СНАР. This deponent saith that the entire of the charges and insinuations against this deponent contained in those passages are untrue. This deponent saith he was personally an utter stranger to the said Robert Emmet, never having, to the knowledge of this deponent, seen him until he was arraigned and on the trial in the Dublin Court, and never having had any intercourse with him of any kind, directly or indirectly; and this deponent saith he never received the slightest or the remotest obligation from the said Robert Emmet, or from the father, or any one individual of the family of the said Robert Emmet. And this deponent saith that the father of the said Robert Emmet was a physician, residing in the city of Dublin. This deponent was not ever on such terms of intimacy or acquaintance with the said Dr. Emmet as to bow to him in the streets; and this deponent never was, to his recollection or belief, in a private company with the said Dr. Emmet, or in a room, in his life, save once, and that, as this deponent believes, upwards of twenty years ago, at the house of the said Dr. Emmet, on the invitation of his son, Thomas Addis Emmet, with whom the deponent had been intimate when in the University of Dublin, and when a student at the Inns of Court, in England; but this deponent saith that, within a very short time after the said Thomas Addis Emmet had been called to the Irish Bar, which was, as deponent saith, some time in May, 1790, all intimacy between him and this deponent had ceased, principally in consequence, as this deponent saith, of a total opposition between the opinions of Thomas Addis Emmet and this deponent on the political affairs of this country, which about that period assumed a form so very important as deeply to affect the private sentiments and character of reflecting persons, insomuch so that, for some years before the arrest and imprisonment of the said Thomas Addis Emmet in the year 1798, there subsisted no sort of intercourse between this deponent and the said Thomas Addis Emmet, save unless what arose from occasionally meeting in the streets or in the Four Courts, although this deponent was not then fully apprised of the danger in which the said Thomas Addis Emmet was implicated with the party who were engaged in the political pursuits in the country, which ended in so much disaster. This deponent further saith that he did not conduct the trial for high treason against the said Robert Emmet, the same being then conducted by the then Attorney-General.' But this deponent admits he was one of the Counsel employed and consulted in the conduct thereof; and this deponent declares that the said trial was conducted with perfect propriety and moderation by the said AttorneyGeneral, and by all the Counsel concerned; and this deponent positively saith that he was not, in the part which he took in the said trial, actuated by any feeling at all partaking of the nature of virulence or rancour; but, on the contrary, this deponent saith he felt sincere compassion for the said Robert Emmet, whom this deponent considered as possessing many high endowments, but who had, as this deponent conceived, sacrificed them and himself to the suggestion of an unregulated enthusiasm, and who had involved in his wild enterprise the fate of many deluded persons of the lower orders of society. This deponent saith he was then of opinion that it would be of some service to the public that this deponent should avail himself of the public opportunity of speaking to the evidence in the said trial, by pointing out the folly and wildness, as well as the wickedness of the treasonable conspiracy which at that time subsisted; and this deponent saith that in the observations which he made on the same trial, this deponent did remark on the unworthy use which the said Robert Emmet had made of his rank in society, and of his high abilities, in endeavouring to dissatisfy the lower orders of labourers and mechanics with their lot in life, and engaging them in schemes of revolution from which they could reap no fruit but disgrace and death; and this deponent did also remark on the danger 'Right Hon. Standish O'Grady,.afterwards Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland. CHAP. LXV. CHAP. and ruin to which the said Robert Emmet had exposed his country, by having proposed (as this deponent conceives the fact to be) to call in the assistance of the French. But this deponent saith that he is not conscious of having made use of any expressions on that occasion which were calculated to give unnecessary pain to the said Robert Emmet, or which in any degree departed from the respect which was due to a gentleman in his unfortunate situation. And this deponent begs leave to refer to the Report of the cases of High Treason published in the year 1803, in which, although the report of this deponent's observations to the Jury is very inaccurate as to composition, and was published without any revisal by or communication with the deponent, the substance of the said