dirty kind at the Castle, and a hanger-on of Clare and the Beresfords.

In the spring of 1790, Giffard's privileged insolence had already reached the acme of its audacity. He attacked Mr. Curran in the streets at noon-day, for alluding, in his place in parliament, to the large sums of money squandered on the surbordinate agents and partizans of administration.

The circumstances of this insult are detailed in a letter of Mr. Curran to the Right Honourable Major Hobart, the secretary, demanding the dismissal of this menial of the government from his post in the

revenue.

a

"A man of the name of Giffard," he states, conductor of your press, a writer for your government, your notorious agent in the city, your notetaker in the House of Commons, in consequence of some observation that fell from me in that house, on your prodigality, in rewarding such a man with the public money, for such services, had the audacity to come within a few paces of me in the most frequented part of the city, and shake his cane at me in a manner that, notwithstanding his silence, was not to be misunderstood."

Curran, despising the menial, held the master responsible for the insolence of the servant, and a duel between him and Major Hobart was the consequence.

Just previously to the trial of Hamilton Rowan in 1794, for a seditious libel, it was found necessary to have a jury which could be relied on for a conviction,

and a sheriff that could be trusted in such an emergency. Mr. Giffard was made sheriff some months previously to the trial, " a jury of the right sort" was impannelled, and Hamilton Rowan was sent to Newgate.

Mr. Giffard was at this time, by Lord Clare's patronage and protection, on the high road to preferment under government, and its countenance had already enabled him to become the chief proprietor of the "Dublin Journal." From the time it came into his hands, its violence, virulence, vulgarity, and mendacity, were of so extreme a character, that in the present day, its advocacy would be held detrimental and disgraceful to any party. Yet its editor was patronized, and preferred to places of honour and emolument by the administration, and especially favoured with the countenance and confidence of Lord Clare. Indeed, none but the most worthless and unscrupulous men, were selected for his favour, or fitted to be his agents.

The next signal instance of this man's effrontery, was on the occasion of Mr. Grattan's appearance at the hustings, in 1803, to vote for the then liberal candidate, Sir Jonah Barrington. Mr. Giffard objected to Mr. Grattan's vote, on the alleged ground of his name having been expunged from the corporation list, in consequence of the report of the secret committee of the House of Commons, especially got up and revised by Lord Clare, containing the evidence of a man of the name of Hughes (a notorious informer), involving Mr. Grattan in the designs of the United Irishmen. Grattan, on this

occasion, poured forth a volume of invective on the astonished Mr. Giffard; such, perhaps, as never fell on the devoted head of so humble a minion of administration. This memorable burst of disdain and indignation, was addressed to his victim in these words:" Mr. Sheriff, when I observe the quarter from whence the objection comes, I am not surprised at its being made. It proceeds from the hired traducer of his country, the excommunicated of his fellow-citizens, the regal rebel, the unpunished ruffian, the bigotted agitator. In the city, a firebrand; in the court, a liar; in the streets, a bully; in the field, a coward. And so obnoxious is he to the very party he wishes to espouse, that he is only supportable by doing those dirty acts, the less vile refuse to execute."

Giffard's reply, as recorded by Sir Jonah Barrington, "I would spit upon him in a desert," is indicative enough of the mind and manners of the discomfited zealot.

CHAPTER IV.

THE following particulars respecting the Sheares were communicated to me in writing, in 1836, by Mr. Davock, a silk merchant, formerly of Bridgestreet, the intimate friend, neighbour, and political associate of Oliver Bond.

"John Sheares," he says, "was intimately acquainted with Bond, Emmett, the Honourable Simon Butler, and Henry Jackson.

"He was a man of excellent private character, of good talents and great personal courage. He was always considered a man of high honour; but his principles most certainly were republican: and I think his objects went much further than reform. He joined the second society of United Irishmen about 1796, and became a very active member of it. As a barrister he had pretty good practice. I heard that he wrote much for the "Press," but do not know under what signature. The introduction at Byrne's in Grafton-street, to Armstrong, was a trap laid to ensnare him. Byrne, the bookseller, (at whose house he first met Armstrong,) subsequently went to America: I do not think he was false to the Sheares

the man who was set on them imposed on Byrne and performed his task completely.

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Henry was a man of very gentlemanly address; his talents were thought good; he was looked upon as a man of honour and discretion. At the meeting at Bond's, on the 12th of March, he, like many others of the leaders, did not attend; but no suspicion ever attached to his absence."

The gentleman from whom I obtained these few particulars, informed me, that he was one of the persons who conducted Lord Edward Fitzgerald to Murphy's, in Thomas-street, on one of the occasions of his being concealed there. Mr. Davock died in the year 1837.

John Sheares took no active part in the business of the United Irish Society, till after the arrests had taken place at Bond's; and the vacancy in the directory was filled up by his appointment to that perilous office. The part which had been first assigned to him, was the direction of the Cork organization. A directory was nominated for that county, but the apprehension of the Sheares paralyzed its first movements; and no outbreak was attempted in the south.

The chief part of the papers of the Sheares fell into the hands of Mr. Charles Coughlan, of Cork, the person whom John Sheares speaks of in his last letter to his sister Julia, as "the worthy Charles Coughlan." He was a man in humble circumstances, but highly respected, not only in his early, but in his latter days. In 1836, he was still living in his native city, greatly esteemed by all who knew him. In reply to an application of mine, for the papers in