The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-12-02 00:00:00

TIIEOBALD WOLFE TONE.

A writer in the last number of the New Monthly Ma-.
gozine, gives the following sketch of the lattcr days of
this adventurous partisan :-- •
" Ile accompanies! the French expedition to Ireland.
The fleet was dispersed in a gale, and returned to Prance
without dr cting its object. The vessel in which he sailed
was among those that were driven into, and wind.hound
for some days in Bantry Bay. Two pars after (in the
autumn of MS) another armament, destined for the North
of Ireland, sailed from Brest; and the principal part of it
was captured by Admiral Warren's squadron off Lough- •
lewdly. Tone, under the mistaken impression that his
French commission would sate lien, refused to escape. He
bore the name of Smith Tone, with the rank of tAef-de-
trigmle' in the French service; and fur some tisde paused
unnoticed among the other prisoners. After they were
landed, le'rel Cavan, the commanding ofF.cer in that part
of Ireland, invited the prisoners of a certain rank to break-
fast. On the way Tone was recognised by, or, according to
another account, had die impudence to make himself known
to, an old acquaintance. that chanced to be on the spot.
Lord Cryan was speedily apprised that Wolfe Tone was
sitting et his table. The latter was accordingly made to
pass into au adjoining room, where, his identity being
ascertained, he was formally placed under close arrest on a
charge of high treason, and sooti after put in irons. This
laver indignity i.e appears to hare felt most acutely. Al-
luding to it upon his trial, he says, ' After a combat nobly
sustained, and-which would lave inspired a sentiment of
interest in a generous enemy, to the eternal shame el those
who gave the order, I base been dragged hither in chains.'
The friends of Lord Cavell asserted that this extreme se-
retity was provoked by Tone'a outrageous ekoortment,
when lie found that he was nct to have the privileges of
prisoner of vrar. It may have been so ; but the ordinary'
character of the man 'cloney contradicts the supposition.
He was sent 011 to Dublin on hera:back, and guaided by
an escort of dragoons. A gentleman, the ii in Ireland, who
saw him pass through one of the northern towns, remem-
bers two strong impressions which Tone's appearance
made:—tie at, its extreme singularity from his foreign uni-
form, and still more from his incapacity (encumbered with
irons as lie was) of sitting with tolerable ease In his saddle ;
and, secondly, the admirable 'serenity of countenance with
which be byre his fate. Among the groups of females that
thronged the windows, his eye caught the features of a
' young lady whom he had not seen for many years. He in-
stantly recognised her, and carelessly observed, ' There
is my old friend Miss Bermford, 1 see : how well she
looks !'

" Upon his arrival in Dt.blin lie was hr tight up for trial
before a Court-martial, convicted, and sentenced to die it►
cight•and-forty hours. His adtlretis to the Court—a dying
declaration rather than a :tfettee--was manly aud elo-
quent. llis only concern was to die with dignity : the
only favour he ask. d was to be indulged ` in a r•.ddier's
priviloge, of being %het by a tile of grenadiers.' This btiog
rzfusetl, he resolved to die by his own hand. _ _

