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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's hooks while helping authors ami publishers reach new audiences. You can search through I lie lull text of this book on I lie web at|http : //books . qooqle . com/| I "Xw* GLEANINGS AND REMINISCENCES, GLEANINGS AND REMINISCENCES. BY FRANK THORPE PORTER, A.M., J.P., BARRI3TER-AT-LAW. AND FOR UPWARDS OF TWENTY YEARS A MAGISTRATE OF THR HEAD OFFICE OF DUBLIN POLICE. Scare tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter."— Persius. THIRD EDITION. DUBLIN: HODGES, FOSTER, & CO., GRAFTON STREET. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., STATIONERS* HALL COURT. 1875. y THE NEW \URK PUBLIC LIBRARY 48521s AflTOR, LtNOX AND TJLDEN FOUNDATION*. R 1910 L i* To Captain Luke John Henry Alen, Of Wellington Road, Dublin, The direct representative of a family mentioned in the 2nd chapter, %\\& Vobxmt, As an acknowledgment of V His sterling and disinterested friendships ft ts inscribed. PREFACE. In submitting the following pages to the consideration of the public, I am influenced by a desire to extend the appetite which is so greedy in devouring fiction to some morsels of fact. Several of my narratives refer to incidents which, in their disclosures, might occasion disagreeable feelings to the parties or to their kindred. In such cases, I shall adopt fictitious names; but in all the details offered to the reader, I shall include nothing which I do not firmly believe or personally know to be strictly true. To the former class must be referred several anecdotes derived from parental lips, and referring to years previous to my birth. In a theatre, the performers are neither applauded nor hissed from behind the scenes. The judgment which they have to encounter is that of the audience. As a literary manager, I shall leave each tragic or comic in- cident to the unbiassed opinion and criticism of my readers. I shall occasionally have to encounter the danger arising from allowing a great culprit to escape, A 2 vi Preface. or a virtuous and estimable individual to undergo mis- fortune. In this respect the writer of fiction possesses a vast advantage. He can lavish every worldly blessing on the deserving, and allot the direst punishments to vice and crime. But when we have to deal with stern realities, we may regret the occurrence of a fact which leaves guilt undetected and innocence in deep affliction. I <:an, however, safely assert, upon the experience of a long professional and official life, that vice seldom attains to great worldly prosperity, and that worth and integrity are rarely subjected to utter destitution. It is difficult to classify anecdotes or reminiscences which are not connected with each other. The course I propose to adopt is to lay before my readers the narratives which I have derived from sources anterior to my birth, from lips truthful and occasionally humorous, but now silent for ever. I shall reserve, as far as possible, my own personal recollections for the latter part of this pub- lication, in the hope that the amusement and information obtained from others, may soften the critical reader to an indulgent reception of the portion peculiarly connected with myself. I may remark that some anecdotes in which my name is introduced have been very extensively published in several periodicals. I accord to their authors my willing testimony as to their great imaginative power, for in the statements concerning me there is not one word of truth. My friend, Mr. Fitzpatrick, in his recent productions of " The Sham Squire" and " Ireland before the Union," has mentioned me as the source from which Preface. vii he derived the particulars of a few incidents in those interesting works. His unexaggcrated correctness forms a strong contrast to the flippant fictions of others. How- ever, when my name is brought before the public, in reference either to fiction or fact, it affords me some apology for appearing in proprid persond. F. T. P. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Lonergan's Case— Old Prisons i CHAPTER II. Vcsey and Keogh 8 CHAPTER III. Mary Tudor 20 CHAPTER IV. The Birth of a Word— A Letter of Introduction— The Honor of Knighthood 31 CHAPTER V. A Millionaire 39 CHAPTER VI. The Ship Street Diamond— Second-hand Plate— The Silver Slab — Law's Window — Old Newgate 42 CHAPTER VII. Gonne's Watch 53 CHAPTER VIII. The Major 61 CHAPTER IX. Committals — A Barber Wanted — Dwyer the Rebel — An Extraor- dinary Inquest — Sergeant Greene's Horse — Christy Hughes — The Police Clerks— Recorder Walker— The Police Statutes- Preamble — A Benefit Society Case — Police Recruits -A Born Soldier 72 Contents. CHAPTER X. pack Mendicancy 89 CHAPTER XI. Carriage Court Cases— Dublin Carmen 97 CHAPTER XII. A Gratuitous Jaunt — The Portuguese Postillion— A Few Hyperboles - -Miscellaneous Summonses . . . . . . .190 CHAPTER XIII. Dogs — Whipping Young Thieves — Garden Robbers — Reformatories — Apologies for Violence — Trespassers on a Nunnery ♦ .118 CHAPTER XIV. Terry Driscoll's Fiction — Bridget Laffan — Sailors — Fisher . .129 CHAPTER XV. A Duper Duped 137 CHAPTER XVI. Who threw the Bottle ?— Excise and Customs Cases . . .148 CHAPTER XVII. John Sargeant— The Magisterial Offices — Two Murders — One Re- prieved— Delahunr/s Crimes 158 CHAPTER XVIII. Murder of Mr. Little — Detective Inefficiency — Individual Efficiency — A False Accusation Exposed — Extraordinary Gratitude — A Salutary Reformation— A Charge of Felony — Poor Puss, who shot her? — Baxter and Barnes 173 CHAPTER XIX. A Run to Connaught — A Present — A Puzzle — Moll Raffle — A Lucky . Accusation — Crown Witnesses — Who blew up King William ? — Surgical Assistance — A Rejected Suitor — George Robins — The Greek Count : The Rats— The Lucky Shot— The Child of the Alley 190 Contents. xi CHAPTER XX. PACK O'Connell— Smith O'Brien and Meagher— John Mitchel— Informers —The Close of 1848— The Military— A French View of Popular Commotions .......... 208 CHAPTER XXI. Cholera: An Impatient Patient; Good News J only Typhus Fever — Royal Visits — Scotch Superiority strongly asserted — A Police Bill stigmatised — Leave of Absence — The Rhine — The Rhine- land 228 CHAPTER XXII. Brussels— Royal Children— The Great Exhibition in London — Home Again : A Preacher — Unlucky Rioters — Visit to Paris — Michel Perrin 247 CHAPTER XXIII. The Count or Convict, which ?— The Fawn's Escape . 282 CHAPEER XXIV. The Count de Coucy — Dumas — A Threatened Suicide . . . 307 CHAPTER XXV. Dargan's Exhibition— A Bell and Knocker — Lord Gough — Father Pecherine's Case — Assaults and Thefts — The City Militia — A Scald quickly cured — Sailors leaving their Ship . . .321 CHAPTER XXVI. Effects of Enlistment — Martial Tendencies — The She Barracks — The Dublin Garrison — An Artillery Amazon — A Colonel of Dragoons — Donnybrobk Fair — The Liquor Traffic . • . 339 CHAPTER XXVII. The College Row— The Cook Street Printer— A Question and An- swer— A Barrister — An Attorney — Gibraltar .... 356 CHAPTER XXVIII. Gibraltar, etntinued ..... . " . .' 374 xii Contents. CHAJPTER XXIX. PAGE Gibraltar, continued— Departure for Home — Charity, real Charity — A Death and Funeral— The Bay of Biscay again — At Home : Leisure no Pleasure — A Review 391 CHAPTER XXX. A Dublin Dentist 406 CHAPTER XXXI. A Trip to the North — Metrical Attempts — Contrasts — Paris : a Fair — A Review — Nadar's Balloon— Sport, Turf, Boxing— Liquor Vehicles — No Hods — A Horse, a Dog, Rats .... 423 CHAPTER XXXII. Contrasts— French Kitchens — Shops and Signs — The Seine — Trees and Flowers— A Pretty Thief— French Wit— French Silver— The Hotel des Invalides 440 CHAPTER XXXIII. Gain preferred to Glory — Curious Inscriptions — Former Gambling — An Assault — French Charity — A Letter to Heaven . . 459 CHAPTER XXXIV. Father Prout 468 CHAPTER XXXV. A French Land Murder — Irishmen, French Ecclesiastics — Algerian Productions — Bird Charming — Brittany— Chateaubriand . . 473 CHAPTER XXXVI. The Arran Islands — Circuit Reminiscences — Conclusion . . . 483 *lll GLEANINGS AND REMINISCENCES. CHAPTER I. LONERGAN'S CASE OLD PRISONS. Although it is probable that I may bring before my readers an incident or two of a more remote date, I shall commence with the narrative of an alleged crime and its supposed punishment, which has been adverted to by Sir Jonah Barrington in his " Personal Recollections," Vol. L, page 53, and in the description of which he has lapsed into considerable inaccuracy. According to him, the name of the person chiefly concerned was "Lanegan ;" but in that respect there is a positive error ; for by exa- mining the records of the Crown Office, (Ireland,) I find the name, as my father had frequently stated to me, to be "Lonergan." He was a young man who had been educated at the school of the Rev. Eugene M'Kenna, of Raheny, in the County of Dublin, and from that estab- lishment entered Trinity College, Dublin, in the year 1773. During his undergraduate course, he resided with Mr. McKenna, and acted as an assistant in the school. In 1777, having finished his University studies, he became a tutor in the family of Mr. Thomas O'Flaherty, of Castle- field, in the County of Kilkenny. That gentleman was B Gleanings and Reminiscences. singularly unfortunate in having married a woman of most depraved tendencies. She engaged in a intrigue with Lonergan, and on the a8th of June, 1778, Mr. OTlaherty died under circumstances which occasioned the arrest of Lonergan, on a charge of having poisoned him. The woman evaded arrest and escaped to a foreign country. Some time must have elapsed between the commission of the crime and the apprehension of the accused party, for it was not until the Summer Assizes of Kilkenny, in 1781, that Lonergan was arraigned for Petit Treason, the offence being considered by the law, as it then existed, as more aggravated than murder, inasmuch as he was in the domestic service of the man whom he was alleged to have destroyed. He succeeded, on certain legal grounds, in postponing his trial ; but in the ensuing term a writ of certiorari issued, and the indictment was removed to the Court of King's Bench. A trial at bar was held on November iath, 1781, the jury having been brought up from Kilkenny. The prisoner was convicted, and sentenced to be hanged and quartered on the 24th of the aforesaid month, and the sheriffs of the City of Dublin were directed to have the sentence carried into effect. At the time of his conviction, the prisoner de- clared that he was innocent of the crime; but he ad- mitted that he bought arsenic at the instance of Mrs. OTlaherty, who, according to his statement, told him that she intended to use it in destroying rats. He did not deny the imputation of an adulterous intrigue with her. The Rev. Mr. M'Kenna did not forget his former pupil and assistant. He visited him in prison, testified to his character in very favorable terms at the trial, and, after condemnation, was assiduous in preparing him to meet his impending doom with Christian resignation. Lonergan's Case. He determined to attend him to the termination of his sufferings, and to pay the last duties to his remains. M'Kenna was married to a cousin of my father, and he was on terms of the closest intimacy with our family. My father resided in Skinner Row, (now Christ Church Place,) Dublin ; and at the period to which this narrative refers, he was in the prime of life — tall, vigorous, and active. He was also Serjeant of the grenadier company of the Dublin Volunteers. He had known the unhappy Lonergan during the peaceful and comparative innocent days that the latter had spent at Raheny. He pitied the miserable fate of the culprit, doubted his guilt, and sym- pathized with the worthy man whose pious solicitude and friendship still sought to console the spirit that was so soon to pass away. On the evening before the execu- tion, M'Kenna remained with the condemned as long as the regulations of the prison permitted. He then betook himself to my father's house, where he proposed to stay until the earliest hour of the morning at which he could be admitted to the gaol. Having mentioned that he would not fail to attend Lonergan to the consummation of his fate, in compliance with the culprit's request, he was informed by my father that he should also be at the execution, for that owing to the paucity of regular troops in Dublin, the sheriff had made a requisition for a guard of the Volunteers, and that the grenadier company were to attend at Baggot Street, (the Tyburn of Dublin,) to which place the prisoner was to be escorted from Thomas Street by a troop of cavalry. Accordingly, on the 24th November, 1781, Lonergan, having briefly but very distinctly denied any participation in the crime for which he was condemned, was hanged by the withdrawal of the cart from beneath the gallows to Gleanings and Reminiscences. which the halter was attached, and although he received no drop, his sufferings did not seem to be very acute. He almost immediately ceased to struggle, and life appeared to be extinct. The weather was extremely inclement; and when the body had been suspended for about twenty minutes, the sheriff acceded to a suggestion that it might be cut down. There was some difficulty in getting at the rope so as to cut it with a knife. M'Kenna remarked this to my father, who, drawing his short, slightly curved, and very sharp hanger, directed the cart to be backed towards the body. Then, springing up on the cart, he struck the rope where it crossed the beam, and severed it at once. A coffin was brought forward from a hearse which was in waiting. The sheriff directed the cap to be removed, and the body to be turned with the face down. Then he handed a sharp penknife to the executioner, who made two incisions across each other on the back of the neck. This was considered a formal compliance with the portion of the sentence which directed " quartering." The body was then left to the care of the faithful friend, M'Kenna, who directed it to be placed in the hearse and conveyed to his house at Raheny. On the a6th, a funeral, very scantily attended, proceeded to Raheny churchyard. M'Kenna had the coffin lowered into a very deep grave, and the burial service was read by the parochial clergyman. Persons were engaged to watch for a few nights lest any attempt should be made to exhume the corpse for anatomical pur- poses. In two days after the funeral my father received a note from M'Kenna, in consequence of which he imme- diately proceeded to Raheny. On his arrival he was pledged to secrecy and co-operation. He willingly assented, and having been conducted into a small apartment in the upper part of the house, he there beheld alive, although. i Old Prisons. greatly debilitated, the man whom, at Baggot Street, he had cut down from the gallows. On the night of the 30th November, he brought Lonergan into Skinner Row. There he kept him concealed for upwards of a week, and then succeeded in shipping him for Bristol. From thence he proceeded, unsuspected and uninterrupted, to America, where, under the name of James Fennell, he lived for a considerable time, and supported himself by educational pursuits. His resuscitation was attributed to the rope having been unusually short, to his being swung from the cart without receiving any perpendicular drop, and espe- cially to the incisions in his neck, which produced a co- pious effusion of blood. Lonergan stated that on being suspended, he immediately lost any sensation of a painful nature. His revival was attended with violent and dis- tressing convulsions. OLD PRISONS. Before I proceed to the details of some other narratives, I trust that my readers will not censure me for submitting to their perusal incidents connected with real or imputed crimes, and asking them to accompany me, even in imagi- nation, to prison scenes. There is scarcely a novelist of celebrity that has not frequently introduced his readers to such places, and generally without exciting any repugnance to his description of them, or to the narratives which they supply or the subjects they suggest. Although the prison may disappear and be replaced by other structures, even of a different character, its ideal existence continues, and perhaps outlasts those that arose on its foundations or in its vicinity. In Paris, the Bastille is spoken of as if it still existed. The name is inscribed on omnibusses, and the cab-driver asks no further explanation when ordered to Gleanings and Reminiscences. drive " a la Bastille." A house within a short distance of the place where it stood displays on a sign-board a view of the old fortress-prison ; and few strangers pass it during the day without pausing to gaze on the picture of a build- ing to which history refers so many fearful incidents, exaggerated nevertheless most enormously by the unscru- pulous revolutionists who introduced a " reign of terror w of greater extent, and more sanguinary atrocity, than the records of all the state prisons of France could supply. The Chateau of Vincennes is an existing building ; visited more for the memories of the past than for the attractions of the present or the hopes of the future ; and few visitors leave it without gazing on the spot where, at midnight, the hapless Due D'Enghien received the fatal volley and filled an untimely grave. Many prisons in England are associated with local traditions or historical events highly interest- ing ; but the lapse of time and the habitudes of a people exceptionally romantic have deprived them of an extensive popular appreciation. The Tolbooth of Edinburgh and the building of the same designation in Glasgow have derived a lasting fame from the pen of Scott; and whilst the English language exists, the readers of the " Heart of Mid-Lothian" or "Rob Roy" will have the Tolbooths vividly impressed on their imaginations. There are anec- dotes connected with the old prisons of Ireland, many of which would afford most ample subjects for the writer of Romance, whilst even their simple details would fully verify the adage that " Fact is stranger than Fiction." I shall now proceed to a narrative which refers to a period more than a century past, but,in which, as to names and dates, the crown-office records of the time fully agree with the statements which I have heard from the descendants of some of the most respectable characters connected, Old Prisons. but in no discreditable manner, with the circumstances detailed. There may still be seen on the right hand side of th* road leading from Dublin through Mount Brown to Inchi- core, a small portion of a granite wall which formerly was in front of " Old Kilmainham/' the common gaol of the County of Dublin. That building was considered one of the worst prisons of the kingdom, in consequence of its insufficient size and lax discipline. Swift is said to have been, in his youthful days, a frequent, although not a criminal visitor at this old gaol ; and there, perhaps, in the conversation of its inmates, he acquired much of the coarseness and indelicacy which mar the wit and vigor of his productions. I shall, however, most willingly and scrupulously abstain from offering to my readers any speci- mens of the language of such a time and place, when the building echoed with drunken revelry, and the sufferings of a prisoner were aggravated by indecent buffoonery or ribald jests. To my narrative such expressions are neither necessary nor ornamental. CHAPTER II. VESEY AND KEOGH. On the 15th of February, 1743, a gentleman named James Vesey, who held a commission in the army, was returning to Dublin from a southern county where he possessed a respectable landed property. The facilities which now exist for the safe and prompt remittance of money were then almost unknown, and he had with him upwards of eighteen hundred pounds in specie. He was so unfor- tunate as to be stopped on the road at Castleknock, and robbed of the money, his watch, and its appendages. The highwayman who opened the door of the post-chaise had an associate who kept at the horses' heads, and could not be recognized. After the perpetration of the crime, the traveller proceeded on to Dublin and apprised the authori- ties of his loss. A vigilant search terminated, after a few days, in the apprehension of two brothers named Martin and Sylvester Keogh. They were men of a sinister repu- tation, who resided near Rathcoole, and spent more money than they could be supposed to have acquired honestly, being the occupiers of a thatched house of humble dimen- sions, and a neglected farm of six or seven acres. On being brought before a magistrate, Martin Keogh was fully identified by Mr. Vesey, as the man who, pistol irk hand, opened the door of the chaise and despoiled hiin Vesey and Keogh. of his property. Against the other there was no crimina- ting evidence, and after a detention of some days, he was discharged. The closest search after the money termi- nated unsuccessfully, not a guinea could be found. Martin Keogh was committed for trial at the ensuing commission of Oyer et Terminer for the county of Dublin, and was there convicted of the robbery, on the positive and un- doubtedly true testimony of Mr. Vesey. Sentence of death was passed, and the doomed felon became an occu- pant of the condemned cell at Old Kilmainham, from the dreary precincts of which he was to issue at the end of twenty-one days, to die upon the gallows. Mr. Vesey's leave of absence had been extended until the result of the trial left him free to proceed to England to join his regi- ment; and he departed from Dublin without any other satisfaction for his eighteen hundred pounds than what might be derived from the impending punishment of the delinquent. He had ample opportunities for seeing Martin Keogh during the preliminary proceedings and in the progress of the trial, and the figure and features of the highwayman remained indelibly impressed on his memory. Soon after Mr. Vesey's arrival in England, he proceeded to encounter the dangers and privations of protracted foreign service ; he attained the rank of Captain, and his regiment formed a portion of " the terrible English column" on the memorable field of Fontenoy, the nth day of May, 1745. It is unnecessary to introduce here any lengthened or distinct description of the obstinate valor with which the English advanced, thinned, but undismayed, by the concen- trated fire of the French artillery, and unbroken by the re- peated charges of veteran troops led by the most chivalrous of a gallant nobility. They were not broken until assailed by the Irish Brigade, who rushed upon them with irre- io Gleanings and Reminiscences. sistible fury. Then, penetrated and scattered, the column became completely disorganized, and subjected to fearful slaughter by the impetuous Irish and exulting French. Captain Vesey remained on the field of battle. He had been wounded, almost simultaneously, by two balls, and also received a blow from the butt of a musket, which re- duced him to a state of utter insensibility. Louis XV. was present at Fontenoy, and in the hour of victory displayed the only virtues which, in his character* were associated with many great vices. He was generous and humane, and at once directed that the wounded English should receive the same care as was bestowed on his own soldiers. Considerable numbers were conveyed to Lille, where surgical skill and the soothing attentions of reli- gious communities and kind-hearted inhabitants effected numerous recoveries. Captain Vesey was soon conva- lescent. During his illness, several officers of the Irish Brigade forgot he was an enemy, but recollected that he was their gallant and suffering countryman, and from them he experienced the courtesy of gentlemen and the sym- pathy of friends. Amongst them was the Count de St. Woostan, an officer in the regiment of Berwick, who was acting at Lille in a capacity similar to that of town- major in an English garrison. One evening, at the Count's quarters, the conversation turned on the various incidents of the battle in which they had been so recently engaged, and an officer remarked that Vesey owed his life, in all probability, to a private in Berwick's regiment, who procured assistance to convey him from the field whilst in a state of insensibility, and manifested the utmost anxiety for his preservation. This elicited a very natural remark from Vesey, that it was extraordinary the man had never since approached him, either to evince any satisfaction at Vesey and Keogh. 