The Sun. — London, England, 1804-02-10 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND AND THE EARL ,OF FINGALL. [Concluded from our Paper of Tkesda.y.] TO HIE• NOBILITY: AND GENTRY OF THE COUNTY OF. CORK, THE HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE - OF THE REV. PETER O'NEIL 4 ;11: C. PARISH PRIEST' OF BALLYMA— CoDA NOTE t, IJEITER VLI, OF THE COL RESPONDENCE). MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, The ,present mild administration of His Majesty's Government in Ireland, having graeiously recalled me from a painful and humiliating exile, to liberty in my native Country, I avail myself of the earlith opportunity to solicit your attention, while Tin deavour by a plain statement to remove from your minds that odium which misrepresentation, and obloquy have long excited against me; 'and which, unremoved, must render my exi-aence here eqiially painful to you and to myself. Were this obloquy and misrepresentation confined in its eff , sas to my own individual person, however desirable the reinstatement in your good opinion must be,, I should hardly presume to intrude tiptin you; but rrty charaCter affeas, in some degree, that Of the body to which I hove the honour to belong;, it interests the reyutation of many respedable per. sons who have humanely interfered in my behalf; and what is still of far greater importance, it may possibly interest the reputation of His Majesty's Government in Ireland, which with ti , iscrirninatifog imear iali:y bath looked down upon me, enve.. loped as I was in a mist of calumny ; bath stretched forth a parental hand to release me from impriSon. talent, to break my chains, and to expunge, the hasty sentence which consigned me for a time to shame and suffering„ I shall be particularly care ful while you condescend to indulge me with a bearing, to confine myself to what is absolutely, necessary for my exculpation. To express or even to harbour resentment, would ill become me at any time, but particularly now. I forgive, from my; soul, ever injury I have received, and every per.o son concerned in infliaing it ; not only religion; requires this at my hands, but common sense and. justice. When I was arrested and punished, it was doubt-, .less in the supposition that I was deeply engaged in the hOrrota which diSgrace many parts of this. Kingdom a.t that distressing period. To have been pointed at, as an United Irishman ; as con cerned in the shedding of blood ; as an abettur.of treason ; as assenting to, and encouraging murder;' was naturally 'a death-warrant in that moment of irritation If it were allowed me to complain, e l should only find fault with the precipitancy of the proceedings which then afilieted me. Had I been favoured with a regular trial, or even a calm in vestigation, the error would have been discovered, and my misfortunes would have been obviated; but though the measures were 'precipitately adopted, they were so, under the. full convi'aion of my fla. gitious guilt.; and, however painful tome, were cer tainly much lighter than, such guilt would have de. served. Hanging were too mild for it : and did my conscience charge me at this moment with what I 'as accused of then, I should think myself favoured by transportation : I should hide my head during the remainder of my ignominious days from the sight of the most atrocious fellow-criminals : but no proof of these enormities ever has, or ever can be adduced. My Lords and Gentlemen, I am now li berated : not through a pardon solicited for, or grant, ed me ; hut on the merits of my, case. To volun.. leer in perjury is an excess of wickedness so vile as not to be attributed to the most abandoned without the strongest proofs. Under a full conviecion that an appeal to the God of Truth in support of known, falsehood, would be nothing less than to call upop him to expunge 'my name for ever from the book of life; to with-hold from the all participation in the merits of my Redeemer; to . , doom of its own nature my soul to never-ending misery; I now most solemnly swear, iu the presence of Almighty God, upon his Holy Gospels, first, that I was never an United Irishman ; that I never took that oath; that I never encouraged, advised, or permitted others to take it ; but, on the contrary, that I dis suaded others from taking it, some of whom have.. had the generosity to make affidavit of my exertions , in this behalf; and there are who have candidly