The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-29 00:00:00

ANTECEDENTS OF MULLINS IN IRELAND,

Mullins is about fifty years of age, 5 ft. 9 in. high,
with carroty hair and whiskers; a thin-faced, pale
man, of gentlemanly appearance and good address.
He was never known, it is said, to form an intimate
acquaintance, but always led a solitary kind of ex-
istence. He is a bricklayer and plasterer by trade,
is descended of Irish parents, but speaks with an
English accent. Soon after the establishment of
the London metropolitan police he joined that body,
and was promoted to the rank of sergeant in the K
Division, in which he remained until a metropoli-
tan police force was established in Dublin twenty-
four years ago. He was then promoted to the rank
of inspector. Ireland was then overrun by a con-
spiracy under different names, but all belonging to
the same body. They were exclusively Roman Catho-
lic, sworn to aid and assist each other, and to keep
the secrets of their society. They had branch lodges
in all the manufacturing towns of England and
Scotland. The Government entered into a corres-
pondence with the late Dr. Murray, Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Dublin, who succeeded in obtaining
a bull from the Pope, excommunicating all the mem-
bers of the secret society ; and a Catholic priest in-
duced a Ribbonman to give secret information
respecting the society to the Lord-Lieutenant. He
obtained a warrant from Sir James Graham, the
then Home Secretary, for opening_ letters passing
through the Post Office. The letters of sus-
pected persons in one postmaster's district were
ordered to be forwarded back to the General Post-
office. In a short period a number of letters were
accordingly sent marked to Dublin by a post-
mistress in the north of Ireland, and by this means
the authorities learned that a meeting of delegates '
from all parts of the United Kingdom was to be
held to alter the signs and pass-words of the society.
A letter of invitation to the delegates for Man-
chester was detained, and Mullins was despatched
to Manchester to make himself acquainted with
the appearance, habits, employment, &c., of the
Manchester delegates. This he faithfully did, and
then, armed with forged letters from England, pro-
ceeded to the north of Ireland, delivered his cre-
dentials, and was heartily welcomed. He spent
money lavishly, and was what they termed " a
regular trump. The authorities, receiving from
him due notice of his movements, kept a large force
of police in motion. The police, in great force,
secretly arrived in the town where the meeting
was to he held, in plain clothes, and were concealed
in the barracks. Mullins, the night before, lodged
in a public-house in Ballyconnell, kept by one of
the members of the club, and the beds being all
occupied, the landlord sent his wife to sleep with
his two daughters, and shared his own bed with
his new friend, after drinking long and deep, and
vowing eternal friendship. The
.next morning
they proceeded together to Ballinamore, where
they met many of the delegates in a public-house.
Only a part of the delegates had arrived, and com-
menced business, when one young man, more
acute than the rest, -gat questions to Mullins,
and found that he had never been a member of
the society. This young man acquainted two
others, and preparations were instantly made for
the despatch of Mullins, the rest of the gang