He (Cooke) said "that he knew your character well, and had such testimonies of its dangerous nature as fully justified government in all they had done." This was coming to the point I wanted. "If you have such clear evidence, sir, against my brother, why refuse his urgent and repeated applications to be allowed a trial in the courts established in this country, for similar offences? Or, on my application, will this opportunity be now granted him?" "O no: the nature of the information against him will not admit of its being brought forward in a court of justice. It is sufficient to satisfy US, but not to convict HIM." "Surely, Mr. Cooke, courts-martial, to which we are now so fortunately amenable, are not so extremely nice in admitting evidence, but that it is extremely probable, what is capable of weighing with government will be enough to convince them how eligible it is to punish an individual for the aggregate of a detailed criminality, although the detached parts should neither be very specific, nor very heinous, by themselves." "Well! but we cannot make our information public, for it may be from people who do not wish to be known; and if we should attempt to discover

them,

* There is something very remarkable in this declaration of Mr. Edward Cooke, especially from the time, at which it was made. At an earlier period, it might have been suspected of truth. But, long before 1801, their principal informers had all been publickly made known, not only in the trials on which

them, it would effectually preclude our receiving any more from those hidden sources."

These words fully prove, not only the truth

the fact, "that there was nothing that could be wire-drawn or twisted into evidence, in the informations against us;" but, in connexion with what preceded, that our liberty and lives were not in the hands of law, justice, the lord lieutenant, or government; but in those of hireling understrappers, who, in contempt of the whole, and by the surreptitious use of his excellency's name, were sporting with both, on the pretended credit of any miscreants whom malice may have prompted, influence overawed, or a bribe seduced, under the secretarial assurance of secrecy and protection, to swear them away. Nay, they prove still more. They prove that, though the same underlings, from excess of delicacy, refused us trial, on the information they boasted, because the modest people, from whom they had it, "did not wish to be known," yet the same delicacy did not prevent

them

they had been produced, but by the reports of secret committees, and from many other sources, which had been suc cessively opened during the preceding three years. Besides all hunting after information, with a view to prosecutions, had been previously disclaimed by government. With what pretensions to credibility, then, could Mr. E. C assign as a reason for refusing trial to Mr. Tennent, in 1801, that "an attempt to discover their informers, would preclude their receiving any more information from those hidden sources?"

them from condemning us, without trial, to languish for THREE YEARS, SEVEN MONTHS, AND SEVEN DAYS, in confinement and exile, though they very well knew that there was not a man among us, who had ever expressed, or even entertained, a wish for either: and, at the same time, that our confinement and exile had already involved some of our families in deep distress.

The other fact, viz. " that every restraint imposed, but none of the indulgences granted, at Fort-George, originated in Ireland," rests likewise on stronger evidence than any yet alleged against US It derives at least a respectable probability from the reason assigned for depriving us of pen and ink, May 6th. 1799; the order for transmitting our letters to the office of the Irish secretary, October 31st.and the document of the 29th. of Nov. 1801; in connexion with the first instructions sent to Fort-George, and the consequent strictness of our confinement.. And this probability is raised, almost to certainty, by Mr. Edward Cooke's words to Dr. Tennent. "He said, that the Irish government had nothing to do in Roger O'Connor's liberation; and that it had not, in the slightest degree, interfered in it, either by recommendation, or otherwise." "He said also, that the expiration of the suspension bill was the only reason for liberating lord Cloncurry

Y

and

and the other state prisoners in England; and that his majesty's illness had occasioned that unexpected predicament."

Now, surely, if Mr. Cooke exculpates, the Irish government, i. e. the Irish clerks, from all concern in the liberation of R. O'Connor, though his life seemed to depend on it, no candid mind will accuse them, either of extending or intending, indulgence to us, who, thank god, were generally in pretty good health. And, should any uncandid mind suspect them of any such intention, its suspicion must be dissipated by the following sentence. "He said that, if the English government were doubtful whether or no the Habeas Corpus Act extended to Scotland, they (the Irish government) would order you to Ireland, on the expiration of the bill for suspending that act, until it could be again renewed, when you would be taken back to Fort-George; but, if they were sure that you could not take the benefit of the Habeas Corpus, you would remain where you are.”

However little credit may seem due to the ·unsupported" sayings of Mr. Edward Cooke, after the palpable falsehoods in his letter to Mrs. Staples, and of which he must stand con victed, if his excellency spoke truth to Ds. Tennent, I am inclined to think that he may be believed here. The former part of his information

information derives support from the declaration of the very respectable Nicholas Magin, before. mentioned; and the latter, confirmation from the fact that, during the prevailing anxiety for our safely, preparations were actually made, in Carrickfergus, for our accommodation, should we return; and soldiers, with a confidential officer, ordered thither, from Ballymena, for our protection.

There is something more in the language of these documents, which I cannot pass unnoticed. They declare" that no particular applications would be attended to, nor any exceptions made;" and speak of all the " deliberations, determinations, and arrangements," to be holden or made, as comprehending ALL the prisoners at FortGeorge. The use of the phrase particular: applications" is strictly proper, as no general. memorial or petition was ever sent to government, by the prisoners at Fort-George; and, that those, sent by individuals, were not attended to, so as to procure any peculiar favor to their authors, is evident from my being. comprehended in the "act of grace" which set them free, though I had never made an application of any kind; unless my challenging and provoking trial, before my removal from Ireland, shall be deemed such.