The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-04-09
BROUGHTTOLIGHT
The Mystery. Concerning the Real
Name of a Scoundrel
Cleared Away.
LORD DOWNSTAIRS FRIEND
Turner, the Betrayer of Father
Quigley, Napper Tandy and"
Others in '97-8.


| Others in 'o7-8.
! The name OF Lord Downshire's friend,
the man who betrayed Lady Edward
Fitzgerald Father Quigley, Napper
Tandy and many another, has always
been a mystery, but the energy of Mr..
W. J. Fitzpatrick, whose "Secret Service
under Pitt" has just besn published by
Longmans, has discovered it. The crea-
ture was styled-it is but charity to trust
that he was meyer christened-Samuel,
and his family name was Turner; he was
Of Turner's Glen, Newry. barrister-at-
law, doctor of laws, and one of the
shrewdest heads of the Northern Execu-
! tive of United Trlshmen.
One night in October, 1897, person
called at the house of Lord Downshire in
London, and desired to see him. He was
! muffled in cloak, and his hat was
drawn over his face. On being shown
into private room, he announced him-
self as repentant Or disgusted member
of the Ulster Revolutionary Committee.
He YVES convinced that it was all up with
| the conspirators, and he was resdy to de-
nounce them. Lord Downshire asked
him to call next day, but he declined to
run the risk Of being observed by theser-
wants. The two then met In an empty
house in the neighborhood, and Lord
Downshire was soon satisfied that his
| visitor had something to sell. The
stranger was able to 4ive particulars Of
important negotiations between the
E evolutionary Committee in Dublin and
their Paris agents, and to state that
these communications passed through
the hands ofaLady Edward Fitzgerald.
4 letter, he said, was On tie point Of 60
ing over from Barclay feeling, one of the
consplrators, afterwards hanged in Dub
lin, to Arthur O'Connor, a United Irish
nan, who subsequently died in the
French service; and he showed how the
missive might be intercepted and read
before it reached it's destination. Those
! were his credentials. Pitt, when the
matter was reported to him, found them
entirely satisfactory, and from that time
forth "Lord Downshire's friend" drew
regularly on the Government His first
request was for 'cool five hundred and
in after years, no doubt, he had many q
refreshing remittance to the same or q
larger amount.
In his dealings with Ministers he
passed by ell sorts of names but the true
one, and they, as they found his commu-
nications useful, were content to take
him On his own report.
As often as not he was called Mr.
Richardson, and this for a rather curious
reason. The name, it is conjectured, was
suggested to him by the fact that one of
the persons he had betrayed was named
Pamela. Pamela, in fact. was no other
than the wife of Lord Edward Fitzger-
aid, whose name was mentioned just now.
She was an adopted daughter of Madame
de Genis, and one of the beauties of her
time. Sheridan proposed for her, but
Lord Edward carried off the prize. After
the death of her husband in Newgate,
the poor lady lived in painfully straiten-
ed circumstances at Hamburg, which was
one Of the headquarters of the Irish con-
spiracy. She, however, had the good
fortune to die IN her bed, and in 1881 her
remains were followed to Pere la Chaise
by Talleyrand. If there was one thing
that Turner dreaded more than martyr
dom, it was cross examination, writes
Mr.. Andrew Lang, in his abstract of Mr..
Fitzpatrick's book. He knew what an
awful example Curren had made Of the
wretch Cockayne at the trial of Jackson
in 1891. He therefore most persistently
refused to give evidence in open court
against the conspirators whom he had
privately betrayed. However, bargain
is a bargain, and Pitt kept his secret
His name is not to be found on the list
of Secret Service moneys expended BY
the Irish Government in 1898, aud, as
Mr.. Froude has observed, it was not re-
vealed even in the most intimate CORES
pondence between the Home Office and
Dublin Castle. It d oes appear, however,
in the CORVALLIS papers as that of per-
son entitled to a pension OF e300 a year.
Even his brother craftsmen never sus-
pected him. Newell, who in manner
turned informer against the intormers,
had not word to say against Turner.
The latter was cunning enough to include
his own real name in the list OF suspected
persons. He was down in the Fugitive
Bill passed in 1898. Once he was actu.