1 1 his recovery, or to claim a recompense for his services. On further enquiry, he ascertained that the soldier's name was Martin Vaughan, and that he was in the garrison of Lille. On the following day he proceeded, accompanied by the Count, to seek out the man to whom his safety was ascribed, and found that he had been sent, on escort duty, a short distance from the town. The Count, there- upon, left directions for Martin Vaughan to present him- self at his quarters on a certain evening. The soldier attended accordingly, and was ushered into the presence of the Count and Captain Vesey, the latter of whom felt inclined to distrust his own senses when he beheld Martin Keogh, whom he believed to have been, for more than two years, mouldering in a felon's grave. Suddenly, however, the idea occurred that a recognition might be irreparably injurious to the man who had recently rendered him such material service. He felt at once that Keogh's escape from the ignominious fate to which he had been doomed was like an interposition of providence, highly beneficial to both of them. He approached the man and briefly ex- pressed his thanks for the care to which he ascribed his safety. He then tendered him twenty louts d'or, but the gift was at once respectfully declined. The soldier ap- peared greatly agitated, and exclaimed — "No, Captain Vesey, not a penny of your money will I ever touch again." The Count remarked the expression, and observed — " Why, Vaughan, it would appear that you have met the captain before you took service with us." "We have met," said the soldier; "he knows when and where; he will tell you what he knows, but he does not know all. Ye are two gentlemen on whose honor I can rely, and I shall tell you all on one condition.1 u 12 Gleanings and Reminiscences. " Excuse me," said the Count, €S my curiosity is not so intense as to make me desirous of a confidence disagree- able either to Captain Vesey or to you. You have been a good soldier, in every respect, since you entered the regi- ment. I have known you only in that capacity. I have no wish to be informed on any previous transaction." " And I pledge my hand and word," said Vesey, " that I shall never allude to you except as the man to whose humane exertions I am indebted for my life." He extended his hand to the soldier, who respectfully pressed it between his own, saying — " Let it be so, I am fully satisfied." He saluted the Count and departed. In about two months after an exchange of prisoners was effected. The Count and Vesey parted with mutual regret and assurances of lasting friendship. A few minutes before they parted, the Count mentioned that he had pro- cured for Vaughan the grade of sergeant. Vaughan asked and was granted an opportunity of bidding the Captain a respectful farewell. The military operations of the Eng- lish were for some time extensive and diversified ; and during eleven years Vesey did not revisit Ireland. He had been in India and in America ; and he again became a prisoner to the French in 1756, when the Due de Richlieu captured Minorca. There he again met with the Count de St. Woostan. Their friendship was renewed, and Vesey, who had attained to the rank of colonel, obtained permis- sion, upon parole, to visit Paris, whither the Count was proceeding with despatches. He casually enquired for Vaughan, and was informed by the Count that soon after their parting at Lille, Vaughan's brother, Sylvester, had arrived from Ireland, and joined the regiment. He was killed at the battle of Raucoux, where Martin was severely- wounded, and had consequently become an inmate of the Vesey and Keogh. 13 Hotel des Invalides. There Colonel Vesey again saw the man, whose escape from an ignominious death had often occasioned perplexing conjectures to his prosecutor. The old sergeant evinced great pleasure at the Colonel's visit, attended him through the establishment, and having con- ducted him into one of the arbors, which the veterans of the Invalides have, from the very commencement of the institution, cultivated with peculiar care and taste, he offered the Colonel a seat under an agreeable shade, and requested him to listen to a -narration of the escape which had been effected from Old Kilmainham. "I need not now, sir," he added, " ask any condition from you, for the man who arranged the affair is dead. No one can now be injured by the disclosure. I have bitterly mourned the disgraceful act that subjected me to capital punishment, which I only escaped by flying for ever from my native country, and which also led to the loss of my poor brother, whom I persuaded to join in it and some other similar deeds. God knows my heart.* I would willingly make restitution of your property, but I shall never possess the means. It was a great consolation that I was able to do you a little service after Fontenoy, and I felt a certain happiness in receiving your forgiveness when we parted at Lille." " My good friend/' said the Colonel, " as to the affair at Castleknock, I would wish you never to mention it again. I have, however, a great curiosity to know how you managed to avoid the fate which, to say the truth, I thought you had undergone." a We took the money, sir," said Martin, " and placed it in a strong canvas bag. We hid it in neither house, garden, nor field, but in a deep part of the river Liffey, below the Salmon Leap. There was a stout cord from 14 Gleanings and Reminiscenses. the bag to a heavy weight, so that it might be easily caught by a drag. Well, I was convicted and sentenced, and there were four others condemned at the same Com- mission, and we were all to be executed on the same day. One was a forger, and three were housebreakers. We each occupied a separate cell in the condemned yard. It was a horrible place, for I well recollect that on each side of the yard a full length figure of Death was painted,* holding in his skeleton hands a scythe and hour-glass ; so that wherever our eyes turned, we were reminded of our hapless condition and coming sufferings. The gaoler came in two or three times daily, whilst our cells were open, and I soon remarked that he took very little notice of the others, but spoke pretty often to me. On the fifth or sixth day after my sentence, I was in my cell, counting my days, and trying to count my hours ; making pictures in my despairing mind of the cart and the crowd, and cringing as if I already felt the slippery noose of the soaped halter closing round the creeping flesh of my neck ; think- ing of the happy days of innocent childhood, and feeling some consolation in my misery that my brother had not been condemned ; that I left no wife or family, and that both my parents were dead, and spared th& shame and sorrow of their son's public execution. This was the state of my mind when the gaoler entered the cell. He closed the door, and addressed some kind expressions to me, hoping that I was resigned to the great change that was impending, and enquiring if he could do anything for my comfort or consolation. In a stout but low tone I replied, that I would rather get rid of the business without being * This gratuitous cruelty did not cease when Old Kilmainham was taken, down. Similar disgusting figures have been seen by me, on the door and walls of the condemned yard, in the present county gaol. — F. T. P. Vesey and Keogh. 15 hanged at all. He closed the door, and sat down on the block-stool, and we remained silent for a few minutes; but there were looks passing between us ; we were reading each other's hearts. At length he said — ' Have you the money ? ' "'It is safe, every guinea of it/ I replied ( but useless to me and to every one else, if 1 am to stay here for the few remaining days of my life. Moreover, I could not give it all, for there would be very little use in going out of the prison if I had not the means of going far and going fast; but I have fifteen hundred pounds for a friend, who would be a real friend/ " € Mr. Vesey is gone/ said the gaoler, ' we are perfectly secure from any observation or interference on his part ; I am running a great risk, but I shall try the chance. I am, I admit, in great want of money. Give me fifteen hundred pounds, and I will allow your brother to pass through my rooms to the top of the prison, and to bring a rope ladder with him. He can descend into the yard, and there he will find a key in the door of your cell ; this can be done at twelve tomorrow night ; and you may be far away before nine the following morning. Your brother will be here to see you by-and-by, you can arrange with him, but there is no time to be lost/ " ' My brother ' I replied, ' shall have nothing to do with the business, except to bring the money, I shall not cross the wall, I must go out by the door, I must be let out, or I stay until I am disposed of along with the rest/ ' It is impossible/ said the gaoler. ' It is not impossible,' I replied, f but very easy, if you can get a little assistance. I must be sick, very sick ; fever, gaol fever, is to be my complaint; I must die, and be sent out in a coffin/ 1 6 Gleanings and Reminiscences. " f No/ said he, ' there must be a real corpse. I think it can be managed, but I cannot have more than a thousand pounds for myself, the remainder of the money must be divided between two other persons, on whose co-operation 1 feel certain that I can fully rely.' " We agreed upon the plan, and for several days I was really sick, made so by artificial means — spirits, laudanum, tobacco, and other things were used in various ways. Half of the stipulated sum was brought by my brother, and paid to the gaoler in the condemned cell. The other men were removed to another part of the building. At length I died, you understand ; and on that night a corpse was introduced into my cell by the gaoler himself. It was of my size, and was procured from the neighbouring burial ground of the Hospital fields, vulgarly termed Bully's Acre; but unlike the generality of such disinterments, it was to go back there again, and to be buried in my name. I was informed that there would be an inquest on me ; but as I had died of putrid, spotted fever of the most infectious description, it was not likely that the coroner or the jury would view my body, unless at the greatest possible dis- tance. I assisted the gaoler to arrange the supposed corpse of myself, placing the face to the wall, and then I was quietly let out upon the high road, after having paid the balance of the fifteen hundred pounds. My brother who had brought the money, was in waiting, but we soon separated. He thought it would prevent suspicion being raised if he attended the funeral of my substitute; and I set out on foot, taking the road to Wicklow, and stop-, ping in the morning to have a little rest and refreshment at Loughlinstown. About the time of my funeral, I was passing Coolagad, near Delgany, and was alarmed by a Vesey and Keogh. 17 pack of hounds crossing the road close to where I was walking. There were some riders following them whom I knew, but they were too much engaged in the sport to think about, or even to look at me. I proceeded by Wicklow and Arklow to Wexford, and there I got a pas- sage to Jersey. From that island I was taken by a smuggler to St. Malo, on the supposition that I was extremely anxious to join the Irish Brigade. My life was now safe from the hangman, but I had much trouble and suffering to encounter. I was suspected of being a spy, although I could not speak a word of French; and the possession of some of your guineas was a great crime in the eyes of those who wished to get them for themselves. At Chartres I met a fellow-countryman, who was in Berwick's regiment, and at his instance I enlisted to get rid of the annoyance I was suffering, and to avoid the poverty which I saw approaching, and which was certain to overtaJce a stranger, whose only resource was military service. I took, on enlisting, the name of Vaughan, which was that of my mother's family. I have again to express my deep sorrow for the wrongful act I committed, and J hope you will never regret that I was not hanged" Colonel Vesey parted with Martin Keogh, alias Vaughan, in the kindest manner, and was soon after enabled to pro- ceed to England. His military career was terminated by a wound at the capture of Quebec, in 1761, which incapa- citated him for further service: he died at Bath in 1776. The Count de St. Woostan accompanied the gallant but much calumniated Lally-Tollendahl to India. He pos- sessed his confidence, shared in his dangers and subsequent persecutions, but eventually, freed from every imputation, restored to the rank and emoluments of colonel, he died at 1 8 Gleanings and Reminiscences. Amboise, in 1782. His name was Alen, and he belonged to a family which, located at St. Woolstans near Celbridge, in the county of Kildare, occupied high position in Ireland previous to the reign of Elizabeth, and from a collateral branch of which the ducal Howards of Norfolk derive the additional name of Fitzalen. Martin Vaughan married, in 1 758, a blanckisseuse dejin, who had a comfortable dwelling and profitable business in the Rue de Bellechasse, Paris. His name disappears from the-register of the Invalides, in 1 769. His escape from Old Kilmainham protracted his existence twenty-six years. It was effected by means which would not be practicable in any prison of the British Empire at the present time. Officials have become more respectable, and their integrity is protected from temptation by the intervention of a vigi- lant superintending authority, unknown at the period to which the foregoing narrative refers. It will, in all proba- bility, occur to the reader that the two persons whose co-operation the gaoler considered as indispensable in effecting the escape of Martin Keogh, were the coroner of the county and the medical officer of the prison. Such a conclusion is almost inevitable. Still, a similar project could not now be accomplished by a similar combination. There have been, however, some inquests held in the same county (Dublin) which seriously compromised the coroner of the time and the medical man habitually employed by him, but none of them originated in a prison. It is right to state that they occurred anterior to the appointment of the present coroners and of their respective immediate pre- decessors. I shall recur to them in a subsequent page or two, when I come to the narration of some extraordinary incidents entirely within my personal knowledge and recol- Vesey and Keogh. 19 lection. As yet I have placed no female character promi- nently before my readers. I shall proceed to introduce one; and however I may distrust my own powers of de- scription, I feel that the mere facts which I shall detail will not prove uninteresting, especially as they refer to her whom I may term the heroine of the story. CHAPTER III. MARY TUDOR. Longevity", although desired by almost all human beings, is a subject of contemplation to very few. We attach, in general, a greater interest to an aged tree or an antique building, than to a venerable individual whose life may connect with the present time the stirring period of the American war of Independence or the awful period of the French Revolution. It is, perhaps, better for ourselves that as we attain old age we should meet with respect and care, without being sought as close companions by our juniors : we thus become habituated to think more on those who have gone before us, and of our own approach to that solemn moment which is to quench the socket- glimmer of earthly existence. Nevertheless, we occasion- ally meet with some whose mental faculties have not yielded to the attacks of time, in proportion to the effects produced by his inexorable hand upon the corporeal frame, and whose society is sought by many who observe that they can, even in the years of senectitude, revert to their early days, and seek to enjoy the pleasures of memory by detailing to others the scenes through which they have passed, and the points of character they have noted. Such a person I can truly designate my father to have been. His frame was robust, and his general health very good, even after he had attained to fourscore years. Accident Mary Tudor. 21 had rendered him lame, but his mind and memory were strong, and his disposition affable. Whilst he perfectly recollected the past, he evinced a warm interest in the pre- sent; and almost immediately after the opening of the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland, he sped from Dublin to Cork and back, merely to contrast the five hours' performance of the "Iron Horse" with the four days' journey of his early years. It was a great gratifica- tion to him to take a slow drive through Dublin, and recount to his companions, of whom I was generally one, the former appearance of places, and the habits and pecu- liarities of their occupiers ; but no part of the city called forth his recollections more strongly than the locality of Christ Church Place. He never mentioned it by its pre- sent name; with him it continued "Skinner Row;" and it was no small pleasure to him to remark that the house in which he had lived and prospered at the beginning of the present century, was still remaining, whilst the entire of the opposite side of the " Row" had disappeared. He regretted the change even whilst he admitted the advantage of the alteration ; but he could not refrain from reinstating in his imagination, and describing, the narrow-fronted houses within eighteen feet of the opposite dwellings, rising to a height which effectually precluded even half-an- hour's sunshine from reaching the thoroughfare. His mind reverted to the former tenants, jewellers, silversmiths, and booksellers, by which trades the " Row" had been monopolized ; and it was more agreeable to him to recol- lect Dick Tudor, Tom Delancy, Jemmy Wilson, and many others, cleaning their windows and sweeping their shops, than to remark that such avocations, in the present day, had ceased to be incumbent on even the junior apprentices, and had devolved upon menial servants. 22 Gleanings and Reminiscences. One evening he was enjoying the society of two or three convivial friends. He had taken a drive that day, accom- panied by me, and had halted so long in Christ Church Place, that the hackney carmen might almost have sus- pected that he meditated an invasion of their stand. He enjoyed his drive and his dinner, and having attained to his second glass of whisky-punch, he commenced, at the instance of his companions, the narration of one of his " Skinner Row " reminiscences. Dick Tudor was a goldsmith and jeweller. He had the reputation of being the wealthiest man in the locality. He neither lent nor borrowed. His intercourse with his neighbours was very limited. He was a widower, and had an only child, of whom he was excessively fond. His tastes were in his business ; he had a love for his art, and would execute a beautiful design for a smaller comparative profit than would satisfy him for second-hand plate or mere repairs; but his affections excluded every other worldly object, and were concentrated in his daughter, Marv Tudor. She was about eighteen years of age at the time to which the commencement of the narrative refers, and. although reared in a city, was as simple and unaffected ir her manner as if her life had previously been passed or mountain heather or in mossy dell. She was a brunette o perfect features, and small but symmetrical figure. He disposition appeared to be gay, and almost puerile, an< none would suppose that in a trader's daughter, whos jocund smile and sparkling eyes seemed to seek and sprea mirth around her, there was a latent intensity of feeling and a determination of character, worthy of the nobler cause or of the highest lineage. Skinner Row had its attachments, jealousies, and lift Mary Tudor. 23 diplomacies as fully as ever they existed even in more im- portant localities. In one respect, it possessed a 'material for civic intrigue greater than could be found in any other part of Dublin in the last century. The Row com- manded, in the Common Council, one seat for the Sta- tioners' Guild, and two for the Goldsmiths. As to those objects of ambition, there was a certain fixed understand- ing— there should be no division outside their own pre- cincts, and the members chosen should be men of the Row. Amongst themselves, intrigues, insinuations, or open opposition might be freely practised ; but once they had determined on the man to be supported, every vote should go to him. Dick Tudor and James Wilson were the goldsmiths chosen for the Common Council, and the dis- tinction thus conferred excited great envy in the mind of of Tom Delancy, whose discontent was kept fully alive by his son, not on account of civic honours, but because young Christian Wilson had contrived to stand between him and the sun in the rays of which he wished to bask, namely, the eyes of pretty Mary Tudor. Old Tudor and James Wilson were friends, not very intimate, but perhaps liking and respecting each other more on that account. Tudor's daughter and Christian Wilson were lovers, and the infrequency of their meetings onlv rendered their occasional interviews more delectable. The neighbours observed the attachment of the young people before their parents suspected its existence; but the moment Tudor perceived a preference evinced by his daughter for young Wilson, he sedulously endeavoured to prevent all future communications between them. He became suddenly anxious that Mary should visit some relatives in the County of Wexford, about whom he had for years expressed no interest. He thought change of air 24 Gleanings and Reminiscences. would materially serve her health, although no other eye « could notice the slightest indication of illness, or even delicacy of constitution. Accompanied by an elderly female attendant, she left Dublin by a conveyance termed Good's Long Coach, which the proprietor, William Good, advertised as the perfection of cheap and expeditious travelling. It left the Ram Inn, Aungier Street, Dublin, on each Monday morning, at an early hour, so as to ensure reaching Wicklow town on the succeeding night. Tuesday saw the vehicle achieve a further progress to Gorey, and on Wednesday evening it reached Wexford. It re- turned to Dublin in the three succeeding days, and thus enabled the public to have a cheap, safe, and comfortable communication, to and fro, between two places about ninety English miles asunder, within the short space of six days. Three or four weeks elapsed, and Tudor mentioned, in answer to some kind enquiries, that Mary was enjoying herself wonderfully at Kilmore, in the County of Wexford, and that she had written him a very interesting descrip- tion of the Saltee Islands, St. Patrick's Bridge, and the Lady's Island. She was very comfortable with a worthy cousin and his wife, both arrived at an age which made them appreciate a life of quietude. They were very kind to her, and they had no family or nearer relations than himself and Mary. Her visit was likely to lead to con- siderable advantages. He would never have disclosed his daughter's temporary residence if he had not believed Kilmore to be as difficult of access to Christian Wilson as Madeira or Malta would be to a gallant of the presen time. The lover was a youth of very peculiar character — clever and active, but rash and inconsiderate. Having as certained that the smacks which traded between Wexfor Mary Tudor. 