironclamped chests in Dublin Castle, guarded with the Government seal and bearing the words 'Secret and Confidential: Not to be Opened.' These chests were for a long time familiar objects exteriorly, and when it was at last permitted to disturb the rust of lock and hinge, peculiar interest attended the

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exploration. Among the contents were 136 letters from Francis Higgins, substantially supporting all that I had ventured to say twenty years before in the book which claimed to portray his career. But neither the Pelham Papers in London nor the archives at Dublin Castle reveal the great secret to which Mr. Froude points.

That so many documents have been preserved is fortunate. Mr. Ross, in his preface to the Cornwallis Correspondence, laments that the Duke of Portland, Lord Chancellor Clare, Mr. Wickham, Mr. King, Sir H. Taylor, Sir E. Littlehales, Mr. Marsden, and indeed almost all the persons officially concerned, appear to have destroyed the whole of their papers.' He adds: The destruction of so many valuable documents respecting important transactions cannot but be regarded as a serious loss to the history of these times.'

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I have freely used the Registry of Deeds Office, Dublin—a department peculiar to Ireland. Originating in penal times, its object was to trace any property acquired by Papists-such being liable to 'discovery and forfeiture.' This office served as a valuable curb in the hands of the oppressor, and ought to prove a not less useful aid to historic inquirers; but, hitherto, it has been unconsulted for such purposes. Few unless legal men can pursue the complicated references, and -unlike the Record Office-fees attend almost every stage of the inquiry. Here things stranger than fiction nestle; while the genealogist will find it an inexhaustible store.

I have to thank the Right Hon. the O'Conor Don, D.L.; Sir William H. Cope, Bart.; Mrs. John Philpot Curran; Daniel O'Connell, Esq., D.L.; D. Coffey, Esq.; Jeremiah Leyne,

To these names may be added that of Lord Clonmell (see Grattan's Life, ii. 145). A fatality seemed to attend other valuable collections. The late Lord Londonderry, referring to a voluminous correspondence with his brother, Castlereagh, writes: Many years since, I placed this collection in the hands of the Rev. S. Turner, who was at that time nominated and going out as Bishop of Calcutta. This excellent divine had been tutor to my son Castlereagh; and, feeling a deep interest in the family, he had undertaken to arrange these papers. ... The vessel, however, that sailed to India with Mr. Turner's baggage, papers, etc., was unfortunately wrecked.'-Memoirs, &c., of Viscount Castlereagh, London, 1848, i. 143.

Esq.; the late Lord Donoughmore, and the late Mr. Justice Hayes for the communication of manuscripts from the archives of their respective houses. The Rev. Samuel Haughton, F.T.C.D., kindly copied for me some memoranda made in 1798 by the Rev. John Barrett, Vice-Provost T.C.D., regarding students of alleged rebel leanings. So far back as 1880 Sir Charles Russell, when M.P. for Dundalk; Mr. Denis Caulfield Brady, Newry, Mr. James Matthews, and Rev. J. O'Laverty, P.P. Holywood, obligingly made inquiries respecting the object of my suspicion-Samuel Turner.' Mr. Lecky transcribed for me a curious paper concerning Aherne, the rebel envoy in France, and has been otherwise kind. My indebtedness to Sir Bernard Burke, Keeper of the Records, Dublin Castle, dates from the year 1855.

The late Brother Luke Cullen, a Carmelite monk, left at his death a vast quantity of papers throwing light on the period of the Rebellion. No writer but myself has ever had the use of these papers, and I beg to thank the Superior of the Order to which Mr. Cullen belonged for having, some years ago, placed them in my hands.

There is a figure in this book of whom I wish to say a final word. Mr. Froude brands the Rev. Arthur O'Leary with having been a spy (p. 230, post). After a very protracted inquiry, throughout which I carefully weighed all available evidence, I am of opinion that the charge against this priest has not been proven. An examination of the circumstances that surrounded his career also proved useful in turning up some of those things which my critic in the Saturday Review' described as 'curiosities of history.'

49 FITZWILLIAM SQUARE, DUBLIN:

September, 1892.

1 On this point see p. 383, post.

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