added 'that they would have taken it, had I not pre 7 vented them. Some of these affidavits have long since been laid before Government, together with the other documents of my exculpation. Secondly,. I do declare, upon my oath, that I never signed the death-warrant of any man ; or an assent to the.. murder or to the death of any man; and that I never was asked to sign such death-warrant or as sent. This declaration is further strikingly corm., borated by the following circumstances : no such paper has been ever produced against me. It would have amounted incontrovertibly to conspiracy' of murder; it would alone have condemned me to the - . gibbet ; and there can be no doubt, if you con sider the temper of my treatment, that such an im. portant paper would not have been kept back through,lenity. There .are some Gentlemen of this country, who have declared to others who will at test it, that they had this paper in their hand ; that they knew my signature : I now call upon them most respeafully, most earnestly, and with. out intending the slightest offence ; I challenge them, I defy them to produce it. When these Gentlemen were asked by my friends, during my banishment, why this paper was not brought for walk! previous to my punishment, or before the Court of Inquiry, which- was held upon me. in Youghal, some could give no answer, while others asserted that it was subsequent to that inquiry this paper was discovered : again I call for it; let it be produced ; and if it cannot, let common justice remand it for ever to its source--malignant calum ny. It was my peculiar misfortune that the charges then made against me were not only with-held from myself, but even my friends had no intimation of them, except by common report, which then was busily employed in disseminating the various atro. Another respeEtable Gentleman is represented in these minutes to hate said, that immediately after my punishment, I acknowledged to'him that I was Bulk S.tocic Na'...- . S f'er L ent. 88?4. 5 per t ent., 1797, 92.4 Irish 5 per Cent. 4 per Cent. Con. 3 pe r'('. 14.. 56.0 - 3.per C ('on. ssii B. L. Ann. t6' 7-!61 B. S. Ann. 3 5.46 LONDON: Printed by BUCHANAN 114'MILLAN, (of Bow-Street, Covent-Gardenl; and Publii.bect by W El A 14 . 1 , 4 I out SCRIPPS, South NI 1 Orders for the Paper, Letters for the Editor, Oaf- ..u.ton-street, Grosvenor-squwe); At the SuN.OFF lc 1, No, ilz, Straxd ; where Advertisements,(poll-4"id)s must be addle:led, cities supposed to have been committed by me : but nothing specifically authenticated had transpired : the very committal was so vague as to have excite,! the astonishment of a professional friend of mine in Dublin, and to have eventually led to my discharge. I shall now proceed to the particulars of my case. Immediately upon my arrest, I was brought into Youghal, where, without any previous trial, I was confined in a loathsome receptacle of the Barrack, called the Black - Hole, rendered still more offensive by the stench of the common necessary adjoining it. In that dungeon I remained from Friday until Monday, when I was conduced to the Ball ally to receive my punishment. No trial had yet inter. vened,. nor ever after. I was stripped and tied up ; six soldiers stood forth for this operation ; some of them right.handed, some left-handed men, two at a time (as I judge from the quickness of the lashes) and relieved at intervals, until I had received two hundred and seventy-five lashes, so vigorously and so deeply inflicted, that my beck and the points of my shoulders were quite bared of the flesh, At that moment, a letter was handed to the Offi ' cer presiding, written, I. understand, in my favour, by the late Hon. Capt. O'BRIEN ROSTELLAN. It happily interrupted my punishment. But I had no t hitherto shaken the triangle ; a display of feeling which it seems was eagerly expected from me. To accelerate that, speaacle a wire cat was introduced, armed with scraps of tin or lead. (I judge from the effect, and from the description given me.)