25 and Dublin, if favored by a fair wind, could make the run in a few hours, he determined on seeing Mary Tudor. His father had allowed him as a perquisite the profits arising from making " balloon guineas" into rings, and he had thereby acquired a few pounds, as it was a very prevalent custom for females of the humbler classes to invest a guinea in a ring, and carry their money on their fingers. Savings-banks were then unknown. Christian informed his father that he wished to go, for a few days, to a friend in Drogheda, and obtained his con- sent. He left home in the evening, ostensibly to go by the mail, but he sojourned to Hoey*s Court, and was seen there in company with some young men whose characters were unknown, or worse. They left Hoey^s Court about ten o'clock, and Wilson betook himself to Sir John's Quay, and went out of the river in the smack " Selskar," of Wexford, on the night-tide. After midnight Dick Tudor's workshop was robbed ; but the guilty parties did not all escape. Two were apprehended leaving the pre- mises, and were recognized as having been seen in Chris- tian Wilson's company in Hoey's Court for some time after his own father supposed him to have left Dublin for Drogheda. A letter was posted to the latter place, and, to old Wilson's astonishment, he received a reply that his son had not gone there. Where was he ? Whispered malice is most intense. Delancy and his son added assertion to suspicion, and revelled in the idea of a broken-hearted father, and a disgraced, degraded son, being forced by the awkward circumstances, magnified and industriously disseminated, to abandon, one, the coveted representation of the Goldsmiths' Guild, and the other, the pursuit in which all the affections of his heart and the energies of his mind were concentrated — the love of Mary Tudor. 26 Gleanings and Reminiscences. In a few days Christian Wilson returned to Dublin. His father's reproaches were fierce and unmeasured, and became a perfect storm of rage when the young man refused to state where he had been, or for what purpose he had left home. Old Tudor aggravated the quarrel between the father and son, by accusing them of a design to entrap his daughter into a clandestine union, to which James Wilson replied that he would sooner transport his son than consent to his marriage with Tudor's daughter. The circumstances of the robbery were fully investigated. They did not directly inculpate Christian ; but enough appeared to sully his reputation, and to prove that he was not sufficiently guarded in his associations. Old Delancy expressed his good-natured regret that the son of one "Wainscot man"* should be strongly suspected of rob- bing another. Young Delancy, with affected benevolence, expressed his sincere gratification that Christian had not been caught; and there were not wanting some kind- hearted individuals to convey his observations to the un- happy subject of them. The young men casually met in Christ Church yard ; an explanation was demanded ; and the demand was answered by the sneering remark, that the affair explained itself. Christian was maddened by his rivaPs taunts, and gave Delancy a fearful beating. A blow or fall produced concussion of the brain. The assailant had to fly ; and his father determined to send him, banished and unforgiven, to the West Indies, con- signing him to the care of a relative who had been for several years in Barbadoes. * In the old " Tholsel" or Guildhall of Dublin, members who had served the office of Sheriff, or who represented the Guild of Merchants, occupied the centre of the Council chamber. The members representing incorpo- rated trades sat next the wainscot They had the reputation of being the most independent members of the Corporation. Mary Tudor. 27' Mary Tudor received a letter written at Liverpool, and announcing the immediate departure of Christian Wilson for his tropical destination. In it he simply stated the circumstances which led to his expatriation, and renewed his vows to her of deep affection and fidelity. The young woman at once determined on departing from Kilmore; and on her arrival in Dublin placed Christian's letter in her father's hands. She insisted on the examination of the master and crew of the Selskar ; and they proved that they dropped down the river with Christian on board, two hours before the time of the robbery. But this was not all. The guilty parties confessed that the young man was not with them, and accounted for having sought his society in Hoey's Court, for the purpose of eliciting some information as to Tudor^s premises into which they were desirous of effecting an entrance. Young Delancy had recovered. Tudor and James Wilson had been reconciled; but Christian had sailed in the ship " Hyacinth," of Liver- pool, and he must see Barbadoes before he can become aware of Mary's truth and her determined exertions to remove all aspersions from her lover's character. The " Hyacinth" never reached her destined port. Her fate was conjectured, but was not ascertained, as it would be in the present time of superior arrangements in agency and communication. Her owners received their insurance as for a total loss, and James Wilson believed that his hapless son had been entombed in the ocean. At the commencement of the war between England and her revolted colonies of North America, two commis- sioners were sent out, in the hope that differences might be reconciled and peace restored. The Earl of Carlisle and Mr. Eden, (afterwards Lord Auckland,) were pro- ceeding on this mission in a frigate, and after having 28 Gleanings and Reminiscences. encountered very stormy weather, they fell in with a boat in which were several persons, reduced to the utmost extremity by hunger and fatigue. They were rescued, and recovered their strength by rest and nutrition. All, except one, were sailors, and they were, perhaps very sum- marily, added to the frigate's crew. The landsman was of a melancholy temperament, although young and na- turally strong. He was, however, of an humble and unpresuming manner, which did not indicate vulgarity or ignorance. He expressed a desire to make himself useful, cleaned some watches for the officers, and kept the plate of their mess in proper order. Curiosity induced Lord Carlisle to accost him, and the communication resulted in several acts of kindness on the part of the nobleman, which were respectfully and gratefully, and perhaps it may be said, gracefully, received. His Lordship's interest in the poor shipwrecked fellow increased ; and on their arrival in America, he obtained for his protege, from Sir Henry Clinton, an ensigncy in the army. Meanwhile Christian Wilson was forgotten in Skinner Row by all except one. They had "mourned him dead in his father's house" His family never adverted to his fate, for the subject was of painful recollection in more senses than one. But Mary Tudor, although she seldom spoke of Christian, would not admit that he was dead. Suitors for her hand were numerous, but to none would she give the slightest encouragement, and Delancy soon discovered that indifference was too mild a term to describe her feeling towards him. Some years had passed. Her father had attained complete senectitude, but was still sound in mind and hale in body. He lived happily with his daughter, who consulted his wishes on every subject, except his anxiety to see her married in comfort and Mary Tudor. 29 respectability before he died. She had attained to her twenty- fifth or twenty-sixth year, and she was particularly intimate with the family of the person from whom this narrative is derived. In fact, it was her only intimacy, and in her intercourse with them she frequently avowed her conviction that the " lost one" would return. One morning a note was received by my father, request- ing him to call, as soon as possible, on the writer, at the Queen's Head Hotel in Bride Street. He repaired to the place appointed; and in consequence of what there oc- curred, he had interviews next morning with Richard Tudor and James Wilson, and prevailed on them to ac- company him to Cork Hill, about u.30 a.m., and there he pointed out to the astonished and delighted old men Captain Christian Wilson, of the 60th Regiment, march- ing his company to relieve the guard at Dublin Castle. The tale concludes. The lovers met and were united. Old Tudor was rich ; his closing years were happy. Wilson retired from the army after he had attained the rank of Major, and settled on a property in a southern county, where the descendants of him and Mary Tudor are living in independence and respectability. This narrative has been closely criticised. It has been asked, Did the hero of the tale keep his very existence con- cealed so long, and why ? Suspicions have been expressed that the lovers had some communication or correspon- dence. Whatever conjectures may be entertained, they need not be canvassed here. The reader may form his own opinion. Much was said on the subject, and some- thing was even sung. The following verses are a portion of a lyric attributed to a Mr. Rooney, a basket-maker in Fishamble Street. The Tholsel guard, to the somnolent tendencies of which an allusion is made, were in num- 30 Gleanings and Reminiscences. ber about a dozen. They were dressed in blue with orange facings, and armed with pole-axes. An alderman of the time sarcastically described them as "selected for their age and infirmities, and not required to be awake unless at their meals." " Some folk averr'd a bird was heard To Mary's casement nigh ; And from its throat there thrill'd the note, He 's coming by-and-by. " Some said there came, with war-worn frame, A vet'ran grenadier, » Who spoke of one that led him on Through battle's fierce career. " Some said between them both had been Of love notes not a few, But this was clear, he did appear, And wed his maiden true. tt Through Skinner Row the toast must go, And our cheers reach Christ Church Yard, Till its vaults profound send back the sound, To waken the Tholsel guard. " Here *s to their health in peace and wealth ; May Death, that bold intruder, A long while pause ere he lays his claws On such as Mary Tudor." CHAPTER IV. THE BIRTH OF A WORD — A LETTER OF INTRODUC- TION THE HONOR OF KNIGHTHOOD. I have mentioned in the narrative respecting Lonergan, that my father was a member of the corps of Dublin Volunteers, and that he was Serjeant of the grenadier company. Many of his comrades were living within my memory, and I could name five or six who derived great gratification from reverting to the period when the citizen soldiers of Ireland were enrolled in thousands for the purpose of resisting an invasion which was threatened by the French. The reviews, parades, and convivial associa- tions of the Volunteers afforded many agreeable recollec- tions ; and I have heard from different narrators the same account of what may be termed the birth of a word which originated in Eustace Street, Dublin, upon the same day that ushered into this breathing world the oldest and highest of rank amongst the Irish nobility * I indulge in a hope that my readers may consider the circumstances under which a word was added to our language as curious or interesting, especially when they are apprised that it was not taken from any other language, ancient or modern, and yet it has become ubiquitous. * These expressions refer to the late Duke of Leinster, who has died since I wrote them. — F. T. P. 32 Gleanings and Reminiscences. On the 2ist of August, 1791, news had arrived in Dublin that Her Grace the Duchess of Leinster had given birth to a young Marquis of Kildare. To all ranks of society the intelligence was welcome, but especially to the Volunteers. The Duke was the general of that force in his province, but his own corps, of which he was colonel, was the Dublin one. Along with the announcement of the accouchement of the Duchess, came an intimation, that the corps would be expected at Carton on the happy occasion of the christening. The opportunity for paying a compliment to their commander was hailed by the citizen-soldiers with the utmost enthusiasm, and there was a numerous gathering of them, to learn the particu- lars and to consider their arrangements, at a tavern in Eustace Street, Dublin, kept by a person named Bennett, and known as " The Eagle." The evening had, as might be expected, a convivial termination. Several who had attained to high civic dignities were amongst those as- sembled ; and there was also present Richard Daly, the proprietor and manager of the Smock Alley theatre, who had an extraordinary propensity for making wagers in refer- ence to incidental matters, however unimportant. In the course of the evening some casual opinions were expressed on the histrionic powers of an actor named Spark es, who was then drawing immense houses in Daly's theatre. One of the Volunteers, named Delahoyde, expressed his surprise that such crowds should run after Sparkes, and remarked that his popularity was more the result of fashionable caprice than of histrionic merits. " He is, in my opinion/* added the speaker, "just what the French would term tm fagotin" "And what is the exact meaning of that: word ?" asked Alderman Moncrieffe. " There is, perhaps, no one word in the English language which conveys its The Birth of a Word. 33 meaning exactly/' said the interrogated party. "If I could give an English word to signify a low, vulgar mountebank, I should not have employed the French term." " Then/' observed Daly, " why do you not make a word and send it into circulation ? You should not feel aware that our language was deficient in expression with- out being charitable enough to supply its want, especially as it costs nothing to make a word." "But," rejoined the other, " how could I ensure the reception of a word into general use ? It might be characterized as slang, or remain unnoticed and unadopted ; it might be as difficult to obtain currency for a word, or more so, than it was to pass Wood's halfpence." " Dick," said Alderman Moncriefle, " suppose you try your own hand, as you think the matter so easy. I would leave it to your own ingenuity, but I fear you will find it very difficult to induce the public to take your word. If they took some of your assurance it might be an advan- tage; you have plenty to spare/' " I thank you, Alderman," replied Daly. " I did not suppose that so much wit could come from the neighbour- hood of the Tholsel." "Oh!" said Moncriefle, "it has strayed up to us from the theatre, where it has lately become scarce. But, Dick, why have you chatted so long on this and other subjects this evening without offering a single wager ? Come now, start a bet/' " I shall not use a phrase or make a word/' said Daly, " in disparagement of Sparkes, from whom I have derived much pleasure and profit; but I shall bet you twenty guineas, and I propose our friend and captain, who is also your brother alderman, I propose John Carleton as the judge or arbitrator between us, that within forty-eight hours D 34 Gleanings and Reminiscences. there shall be a word in the mouths of the Dublin public, of all classes and sexes, young and old ; and also that within a week, the same public shall attach a definite and generally adopted meaning to that word, without any sug- gestion or explanation from me. I also undertake, as essential to the wager, that my word shall be altogether new and unconnected with any derivation from another language, ancient or modern. Now, Alderman, what say you to taking my word or winning my money ?" " I shall not take your word, Dick, but I propose win- ning some of your money. I shall put five guineas in the wager, provided the present company take up the balance, and let the winnings be spent on the evening of the first parade day after our return from the christening of the young Marquis of Kildare." The company were joyous, and the proposal of the appropriation of the proceeds to festivity induced a speedy acceptance of the remaining liability. The terms were re- duced to writing, and deposited with Carleton. Daly looked at his watch and took his departure. It happened to be a Saturday evening, and he reached the theatre a short time before the termination of the performance. He immediately procured some lumps of chalk, and a dozen or two of cards. Upon each of the cards he wrote a word. It was short and distinct, and at the fall of the curtain he required the attendance of the call-boys, scene-shifters, and other inferior employees of the concern. To each of them he gave a card and a piece of chalk, and directed them to perambulate the city until daybreak, chalking the word upon the doors and shutters of the houses. His directions were diligently obeyed, and on the Sunday morning the doors of shops, warehouses, and even private dwellings appeared to have one word conspicuously chalked The Birth of a Word. 35 cm them. The timid were alarmed, lest it indicated some unlawful or hostile intention, but these apprehensions were dissipated by the fact of its universal appearance. One, as he issued from his dwelling, conceived that it was meant for a nick -name for him; but he immediately changed his opinion on seeing it on his neighbour's premises also. It could not be political, for all parties were treated the same way. It was manifestly not a mark on any religious persuasion, for all denominations were chalked alike. It was not belonging to any known lan- guage, nor could a word of any meaning be formed by the transposition of its letters. Still the universality of its appearance excited the curiosity of all, and formed a sub- ject for public conjecture and general conversation. After a few days the general conclusion was, that the word was a hoax, a trick, a humbug, a joke. However, it was not for- gotten. The parties to the wager, which Dick Daly was ad- judged to have won, have all disappeared, but I have heard several of them narrate the particulars as I have stated them. The hands by which the word was chalked have all mouldered into clay, but the term that owed its birth to the Eustace Street wager has become almost ubiquitous. It is heard in India, Australia, the United States, Canada, or the Cape; in fact, wherever the English lan- guage is Spoken. The word is Quiz. It may not be inopportune to mention here that I re- lated the foregoing account of the origin of the word "quiz" one day in, I think, the year 1832, at the table of Cornelius Lyne, the facetious and convivial barrister of the Munster Circuit, where he was designated, in contra- distinction to the old Irish chieftain, " Con of the hundred battles" " Con of the hundred bottles" Amongst the guests was a gentleman named Montgomery, who resided 36 Gleanings and Reminiscences. in Belfast On hearing my story, he remarked that a quiz has occasionally produced a reality. He proceeded to tell us that when James Madison was President of the United States, a young man connected with one of the most eminent houses in Belfast, thought fit to make an American tour. Having crossed the Atlantic, he passed upwards of eighteen months to his perfect satisfaction. On his return he was greatly pestered by one of his fellow- townsmen, a pushing, plausible, self-sufficient kind of fellow, for letters of introduction to some American friends, the applicant declaring his intention of visiting all the principal cities of the Union. At length the solicited party replied to an urgent entreaty, by declaring that there was no one with whom he felt himself warranted to take such a liberty except his friend Madison. "The Presi- dent!" exclaimed the importunate teaser ; "why it would be invaluable." Acceding to his request, a letter was written commencing with " My dear Mr. Madison," and conveying the assurance, that the attentions which the writer had received would never be forgotten, and that the recollection of such kindness emboldened him to introduce a friend, in the hope that he would be received with even a portion of that urbanity which had been experienced so agreeably, and remembered so gratefully, by his ever faithful and obliged, &c, ice. The traveller departed, and a considerable time elapsed before he reappeared in Belfast. When he returned, his first visit was to the author of the valuable introduction. " My dear friend," said he, <f I presented your letter at a public reception. The President waa more than polite, he was extremely cordial. I was invited to several delightful parties, and received the utmosi attention. It was, however, very extraordinary, that wher I called to pay my farewell visit, he asked me several ques The Honor of Knighthood. -yj tions in reference to your personal appearance, remarking that you had lapsed from his recollection." This was not so very surprising, for the President had never seen the man whose letter of introduction for the other had been a thorough quiz. At the conclusion of the anecdote which my narrative had elicited from Mr. Montgomery, Tom Moylan, Mr. Lyne's nephew, contributed another. He remarked that the Belfast man had only quizzed a Presi- dent, but a Dublin man had completely humbugged a king. When George the Fourth was reigning, a Dublin medical doctor wrote a book. He had a copy splendidly bound for presentation, and then went to London, to the royal levee, where he handed a card to the lord-in-waiting, on which his name appeared as attending to present his work on a certain professional subject, and to receive the honor of knighthood. The lord-in-waiting thought that all was right ; the king thought so, too. The Dublin doctor knelt down, the king took a sword, gave him the slap of dignity, and bade him arise Sir Thomas . After the levee, and when the newspapers had published the knight- hood as one of the incidents of the day, there were some enquiries about the recipient of the distinction. Who had recommended him ? Of what minister was he the pro- tege ? But they were all too late, the knighthood had been conferred. People could only laugh. Canning was reported to have said, that he supposed the doctor claimed the honor by prescription. Although I was not personally acquainted with the medical knight who was the subject of Tom Moylan' s anecdote, I have a perfect recollection of him for several years before he was dubbed a " Sir." He resided in St. Peter's parish, Dublin, and was very prominent in the old agitation times antecedent to Catholic Emancipation. At the vestries there could not be a rate 38 Gleanings and Reminiscences. _^ — — — — — — — ,— _ ^^^^__^^__^___^_ or cess proposed to which he had not an amendment or direct negative to offer. On one occasion, at a very crowded parochial meeting, he complained to Archdeacon Torrens, who was presiding, that the vestry-room was too limited a place for such an important discussion as that in which they were engaged. " I move, reverend sir," said he, "that we adjourn to the churchyard" "My dear doctor, replied the archdeacon, very quaintly, "you will have us there time enough/' CHAPTER V. A MILLIONAIRE. I shall revert to old Skinner Row in reference to the career of an individual which may be said to have com- menced there about the year 178a. The incidents which I shall detail are not of an amatory or very sentimental nature, but nevertheless, truly extraordinary. To a Dublin, or even an Irish reader, it is unnecessary to offer an assu- rance of their truth, or to mention the individual's name. Only one error in reference to him has had currency, and that to a very limited extent. It arose, in all probability, from envy or malice, and consisted in describing him as a person of very imperfect education, of plebeian manners and disposition, and of almost menial avocations. He might have been truly described as well-informed, unaf- fectedly courteous, unobtrusive of his own opinions, and tolerant of the opinions of others, whilst his business transactions were marked by diligence, integrity, and in- telligence. The proprietor of a very extensive establish- ment in a central situation in Dublin, where bookselling and auctions of libraries were carried on, had advertised for an assistant; and the situation attracted the attention of many competitors, of whom the individual alluded to was one. He was young and active, and sought a per- sonal interview with Mr. V. the advertiser. He was 40 Gleanings and Reminiscences. informed that the latter had gone up to Skinner Row, to my father's house, where he would be engaged for upwards of an hour. The applicant hurried off to the narrow, crowded, and inconvenient locality. The footway was dispropor- tionally raised above the carriage road, and at the very door of the house to which he was going, he accidentally slipped and fell. In a disabled condition, he was raised and car- ried in, and it was ascertained that his ankle was dislocated. His sufferings excited great sympathy. He was conveyed to a bedroom, and surgical aid was procured. Mr. V. manifested great interest in the young man, and came frequently to see him. After several weeks elapsed his cure was effected, and the situation which he sought was given to him. He expressed the deepest gratitude to my father for the kindness he had experienced, and the ac- quaintance which commented in the painful accident re- ferred to, ripened ultimately into a very close intimacy. He gained the confidence of Mr. V., who conferred many marks of his esteem, and on the retirement of that gentle- man from business, he became, to a great extent, his successor. All his undertakings prospered, and he acquired the reputation of being extremely wealthy. A rumor was circulated that, between the leaves of some books which he had purchased, he had found several bank notes of considerable value, but that report was groundless. In addition to extensive bookselling, he had formed a connec- tion with the house of Bish and Co., of Cornhill, by which he was enabled to do a profitable business in bills on London amongst the Dublin traders, for at that time the facilities of letters of credit were very little known. He also dealt largely in the tickets and shares of the State Lotteries which, three or four times in the year, stimulated the community into legalized gambling. One evening in A Millionaire. 