The Irish standard., 1894-02-10
AN IRISH REBEL.
The Most Formidable Enemy That
England Encountered in the
Rebellion of 1893.
THEOBALD WOLFE TONE,
The Duke of wellington Called the
Irish Conspirator a Most
Extraordinary Man.

| Extraordinary Man.
| The very name of Wolfe Tone in un,
known to perhaps the majority of Eng.
lish readers, says the London Daily
News. Certainly many fairly educated
English reader will be surprised when he
finds that the two superb volumes pub
lished today by Fisher Irwin and edited
by Barry O'Brien are dedicated to the
memory OF Theobald Wolfe Tone. These
two volumes, in fact, constitute the bi
ography of Wolfe Tone. They are made
up Of his own sketch of his life, and of
the diaries which he kept for the reading
of the wife whom he adored. The greater
part; Of the work was published in Wash
ington in 1926, by Wolfe Tone'sson The
fame of Wolfe lone seemed to have faded
out for awhile. 1t as revived rather
more perhaps by the efforts of Wolfe
Tones enemies than by the efforts Of
Wolfe Tones friends. p
Wolfe Tone was by far the greatest
man, and the most formidable enemy Of
England, who was concerned in the Irish
rebellion of 1898. He was unquestion-
ably a man with a faculty of organiza-
tion which came near TO genius The
great Duke of Wellington took his meas
ure exactly. ''Woifs Tone," says the
Duke, twas most extraordiary man,
and his history ia the most curious his
tory CT these times" With 100,guineas in
| his pocket, unknown and unr= commend
ed, he went over to Paris in order to
overturn the British government in Ire
land. They listened to Tone, and, as
Barry O'Brien adds, "the Bantry Bay
expedition was the RESULT on the
failure of shat expedition" as OBrien
Justly observes, ''Tone was not respon-
sih4e. He had organized victory; an in-
competent French general contrived de-
feat Tone, according to Goodwin
Smith, twas near being as fatal Rn enemy
to England as Hannibal was to Rome."
We must all be glad that Wolfe Tones
plan did not succeed, but it is quite time
that Englishmen should recognize the
genius and sincerity of the man who
made the plans-who compelled Carnot
and Napoleon Bonaparte to recognize
their feasibility, and who was conquered,
as he says himself, by the weather more
than by the strength of his adversariea.
Tone is very frank about it. England,
hs says, was saved once aGain, just as
she had been saved in the days Of the
Spanish Armada. He was captured in
his last expedition, and died for his
cause. He was an officer in the French
army: but when taken he was treated
quite in accordance with the law OF ma
tions which prevailed at the time. aa a
British subject. He asked to be shot in
stead OF hanged. his request was not
granted. He then anticipated exec ton
by suicide. When he died he was only
in his 35th year.
The memory Of Tone fingered for
awhile in the writings OF Macaulay.
Much later it was revived by the bitter
attacks of Mr.. Froude. AT er Mr.Froude
"a long way after in literary sense
came the Duke OF Argyll. For some
reason or other the Duke of Argyll seems
to have taken up an attitude of inveter-
ase hostility to Wolfe Tone. Mr.. Froude,
we have heard, processes in private to
admire Wolfe Tone, but Of course he
claims the right Of the historian to criti-
else every body as severely as seems good
to him. The Duke of Argyll appears to
see nothing good in Wolfe Tone. Both
critics found their attacks OF certain ad-
missions made by Wolfe Tone in his au-
photography. Both insist that Wolfe
Tone was q drunkard, because Of the
fact that in his diary he records the
fact that he went to bed drunk We do
not know that Pitt or Fox ever thought
it worth while to note down the fact
that he had gone to bed drunk. It be-
comes perfectly obvious, although it
may seem paradoxical at the first sight
OF it, that mans recording at such 8
thine the fact that he had gone 10 bed
drunk is good evidence that he must
|haye been on ths ? sober man.
It is told by Volts Tame that he once
made sume proposals % ii about colo
nization fxr the benefit ~ England in
the Southern seas Tone being hardly
more than boy ct the time and that
Pitt took no notice Of them, and that
Tone was mortified and expressed the
hope that he might some time have i
ont with Pitt; and on that expression the
theory has been founded that Tone got
mp the Irish rebellion and conyincad
.|