— , Whatever were its appendages, I cannot easily for. get the power of it. In defiance of shame, my waistband was cut for the finishing strokes of this lacerating instrument. The very first lash, as it re. neweal all my pangs, and shot convulsive agony through my entire frame, made me shake the triangle indeed. A second inflidion penetrated my loins,. and tore them—excruciating : the third maintained the tremulous exhibition long enough—the speaa tors were satisfied. I should spare you, my Lords and Gentlemen, the disgusting minuteness of this last detail, but it will be found materially conneilted with a most dreadful charge which appears upon the minutes of a Court of Inquiry, held to investigate my case the year following, in Youghal, under Gen. GRAHAM, by order of the Marquis CORNWALLIS. Before this . Court I was not b rought ; nor any friend of mine. summoned thither to speak for me. It was even a' subjea of sarcastic remark in the prison-ship, that while I stood there among the aailnrs, my trial, as they termed it,. ,was going on in-Youghal. With, the proceedings of that Court I am to this day un acquainted. It was ordered, I know, in consequence ,of a memorial upon my situation, handed to a dia. tinguished Nobleman, and by-him presented at• the Castle ; I was not consulted with regard to its con .tents. Unfortunately for me, it was penned with more zeal than accuracy ; setting forth, among other hardships, that after my punishment, I had been left without medical assistance (on the report, I presume, of a sister-in-law who, visited me,within . the interval between the whipping, and Apothecary's arrival) ; it further stated, that I .had been whipt and ths . own into a dungeon ; instead of stating, as it ought to have done, that I. had been thrown into dungeon and , whipt. This inversion was fatal to me. For the evidence of Mr. GREEN, Apothecary, most plausibly contradiaed these allegations of the memorial ; and that circumstance, when coupled with the subsequent horrid charges audaciously forged and foisted into the Minutes of the Inquiry, excited an almost invincible prejudice in the mind of the merciful Lord CORNWALLIS against me. For when, after a considerable lapse of time, my professional friend in Dublin renewed his ef. forts to save me, at the risk of being deemed importunate and troublesome, he was still graci ously honoured with an audience, wherein to pre. chide all future interference, as quite ineffeaual and hopeless, his Excellency directed Colonel LITTLE. HALES to read these minutes to my patron. They reported that I had freely avowed to Mr..BENIA. MIN GREEN, Apothecary, while he was dressing my wounds, at the time I was about to be sent on board the Prison Ship, that I deserved all I had suffered and more ; for I was privy to the murder, &c. &c. committed in my parish : that I could ac -,1 'count for my conduit in no other way, than by at tributing it to the instigation of the Devil ; and ,that I deserved to be shot. The cruel edge of this forged evidence was still ,further whetted by sub joining to it, that this Mr. GRFEN was a Roman Catholic. My respeaable intercessor, being quite unprepared to meet such an accusation, hung•down his head and withdrew. But he lost no time in communicating this reverse to my Ordinary, Doctor COPPINGER, who was equally astonished at these assertions; but who seized the opportunity, until a refutation of all could be procured, to point, in the interim, to the designing and notorious false hood of Mr. GREEN's Catholicity. In a very few , days Mr. GREEN himself spontaneously furnished my Bishop with a peremptory denial of the above particulars, under his own hand: declaring, mote_ over, in a written acknowledgment, that no can_ venation had passed between him and the prisoner, but as between a medical man and his patient. This same Gentleman also ingenuously presented himself at the parish chapel of Ballymacoda, offering to make oath, that he had not, given the evidence here attributed to him. The Deputy Judge Advocate General, Major al.'s,- has been pleased to tran. scribe these minutes, as far as they regard Mr. GREEN, for the expiess purpose of contradicting this I . )rgery. I shall now insert them, with his Letter to the said Mr. GREEN. " SIR, Ygughal, 28th Ya 4 1804. " Your application to me for a Copy of the Evidence you gave at a CoUrt of Inquiry, by order of Major General G R HAM, at which, by the said General's orders, you were obliged to attend, I have not the smallest objeCtion to give you, which I have taken verbatim from the original, now in my possession, and in which I cannot be mistaken, as you know I acted as Deputy .judge Advocate General at the said Court. " I am, Sir, 46 Your most obedient Servant, .RICHARD LUIS." privy to the murder of two soldier; that I knew of a gun kept in my parish for the purpose of