41 the year 1794, my father had occasion to call upon him, and found him unusually dissatisfied. He said that Bish's people had made a great mistake in sending him several whole tickets instead of quarters, eighths, or sixteenths, and that three tickets had been left on his hands, involving a loss of sixty pounds. There was not sufficient time to communicate with London before the drawing day, and he could only warn them against committing a similar error on the next occasion. However, in about a week after, my father ascertained that the mistake had eventuated in one of the tickets turning out a prize for twenty thou- sand pounds. Bish was no longer censured by the man whose wealth, previously considerable, had received a great and unexpected augmentation. The writer of fiction would hesitate before he would adopt a young man lying on the flagway of a city in which he was a complete stranger, with a dislocated ankle, as the material for a future million- aire. The person to whom this narrative refers was not English, Irish, or Scotch. He was a Manxman, who left his native island to seek in Dublin, what he most com- pletely found, a fortune. He died a member of Parliament for an Irish county. Three of his sons attained to similar positions, and one of them was elevated to the House of Peers. Their positions were honorably and worthily acquired. CHAPTER VI. THE SHIP STREET DIAMOND — SECOND-HAND PLATE — THE SILVER SLAB — LAWfS WINDOW — OLD NEWGATE, I have already mentioned that old Skinner Row con- tained a considerable number of establishments belonging to goldsmiths and jewellers. Pre-eminent amongst them was one kept, in the earty part of the present century, by Matthew West, who realised an ample fortune there, and attained to high civic distinctions in Dublin. His concern was celebrated for an extensive assortment of jewelry, and for the tasteful and correct execution of orders specially relative to the setting of precious stones. When such were brought to be cleaned, arranged, or set, the owner was required to state the value which he attached to the property, and to sign such statement on the back of the receipt given for the articles. Mr. West gave considerable employment, especially in gem-setting, to a man named Delandre, who occupied the upper part of a house in Great Ship Street, in front of the ground on which the church of St. Michael le Pole formerly stood, and over the yard of which the windows of his working-room opened. A narrow passage led from the street under the house to a building in the rere, and a high wall separated this passage from the old cemetery. The top of the wall The Ship Street Diamond. 43 was thickly studded with broken glass, to prevent tres- passes. In the year 1 811, a gentleman called on Mr. West, and produced a diamond to which he attached con- siderable value, and which he wished to have set in a peculiar style. His order was taken, and a receipt was given for the stone, with an endorsement of its value at £%o. Delandre was sent for, and received the diamond, with directions for the setting, and with an injunction to be expeditious. He took it to his work-room, and, the weather being very warm, the window close to his bench had been opened. He was using heavy pressure of the diamond against the material in which it was to be set, when either the tool or the gem slipped, and the latter flew out of the opened window. Instantly alarming his family, he watched the passage and the yard until means were* adopted to prevent the entrance of any strangers. Then the passage was swept, and the sweepings were sifted. The surface of the old cemetery, for a considerable space, was similarly treated, the top of the wall was brushed carefully, and a tombstone in which a fissure was observed was raised and examined ; but all the searching was fruitless. Finally, Delandre had to betake himself to Mr. West, and communicate the disastrous loss of the valuable jewel. Extraordinary as was the statement, Mr. West did not discredit the workman, in whose probity he placed great confidence. He undertook to afford constant employment to Delandre and to his son, but stipulated that an insurance should be effected on the life of the former, aud that weekly deductions should be made from their earnings, so as to provide for the premium on the insu- rance policy and form a reserve for the value of the diamond. Delandre scrupulously observed his engage- ments. He had full employment from West, and although 44 Gleanings and Reminiscences. he was working, as he termed it, "for a dead horse/' he kept his hands busy and his heart light. Each year les- sened his liabilities, and at length, having paid for the diamond, he received an assignment of the policy of insu- rance, for the ultimate benefit of his family. He had grown old and rather feeble, but still, in conjunction with his son, attended industriously to his trade. Mr. West had died, and I, who had been a schoolboy when the diamond was lost, had become a magistrate of the Head Police Court of Dublin. In my younger days I had often heard of the Ship Street diamond, and the various accounts of its loss were occasionally exaggerated im- mensely in reference to its size and value. In 184a some much needed repairs were in progress at the rere of Delandre's dwelling. Whitewashing and plastering were intended, and the top of the wall between the yard and passage was to be re-glassed. Old Delandre had gone out to buy some provisions, and on his return he was accosted by one of the workmen who had been removing the glass from the wall, and who showed him a curosity which he had found. Delandre did not require a second look to satisfy himself that it was the long-lost gem. Amongst the glass which had been on the wall there was the neck of a pint bottle, which had been placed in the plaster with the mouth downwards, and it had formed the trap in which the diamond had been caught on falling from the window. Delandre gave the finder a liberal reward ; but with a laudable anxiety to remove all suspi- cion of a sinister nature from himself, he had the dis- covery of the diamond made the subject of a solemn, declaration, which the finder subscribed before me in tlxe Head Police Court. The loss of the gem had been even- tually highly advantageous to the man, by whom it Second-hand Plate. 45 at first very naturally considered a great calamity. It bad induced him to adopt a life of strict economy and industry, which easier circumstances would not have suggested or enforced. SECOND-HAND PLATE. The same Mr. West to whom the last incident referred had a handsome private residence in Harcourt Street, and he was known habitually to place an unlimited confidence in the care and discretion of his wife, to leave large sums in her custody, and to approve of or acquiesce in the investments to which she might apply such moneys. Her management fully justified his confidence, and he made no secret of the course he had adopted or of the satisfactory results it produced. In 181 7 he had arrived one morning in Skinner Row, when a livery ser- vant, of very stylish appearance, entered and inquired, "Had Captain Wilson been there?" Mr. West replied that " he had not the pleasure of knowing Captain Wilson ;" and then the servant stated, that " his master, Captain Marmaduke Wilson, intended to purchase some plate, and had ordered him to go to Mr. West's, and await his arrival there." He added, " He is a fine-looking man, but he has lost his right arm at Waterloo. I have to deliver a message in Dame Street. You will easily know him when he comes ; and please to tell him that I shall be back in about ten minutes." The servant de- parted, and very soon after his master made his appear- ance. A complete militaire, he displayed moustaches, a Waterloo ribbon, and a frogged frock-coat; but the right sleeve was empty from the elbow, and the cuff was looped up to the breast He inquired for the servant, and seemed a little dissatisfied at the fellow's absence. He then 46 Gleanings and Reminiscences. - proceeded to inform Mr. West that he was about to fix his residence on a property which he held in the county of Monaghan, and that he wished to unite economy with respectability in his domestic arrangements. He had heard that Mr. West's stock of second-hand plate was very ample, and wished to purchase some on which the crestings could be obliterated and the Wilson crest sub- stituted, producing at the same time a silver snuff-box, on which a crest was engraved, with the initials of Marmaduke Wilson beneath it. The servant had returned, and accom- panied his master through the warerooms, conducted by the proprietor, who succeeded in displaying tea services, salvers, 8cc, which met with Captain Wilson's approval, provided the prices were lower. The demands were re- duced considerably, as the customer urged that it was a dealing for " cash down." The charges amounted to one hundred and forty pounds, when the Captain said " he would not go any further for the present," and requested Mr. West to have the plate packed in a basket which the servant had brought, in order that Mrs. Wilson might see the articles before the crests were altered. The silver was directed to be treated as he desired, and he then turned to Mr. West and said, " You must be my amanuensis, and write the order to Mrs. Wilson for the cash. I shall send my man for the money, and when he brings it, you will let him have the basket/' Mr. West took the pea, and wrote, at the Captain's dictation — "Dear Maria, " I have bought some second-hand plate, of which, I think, yon. will approve. Send me, by bearer, £140" He added — "Just put my initials, M. W. Is it not very curious, Mr. West, that our initials are the same ? ' J Second-hand Plate. 47 He then took the pen in his left hand, and made a rough kind of small semicircle in the left-hand corner, which he designated his private mark. " Now/' said he to the ser- vant, "make all haste to your mistress, get the money, and fetch it here. I shall wait until you return, for you have not far to go/' The servant departed, and the Cap- tain remained for about twenty minutes, and seemed very impatient at the fellow's delay. He expressed an opinion that perhaps his wife had gone out, and said that he would take a car and see what caused the delay, adding, " When he brings you the cash you can let him have the hamper/9 The Captain then departed. The servant did not come for the plate, and it remained packed and ready for de- livery on the arrival of the purchase money. Late in the afternoon Mr. West went home, and having dined, was asked by his wife " What second-hand plate was it that you bought to-day?" " I bought none/' he replied, " but I sold some, and it was to have been taken away at once, but I suppose it will be sent for to-morrow." " And why/' enquired Mrs. West, " did you send to me for one hundred and forty pounds ? Here is your note, which a servant in livery brought, and I gave him the money." The swindle was complete. The basket was never called for, nor could the defrauded party ever obtain any trace of the Waterloo Captain or of his livery servant. The reader need not suppose that the veteran delinquent was minus an arm. He was " made up " for the part which he was to play in the deliberate and deeply-planned villainy, and in all probability he had both his hands in full use, to take off his moustache and frogged coat in a few minutes after leaving Mr. West's premises. The transaction ex- cited much interest and some merriment. It afforded a subject for one of Burke Bethel's jokes. He said that 48 Gleanings and Reminiscences. whether the captain reappeared or not, he could never be designated otherwise than as off-handed in his dealings with Mr. West. THE SILVER SLAB. There was another Dublin establishment in the gold, silver, and jewelry trade, and also belonging to a Mr. West. It was in Capel Street. I may mention an inci- dent connected with it of a very extraordinary nature. There were mills at Chapelizod, near Dublin, kept by a Mr. M'Garry, in which he had very powerful machinery for rolling metals. He was frequently employed to roll silver for Mr. West In the year 1829, a silver slab, valued at ^27, was delivered to his carrier at Capel Street, and the usual receipt was given for it. The slab was to be rolled into a silver sheet; but when the vehicle in which it had been placed arrived at Chapelizod, the article was not to be found. In appearance it was not bright, having lain in store for some time after being cast. Advertisements and enquiries failed to discover it, and Mr. M' Garry paid its value to the owner. In 1845, it was brought to a silver- smith named Chapman, on .Essex Quay, and offered for sale. Chapman stopped the article, and gave the bearer of it into custody. On an investigation before me, it ap- peared that a shoemaker who lived in Leixlip had found it on the road and taken it home with him* He never suspected that it was silver. He considered it to be pewter or zinc, and it was used for the purposes of a lapstone for sixteen years. How the person in whose possession it. was found had ascertained its real quality did not appear, but he had purchased it from the shoemaker for half-a- crown. West's and M'Garry's books coincided as to the nature of the article, its value, and the time of its loss. Law's Window. 49 The old slab was adjudged to M'Garry, who at once sold it to Chapman for the price he offered, £%%* The shoe- maker expressed deep, and certainly sincere, regret that he had never suspected the real value of his lapstone. His only consolation was, that the roguish fellow who induced him to sell it for half-a-crown, lost two shillings and sixpence by the bargain. law's window. Whilst shops profusely stocked with articles of the pre- cious metals and with costly jewels attract affluent and even extravagant customers, they also afford immense temptations to thieves and swindlers. No establishment in Dublin was superior in any respect to that in Sackville Street belonging to Mr. Law. On each side of the en- trance there was a window, consisting of a single sheet of glass, inside of which a most magnificent display of costly plate, gems, and watches tacitly demanded and obtained the admiration of all spectators. In the year 1847, anc* *n *he afternoon of a pleasant May day, an elderly gentleman stood at the window next the corner of Eden Quay, and gazed with delight on the various splendid and tasteful productions inside. He had an umbrella, which he carried beneath his arm in a horizontal position, and with the ferule end unluckily too near the costly sheet of glass. A young fellow came rapidly running along the footway, and violently jostled the respectable admirer of the splendid contents of the window. The glass was smashed by the point of the umbrella, and the mischief resulting from the collision only imparted greater celerity to the jostler's movements. He fled down Eden Quay, and was almost instantly out of sight. Mr. Law was in his shop, and along with some of his assistants seized on £ 50 Gleanings and Reminiscences. the proprietor of the intruding umbrella. The old gentle- man demurred to the imputed liability, and ascribed all the mischief to the ruffian who had rushed against him. Law was persistent, and demanded nine pounds for his frac*. tured glass. He threatened to give the old gentleman in charge to the police. The latter became very indignant and excited, used extremely strong language, and even applied opprobrious epithets to those by whom he was detained. He said that he was a stranger, just arrived from England, to transact some affairs of importance connected with the purchase of extensive properties in the west of Ireland. He warned Law that he would bring an action, and look for ample damages, if he were not permitted to depart. He stated his name to be James Ridley, and that his resi- dence was in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. Finding that Law was about ,to send for a constable, he produced a Bank of England note for ^100, and told the " obdurate scoundrel " to take the cost of his window out of that, but at his peril. Law disregarded the threat, deducted nine pounds, and gave ^91 to Mr. Ridley, who departed, vow- ing vengeance. However, no proceedings were instituted, and subsequent enquiries after James Ridley in Lincoln's Inn Fields resulted in no such person being known there. The i^ioo note was a forgery. * OLD NEWGATE. Towards the close of the last century, a gaol for the city of Dublin was built, and its appearance had a great ten- dency to deter any person from incurring the liability of becoming an inmate. Its soot begrimed-walls and rusty portal completely falsified its designation of Newgate, and its front constituted a considerable portion of a locality, the aspect of which suggested no idea of verdure, although Old Newgate. 5 1 it was called Green Street. It was a place replete with fatal memories, very few of which are worthy of being evoked, and it has been completely taken down. The sons of the gentleman who was governor more than fifty years ago were my schoolmates, and my associations with them made me acquainted with some incidents which may be worthy of narration. When Oliver Bond was under sen- tence of death for treason; and whilst there was the strongest probability that the law would take its course, he was permitted, during the day-time, to occupy an upper apartment, the door of which was partly of glass. Mrs. Bond was as much with him as the rules of the prison allowed, and was sitting in the room on the day when Mr. Michael William Byrne was executed as a united Irishman. The fatal procession had to pass close by the door of Bond's apartment; and as it approached, Mr. Byrne re- marked to the sheriff, that Mrs. Bond would be greatly shocked by seeing a person pass to that scaffold on which her husband expected to suffer. Mr. Byrne then suggested that they should stoop and creep noiselessly by the door, so as to escape her observation.. His wish was complied with, and on reaching the drop, he turned to the sheriff, and remarked, with an air of great satisfaction, "we managed that extremely well." This spontaneous solici- tude to spare the feelings of an afflicted female, will aptly class with that of the gallant Count Dillon, who was one of the earliest victims of the Reign of Terror in France, and who, when he arrived at the guillotine, was requested by a female fellow-sufferer, to precede her, upon which the preux chevalier saluted her with courtly grace, and stepped forward, saying, "anything to obhge a lady." In one of the back yards of Newgate, to the right of the entrance, was the place of confinement for the condemned, 52 Gleanings and Reminiscences. the walls of which exhibited initials, sometimes entire names of unhappy occupants. One, who suffered the extreme penalty of the law nearly sixty years ago, for forg- ing notes of the Bank of Ireland, pencilled the following lines on the door of his cell : — " Unhappy wretch, whom Justice calls To bide your doom within these walls, Know that to thee this gloomy cell May prove, perhaps, the porch of Hell. Thy crimes confest, thy sins forgiven, Mysterious change ! it leads to Heaven.'1 It is to be hoped that the soul of the poor prisoner ex- perienced the "mysterious change " which his untimely fate led him so fully to appreciate. CHAPTER VII. gonne's watch. In the year 1810 a manufacturing goldsmith of high re- spectability, named Gonne, lived in Crow Street, Dublin. His establishment was noted for the superior execution of chased work, especially in watch cases, and he had occa- sionally extensive orders from the house of Roskill, of Liverpool, the reputation of which for watches and chro- nometers, was then, as it is still, extremely high. Mr. Gonne indulged himself in the purchase of a splendid gold watch of Roskill's best make, and prided himself greatly on the possession of an article not to be surpassed either in exquisite ornamentation or accuracy of movement. He was fond of pedestrian excursions, and his hours of relaxa- tion were frequently devoted to a ramble along the low road to Lucan, which is certainly not inferior in picturesque scenery, to any other of the many beautiful localities in the vicinity of Dublin ; but on one night Mr. Gonne came home greatly disgusted with his promenade, and avowing a determination never again to set foot on that nasty road. He did not bring home his beautiful watch, and it transpired that a man, of small stature, had dis- turbed an agreeable revery by requesting to be accommo- dated with whatsoever money Mr. Gonne had in his pos- session, and that he also expressed great admiration of his 54 Gleanings and Reminiscences. watch and insisted on the immediate delivery of that article. The propinquity of a pistol to Mr. Gonne's breast, induced a speedy compliance with the disagreeable demand. On his arrival in Dublin, Gonne declared that he had been robbed by a little tailor. He stated that the fellow's fea- tures were concealed by a veil, and that as soon as he got the watch and a small sum of money into his possession, he managed to ascend the wall of Woodlands demesne with surprising agility, and on it he seated himself cross- legged. He then addressed the victim of his depredation by name, and assured him that his watch should be safely kept, and that an opportunity should be afforded for re- deeming it for ten pounds. Gonne apprised the authorities of the outrage which he had suffered. He declared that he never, to his knowledge, beheld the robber before ; that he did not recognise his voice, but felt satisfied that he was a tailor, from the manner in which he sat on the wall. An experienced peace-officer who heard the description, agreed with Gonne that the delinquent was a tailor, and added that he knew the man. It appeared that there was a little knight of the thimble, of most remarkable activity, named Flood ; he was of dissipated habits, and was known at the racket-court in John's Lane, where his play was most astonishing. He rarely missed a ball, and none would en- counter him in a match of rackets, unless at very great odds. Flood was sought for, but was not forthcoming. Several of the provincial towns were searched in vain, and it was supposed that he had left the country, when he was apprehended, almost in the act of committing a highway robbery on the Rock-road, which at that time constituted a portion of the City of Dublin. His haunts were dis- covered and searched, and several articles of value, supposed to have been acquired by highway robbery, were found. Gonne1 s Watch. 