fortune. Rowan was allowed to entertain his friends in his private room, and having learnt Jackson's object in coming to Ireland, received him and Cockayne at breakfast, Wolfe Tone making a fourth, as a fit person to negotiate with France. Tone had already sketched a paper to be laid before the Directory, describing the state of Irish parties, the numerical weakness of the gentry, the hatred felt for them by Catholics and dissenters, and the certainty that if France would assist, the Government could be easily overthrown. It was suggested that Tone himself should go to France and concert measures with the chiefs of the Revolution. Tone hesitated, remembered that he had a wife and children, and for the first time in his life showed prudence. Rowan copied out the paper, and gave the copy to Jackson, who folded and sealed it, addressed it to a correspondent at Hamburgh, and gave it to Cockayne to put in the post. Cockayne, who had already set the police on the alert, allowed himself to be taken with the paper on his person. Jackson was arrested. A friend warned Rowan of his danger; and he knowing that if his handwriting could be proved he would be hanged, persuaded the gaoler to let him go that night to his own house to see his wife. The gaoler went with him, to insure his safe return to Newgate, but not to intrude upon his prisoner's privacy, waited during the interview in the passage. Rowan slipped through a back window, mounted a horse, and escaped to a friend's house at Howth, where he lay concealed till a smuggler could be found who would convey a gentleman in difficulties to France. A couple of adventurous men were ready with their

1 This paper is printed in the Life of Wolfe Tone, vol. i. p. 277.

services. A day's delay was necessary to prepare their vessel, and meanwhile a proclamation was out with an offer of a reward of 2,000l. for Rowan's apprehension. The smugglers guessed who their charge must be; but in such circumstances a genuine Irishman would rather be torn by horses than betray a life trusted to him. They swore to land Rowan safe, and three days after he was in Brittany.1

Rowan was beyond the reach of the Government, but Tone remained; and there was Dr. Drennan, also an energetic incendiary, with whom Jackson had communicated, who had long been an object of anxiety. Dundas, to whom the Viceroy wrote for advice, recommended that Jackson should be admitted as an approver. With Jackson and Cockayne for witnesses, Tone and Drennan could be tried and hanged. The Viceroy was obliged to answer that no Irish jury would convict on such evidence. The attempt would end in disgrace.2 Jackson himself could be convicted; but about this, too, there was difficulty, for Cockayne had disappeared. Knowing that his life would not be safe in Dublin for an hour, he had stolen away on the instant that the mine was exploded, and was again in London. He was found and carried back to Holyhead, where he fell ill with terror, and could not be moved. At length, but not till after a year's delay, he was carried over and kept under guard, and in April 1795 Jackson was

1 Hamilton Rowan here disappears from the story. He went to America, and was condemned in his absence for treason. Fitzgibbon, however, interfered to save his large estates for his family, and in 1799, when the rebellion was over, promised to procure his pardon. Fitzgibbon died before the promise could be redeemed, but he left it in charge to Castlereagh's

care.

In 1805 the pardon was made out, and Rowan returned to Ireland, where he lived quietly the rest of his life.

2" Westmoreland to Dundas, May 12."

brought to the bar. His trial was the first of the list in which Curran was to earn immortality as the advocate of misguided patriots. Curran, George Ponsonby, MacNally, T. Emmett, Guinness, all the strength which Irish Liberalism could command, was enlisted in the prisoner's service. Curran's skill in torturing informers was as striking as his eloquence. He stretched Cockayne as painfully as ever the rackmaster of the Tower stretched a Jesuit. He made him confess that he had been employed by Pitt. He showed that if Jackson was a traitor to the State, Cockayne was a far blacker traitor to the friend who trusted him. Lord Clonmel, who presided, explained to the jury that if they disbelieved Cockayne the case must fall. But Jackson's guilt was too patent to leave excuse for doubt. The trial lasted till four in the morning, but the jury required but half an hour to consider their verdict. A remand was ordered for four days, at the end of which the prisoner was to be brought again to the bar to receive sentence. Irish history is full of melodrama, but never was stranger scene witnessed in a court of justice than when Jackson appeared again. It was April 30, 1795. On his passage through the streets in a carriage he was observed to be deadly pale; once he hung his head out of the window and was sick. The crowd thought he was afraid. At the bar he could scarcely stand; and Lord Clonmel seeing his wretched state, would have hurried through his melancholy office. The prisoner was told to raise his hand. He lifted it feebly and let it fall. He was called on to say why sentence should not be passed against him. He could not speak. Clonmel was proceeding, when first Curran and then Ponsonby in

terposed with points of form. As Ponsonby was speaking Jackson fell forward over the bar. The windows were thrown open. It was thought that he had fainted. The attendants caught him, and he sank back into a chair insensible.

"If the prisoner cannot hear me," Clonmel said, "I cannot pass judgment. He must be taken away. The Court must adjourn." "My Lord," said the Sheriff, "the prisoner is dead." To escape the disgrace of execution he had taken arsenic in his tea at his breakfast, and chose to leave the world in this theatric fashion.

In a note which he had left in his room he had bequeathed his family to the French Directory, but philosophy had not entirely stifled the sad voice of the creed of his earlier age. In his pocket was found a paper, on which was written in his own hand: “Turn thou unto me and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and in misery. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. O bring thou me out of my affliction. Look on my affliction and my pain and forgive me all my sins."

SECTION IV.

BEFORE the appearance of Jackson in Ireland a French invasion had been contemplated as a too likely possibility.1 There was no longer a doubt that a campaign in Ireland was deliberately contemplated, and if attempted would cause immediate insurrection. A powerful party, of whom Burke was the principal, were forever clamoring to Pitt that the renewed disturbances were only due to the imperfect confidence which had been placed in the Catholics, and to the exasperation created by the repressive measures of Lord Westmoreland. The Cabinet was modified in the summer of 1794 by the accession of the moderate Whigs. Portland, Spenser, and Fitzwilliam became members of Pitt's Administration. Portland, who had had experience of Ireland, was less sanguine than his friends on the good effects to be expected from conciliation. Spenser and Fitzwilliam were as confident as Dundas that if the Catholic gentry and prelates could be introduced into the Government, the body of the people would immediately return to

1 "The French will not act with the desperate ability which they have manifested on other occasions if they do not make some attempt on Ireland. If once established here, in however small numbers, they might raise a convulsion that would require the whole exertions of England to repress. The people of property are well-disposed, but the lower orders would rejoice in every opportunity of plundering them, and revenging what they would call the cause of their ancestors." "Westmoreland to Dundas, January 14."