tour. der, and remarkable for the certainty of its aim : 'he is there beside stated to have said, that I made this declaration, not under any apprehension of punish. ment, bui I seemed rather to speak as one Clergy man would to another, in a moment of contrition : such at least is the substance of this Gentleman's words, as far as my friend in Dublin, to whom the evidence was read, could recoiled it. Now from the nature of 'the:Communication, which it is here. . asserted I made, it wilt be naturally supposed that the Gentleman had a private interview with me after my punishment : t hut he himself is thoroughly persuaded that he had not. I never laid my eyes on him since I saw him at that time in the public Ball ally. During my flagellation he stood opposite me, close to the triangle, with,a paper and a pencil in his hand, noting down whateVer then occurred to him. He asked, Did you know that flret.arms were taken from my hoirse My answer was rather .too short:—Sir I heard you sysy , so; but I felt at the moment, by heavier stroko, s fahe consequence of my impoliteness. I really con & Jered. that Gentle man, on account of his apparent : Insensibility at the time, as the very reverse of a , friend ; and while I now positively deny ray having made the acknow ledgment above reported, I shall take the liberty to ask ; first , : whether it be consistent with likeli hood, that, when such a severe anin'ishment, and so witnessed by him, was over, I had seleded that -very .Gentleman in order to criminate myself to such a .confident, without any possible advantage I beg leave to ask in the second place, if. I had made this acknowledgment at the Ball-alley, why a certain subaltern, declaring that he had 'power to ad as he pleased by me, should take me (naked and bleeding as I was) into a small room in a corner of the Ball-alley, and sternly tell me, that if I would not now make an avowal of guilt, I should be brought out to receive a repetition of my-punishment ; and afterwards to be shot ? And why he should repeat that menace the same evening, in thegaol,. and.still more forcibly the day , following ? The 'circum stances- of his exertionsson that occasion, are too striking to be omitted._ -After I had answered him in the corner of the-Ball.alley, that I would suffer any death rather than acknowledge a crime whereof I was not guilty, he _told me 1 should .be set - at li berty,if I would agree to a certain proposal witch• he then made me ;shut justice and truth commanded me to rejed it. When Condostecl to gaol, after a lapse of three-hourx s , [was presented with a refresh. ment : it appeared-to,beswitie and water; but must have .had some-aither powerful ingredient, for it speedily brought :one .a stupor. The same Officer soon roused me from my lethargy, with a renewed effort to extort this.avowal from me: , hes drew his sword ; he declared he would never part with me until it were given in writing ; he threatened that I should be forthwith led out again, flogged as before, shot, hanged, my. head cut. off to be exposed upon the gaol-top, and my body thrown into the'river : that he would allow me but two minutes to deter mine. Then going to the door, he called for a scrip of paper, while the sentinel swore terribly at.. the same time, -that he -would blow my brains out if I persisted longer in my refusal. Under this impression I scribbled 'a note to -my bro ther, which they instantly cried our was what they wanted; the precise expressions of it, I: do not at this moment recoiled; it purported a wish that my might no longer indulge uneasiness upon for I deserved what I got. The Officer withdrew r iy o t„ai t i h dc e rc r eowun;t, my sister-in-law. then got admittance,: she told toe, she had just heard .the sentinel say, that during my entire punishment, nothing was against toe : however, that the paper I had just written would assuredly .hang me. I exclaimed that their dreadful threats had compelled me to write it ; which exclamation being carried to the Officer, he returned the next day : he called me to the gaol window, commanding a view of a gal lows, whereon two men were hanging ; their bodies so bloody, that I imagined they wore red jackets. A third halter remained yet unoccupied, which he declared was intended„for me, should I persist in disclaiming the aforesaid' note. Look, said he, at these men, look at that rope, your treatment shall be worse than theirs, if you disown what