55 There was a case quite sufficient for the conviction of Flood in the affair for which he was apprehended ; but it was deemed expedient to investigate several other charges, and amongst them the robbery of Mr, Gonne, who mi- nutely detailed all the circumstances of his disagreeable ad* venture on the Lucan Road, but he could not identify the prisoner. He was then directed by the divisional magis- trate of police, before whom the case was pending, to pass round to the rere of the bench and view a number of watches which were in a drawer, of which the magistrate had the key. His watch was not amongst them. Flood was committed for trial, and sent to Newgate on two other charges, but the robbery of Mr. Gonne was not considered one on which an indictment could be sustained. At the period to which this narrative refers, there was in Ireland a Lord Lieutenant belonging to the highest rank of nobility. His tastes and amusements were rather un- like those of his successors. His personal undertaking was quite sufficient for the disposal of three or four bottles of claret after dinner. He was so good a judge of whisky- punch as to impart to Kinahan's LL its peculiar designa- tion and much of its popularity amongst " choice spirits." He dined at Donnybrook fair, upstairs in a tent,* visited John's Well in its pattern days, took oyster suppers at "Queen Casey's " cellar in Britain Street, patronized an occasional cockle party at Dollymount, superintended • The proprietor of this tent was a person named Cheevers. Having received an intimation, a few days before the fair, that the Lord Lieutenant would, with a select party, dine in his tent, he had it constructed with a lofting or first-floor, and a flight of steps, by which the Viceregal party ascended to their repast. On the succeeding days, whilst the fair lasted, the elevated apartment which had been honored by his Excellency was crowded to excess, and Cheevers received an ample remuneration for his very original project. 56 Gleanings and Reminiscences. matches of single-stick in the riding school, witnessed what was then termed the "Royal Sport of Cock-fighting " in Clarendon Street ; and his fingers were no strangers to u the gloves." But his favorite amusement was harmless and graceful. He played rackets frequently in John's Lane, and took great pleasure in witnessing a match well contested by first-rate players. At the time of Flood's detection, his Excellency was making a tour through the south of Ireland, and after an interval of a few weeks, he returned to Dublin, to receive some English visitors of distinguished position and convivial tendencies. Amongst them was Lord Sydney Osborne, who prided himself upon his skill at rackets, and who on the day of his arrival stated at the viceregal table, that he was open to play " any man in the world " for a thousand guineas. His Excellency immediately took up the wager, and engaged to find a successful competitor for his noble guest. It was stipulated that the match should be played within three weeks, at the racket-court of the Kildare Street Club. On the following morning the Lord Lieutenant proceeded to John's Lane, and apprised the marker of the racket- court that he wished to find a little fellow whom he had frequently seen there, and whom he described as the most expert player that had ever come under his observation, as one who had distanced all his antagonists, but he had forgotten his name. " My Lord," replied the marker, " I think your Excel- lency means Flood." " Yes, yes, I now recollect the name ; I want him par- ticularly, for I have wagered a large sum on a match be- tween him and an English gentleman, and if he wins, I shall reward him amply." " Murder! murder !" exclaimed the marker, " your Grace Gonne's Watch. 57 must lose. Flood can't play your match, he is to be hung on Saturday. He played rackets well, but he played some queer tricks, too. He used to go looking for watches and purses on the roads outside Dublin, and he was caught at last, just near Merrion churchyard. Baron George tried him, and he was found guilty. The judge told him to ex- pect no mercy, so he is to die at Newgate on Saturday." " Tis a d d business/' said his Excellency. " Indeed it's likely to end that way," replied the marker, "for he was rather loosely conducted, and now he has but a very short time to make his soul." His Excellency departed greatly disconcerted ; he felt that he had been too hasty in his wager. His thousand guineas appeared to be hopelessly gone, and he could not bear to think how Lord Sydney Osborne would chuckle at a walk over. He dined that day in Stephen's Green with his very intimate friend, Sir Hercules Lang r is he, to whom he took an opportunity of communicating his unpleasant predicament. To his great surprise, Sir Hercules did not appear to think that there was much difficulty in the matter, and he even intimated his willingness to back Flood for a hundred or two. "There is no danger," ob- served the baronet, " of a change of ministry ; you will be Lord Lieutenant for some years ; so the sooner you give flood a pardon, and set him to practise for the match, the better chance for your wager/' "Could there be a memorial got up in his favor?" suggested his Excellency. " It would not be advisable," replied Sir Hercules ; " it would make the affair a public topic. No, that would not do ; just send over a pardon to-morrow ; let Flood come to me. I shall procure liberty for the fellow to practise at the Shelbourne Barracks, and he also can get into the 58 Gleanings and Reminiscences. court at the club at early hours, as it is there that the match is to be played." It was soon known that Flood was saved. The motive was left to public ingenuity to discover, and, consequently, every reason except the true one was assigned. It was supposed by many that he had given some valuable infor- mation about a recent mail-coach robbery; but in the meanwhile, he had been made aware of the high opinion entertained of his skill as a racket-player, and the expec- tations that he would win the match. Full of gratitude for having been rescued from the gallows, he promised to win, and redeemed his promise. His noble antagonist was an excellent player, but in hand, eye, and agility, the tailor was greatly superior. The nobleman be- came agitated and lost his temper, which was speedily followed by his money. His aristocratic feelings were not, however, outraged by even a suspicion of the fact, that he was defeated by a little tailor, who, if the law had been permitted to take its course, would have "shuffled off his mortal coil" in front of Newgate; and who had been liberated from the condemned cell only for the pur- pose of liberating a thousand guineas from the pocket of a duke's brother. His Excellency gave Flood fifty pounds and some good advice, suggesting a removal from Dublin and even from Ireland; but Flood was for some time unwilling to depart. - He remained in a city where he could only be known as " the unhanged one," and where his character could not be retrieved. His trade was useless. He could not obtain any employment. His money was soon exhausted, and he had an insuperable objection to recur to hU former habit of taking nocturnal strolls in quest of watches and purses. Unwilling to give the law another lien on his Gonne's Watch. 59 neck; he at length determined to leave Ireland as soon as he could obtain means of crossing the Channel. Mr. Gonne was rather surprised by receiving a visit from him, and still more by the request of a couple of pounds. The indignation of a man who had been robbed of his watch and money exploded at once. He assured Flood of his sincere regret and deep disappointment at the gallows having been shamefully defrauded of its due. He then informed him, in terms more plain than polite, that he could not expect any contribution on the voluntary prin- ciple, but that a reasonable expenditure would be willingly incurred to procure a halter, if its application to Flood's neck was guaranteed. The " unhanged one" bore all this very meekly, and said that he had a simple and intelligible proposal to make, namely, that Mr. Gonne should lodge two pounds in the hands of a certain person on condition that the money should be restored if the watch was not recovered by its owner : but if the article was obtained for Mr. Gonne, Flood was to receive the deposit, to enable him to leave Dublin for ever. This offer was acceded to, and the cash was lodged with Jack Stevenson of St. Andrew Street. Jack was a man of very extensive connections. He had nephews and nieces in abundance ; and whenever any of them wished to retire plate, jewels, or trinkets from the vulgar gaze, Jack, like an affectionate uncle, advanced, and took charge of the valuable articles. He adorned the space between his front windows with the ancient crest of Lombardy, three golden apples; and his transactions with his relatives were of such a particular nature, that they were recorded in duplicate. He had known Flood in his early days, before he had become an adept either in racket-playing or robbing. He consented to hold the money subject to the specified 60 Gleanings and Reminiscences. conditions; and then Flood and Gonne proceeded to the- last place to which it might be imagined that the steps of the former would be voluntarily directed, namely, to the Police Office, where he had been charged, and from whence he had been committed. There he told Gonne to remain at the exterior door; and, as the Office was about to be closed for the day, he desired him to ask the magistrate when he came out, what was the exact time. Gonne complied with this direction, and His Worship readily, but rather too hastily, produced a watch. No sooner was it displayed than its appearance elicited the most disagree- able oath ever sworn before the " worthy justice," for Gonne instantly exclaimed, "By G ! that's my watch." Gonne obtained his watch, and was with great difficulty persuaded to refrain from bringing the transaction under the notice of the Executive. The system by which the magistrate managed occasionally to possess himself of a valuable watch or some other costly article, consisted in having two or three drawers wherein to keep the property found with highwaymen or thieves. If the prosecutor identified the delinquent, he was then shown the right drawer ; but if he could not swear to the depredator, the wrong drawer was opened. The magistrate to whom this narrative refers, was dis- missed in a short time after, for attempting to embezzle fifty pounds. I wish, for the honor of the profession of which I am proud to be a member, to state that he was not a barrister. Flood was afterwards for many years the marker of a racket court at Tottenham Court Road, London. He judiciously and wittily changed his name to Waters. CHAPTER VIII. THE MAJOR. I shall now advert to another Police magistrate whose name I need not refrain from mentioning, inasmuch as although his unpopularity was unparalleled, his name has never been associated with any imputation of a dishononr- able or debasing tendency, such as was manifested in re- ference to Gonne's watch. Henry Charles Sirr was for many years Town-Major of Dublin; and through the in- surrection of 1798, and during the outbreak of 1803, he was peculiarly energetic and most unscrupulous in the exercise of his powers as a magistrate of Police, in which capacity he continued until his death in 1841. He was detested by all those to whose opinions he was opposed, and whose designs and acts he was engaged in repressing or punish- ing. He was not respected by those of a contrary ten- dency ; for he unnecessarily and continually engaged per- sonally in enquiries, searches, and arrests, which a proper appreciation of his magisterial position would have induced him to leave to his subordinates. He was accustomed, during the insurrectionary times, to traverse the streets of Dublin or the suburbs, with some special attendants fol- lowing at a short distance. He carried pistols, and was also provided with a short heavy bludgeon. If a suspicion crossed his mind in reference to any person whom he 62 Gleanings and Reminiscences. casually met, his usual practice was to knock the individual down, and then to ascertain if he had secured the right man. He was of considerable although indirect advantage to his colleagues and successor; for, during his official career, the acts of his colleagues, if of an unpopular ten- dency, were attributed to the example he afforded, or to his supposed suggestions. His successor was judged by the contrast, and his faults were considered as venial mistakes, whilst the Major's acts were only remembered to be stig- matized as wilful misdeeds. His courage has been doubted, but the imputation of cowardice is not fairly sustained. It arises from the prejudice which satisfied itself that he could not possess any good quality. His conduct at the apprehension of Lord Edward Fitzgerald did not evince either courage or cowardice. He entered the room after the conflict had commenced, and fired the fatal shot, in all probability, to save the life of his associate. He frequently, and without any necessity, risked his personal safety, and there is no sound reason for believing that he was of a pusillanimous nature. In 1798 Sirr received information that a young man of most respectable family, who had involved himself in the in- surrectionary movement of the period, had arrived in Dublin, and was concealed in the upper room of a house in Bull Alley. The Major proceeded, attended by several of his myrmidons, to the place, and entered a house on the right hand side from Bride Street, the lower part of the premises being a butcher's shop. He went up to the front two- pair room, and there surprised the accused party lying on a bed and partly undressed. He held a pistol to the young man's head, and commanded him to arise and surrender. The mandate was complied with, and the captive ap- parently submitted to his fate. He arose and asked The Major. 63 permission to wash his face and hands, which was accorded and he then put on his coat, which the Major had pre- viously ascertained to have no weapons in the pockets. Suddenly the prisoner made a spring, throwing himself bodily against the window, which yielded to his force, and out he went. Sirr shouted and dashed down stairs, gready impeded by his own assistants who were hurrying up on the alarm. The poor fellow who had adopted so desperate an expedient, met, in his fall, a clothes pole, and then came on some wooden shed work which projected over the front of the shop ; the latter was rather crazy and gave away. He sprang to his feet unhurt, darted down the alley, and escaped by one of the numerous passages with which it communicated. Sirr hastened down to the Coombe, turned out the Poddle guard, and searched the neighbourhood, but without success. When the British government, after the campaign of Waterloo, formed some regiments of- lancers, they procured two Austrian officers, of ascertained capability, to impart a knowledge of the lance exercise to those regiments. One of the officers was the Bull Alley jumper. He took an opportunity of renew- ing his acquaintance with Sirr, and jocosely apologised for having terminated their previous interview so suddenly and unceremoniously. Sirr was once tricked into making himself instrumental in carrying out the punishment desired by an outraged father against a profligate son, and it occurred also in the unhappy year of 1798. There was a wealthy bookseller residing on Lower Ormond Quay, who had a son, his only child, bearing the same Christian name. Mr. Patrick W , the father, was very indulgent. Mr. Patrick W , the son, was extremely vicious. His time was chiefly spent in society of the most objectionable 64 Gleanings and Reminiscences. description, and he was not particular as to the means whereby he made his father's money available for his licentious pleasures. He had been absent from the pater- nal roof for some weeks. His father had vainly sought to discover him, when he unexpectedly met him in the street, and directed a storm of well-merited reproaches on the young reprobate. Young Pat stood submissively attentive to his parent, and allowed him to vent the first burst of his wrath, and when old Pat closed his impassioned complaints by per- emptorily ordering him to go home, he mildly replied, " I was going there, sir, to try if you would admit me ; I own it is more than I deserve, but give me one trial more before you cast me off: give me one more trial and you shall not regret it." "You young villain! where have you spent the last month ? " " I spent it as badly as I could, except the last week, and during that time I have been with Mr. Luke White, at Woodlands." " At Woodlands ! " exclaimed the astonished old man, " Is it with Luke White, my oldest, my most valued friend* you have been ? " " Yes sir. This day week I was walking in Stephen's Green, and Mr. White met me. I sought to avoid him, I own that, but he called after me, took me aside and ex- postulated with me about my habits and associates. He told me that I was breaking your heart, and that I must reform my life. He said that he grieved, as did all your friends, over the coming ruin of your hopes, and that he was determined, if possible, to avert it ; that you were his esteemed, respected, and highly valued friend. He then proposed that I should go out to him that evening The Major. 65 to Woodlands for a week, and that in the peaceful retire- ment of that residence, he would try to bring me to a proper sense of duty to a worthy father. I yielded to his remonstrances, and accepted his invitation; and having spent the week with that excellent gentleman, I was going, by his direction, to throw myself upon my knees before you, and implore your forgiveness." "Oh!" exclaimed old Pat, "may heaven's choicest blessings be showered on him, my real, true friend, who felt for my misery, and has relieved it. Come, Pat, my darling boy, all is forgiven and forgotten. Happiness is in store for us both. You will be my pride and comfort. I can die contented if my eyes are closed by a son whom I leave respectable in conduct and character ." Father and son proceeded home; and old Pat imme- diately sought all means to convince young Pat of his faults having been condoned. He was informed of the business transactions then pending; and his father handed him a cheque for a considerable amount, and directed him to proceed to the bank, and pay some bills which were due that day. Young Pat departed. He did not return ; and the notary's messengers called in the evening with the unpaid bills. The miserable parent was only able to discover that his son had been seen, during the afternoon, in most disreputable society. Next morning old Pat waited on Mr. White, and thanked him most warmly for his exer- tions to reclaim the young reprobate by his advice and expostulations. " If anything could have produced a good effect on him," exclaimed the agonized father, " it would have been your advice, your example, and the contempla- tion of the sweet scene and happy family to which your invitation last week " 66 Gleanings and Retniniscenses. " My dear sir/' interrupted Mr. White, " there is a great delusion on your mind. I have not seen your son, nor have I had any communication whatever with him for more than twelve months." The old gentleman staggered to a seat. A terrible con- vulsion shook his frame. Then supervened that which is fearful to witness in woman, but doubly horrible in man, hysterical tears and sardonic laughter. At length the fit terminated. Old Pat arose and took his leave. He walked away with surprising energy, and his countenance assumed a calmness beneath which was concealed nothing less " Than the stern, single, deep, and wordless ire Of a strong human heart, and in a sire/1 - Old Pat sought a private interview with Major Sirr, and confided to him strong suspicions that young Pat was compromised with the United Irishmen, and that if closely and properly interrogated, he could disclose a great deal, especially as to some depots of pikes and other weapons intended for insurrectionary purposes. He affected to stipulate for the utmost secrecy as to the Major's infor- mant, protested that he regarded the rebels with the ut- most horror and detestation, and that he had no idea of favoring a change in public affairs detrimental to those who, by unremitting industry, had realized property. He suggested that his son, when arrested, should be brought to the Custom House, which, at that time, was in Essex Street, and directly opposite to his own residence on Ormond Quay. Sirr entered into his views, complimented him on his prudence and loyalty, and took immediate measures for the arrest of young Pat, who, when captured, was delivered to some of " Beresford's Troop," to exercise their inquisitorial talents in eliciting: all he knew about The Major. 