"There is a tragic singularity of interest in what fol-
lowed. The only point that Tone had urged in the way of
telly: e, was his commiseion in the French service ; and
this the Court could not listen to. But it subsequently
appeared that as far as Mat trial was concerned, he bad n
valid legal defence, of which he hal been unaware. His
execution was fixed for one o'clock on the 12th of November.
Ott the evening of the 11th, his father, then in Dublin,
was induced to tale the opinion of Counsel on the legality
of his trial and conviction. The opinion given was, that
the whole proceedings were illegal, for want of jurisdic-
tion in a Court-martial to try the offence ; and Mr. Tens
(the father) was advised to prepare an affidavit of the
circumstances, and to move the King's Bench, at the sit-
ting of the Court the following mornmg, to have the body
of his son brought up by a writ of Habra, corpus. This
was accordingly done ; but no intimation of the intended
proceeding was itit.de to the prisoner. The Court a:
once admitted the case to lie cue demanding its in-
stant interference ; and. while the writ was prepar -
log, despatched the tilteritf to the barracks of Dublin to
prevent the execution. The scene upon this occasion, as
awfully dramatic as any of Sir Walter Scott's, it:detailed,
but scantily, in !low.. Ws State Trials. The Sheriff speedily
returned from the bartaskis, and announced that the Rothe-
rities there reload to obey the order of the Court. This
was followed by an intimation, that the writ of flatcar
Corpus, winch had been male out and served by the
father, had tern equally disregarded. Such was the period.
that the general impression now was that the prisoner would
be led out to execution in defiance of the Court and the
Law.° 'ilia apprehension was legible in the countenance
of Lord Kilwarden, the Chief Justice ; a man who, in
the worst of times, preserved a religious respect for the
laws. A witness of the scene, describing its Oita upon
him, observed, that ' his a_atation was magnificent: The
notorious indiffl mice of some of -his contemporaries to
legal observances, when blood was to be shed, suggested a
phrase which would otherwise' savour of Irish exagzers-
tion. The Sheriff' was again despatched to the barracks.
with directions to take the prisoner into his custody ; and
further, to apprehend the Prevotimarshal and Major
Sandy., who had so presumptuously disobeyed the former
order cf the Court. The Sherif was refused admittance
to the barracks. Ile was, however, given to understatat
there (and this was the lino announcement of the fact
that W'olfe Tone had the night before attempted his life, by
cutting his throat with a penknife, and was in such a
attention, that his removal would occasion instant death.
It is by no means improbable that this latter circumstance
may have operated fully as notch as the injunction of the
Court of Kings Bench to prevent his execution. Hedied
a few days after of his wound. The last words tee wiled of
him are kis reply to the surgeon, who, upon t:amining 07.41
wound, observed that though dangerous, it might not prove
fatal, the carotid artery baying earaped incision—' I ant
sorry to fled that I have bevo so had an anatomist.'
" In perusing these extracts from Wolfe Tone's bio-
graphy, some elnea a of our readers cannot tail to have
been struck by the ardent terms in which his wife is one -
dotted, and will be naturally desircos to know what became
of her and her infant family after the catastrophe just nar-
rated. We have been enabled to subjoin a few particulars
on this head. After the death of her husband, she settled
in France, where a pension was assigned her by the Go-
vernment of that country. She resided in Frarce until the
fall of Napoleon, greatly.regar.led and admired by all who
knew her. Iler conversation was in a high degree animated
and eloquent. She never men-mut-A at her destiny,
but sustained it with that cheerful elevation of mind
which springs from an early and unabated sympathy a ,:la
important objects. Her tirmures of character may be col-
lected from a single instatice. The anecdote is also two
honourable to a man whom it was once considered a na-
tional duty to dishonour, to be suppreved. A large arrear
of leer pension, her oily means of support, being unpaid,
and all her cflicial appeications and rentoestratices on the
subject treated with to glect, she determined upon applying
in persoa to the Knipe-leer for minas. With this view,she pre-
ceded al tie to the Forest of St. Germain, at au hour whet
she knew that he was to ',ass through it. As soon as the
Royal equipage appeatol, sl:e placed herself in the tridere
' of the read, an .l compelling the postilions to draw up, ad-
VAllettt to the carriage sad told her story. Napoleon :to
' sooner discovered who she was, than he treated her with
the most marked kindness and respect. He promised
th-t his hoet erre, upon his etrived in Paris, should be to
order the hist:nit payment of her arrears ; and he kept ifs
worth lie further delayed for a considerable time, to be-
elinee minutely into the sitaation of herself and her family,
and e lateen:el, that in -owe, whenever she hail any clijee:
to attain for herself or then), she would not hesitate to ma's,:
him aoprainted with her s. She was too self-denying
and proud to use this privilege as otless would have do.it
Thefew layettes that she afterwards solicited wore Jule
atety granted. These: related to he r son, her only sir
_

fur Cm rest peti*lted in their infancy. There
fact emititeteil with him, so highly characteristic
the gr!a: men now no more," that it dear:aka

reeortletl. v Young Tone, who hail industry and
talents, was anxious, and it was also his mother'

co advance hiinstif in a civil line; but the tigorom
of Fi one, institutions e.,n, pc; led him to bec

Pule:ice. While yet a boy, he teas plact.d by the I
Franca in a military rano!, anti iu due mason tram

• 'rite can and tril:•.11, escort were alresly is attrai
ride tte barracks.