you wrote , yesterday :. Adding, that it was still in my power to get free. I imagined from this, that he wanted money from me; or a favourite mare which I had occasionally lent him. My answer was, if you liberate me you shall always find me faithful ; there is nothing in my power that I will not do. D o not then attempt, said he,. to exculpate yourself, and so retired. I now procured paper, wherornl wrote a formal protest against what he extorted from me as above ; that, should I he executed, thi s protest might appear after my death. I wrote a second with the same design; but I left them both after me in the gaol, apprehensive, that should they be found in my possession, they might cause me to be treated with additional severity. Neither did I afterwards, while in gaol, openly assert my inno. cence for that reason. Now, so. little credit seems to have b e an attached to this paper, in any subse quent proceeding, that it was never after, to my knowledge, produced against me. Indeed there is reason to imagine, that what this Gentleman - is reported to have advanced in the above minutes, was never said by him ; because the same audacity which forged a declaration for Mr. GREsu, might be dar ing enough to forge a similar declaration for this Gentleman. Thus, by the. Prcr;Htlence of God, what was maliciously intended.-t, ruin mes has in the event effeaed my release. Lord COR SMALL IS, whose discernment perceived, and whose generosity recoiled at this questionable proceeding, unhesitat ingly issued an order for my removal from the trans. port. The following letter announces that order to my friend in Dublin ' "'Sra, Dublin Carrie, 3oti > tie , tSoo. " I live-had the Honour to receive, and to lay before my Lord Lieutenant, your Letter . of the 28th instait,with its enclosure, and am direded to acquaint you, tha , - His Ex cellency's commands haye been this day conveyed to Major_ General MYERS -to take - t : hc,Rev.. .TETRA )'NEIL from on board the Ann Botany-Bay3 Ship, in Cork Harbour, sad to cause him to be imOnsbned until further orders, but not to treat him with harshness or severity. I haye i ttie Honour.to be, Sir, " Your Most obedient humble Servant, ", E. B. LITTLEHALES.). e ~ .. . . I tarsaileabefore this Order arrived. On this passage out ,a mutiny` arose among -41 f convicts, who, taking advantage of the moment when the Captain was fumigating the ship, sea' '‘denly set upon and tied him. The sentinel, tt Mae lais, _cried mit : to me in his own jargon, as e i eio , walking ;,liel train deck, that tlaka :war , war"-btlaiv:, offering me his drawn sword, in order to. fortify my interference. What my conduft at that critical Moment •WaS, will come better from others. Vsha ll ' only say that the most prompt and athletic exertion . preceded my entreaties,, and rendered' them esi. sential. How, as well as by .whom, the 'Cap-,:, taro was extricated, without even . the intervenae , lion of an O ffi cer, he. himself can tell.Ano - A ther • gentleman, Mr. VIPER, of the New &writ : Wales Corps, can tell. Mr. Roe alt•rs, tile Sure geon, told it so circumstantially to the Lieutenant , Governor, Major Foveeux, that he afterwardi, treated me with particular kindness. This power, fully e contributed to reconcile me to my fate : I bat!. alplost (Tide up my mind to remain there for ever : the thoughts of home ceased to be importunate. -I ( 3 ;. the tiitan time the exertions of my friend were index fatigable ;. heecontrived. to, bring my case under the eye Of our present Chief Governor,' Lord H e itei '. lee:i, v , hose firnmess, tempered by that clemency which' distinguished his . illustrious predecess.br, teas not to be warped by party opposition. Au iojtirel subj,t - t, in the very Antippdas, was alike:: w ithin T , the range of his power And attention, Te e listerie4r e . , with patience e. he examined ‘vitli impartiality.;, De decided with justice. - An tee d from hit a, 4c ll see t he free. At my return to Ireland I wai'r.t' 4 - epon my Ordinary, Mani Coppinger; I 'repree seated to him the many hardships I had undervio; I refiried him to the several proofs of my innocence Which had passed through his own hands, and which, were now officially authenticated, by my e var eaate 4 retan'tia my native country.