67 men whom he had never seen, and as to designs of which, in all probability, he had never heard. The young man was perfectly free from all political or religious influences. Beau Brummell might as justly have been accused of complicity in the designs of revolutionary sans culottes, as young Pat of any sympathy with other pursuits than the midnight orgies and debasing revels of the worst of both sexes. Iq the Custom House yard he was interrogated, and his denials only produced louder and sterner demands. Truth, strict truth, issued from lips to which it had been hitherto a stranger. The triangles stood before him, and all his protestations of innocence were uttered to ears worse than deaf. He was stripped, tied up, and lashed until he swooned; then taken down, and recalled to a sense of existence by restoratives, only to be put up again, until, at last, he lay before his torturers, a lacerated and semi-animate frame, incapable of enduring further suffer- ing. They cursed him as an obdurate, callous villain, from whom nothing could be extorted ; and whilst his terrific punishment was in process of infliction, his father was looking on, from the window of his residence. The wretched youth was conveyed home, and a considerable time elapsed before he was sufficiently recovered to proceed to America, whence he never returned. His father made no secret of the means he adopted to punish young Pat and to trick the Major. Sin* was occasionally humorous. He announced to one of his acquaintances the fate which was expected to befal Theobald Wolfe Tone, in the laconic phrase — " Mr. Tone is to a-tone to-morrow in the front of Newgate.'1 Galvin, the hangman, having applied to Sirr for his interest and re- commendation to procure a small pension, laid before him 68 Gleanings and Reminiscences. a memorial, which he was desirous of having forwarded to Government under the Major's auspices. In it the veteran executioner submitted that for many years he had acted as finisher of the law in the County and City of Dublin, with frequent visits for professional purposes to towns on the Home and the Leinster circuits. That age and infirmities were rendering him incapable of continuing his public duties ; and that he humbly besought a small pension for the support of his declining years. " Tom," said the Major, " you should have stated in your memo- rial that during your official career you discharged your duties to the perfect satisfaction of all parties concerned" " I thank you, Major/' replied the stupid old wretch, " I'll get it altered, and put that in." One of Sirr's colleagues, a barrister, was remarkable for speaking in a low voice, and with a great lisp. He was indebted to the Major for the nickname of "Mississippi." At a funeral in St. Werburgh's churchyard, and close by the vaults in which the body of Lord Edward Fitz- gerald had been deposited, the Major was present. After the interment, a Mr. S. , whose person was invariably extremely slovenly, approached him and remarked, €€ I suppose, Major, that you cannot be here without thinking of Lord Edward." " My friend," was the reply, " I am at present thinking of you, and wondering from whence you derive such an ample supply of soiled shirts." In 1 831, during Earl Grey's administration, Sirr attended meetings convened in favor of Parliamentary Reform, and moved resolutions of the most liberal tendency. He voted at the city election for the Reform candidates, and was twitted by the late Thomas Ellis for having deserted his party and forgotten his principles. His answer was simple The Major. 6g and true — " I am totally unchanged ; I have always sup- ported the Government, and I shall continue to do so." When the piers which form Kingstown harbour were in course of construction, the supply of stone was derived from immense quarries at Killiney, and conveyed along a tramway, on which, near the quarries, there were slopes down which the loaded waggons required no impelling power, but rather to be restrained, by breaks, from acquir- ing a dangerous velocity. Major Sirr was fond of collect- ing natural curiosities, especially of a geological nature ; and he frequently visited Killiney in quest of spar forma- tions, which were occasionally found there. He was by no means niggardly in his dealings with the spar finders ; but still he could not conciliate them into a feeling of kind- ness or respect. One day he was proceeding up the tram- way slope when the discharge of artillery at the Pigeon House fort attracted his attention. He turned and looked in the direction of the firing, just at the moment when a train of loaded wagons was about to descend. Being right before them, he would have been utterly destroyed in a moment, but the breaksman saw his perilous situation, and applied the requisite pressure, stopped the train, and saved the Major. Several persons witnessed his danger and the prompt means by which it was averted. On the transaction becoming known in the quarries, there was an immediate strike. All work was stopped, and a de- termination was unanimously avowed to insist on the dismissal of the breaksman. No specific complaint was preferred against the individual whose expulsion was re- quired. The Harbor Commissioners deputed Mr. Hickman Kearney to enquire into the grounds and reasons for such an extraordinary demand. He went to the quarries and called on the workmen to come forward and explain the jo Gleanings and Reminiscences. cause of their animosity to the breaksman. The only reply was that " he should go." It appeared, on reference . to the clerk of the works, and to the overseers, that the obnoxious man was honest, sober, diligent, and attentive to his duties ; and it was strongly urged that no accident had occurred at the slope since his appointment, and that he had, by his presence of mind and promptitude, saved Major Sirr's life. This produced a general exclamation of " That's the reason he sha'nt stay amongst us. What business had he to save the Major ?" The poor breaksman would have lost his employment, but for an old and in- fluential workman who interfered in his favor, and induced the others to forgive him, provided he faithfully promised never to do the like again. The Major was peculiarly unpopular amongst the hack- ney carriage drivers, and yet he was not a severe judge of their delinquencies, for he dismissed nearly half the com- plaints preferred before him, and the average of his fines was three shillings and sixpence; still, they hated him; and although he preached to them very many little ser- mons in the carriage court, and occasionally sought to impart Scriptural knowledge to their minds, the benighted "jarveys" detested the magisterial apostle. At last the " Major" died. His illness was very brief, and his in- disposition commenced in a covered car. He drove home to the Lower Castle-yard, and never rallied, but sank in a few hours. The story was circulated that he actually died in a covered car ; and for some time after his decease, I was occasionally treated to the hearing of complaints preferred by covered car-drivers against outside carmen, for usurping their turns, and defrauding them of their jobs. It was, and is, very unusual for carmen to sum- mon members of their own body; but in the cases to The Major: 71 which I refer there was a peculiar grossness assigned to the offence. " Yer worship/' the plaintiff would exclaim, " I would not mind him stumping me, but he roared out to the people that were going to hire me that my car was the very one the owld Major died in, and yer worship, I could %nt he expected to forgive that" CHAPTER IX. COMMITTALS A BARBER WANTED — DWYER THE REBEL AN EXTRAORDINARY INQUEST SER- GEANT greene's horse — christy hughes — THE POLICE CLERKS RECORDER WALKER THE POLICE STATUTES PREAMBLE A BENEFIT SO- CIETY CASE POLICE RECRUITS A BORN SOL- DIER. It is pleasing to observe decided improvements in insti- tutions of importance to the community. In the time of Major Sirr, the coarsest language was addressed from the bench of the police courts, not only to prisoners on serious charges, but to persons prosecuting or defending sum- monses. If a magistrate of police were now to apply terms of abuse, even to the most disreputable characters, he would most certainly be severely censured, or perhaps dismissed. The personal characters of the present magis- trates of Dublin ensure the observance of the strictest propriety in their courts. I may remark, also, that im- prisonment cannot now be inflicted in the reckless manner formerly adopted. On the day when my magisterial func- tions commenced, I called for a list of the existing com- mittals to the Dublin prisons from the Head Office. I was astonished to find that one man had been detained A Barber Wanted. 73 for the previous fifteen years, another for thirteen, and a third for ten, in default of sureties' to keep the peace, and be of good behaviour. I ordered the immediate discharge of those persons, and two of them expressed great dissatisfaction at being thrown upon the world from which they had been so long estranged. These committals were signed by Major Sirr. There is no danger of persons being now sent to prison, and forgotten there; for if such a committal were sent, through ignorance or inadvertence, the Board of Superintendence would soon draw attention to the fact of a prisoner's subsistence being charged on the public for an illegal or unreasonable period. At the time when the committals to which I have alluded came under my notice, I happened to meet with some reports from a Governor of the Richmond Bridewell ad- dressed to the magistrates of the Head Police Office dur- ing the time when that prison was under their exclusive control and supervision. In one of these documents, the writer states the building to be in good repair, and per- fectly adapted for the safe custody of its inmates, and that every ward was in a clean and wholesome condition. He proceeds to describe the good effects produced by the use he made of a barber, who, for riotous and disorderly con- duct, had been committed for two months with hard labour. He had not put the delinquent to stone-breaking or oakum picking, but employed him in shaving and hair- cutting of the other prisoners, the effect of which was to improve their appearance, and to impart cleanly tendencies. He then expresses his regret that the barbels term of im- prisonment had elapsed, and that the prisoners had become less cleanly-looking from remaining unshaven and uncropt. He terminates the report by earnestly and most respect- fully suggesting to " their worships " to avail themselves 74 Gleanings and Reminiscences. of the first opportunity that may offer for committing another barber fw the longest term in their power. For some time after my appointment to the magistracy, Alderman John Smith Fleming was my senior colleague at the Head Office. He had a verv vivid recollection of the rebellion of 1798, and was secretary to his uncle, Alderman Thomas Fleming, Lord Mayor of Dublin in that year. Amongst other anecdotes of that period, I have heard him relate that Dwyer, one of the insurgent chiefs, had prolonged his resistance for some months after the insurrection had been generally quelled. In the moun- tains of Wicklow, with a few but faithful followers, he evaded every exertion for his capture. Mr. Hume, of Hume- wood, near Baltin glass, was particularly anxious to secure Dwyer. He was the commander of a corps of yeomanry, and a magistrate of the County of Wicklow, which he also represented in Parliament. Of very extensive in- fluence, he easily procured the co-operation of the civil and military authorities of his own and of the adjoining dis- tricts. Still Dwyer was not to be had. At length an arrangement was made that the yeomanry corps of the western portion of Wicklow should assemble, at an early hour on an appointed day, at Humewood, and should set out to scour the country, exploring every recess, and leaving no place, on hill or plain, unransacked for Dwyer. Yeo- manry from Wexford, Carlow, and Kildare were to move on preconcerted points, so as to intercept the fugitive if he should attempt to shift his quarters. A day was wholly spent in a most fatiguing search. It seemed as if Dwyer had transformed himself into a bird, and flown beyond sight or reach. However, in a short time, Mr. Hume received an intimation, that if Dwyer's life would be spared, and that he would be permitted to leave the An Extraordinary Inquest. 75 country, he was willing to surrender. With the assent of the Government, Mr. Hume acceded to this offer. Dwyer was brought to Dublin, and the required undertaking and consequent immunity from punishment were acknow- ledged before the Lord Mayor. The outlaw was kindly and generously treated by Mr. Hume during the few days which preceded his departure for America; and at a final inverview Mr. Hume said — " Before we part, Dwyer, will you tell me how you avoided capture on the day that we scoured the whole country in search of you }" " Sir/' replied Dwyer, " I had information of your intentions, so I went to Humewood on the night before, and when the yeomen were paraded on your lawn, before they started in search of me, I was looking at them from your hay-loft" For some years previous to 1842, the number of persons "found drowned" in the County of Dublin was much greater than might be expected either from the extent of the population or the nature of the locality. It was in- deed true that one canal, the Grand, extended along the greater part of the southern boundary of the Irish metro- polis, and another, the Royal, was similarly situated in the northern direction ; but although these canals afforded great facilities for the termination of human existence, whether by suicide or accident, the cases of drowning were far more numerous than could be fairly attributed to violence, intoxication, lunacy, or carelessness. It would also seem that the southern canal was much more destruc- tive to human life than the other, and that the bank which was in the county possessed some attraction for the corpses, for they were almost always taken out at the county side. It happened on the 11th of March, 1842, a few minutes before 10 o'clock, a.m., that a young man named Kinsella, who was employed in a distillery at 76 Gleanings and Reminiscences. Marrowbone Lane, was proceeding, after his breakfast, from his residence at Dolphin's Barn to resume his work, when, on approaching the canal bridge, he was stopped by a constable, who informed him that the coroner required his attendance, as a juror, on an inquest that was about to be held on the body of an old man, just taken out of the canal. Kinsella vainly expostulated against the deten- tion. He was told that it would be a very short business, for there were no marks of violence on the corpse; it would merely be a case of " found drowned." The man was accordingly sworn on the inquest, and the coroner having informed the jury that they were required by law to view the body, they were conducted to the apartment where it lay. As soon as Kinsella beheld the corpse, he rushed forward, dropped on his knees beside it, seized the stiff and frigid hand, and exclaimed "My father! my poor, dear father ! We buried him on this day week, decently and well, in the Hospital Fields. He had no business in the canal ; and them old clothes never belonged to him ; he never wore a stitch of them." The coroner and the doc- tor vainly endeavoured to persuade Kinsella that he was mistaken ; and his recognition of his parent produced an enquiry, which resulted in bringing to light some very ex- traordinary practices on the part of the county functionary and his medical satellite. They were paid by public present- ment, according to the number of inquests held; and they had recourse to the expedient of having bodies disinterred, clothed in old habiliments, and thrown into the canal. Such bodies were almost always discovered very soon, and were taken out on the county side of the canal, to swell the coroner's next presentment for inquests on persons who were "found drowned." A crush from a passing barge afforded an additional profit, as the bruises constituted Sergeant Greene's Horse. yy a plausible reason for a post mortem examination, and there- by doubled the doctor's ordinary fee. The coroner and his associate were convicted of conspiring to defraud, and con- sequently were deprived of their functions. It must be ac- knowledged that, if their mode of procuring inquests was not honest, it was certainly novel and ingenious. If the practice had been known in the days of Hamlet, it would have furnished an additional reason for his exclamation : — «< To what base uses we may return, Horatio." In the year T842, and for several subsequent years, by an arrangement with my colleagues, I undertook the magisterial duties connected with the licensing and regu- lation of job and hackney vehicles, and the adjudication of complaints in the carriage court. At the time when I assuumed those duties, Richard Wilson Greene (whose high legal acquirements ultimately obtained for him the position of Baron in the Court of Exchequer) was in very extensive practice at the Bar. An issue from Chancery was sent to be tried at one of the principal towns on the Leinster Circuit, and he was specially retained for one of the parties. A very efficient reporter, named Christopher Hughes, in whose character there was great comical ec- centricity, was employed to take down, in short hand, the trial of the issue. Early in the succeeding term, it was arranged that a consultation should be held at the house of the senior counsel, in Leeson Street, and Mr. Hughes was requested to meet Mr. Greene at the Courts, with his notes, and to accompany him to the consultation. The appointed time had nearly arrived, when Greene and Hughes hurried off from the Four Courts. Having passed out to the quay, the former hailed an outside car, on which they sat beside each other, and the driver was ordered to 78 Gleanings and Reminiscences. make all possible haste to Leeson Street. The horse was a fine-looking animal, but he stepped high and was very slow. Mr. Greene urged the' driver to hasten on, and after two or three expostulations, he remarked to the Jehu that the horse was unfit for a jaunting car, although he was large and strong, but that he would suit well for a family carriage. The driver, a lad of eighteen or nineteen years of age, exclaimed, " Bedad your honor is a witch \" u What do you mean?" asked Mr. Greene. " Oh," replied the carman, " I mane no offince, but yer honor is right about the baste ; that's what he is. I'll tell yer honor a saycret. The baste is a carriage horse belonging to one Counsellor Greene, and the coachman has a hack-car and figure on Bride Street stand. He ginerally manages to have some- thing the matther with one of the horses, and that gives him an opportunity to get a good deal of work out of the other in the car." Although Mr. Greene was very angry at what the driver had communicated, he did not disclose that he was the owner of the horse. He whispered to Hughes, and requested him to give the driver his name and address, but to leave him unpaid. When they arrived at Leeson Street, Greene at once entered the house of the senior counsel, and warned the servant against telling his name to the carman. Hughes had a scene, and was treated to a copious supply of opprobrious epithets, but he did not pay, and merely gave his name and address. He was summoned, at the owner's suit, before me; and wherx the case was called the proprietor of the vehicle, in very energetic terms, demanded exemplary costs against the defaulting hirer of his car. His denunciations were sud- denly interrupted by the appearance of Mr. Greene ; and there was abundant merriment, of which I had a full share, when it transpired that the learned Queen's Counsel Christy Hughes. 79 had hired a hack-car drawn by his own horse. The coach- man ran out of court, and I afterwards heard that he never applied for wages or discharge. The incident attained great publicity, and afforded much amusement in "The Hall" amongst the long-robed fraternity. One day Greene said to some of his brethren that he believed the fellow had left Dublin, but that he was strongly tempted to send the police in quest of him. t€ Send your horse/' observed the facetious Robert Holmes, " for he is best acquainted with the carman9 s traces." Mr. Hughes, whose name appears in the preceding anecdote, deserves to be noticed upon his own merits. He was frequently engaged in reporting proceedings in the Police Courts, and we never had occasion to impute any in- accuracy to his statements. He was always ready to assist any of his brethren of the " press-gang," and to suggest a palliation or excuse for their casual errors. I frequently indulged him with permission to sit in the magistrate's room whilst he was transcribing his notes, and I have been often amused with his remarks and state- ments, which were strictly true, and in which he never concealed his own professional expedients or mistakes. He mentioned that he was directed to go to one of the dinners of the Malachean Orphan Society, where O'Connell pre- sided, but having indulged in his potations at a luncheon, he forgot the requirement for his services at Mrs. Mahony's great rooms in Patrick Street. " I slept," said he, " until about 11 o'clock, and then I recollected myself, so I went quiedy to the office and got the file of the previous year, and, with a little alteration, it did for the day's dinner as well." He often mentioned what he designated his greatest mistake. He described it thus : — " On the con- cluding day of George the Fourth's visit, in 1831, he went 8o Gleanings and Reminiscences. to Powerscourt, where he got a splendid reception from the noble proprietor. Lord Powerscourt had caused re- servoirs to be constructed above the waterfall, in order that when his Majesty went to see it, the sluices might be drawn, and a tremendous cataract produced. I went down in the morning and viewed the place, and minutely noted all the preparations. I then drew on my imagina- tion for a description of a second Niagara, and put into the mouth of the royal visitor various exclamations of de- light and surprise. I sent off my report, and it appeared in due time, but unfortunately the king was too much hurried by other arrrangements, and did not go to the Waterfall at all, but drove direct from Powerscourt House to Kingstown, where he embarked. I have been often quizzed for my imaginative report, but, nevertheless, I stated what the King ought to have done, and what he ought to have said, and if he did otherwise, it was not my fault." I was extremely fortunate, at my accession to magis- terial office, to find myself provided with clerks who could not be surpassed in diligence, integrity, or intelligence. I shall particularize Messrs. Pemberton and Cox. The former was the son of a previous chief magistrate, at whose instance he was appointed. The latter had been for several years in America, and had been engaged by Jacob Philip Astor in forming the settlement of Astoria, in Washington Irvine's description of which he is most favorably mentioned. He was a man of great literary- taste, and was an accomplished linguist. Their perform- ance of official duties never required from me, nor to my knowledge from any of my colleagues, the slightest correc- tion or reproof. Pemberton was a solicitor, and was pro- moted in 1846 to the Clerkship of the Crown for tlic Recorder Walker. 