The Irish standard., 1898-05-14
THE UNITED IRISH PARTY.
Sc0rned Castle Fav0rs and Chose
an Irish Prison.
SECURED THE ASSISTANCE OF
Napoleon, But the Coriscan Later
Changed His Mind.

Thomas Adds Emmet, the statesman
of the United Irish party during the
troubled period of century ago, is the
subject of a lengthy sketch by Robert
Donovan in the Dublin Weekly Free
man. The writer says:
Thomas Adds Emmet was a lawyer;
but he was a lawyer saved from the de-
fects of his calling by two things-a
supremely human heart and sound sci
entific training. He had been doctor
before he became a lawyer, and one dis
Germs in his aims, ideals and principles
the influences of those early studies.
adieu to common sense; he never aban-
doned himself to dreams or wasted him
self on beautiful utilities; if he was
reformer and revolutionist, it was be-
cause the people suffered and he knew
their grievances; if he was for policy
of force it was because the policy Of
force was the only alternative to a COM
plete surrender to an infamous all-
crushing tyranny; he was a "rebel" to
whom popular well-being was more than
constitutional perfection; a lawyer to
whom concrete Justice was more than
musty precedent; an orator who pre-
IN q
mere tinsel Of rhetoric; a self-sacrificing
soldier of liberty, who yet knew and
priced the joys of love, and home, and
family; man with his feet on the solid
earth, who had yet a vision Of the di-
vine. Had the revolution succeeded
Emmett would have been foremost as the
conciliator and state builder.
After tracing briefly Emmet's early
life and education the writer shows from
the testimony of contemporaries that the
young Irish lawyer, with his brilliant
talents, could have had high honors
from the castle authorities. He cast all
temptation aside, however, and, like the
true patriot he was, labored for his
country's welfare. He chose the way
that led to Kilmainham and Fort George
rather than to the treasury bench and
the woolsack.
In the winter of the year that Emmett
was called to the bar Tone found little
club that was in some sense the pre-
cursor of the United Irish society. Dren-
nan, Stokes, Pollock, Johnson, Burrowes,
Stack and Russell were members, so also
was Emmet-"a man whom,' writes
Tone, esteem as much as any, far more
than most of them, mean Thomas Ad-
dis Emmet. a barrister.''
The writings of Emmet for the So
ciety give an admirable picture of his po-
litical mind He sets due value upon an
established order, a strong executive, a
representation of classes But the degra-
dation of the people, their social wrongs,
the blighting of their intellect, the op-
preston of rackrenter and 1.-THE proc
tor, their subjection to a religious as
cendancy racked every fibre of his heart
and constitutionalist though he was,
at this stage. made him the most thor
ough of democrats.
His services to the Catholic commit
tee were no less distinguished And at
the bar he was also identified with the
defense of popular liberties
1t was not his fate to direct the vain
but heroic efforts of '9S. There is no ne.
cessity to repeat the oft told tale ol
Reynolds treachery. Emmet was amone
those arrested on that fatal 18th OF
March 1898, when the people were de.
prived OF leaders and left unguided tc
the scoursing and outrages Of a law.
less yeomanry. There was no evidence il
possession of the government that cout
be used to legally convict him of treas
on. We know from Corvallis letter!
to Portland that the executive woult
have hanged him and his comrades j
he could. They recognized in him on,
of their most formidable enemies; bu
they could not convict him. The fact il
of Importance in iudging OF his subse
quent action. The rebellion took its way
1t blazed into temporary success an,
died away for lack Of capable ieadersai,
and cooperation. Emmett and his com
rades lay in Newgate and kilmainhan
during all those terrible months-Apri
Of the outrases. May and June with tEei
successes and defeats, July with its SIR
render. Their, when the persecution 0
beaten peasantry was at it's height
the humane earl Of Charlenlont, throug'
his friend, Mr.. Dobbs. an eccentric bu
true-hearted member of the Irish parlia
ment, initiated negotiations between tn
government and the prisoners to brin
to an end the terrible carnage. TIL