- eI reminded him LI as I had a regular collation of my parish, an d cool', 'not fdrfeit it by the Unfounded ch arges a q ,e dgel o , against' me;'" nor by my subsequent misfortunes o . could not in justice be deprived of it, nor oppoer - • by him in ' resuming my fun&iOns - in that pariic He 'suggested in answer , . that the strong prejteffe e 4 which still 'seemed to prevail against me, render it. in his mind imprudent, not to say Unsafe, form e ' to "return thither. Yet, when I remarked to hi'. that the sending me to any' other quarter, beside (11c ; injustice.of such a step, would in a great deg cc- • i reflecta censure .upon me ; that it . would be an Y C ' .. , treine of severity; while-'l' wag acquitted in the c.r.. 49 o f the' Government, and by The het of Lord 1-1,0“.", wreee,• that - he, my Ordinary, and 'as I Imperial, friend, should seem, in this way, to asperse me ; he, o y f iel m de t d i ' i ' a tta ti ' s fit hr w r i e le m r o e n v st w ra i n ti c i e t the assistance again assis tan t ee ook o . f c c ha o r44 . ; I shall ;petievere in the most strenuous entleavoof to - rnaintrin: in peace, industry, loyalty, and g 0,%; order among my parishioners. .- A circumstance be i :- curred upon the present occas i on , very trivial it_Ltli,, self, but 'which, as it gave rise to a most irajut;' misrepresentation, I feel myself , bound to nott a C ' ► Six or seven of DIidorCoPPINGER's Clergf ;e : been engaged to-dine with. him on the folly , : ' day ; he was pleased •tO . ask file to join' itT o : which; having done, I was since, in additiaa7e 9 t V is .: av other drosses, extremely mort ifi e d to 1e,.::012‘,,t -plain private r e p as t Was magnified into is " I- , 5 sumptuo us b anque t, given in honour of M r . O'NEIId, return. This glaring mis.statemenr, which ' itself would not have atteded nay Ordinary, has. b eer, the cause of much uneasiness since: as seemil, 4 p l ,, conned a ed with an intimation , from a ,respe' w ,i; charmeriri . Dublin,' informing him that a ner''' s i, age in that Metropolis of 'high, rank k ,and gr e w power, misled by this' false intelligenee, .li id 01 plained that Dr. Capers: GER restored roe no Ott } it parish, as a Martyr in triumph ; with ins Alt ta;". offended justice of the 1a , ...v5, & fc. E.ffc. 94 I am neither com missioned nor qua lifi e d to 4 10 ';' care the charafier of Dr. COFI'IGEIt, in this 0 1—P;e:' ,0 any other partitular : I can only express My, sat) at having b ee n thus the unintentional ca t ise ji.lea,,.. painful imputation. His dinkier, wherever I t a? c ,, . known, will be its own support. Little thou, 'stand in need of adventitious aid—emnch less _tiVi f ,,,, which my poor depreciated suffrage can ad:tato:PA He has, I learn, drawn up a Narrative', Whielr i s , misrepresentation, if long continued, will ca1t0rr ,,4,., him to publish. - „6._,„ . I have now, my Lords and Gentlemen, til ij rtl.' 0 0 logic for the tedious length of thi s elucitia - t tat whiCh 'I humbly submit to you, in the hop e yO4 I am not now in your mind the sort of person eeo e l have' been taught to consider me. I will also orile that -the urgency of my case willeff a e g a tavi u int a f l l l e y on p fi l m er: excuse for my presumption in thus publicly up a o ci n ar' s_T L , have the Ho n ins° U c:7 c your o you u n t „ ';' assume. humane su l m ib e e . yl I 'commit considerationslaii never' myself a n d to be, with the most profound respen, 'My Lords and Gentlemen, • Your most devoted, And most faithful humble Sersion:', Y. .. . . ORJer 23, 1803. e- . . ,/' POOLE, FEB. 7. Arrived—the Boadicea, Fitzgerald, and Harmo n Y , co , ; from Newfoundland ; Dart, King ; A div;-, Williams lotte, Bartlett ; Swift, Holloway ; Mary, Harvey ISlary,.Thatchell, from Portsmouth. fro g Sailed the Argus, Scott, and AgerlOria, Fier* fro ,- Guernget • Albion, Walters, and Gultinno, Korb° , r d . " Oporto;; Christian, and Hearietra,. Gilboa. c'' GRAVESEND, FEB. 7. Passed' by—the Traveller, Park, from neters,' ,ver, Vriendssbap,: De fonge, from Rotterdam ; Broth ers, and the Twe 'Gesusters Crooke, from t !Wi d en . fie& Sailed* 2 -the Dorothy 'Forster, Sus-Men, tor fdrrlaica._! vu cules, Dodsworth, for Virginia ; Sally, Griffith, tv: 40 10 1 , tin •' St. Francisco, ---, for, Gilboa; Britandiat.ren, for Lisbod; and the Geute llulFnung SHIP NE S. PRICE C YE ST I • • )i' .5 I'OCKS, • I , 7- £ll D A Y . f ' l! innia Stock 168 i . -". ''' ..."' India Bbnds . - ::a t Exchequer Vills s, s. ' Orruatun 31 3 Imper, 3 ~;:r Cent . . -, . Ditto Ann. 9 7=lo Bank for A c count Deferred 3 per Cent. if Cons for aid leb. 55