81 King's County. He had been many years before an assistant to Messrs. Allen and Greene, the Clerks of the Peace for the City of Dublin. I shall have to notice here- after some amusing incidents connected with Cox, but shall give precedence to a few anecdotes derived from Pemberton, and arising from his acquaintance with the old Session House in Green Street, and the records there, to which, I suppose, he had full access. Towards the close of the last century an aid-de-camp of the then viceroy was indicted, at the Quarter Sessions, for the larceny of a handsome walking-stick, and also for as- saulting the gentleman who owned it, and who was, more- over, a Frenchman. The transaction arose in a house of a description unnecessary to be particularized. An affray took place, the Frenchman was kicked down stairs, and lost his cane, which was alleged to have been wrested from him by the aid-de-camp. The charge of larceny was absurd, and the grand jury ignored the indictment. But the assault could neither be denied nor justified, and the traverser submitted, pleaded " guilty," and was fined five pounds. That punishment did not cure his propensity for beating Frenchmen and taking their sticks. On the 21st of June, 1 813, he beat Marshal Jourdaii at Vittoria, and captured his baton; and on the 18th of June, 1815, at Waterloo, he beat the greatest Frenchman that ever lived, Napoleon Bonaparte. I do not feel justified in naming the delinquent aid-de-camp, and perhaps the reader may think it quite unnecessary that I should. More than half a century has elapsed since the office of Recorder of Dublin was held by Mr. William Walker, whose town residence was in Lower Dominick Street. One day a groom, in the service of a Mr. Gresson, was tried before him, for stealing his master's oats. The G 82 Gleanings and Reminiscences. evidence was most conclusive, for the culprit had been detected in the act of taking a large bag of oats out of his masters stable, which was in the lane at the back of the east side of Dominick Street. When the prisoner was convicted, the Recorder addressed him to the following effect : — " The sentence of the Court is, that you are to be imprisoned for three calendar months ; and at the com- mencement of that term you are to be publicly whipped from one end of that lane to the other, and back again ; and in the last week of your imprisonment, you are to be again publicly whipped from one end of that lane to the other, and back again ; for I am determined, with the help of Providence, to put a stop to oat-stealing in that lane" His worship's emphatic denunciation of oat- stealing in thai lane, arose from the circumstance of his own stable being the next door to Mr. Gresson's. The" same civic functionary was a great amateur farmer. He had a villa and some acres of land at Mount Tallant, near Harold's Cross, and prided himself upon his abun- dant crops of early hay. On one occasion he entered the court to discharge his judicial duties at an adjourned ses- sions, and was horrified at hearing from the acting Clerk of the Peace (Mr. Pemberton) that there were upwards of twenty larceny cases to be tried. " Oh !" said he, " this is shocking. I have three acres of meadow cut, and I have no doubt that the haymaking will be neglected or mismanaged in my absence. In a few minutes, he in- quired in an undertone, " Is there any old offender on the calendar ?" " Yes," was the reply, " there is one named Branagan, who has been twice convicted for ripping lead from roofs, and he is here now for a similar offence, committed last week in Mary's Abbey." Recorder Walker. 83 " Send a turnkey to him," said the Recorder, "with a hint that, if he pleads guilty, he will be likely to receive a light sentence." These directions were complied with, and the lead-stealer was put to the bar and arraigned. " Are you guilty or not guilty ?" x "Guilty, my lord." " The sentence of the court is that you be imprisoned for three months. Remove him." Branagan retired, delighted to find a short imprisonment substituted for the transportation that he expected. As he passed through the dock, he was eagerly interrogated by the other prisoners — " What have you got ?" " Three months." "Three months — only three months !" they exclaimed ; " Oh ! but we 're in luck. His lordship is as mild as milk this morning. It's seldom that he's in so sweet a humor." " Put forward another/' said the Recorder. Are you guilty or not guilty ? " Guilty, my lord." Let the prisoner stand back, and arraign the next." Accordingly, the prisoners were rapidly arraigned, and the same plea of " Guilty " recorded in each case. Pre- sently it was signified to his lordship that the calendar was exhausted. All the thieves had pleaded guilty. " Put the prisoners to the front of the dock/' said he ; and they were mustered as he directed. He then briefly addressed them — " The sentence of the court is that you and each of you be transported for seven years. Crier, adjourn the court." Branagan had been thrown as a sprat, and had caught €< €< ft 84 Gleanings and Reminiscences. the other fish abundantly. This incident might afford a useful, or perhaps it should be termed, a convenient sug- gestion, to other judicial functionaries, especially on cir- cuit when there is a crowded dock. When Mr. Pemberton received the appointment of Clerk of the Crown for the King's County, Mr. Cox, who had been for several years the second clerk in the Head Police Office, succeeded to the chief clerkship. He pos- sessed very extensive knowledge of the world, and was highly educated. Many incidents connected with him are worthy of being recorded. I may mention here that the Police Laws of the Irish Metropolitan district are, to the highest degree, complex, voluminous, involved, and per- plexing. In the English Metropolitan district two statutes regulate, one the Police Force, and the other the Police Courts. In Dublin we have a statute passed in 1808, another in 1824, a third in 1836, a fourth in 1837, a fifth in 1838, a sixth in 1839, a seventh in 1842, and an Act in relation to public carriages, which may also be termed a police statute, in 1848. They contain three hundred and sixty-six sections, and may be designated as disgraceful to the several executive governments which have left them unconsolidated and uncodified. When the 5th Vic. sess. 2, Chap. 24, passed, it recited the other Acts to which I have alluded, and then its preamble proceeds to heap or bundle them all together in the following terms : — " Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the said recited Acts of the forty-eighth year of the reign of King George the Third, of the fifth year of the reign of King George the Fourth, of the session of Parliament holden in the sixth and seventh years of the reign of King William the Fourth, of the first year of Her present Majesty's reign, and of the sessions of Parliament holden respectively in the first and The Police Statutes — Preamble. 85 second, second and third, and third and fourth years of Her present Majesty's reign, and this Act, shall be construed together as one Act ; and that all and every the enactments and provisions therein contained shall apply and extend to this Act, and to all Convictions, Warrants, Distresses, Proceedings, and Things, made, taken, or done in execution of this Act, as fully to all intents and purposes as if the same were herein repeated and re-enacted, save in so far as such enactments and provisions are incon- sistent with or contrary to this Act, or as such enactments or provisions may be altered by this Act, or other enactments or provisions made in lieu thereo£" Mr. Cox commented on this farrago by observing that " its framer would have an easy death, for that if he was affected with ague, or even if he were hanged, he would be too lazy to shake in the former or to kick in the latter case/' In the blank leaf of a bound copy of the Police statutes, the following was written in reference to the pre- ceding quotation : — " The preamble saith the forty-eighth of George the Third is one, that must be tack'd to another Act, the fifth of George his son. Then whilst you're at it, just take a statute, the sixth and seventh session, of him who did own the British throne, the next in due progression. Then the first of the reign of our present Queen, and then the first and second ; the next that occurred was the second and third, then the third and fourth is reckoned. All these in fact, to the present Act, you must fasten tight as leather. There may be flaws in many a clause, but, take them all together, it must be your plan, as well as you can, to deal with your numerous doubts, or be the employer of some shrewd lawyer, to shew you their ins and outs. If your puzzled brain, you rack in vain, until you fume and curse ; if they bother you, why they 've bothered me too, so take them for better, for worse." There were, and I suppose still are, many complaints preferred before divisional magistrates, at the Police Courts, in reference to claims on Benefit or Friendly Societies, for allowances in cases of sickness, or for money payable to members or their representatives, under family visita- tions. Whenever any summonses on such subjects were 86 Gleanings and Reminiscences. disposed of by me, I called for the transaction and ac- count-books, and required them to be produced at the commencement of the proceedings. On one occasion a quire of copy paper, stitched in a cover of brown, in a condition absolutely dirty, and in which the entries were irregularly scrawled, was handed up to me. I strongly censured such a slovenly mode of recording their proceed- ings as very discreditable. On hearing the complainant, I considered that the case was very well suited for an arbitration, and the parties offered no objection to have it so disposed of; but they disagreed on each of the other societies which were suggested for the purpose of deciding it. However, one of the persons concerned said, that he would be satisfied to leave the matter entirely to Paddy Flannery, whom he saw present, and whom he considered "the most knowledgable man in all Dublin on such a business." The others concurred, and I directed Mr. Cox to indorse on the copy of the summons a reference by me, with the consent of the parties, of all matters in dis- pute between them to the aforesaid Flannery. I proceeded with some other business ; and the indorsement having been made, I signed it without any hesitation, and it was given to the late Mr. Charles Fitzgerald, who was con- cerned in the case, but in whose honor and probity all parties who knew him fully confided. In a day or two after, I was talking to him, during a few minutes of leisure, and he showed me the indorsement which I had signed. It was as follows : — " This Benefit Society, which keeps no proper book, evinces impropriety deserving a rebuke. As further litigation on each part they decline, no other observation is requisite on mine. 'Tis left to Patrick Flannery to judge of every fact, and in whatever manner he thinks right they're bound to act. My order I reserve until he makes out his award, and when he does, at once I will the rule of Court record. " Police Recruits — A Born Soldier. 87 Dr. Ireland was, for many years, the principal surgeon of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. He had to inspect the recruits, and satisfy himself of their size, health, mental capacity, and bodily strength being suitable to the service in which they proposed to engage. Cox said that the Dublin Police was, in one respect, very like to Howth Harbor, as no one could get into either without passing " Ireland's Eye." When the railway was being made from Dublin to Wicklow, he said that its course through the County of Dublin was extremely inharmo- nious, for it went first to a Dun-drum, proceeded to a SiiU-organ, and then attained to a Bray. Mr. Cox came into the Police Court one morning after the custody cases had been disposed of. He brought forward an elderly female whom he stated to be desirous > of making a statutable declaration before me, and which she had brought already drawn. There was a peculiar ex- pression in his countenance as he suggested that I might, perhaps, be pleased to peruse the document previous to its official reception. It was made under circumstances which I shall briefly mention. A young man named Dempsey thought fit to embrace a military life, and enlisted in the 97th Regiment. He did not give his paternal name, but adopted the maiden name of his mother, and was enrolled as Peter Moran. He served for some years in India, but died there from the effects of sun-stroke. Some arrears of pay and a share of prize-money were due at the time of his decease ; and his widowed mother applied, as next of kin, to obtain the amount. The War-Office authorities did not understand how Peter Moran came to be the son of Anne Dempsey. The declaration to which Cox slyly drew my attention was intended to afford an explanation of the grounds on which the claim was preferred, and it, 88 Gleanings and Reminiscences. moreover, afforded an instance of a martial disposition being as early in its inception as the birth-acquired tendency of poetic inspiration. The declaration was as follows : — " Police District of Dublin ) I, Bridget Carey, of Fade Street, in the Metropolis, to wit, ( City of Dublin, widow, do hereby solemnly declare that I am a midwife, and have been such for the last thirty-five years ; and I further declare that about twenty-seven years ago, I attended Anne Dempsey who was then living in Little Longford Street, in her con- finement, and, with God's assistance, I then and there safely delivered her of the soldier in dispute; and I make this declaration for the information of the Secretary-at-war, and the other authorities of the War Office, &c." Cox remarked, with an assumption of gravity which was irresistibly comic, " I suppose, your worship, that it is not necessary to describe the uniform or accoutrements in which ' the soldier* made his natal appearance." The document was retained by me, and another was substituted, in which the deceased was not accorded the distinction of having been " born a soldier/* CHAPTER X. MENDICANCY. I think that some useful information may be blended with amusement by offering to my readers a few anecdotes in reference to mendicancy and the laws intended for its repression. Two persons were charged before me at the Head Police Office, in 1843, w*tn begging in the public streets. One was detected in Castle Street and the other in Palace Street. They were male and female, and stated themselves to be brother and sister. Neither denied the commission of the offence. Having been searched at the station-house, the man was found to have ^300 in his pos- session, and the woman had £ 1 80. I do not recollect what names they gave, but I am sure they were not the real ones. They were committed, each for a calendar month, with hard labor ; but during the period of their imprisonment their subsistence was charged on the rates of the city of Dublin, and the ^480 were returned to them at their discharge. I have been informed that the law of Scotland authorises the support of vagrants, when committed to gaol, to be defrayed from money found in their possession. If such be the case, I would suggest to our Irish Members to have the law of this country, in cases of vagrancy, assimi- lated to the Scotch system as quickly as possible. Very soon after the occurrence which I have mentioned, a gentleman who resided at Kingstown, arrived there by go Gleanings and Reminiscences. train between seven and eight o'clock, p.m. He was walking up the Forty-foot Road, when he was accosted by a man of humble but decent appearance, who kept by his side whilst addressing him. " I came out, sir," said this individual, " early in the day, on an appointment with Mr. Herbert, of Tivoli Terrace, as he promised to let me have a few pounds that he owes me ; but I found that he had to start suddenly for Bray on some particular busi- ness, and he left word for me that he would be back about ten o'clock, so I have to wait : and I declare, sir, that I had only enough when I left home to get a return ticket, and I have not had a bit to eat since morning. Might I ask you for as much as would get me a crust of bread and a mug of milk." On reaching George's Street, the gentleman handed him a sixpence, and received the ex- pression of an earnest prayer for his earthly prosperity and eternal happiness. On the following evening, the gentle- man arrived at the same time, proceeded up the same road, and not being recognized, was accosted by the same per- son, who told the same tale, concluding with a wish for " the crust and mug of milk." A constable happened to be in view, and the hungry applicant was arrested and charged as a vagrant beggar. He had two ten-pound notes and three of five pounds, with eighteen shillings in silver and copper coin. The vagrant stated his name to be Richard Bryan, and a most extraordinary document was found on him. It was soiled and partly torn, but it was signed, " Your loving brother, John Bryan/' was dated, "Bonis, August 30, 1843," anc* contained a suggestion which was fully acted on, and which I could not allow to escape my recollection. Here it is : — " We have got in the barley all right, and we are going at the oats to-morrow. I had to lend the horses to-day to Mr. Kixmnis. I couldn't Mendicancy. 91 refuse, for you know he is a good warrant to obleege us when we want a turn. Nolan is bothering about the rent. He is very cross. You must see and make it out for him, if you were even to beg for it" One month's imprisonment, with hard labour, provided the mendicant with some "crusts" and "mugs of milk " at the cost of the county. The delinquent did not, I be- lieve, resume his solicitations within our district. The office sergeant who escorted him, with some other pri- soners, to Kilmainham, told the clerk at Kingstown on the following morning, that Mr. Bryan stigmatized my decision as "most uncharitable and disgusting." I did not find medicancy so persistent in any part of the police district as in Kingstown. If a vagrant was brought up and punished for begging in Rathmines or the Pembroke township, or if the detection occurred at Inchi- core, or in the most respectable parts of the city, it was not at all probable that the beggar would be soon found again in the same locality. The Kingstown vagrants, as soon as they were discharged from Kilmainham, generally started off to return and resume their solicitations at the piers and jetty, or about the streets and terraces, which were more devoted to healthful recreation than to profes- sional or commercial affairs. I have no doubt that mendi- cants from distant places receive more at Kingstown or Bray, from visitors whom they recognize, or who recognize them, than would be given to them if both parties were at home. A lady with whom I was personally acquainted, and whose family residence was near Carlow, has several times, in my presence, given sixpences to beggars who belonged to her own neighbourhood, and I have heard her tell them that Kingstown was a better and more lucky place for them than ever they would find Carlow to be. I shall close my observations on street begging, by 92 Gleanings and Reminiscences. deliberately stating from my personal and official experi- ence, that not one penny can be given to any mendicant on our thoroughfares in real, efficient, and merited charity. I would now warn my readers against another kind of beg- ging, which avails itself of very systematic and elaborate means, and sometimes displays considerable educational acquirements, namely, written applications to charitable individuals to alleviate dire distress or succour unmerited misfortune. I know that this system is extensively prac- tised in London, and I have heard that it is reviving in Dublin. I use the term a reviving" because it was com- pletely crushed here in 1844 by the intelligence and activity of the detective division. At that time it was discovered that a confederacy of impostors had been formed in Bridgefoot Street, and that the members of this nefarious association were levying contributions on all in whose dis- positions they had ascertained charity and credulity to be united. Forty-one of them were arrested and brought before me, and I committed them for trial on charges of " conspiring to defraud, obtaining money under false pre- tences, and forgery at common law/' They were, however, consigned to Newgate, exactly at the time when the State prosecutions against O'Connell had been commenced ; and it was the received opinion in police quarters that they owed their escape — for they were not prosecuted — to a feeling on the part of the attorney-general of that period, that all his attention was demanded in bringing down the eagle, and that none of his energies could be spared to scatter a flock of kites. But they were not relinquished by the detectives, and were brought in detail under the castigation of the law until the confederacy was broken up. Their begging letters and petitions were addressed to all whom they considered likely to yield the slightest Mendicancy. 93 attention to their requests. These productions were termed in their slang " Slums." One impostor represented that she was a clergyman's widow, with four female children, the eldest only eleven years of age ; that her pious, exem- plary, and most affectionate partner had died of malignant fever, contracted whilst whispering the words of Christian consolation to the departing sinner, and imparting the joyful assurance, that the life flickering away, the socket glimmer of a mere earthly light, would be rekindled in a lamp of everlasting duration and unvarying brilliancy. That resigned to her suffering, and adoring the hand from which she had experienced chastening, she was not for- bidden to hope that the blessed spirit of charity would be manifested in her relief, and in shielding her helpless, art- less babes from the privations of distress in their infancy, and from the still more fearful danger of being, in advanced youth, exposed to the snares of sin and its depraving con- sequences. A contribution, however small, addressed to Mrs. , at No. — Bridgefoot Street, Dublin, would, it was respectfully hoped, be accorded by Lord , or Mr. or Mrs. , whose well-known, though unostentatious benevolence, must plead the poor widow's apology for such an intrusion. Another was an unfortunate man, who for many years had earned a respectable livelihood as a commer- cial agent, and supported a numerous and interesting family by his industry and intelligence, but having unfortunately been in the County of Tipperary, when a contested election was in progress, he unguardedly expressed a wish for the success of the Conservative candidate, and although not a voter, he was set upon by a horde of savage ruffians, and beaten so as to produce paralysis of his lower extremities, and that now nothing remained for him but to entreat the 94 Gleanings and Reminiscences. humane consideration of one who could not, if the public testimony of his, or her generous disposition, was to be credited, refuse to sympathize with a parent whose help- lessness compelled him to witness, with unavailing anguish, the poignant miseries of the offspring he had hoped, by his honest exertions, to have supported and reared, without submitting to the galling necessity of soliciting that aid which nothing but the most absolute destitution could reconcile him to implore. A military lady announced herself as the widow of color-sergeant Robert Maffett, who having served faithfully for twenty-three years, the four last having been in India, had been severely wounded in a decisive battle in Scinde, and when invalided and pen- sioned, was unfortunately drowned at Blackwall, in con- sequence of the boat which was conveying him ashore being accidentally upset. That she and her eight poor orphans had no resource on reaching her native city, where she found that all her relations had died or emigrated, and where she was friendless and alone, but to throw herself upon the charitable feelings of one whose character em- boldened her to hope that the humble appeal of the soldier's widow, for herself and her poor orphans, would not be unavailing. These and a thousand other slums were manufactured in Bridgefoot Street, alias Dirty Lane, not an unsuitable name for the locale of such proceedings, and they were invariably accompanied by lists of subscriptions, and magisterial or municipal attestations, admirably got up in the first style of forgery. In the first case to which I have adverted, the " hapless widow " succeeded in getting five pounds from the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, (Pennefather.) In the instance of the " military widow,** Lady Blakeney was lightened of three pounds. Another Mendicancy. 