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to Ott army. Ha attained the rank of lieutenant ; and
in Or
.oelehrated retreat'from LelPsie. where. he dis-
tuiguished liimielf, *ilea as Aide-de-Camp to a General.
Aftgg the battle of Waterloo he catritated himself from the
logrAt warier ; and, a wealthy connexion of his mother's
basing iuvacrl him to settle in England, he resolved to
renpu to his original country; AWL-tieing still extremely
yupag, to try his fortune at 'thir English bar. The only
oltidse.Je to tins scheme was the fact of his having eom-
topitti4 the technical offence of high treason, by serving in
the g`teuch army. The British Amb.winplt,r at Paris, upon
sly cireemstances being represented to him, acted like a
man of sena* and feeling. lie tranbm particulars itted the particula
so* 4overument, and strongly recomteended that young
Tortc shoubt hare the protection of a pardon fur his in-
voinatary breach of the laws of Phighnel. This ow. re-
Lunt Castkreagh Oa the fiitni'y were informed) ,1
..tiocting to the iniltuinee which the 'proximity of a son of
Wolfe Tone might have upon the political feelings that
prevailed in Ireland. The young min oil; red to bind hiM-
sanq,ler any penalty never to set foot in Ireland. but un-
lic soon after went to America, where he is
now wiring in the army of the !loiter( State.. A son of
Wolfe l'one, as an English banister, would have been
perfectly innocuous. ilia mother is still living, and. if we
ate rightly informed, is now the wife of an opulent gentle-
u;a* of Scotland.

kIELD SPORTS FOR DECEMBER.

lel:mutants have beat found tolerably numerous, though
rot tio well grown MI AllUti.
Woodcocks appeared early, and have, in sornc places,
brautinet with In considerable numbers. It mostly happens
llsot p few solitary woodcock,: arrive its this country as artist
concurs of the general body, which, liowevor, generally fol.
lew at no great length of time afterwards. Thus a bird or
oro may be sometimes seen on the northern and north-
::rattan coasts, as well a: on the eaasi Of Wales, in the lat-
ter part of fleptunbtr. In the beginning of 4 'chaser they
mere ftrqutztly met with in the parts just mentioned,
end the tommenoment of November is regsrthil as the
of the woodcock season. fly the middle or latter
tal of November they reach the more interior parts, and
,re frespviltiy found in considerable monbers in the rushy
.t:111.• ys iu flu: ri!.ior parts of Statrordshire and I krhyshite.
:tut they are seldom, if ever, emus it: the midland
r.e.intier. In Leicestershire and IVarwiekshire, where
;Isere are many and vary extensive covers or woodlands,
apparently well adapted to the native and disposition of
thc woodcock, yet he is never met with in these rails ill
sbutolance, but on the contrary his arpearauce is regarded I
ILK a ratify.
Snipe.: have been found it: the marshes in their usual
ab:ottlance, but at the commencement of the season more
se":11 than common. It of.eis happens that a well Ire-
ca-rated whichone day contain, d $11111)' thousatids
of these 4441 out enrol a single shot the following;
II! I, .11g. no doubt, from scarcity of fold.
Sig is no.w general. From the wetness of the sea-
r,r4., it mip,lit hence have been supposed that it would be
itoposlilde f,:r hares to co•ape their len:;111y pur-
sot is; Lut they have run much Letter than inpertation,
tonier the grcatmst er'srolvantagc beyond all m1..1: firm, I.illee
peculiar conformation of thi.: animal's Vet (end its
acorn; no 103 to Iht iii iu partieular); which give; it a de.
eided stTeriotity in frosty wuatht r, atal on Lard roads, is
t4ltrily • the to i.s the gri.ll:B4l is NO ail; as not
t:. be a'ele to sapport its wrigic vithout In a soft
(sante, for iastakce, it has littb or tan chance with a 1;r: y-
;.aund. whose superior strength "sides lino to get over it
much faster thno the hare, to say nothing of the advantage
which the dog derives frusta the superior breadth and struc-
ture of his Ceti.
The same remarks will, in sake degree, apply to bare-
hunting, which, as well as fox-hunting, is general at this
period ; butt, front the continued wetness of the weatlok'
and the consecinctit state of the ',round, .ths hos bast,
particula: ly in some parts, very distressing"; egt4hOrtlen.