observations is stated fairly and without suppression. This deponent saith that a libellous statement, similar to that which deponent now complains of, having been made many years ago, in a London periodical print, this deponent did bring an action in England against the publisher thereof, and did, the same time, in 1804, obtain a verdict and damages to the amount of 4001., but which the deponent did not levy; and this deponent saith that the same scandal having been revived and propagated with some industry, this deponent feels that he owes it to his own character to take this public method of disproving on oath the base and unworthy conduct which has been attributed to him, and which this deponent believes is calculated to lower him in the estimation of those who are not acquainted with his character, and sentiments, and habits of life. This deponent saith that he believes a great many copies of the publication above mentioned have been circulated in this city by the publisher; a copy thereof was, on the 14th of this month, sold at the shop of Messrs. Gilbert and Hodges. 'November 23, 1811.' CHAPTER LXVI. LIFE OF LORD PLUNKET, LORD CHANCELLOR, CONTINUED-FROM THE СНАР. LXVI. Mr.Plunket General. SHORTLY after the trial of Robert Emmet Mr. Plunket was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland. The office was a recognition of his zeal in the service of the Govern- Solicitorment, and when the Administration called 'All the Talents' General. occupied the Cabinet, Plunket became the Irish Attorney- AttorneyGeneral, while his friend and contemporary Charles Kendal Bushe was appointed Solicitor-General. The want of having the chief law officer for Ireland in Parliament was much felt, and Mr. Wickham and Lord Grenville' both pressed him very hard to enter Parliament. He declined, on the score of the injury his professional prospects must receive by even occasional absence. When the Duke of Portland's Administration assumed the reins of power in 1807, Mr. Plunket was offered the post he lately filled of Attorney-General; but as he could not act with the party then in office, he resigned his place. you from ex Redesdale. A letter from Lord Redesdale, dated Harley Street, Letter May 12, 1807, conveys a deep regret at his resigna- Chancellor tion. The Ex-Chancellor says, 'I cannot express to Lord the regret I feel at your final determination to resign your office. I feared the consequences of your having been prevailed on to take a seat in Parliament, from which it had been my particular wish that the law officers of the Crown in Ireland should be exempted; and when, urged by Mr. Wickham, I had strongly objected to it, as highly injurious to the individual, and tending to make the Bar of Ireland again a field for political interest, and to render promotion the reward for political services, instead of its 1 Vide Letters in the Life by his grandson, vol. i. p. 222. CHAP. being the reward of those professional labours which best qualify men for the highest legal stations. LXVI. Plunket Parlia- 'I had flattered myself with the hope that time would have rendered the Irish Bar, removed from political distraction, of the highest repute in the law of the country, to which their studies, as well as their abilities, might be exclusively applied. It is not for us to discuss the propriety of the decisions of those who have led you to form a different decision from that which I had once hoped you might have adopted; though I must confess that when you informed me of your intention to seek the opinion of others, I had very faint hopes that you would be permitted to act as I could have wished.'1 Plunket hesitated to enter the Imperial Parliament. His friends were impatient, and urged him to do so, for they had no misgivings about his success; at last he consented. He was perhaps unwilling to give up any of his lucrative practice at the Bar. His legal career had been highly successful. When ten years called, and in his thirty-third year of age, he received the silk gown of King's Counsel. When in his thirty-ninth year he was SolicitorGeneral, and two years later Attorney-General. The necessity for his advocacy of the claims of his Catholic fellow-countrymen overcame his scruples, and he took his seat in St. Stephen's for Midhurst in 1807. His first speech in the British House of Commons was on Mr. Grattan's motion for Catholic emancipation, and his speech was a masterpiece of reasoning and eloquence. The fire of his magnificent mind,' said Grattan, was lighted from ancient altars in the delivery of that unrivalled speech. He astonished his hearers by the purity of his language and the logic of his style. It was so different from English notions of Irish eloquence, that they could hardly realise he was a son of the Emerald Isle. The best tribute that could be paid to a speech in the House of Commons was paid to this speech of Plunket's. He caused several members long opposed to the claims of 1 Life of Lord Plunket, by his grandson, vol. i. p. 226. |