95 shim was circulated by a scoundrel who represented him- self to be the son of a gentleman in the south of Ireland, of an old family, and of the pristine faith ; that he had been educated at Louvain, had an ardent wish to become a Catholic clergyman, and that one of the most dis- tinguished dignitaries of that church was inclined to ordain him, but his father had died in debt, without leaving him the means of providing even the most humble outfit for such a vocation. One of his missives produced the effect of relieving an alderman's lady of five pounds sterling, which the excellent and worthy matron piously suggested might be useful in providing the embryo priest with vestments. This confederacy was not confined to Dublin. Its branches extended through Leinster, Connaught, Munster, and in almost even7 important town in England its con- nections were established. It is, however, very curious that [the Scots and our Northern countrymen were left comparatively free from its attacks. Why ? Is it because the rascally crew conceived the natives of Scotland and Ulster to be more cautious or less benevolent than their respective Southern neighbours? The reader may judge for himself; but swindlers are not, in general, very wrong in their estimate of character or disposition. The head-quarters of the society were in an obscure country town in an inland county of Ireland, and there the materiel of the association was seized, according to my recollection, in April, 1844. There was found at the source of their system, a chest of very elegant manufacture, and containing, in compartments, admirably executed counterfeits of the public seals of Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Sligo, Drogheda, Dublin, Liverpool, Bristol, 96 Gleanings and Reminiscences. Hamburg, Havre, and New York. These were used to seal forged certificates and attestations, which were trans- mitted for use to more populous places; but the seals were cunningly kept in a remote, and for a long time, an unsuspected locality. CHAPTER XI. CARRIAGE COURT CASES DUBLIN CARMEN. When I assumed, by an arrangement with my colleagues, the regulation of the public vehicles, and the disposal of complaints in the Carriage Court at the Head Office, I announced my inflexible determination to cancel the licence of any driver who was proved to have been drunk whilst in charge of his vehicle on the public thoroughfare. I required the fullest proof of the offence, to which I awarded the highest punishment. I am happy to say that such cases were by no means frequent, but there were some, and they generally occurred at funerals. A Rath- farnham carman was summoned before me and was con- victed, not only on the clearest evidence, but by his own admission. He was about my own age, and I remembered that when I was about eighteen years old, I was one day swimming in a quarry-hole at Kimmage, where the water was at least twenty feet deep, and was suddenly seized with very severe cramps in my left leg. I kept myself afloat and shouted for help, but I was unable to make for the bank, when a young fellow who had been swimming, and was dressing himself, hastily threw off his clothes, plunged into the water and pushed me before him to the side of the quarry. He saved my life, and I now beheld him in the person of the convicted carman. I related H 98 Gleanings and Reminiscences. the circumstance from the magisterial bench, and then cancelled his licence, and remarked to those who were assembled, that when I treated the preserver of my life so strictly, others could not expect the slightest lenity at my hands if they transgressed in the same way. The poor fellow left the court in great dejection, and when my duties for the day were over, I dropped in to my friend Colonel Browne, the Commissioner of Police, and mentioned the circumstance to him. He said, " You cancelled his licence, but I can give him a new one, and he shall get it to-mor- row." The licence was accordingly renewed without causing me the slightest dissatisfaction. Most of my readers are aware that the Richmond Bridewell, which is now the common gaol of the City of Dublin, is situated near Harold's Cross; and that on its front is inscribed, " Cease to do evil. Learn to do well.** A carman named Doyle, who lived at Blackrock, was summoned before me on charges of violent conduct, abusive language, and extortion. He was a man of very good character, and the cohiplainant was a person of the worst reputation, who had been convicted of several misdemeanors of a very disgraceful nature. Frauds and falsehoods were attributed to him as habitual and inveterate practices. He was sworn, and then he described Doyle as having been most abusive and insulting in his language, as having threatened to kick him unless he paid much more than the rightful fare, and as having extorted an extra shilling by such means. The defendant denied the charges totally, and declared that the accusation was false and malicious. He then asked me to have tnspector O'Connor and Sergeant Power called and examined as to the com- plainant's character, and whether he was deserving of being believed on his oath. From my own personal knowledge Carriage Court Cases. gg of the complainant's reputation, I willingly acceded to the demand, and desired that the required witnesses should be called from the upper court, where they were both attending. Whilst we were waiting their appearance, Doyle made a speech \ it was very brief, and I took it down verbatim ; he said : — " Your worship, if I get any punishment on this man's oath, it will be a wrong judgment. The Recorder knows him well, and he would'nt sintence a flea to be kilt for back-biting upon his evidence. He has took out all his degrees in the Harold's Cross college ; and if, instead of sending me to the Cease to do evil hotel, you had himself brought there, the door would open for him of its own accord, for there is not a gaol in Ireland that would refuse him. He swore hard against me, but thanks be to God, he did not swear that I was an honest man, for there is nobody whose character could stand under the weight of his commendation." On the evidence of O'Connor and Power, I dismissed the charge, and subsequently spoke of the case, and re- peated Doyle's speech, in festive society. When Boucicault produced his interesting Irish drama of Arra-na-pogue at the Theatre Royal, I was one of his gratified audience, and was greatly surprized at hearing the speech which had been originally delivered before me in the Carriage Court by the Blackrock carman, addressed to the court-martial by Shawn-na-poste, to induce a disbelief of the informer by whom he was accused. I subsequently ascertained that it had been given to Boucicault by one who could fully appreciate its originality and strength, my gifted friend, Dr. Tisdall. The Dublin carmen are far from being faultless, but, as a class, I found them generally very honest. Whilst I 1 W rx v | w ioo Gleanings and Reminiscences. discharged the carriage business, I knew instances of considerable sums of money and articles of value, which had been left in their vehicles, being brought in and deli- vered up to the police. I do not know how such property, if unclaimed, is now disposed of; but in my time, I inva- riably, after the expiration of twelve months, had it deli- vered, subject to charges for advertising, &c, to the person who brought it. I may mention one very extraordinary incident. Before the opening of the Great Southern and Western Railway, the Grand Canal Company ran passen- ger boats to the towns of Athy and Ballinasloe. A boat for the latter place left Portobello each day at two o'clock. A Rath mines man, who was owner and driver of a covered car, was returning home one morning about n o'clock, when he was hailed, in Dame Street, by a respectably dressed man, who engaged him to drive about town, and to be paid by the hour. The hirer stopped at several establishments and bought parcels of woollen, linen, plaid, and cotton goods, as also a hat and a pair of boots, for all of which he paid in cash. There was merely room for the hirer in the vehicle along with his ample purchases. Finally, he directed the driver to go to Portobello, adding that he intended to leave town by the passage-boat at two o'clock. When the car arrived at the end of Lennox Street, the driver was ordered to stop. The hirer alighted and told the driver to go round by the front of the hotel and wait for him at the boat. The order was obeyed, and the carman waited until the boat started, but the hirer did not appear. The driver apprized the police of the circum- stance, and, at their suggestion, he attended the two boats which left on the following day, but no one came to claim the goods. They were brought to the police stores and advertised, the hirer was described and sought for in Dublin Carmen. 101 various hotels and lodging-houses, but without any result. It was ascertained at the establishments where the parcels were purchased that they cost twenty-seven pounds, and the carman ultimately got them on paying some small charges. He had not been paid his fare, nevertheless he was not dissatisfied. A rare case amongst his fraternity. When it was proposed to have a hackney fare for six- pence, " for a drive with not more than two passengers, direct, and without any delay on the part of the hirer, from any place within the municipal boundary to any other place within the same," I refused to sanction such a regu- lation. I considered that it would, in many instances, be a most inadequate payment for the employment of a vehicle. I suggested that the fifteen municipal wards should form three districts of five wards each, and desig- nated, Southern, Middle, Northern. I proposed that a drive entirely in one of those districts should be a sixpenny fare, that from South or North to Middle, or vice versa, should be eightpence, and that North to South, or vice versa, should be tenpence. My suggestions were not even considered, for the carmen published advertisements that they were desirous of giving cheap locomotion to the people of Dublin, but that the magistrate refused to allow them to take small fares. I sent for the " runners," as the attendants on the stands were termed, and told them that I should no longer object to the sixpenny fare which was proposed. I added that it was the carmen's own act, and, to use a homely phrase, " as they had made the bed, nothing remained for me but to compel them to lie in it." The by-law was no sooner in operation than numerous cases of its violation were brought before me. I fined each, if I thought it fully proved, in the maximum penalty of two pounds. One delinquent was extremely urgent to 102 Gleanings and Reminiscences. have a smaller penalty inflicted. I recognized him as having been present when I used the phrase which I have quoted, and reminded him that he had been fully warned. He replied, "Yes, yer worship, we did make the bed, and you promised to make us lie in it, but we never thought that it would be so heavily quilted" I held that any stop or deviation from the direct line between two places, at the hirer's instance, voided the sixpenny contract, and entitled the driver to additional remuneration. I often availed myself of a sixpenny lift, and was once taking one in which I passed the Shelbourne Hotel, in front of which there was a " hazard," or branch stand for five or six cars or cabs. It was considered very objectionable for a disengaged vehicle to stop alongside a hazard and thu£ obstruct the carriage way. I observed a jarvey committing this offence, and desired my driver to " hold a moment/' I said to the offender, "If a constable takes your number for obstructing, you will not escape for less than ten shillings." I then bid my man to go on. He replied, " Yes, yer worship, and it would serve that fellow right to have him punished, for he is after putting your worship in for another sixpence to me." Two of my daughters had gone to make some purchases at the establishment of Messrs. Todd and Burns, in Mary Street. They were engaged to spend the afternoon at a house in Leinster Street Rain was falling, and the elder beckoned to the driver of a covered car who happened to be passing. They got into it, and desired him to go to No. 14 Leinster Street. When they arrived, the elder let her sister pass before her into the house, and then she offered a sixpence to the carman. He declined to take it, and said that she should give " the father or mother of that." She asked how much did he demand? and the Dublin Carmen. 103 reply was " a shilling at least." She then said that she would get half-a-crown changed in the house, and bring him a shilling, but she added " that she would speak to papa about it." " Musha, who is papa ? " said he. " Mr. Porter/' was the reply. She went in, got the change, and came back with the shilling, but he was gone. He preferred giving her a gratuitous drive to having my opinion elicited in reference to the transaction. A cavalry regiment, if I recollect rightly it was the " Scots Greys/' occupied the barracks at Island Bridge in 1854. One day an outside jaunting-car was waiting in the barrack-yard, and the driver was standing on the step. He was a few yards from the quarters of a Captain B , who was reputed to have a private income of ^15,000 per annum. The officer was amusing himself with a little gun, which discharged peas and leaden pellets by deto- nating caps with greater force than the captain was aware of. He shot at the carman, and the pellet passed through his overcoat and reached his back, giving him a smart blow, but without penetrating the skin. The driver was looking round, and expressing his displeasure, when he received a second shot which, striking the calf of his leg, lodged in the flesh. He instantly whipped his horse, drove rapidly away, and betook himself to the Meath Hospital, where the shot was extracted. He summoned the officer before me, and when the facts were stated, I expressed an opinion that the act was most unjustifiable, that a wanton and very severe assault had been committed, but that 1 thought it originated more in a spirit of foolish fun than in any wish to injure the complainant, and as it was a misdemeanor, the parties might come to an under- standing, which would render further proceedings unne- cessary. I 104 Gleanings and Reminiscences. The captain accosted the carman — " Will you take one hundred pounds }" " Of coorse, I will, yer honor, and I'll never say another word, even if you war to shoot me agin/' Two fifty-pound notes were handed to the delighted complainant, who then said to me — "The business is settled, yer worship, and I can only say that whin I was hit, although it gave me a great start, I felt satisfied it was a rale gintleman that shot me." I advised the captain to discontinue the sport of jarvey- shooting. Cox complimented him on his generosity, adding that he ought to have got a large covey of such game for the price he paid. I regret to add that the money did not improve its recipient. He lapsed into habits of idleness and drunkenness, lost his licence through mis- conduct, and was reduced to complete destitution. A gentleman, who lived in Baggot Street, came to Exchange Court one morning for the purpose of reporting that his coach-house had been entered, as he believed, by means of false keys, and that a set of cushions, adapted to an outside jaunting-car, had been abstracted. He de- scribed them as white cord material with green borders and seams. A detective mentioned that he had seen cushions of the description on a car which had been brought for inspection, and the licence of which had been suspended on account of its unseemly condition. The car was then in Dame Street, and a further enquiry even- tuated in the discovery on it of the articles which had been supposed to have been abstracted. The owner of the car was a brother of the gentleman's servant who had lent his master's cushions to pass the inspection. The car licence was cancelled ; but I believe that similar tricks were fre- quently played on similar occasions. # Dublin Carmen. 105 For upwards of ten years I have been estranged from the Dublin Police Courts. 1 cannot speak as to the habits and characteristics of the carmen of the present time. I have already stated that, according to my experience and recollection, they were honest and sober. I can add that I knew many instances in which members of their class manifested generosity, kindness, and courage. A man belonging to New Street stand went to the fair of St. Doolagh's, and expended his savings in the purchase of a fine-looking horse that appeared in a sound condition, but on whose leg there was a slight scar. In about a week after the fair, the beast exhibited some very extraordinary symptoms, and at last became most furious and unruly. He dashed into a shop window, and injured himself so much as to make it necessary to kill it. It was the opinion of a veterinary practitioner that he had been bitten by some rabid animal, and had taken hydrophobia. The other carmen promptly subscribed a sum sufficient to defray the damage done to the shop, and to procure ano- ther horse for the man who vainly sought to ascertain the former owner of the one that he bought at St. Doolagh's. 1 am aware that previous to the establishment »of the fire brigade in Dublin, the drivers on a car-stand would leave two or three of their number to mind their horses and vehicles, and apply themselves to work the engines and extinguish fires in their vicinity. Many acts of heroism on the part of carmen have occurred on our quays and at Kingstown, in saving, at their own imminent risk, persons in danger of drowning. Having noticed some very good qualities, I must remark on the scarcity amongst them, according to my experience, of veracity. When a carman was summoned by a con- stable be almost invariably met the accusation by a direct 106 Gleanings and Reminiscences. contradiction. If called on to answer for being shabbily dressed or dirty in his apparel, he bought or borrowed a good suit of clothes, shaved, put on a clean shirt, and stated boldly to me that he was just in the same attire when the policeman " wrote him." If the summons was for being absent from his beast and vehicle, he insisted that he was holding "a lock of hay" to his horse all the time. If the complaint was for furious driving, the defence was that " the baste was dead lame, that it was just after taking up a nail, and was on three legs when he was ' wrote.' " If it was alleged that the horse was in a wretched condition, and unfit to ply for public accommo- dation, he expressed his surprise that any fault should be found with a horse that could " rowl " four to the Curragh and back without " turning a hair." Whatever statement was made for the defence, it evinced imaginative power, for the plain, dull truth was hardly ever permitted the slightest admixture in the excuse offered. Mr. Hughes, whom I have mentioned in some earlier pages, was in the carriage-court one day, on an occasion when an old man named Pat Markey, formerly belonging to the Baggot Street stand, made a statement utterly at variance with all probability, and directly opposed to the evidence adduced against him : however, on the prosecutor's own showing the case was dismissed, as the charge was not legally sus- tained. On leaving the court, Hughes asked Pat why he did not tell the truth at first, as it would have been better for him ; upon which the other exclaimed — " Musha, cock him up with the truth! that's more than ever I tow Id a magistrate yit." A delinquent seldom mentioned the offence for which he was punished ; he generally substi- tuted for it the inducement which led to its commission. If he went into a tobacconist's, and while he made his Dublin Carmen. 107 purchase, his horse moved on, and was stopped by a con- stable, who summoned the driver, the latter when asked what he was fined for would reply, " for taking a blast of the pipe." If, on a Saturday evening, he betook himself to a barber's shop to have the week's growth taken off his chin, and incurred a penalty for being absent from his vehicle, he said, " the polis wrote him" for getting himself shaved. And on Sunday morning, if a devotional feeling prompted him to get " a mouthful of prayers," whilst his beast remained, without any person to mind ft, upon the public thoroughfare, he expressed his indignation at a con- sequent fine " for going to Mass." I found it impossible to adapt the law, as it existed in my time, so as effectually to compel the carmen to keep themselves in cleanly, respectable attire, or their vehicles in proper order. When summoned and fined, their com- ments evinced the inutility of the punishment. I have said to one, " Your car has been proved to be in a most disgraceful state, and I shall fine you ten shillings." The reply has been, " I thank yer worship, shure that fine will help me to mend it." I have told another that I would suspend his licence for a month ; but this only elicited a request for an order to admit him and his family to the poorhouse during the suspension. If the complaints pre- ferred by the police did not effect much good, those brought forward by private individuals were, in their general ten- dency, and as a class of cases, decidedly injurious. When extortion, violence, insolence, or an infraction of duty pro- voked an aggrieved person to ' summon, the usual course was for the delinquent to send his wife to the com- plainant's residence, or sometimes to borrow a wife, if he had not one of his own, to beg him off. In the case of a young lad being the offender, the intercession was 108 Gleanings and Reminiscences. managed by his mother, whether the maternity was real or pretended. The afflicted female beset the door, and applied to all who passed in or out " to save her and her childher, or her poor gorsoon, from the waves of the world," that Mr. Porter was a "rale Turk," and if the poor fellow was brought before him, he would be destroyed "out of a face." A riddance of such importunities formed no slight inducement to forego the prosecution, and consequently the majority of such cases were dismissed for the non- appearance of the complainant ; but sometimes the fellow who had been "begged off" came forward, stated that he was ready to answer the summons, and insisted on his loss of time being recompensed by costs. I must admit that I always complied with such applications, and I have enjoyed frequently the vain remonstrances of the forgiving party, who, for his mistaken and expensive lenity, acquired nothing but the wholesome warning not to summon a Dublin driver without appearing to prosecute. Although the carmen were rather fond of getting more than their fare, they became the dupes and victims of dis- honest and tricky employers, and, to use their own term, were " sconced " much more frequently than was generally supposed. The Four Courts constituted, m my time, the frequent scene of such rascality. There was seldom a day in Term that some poor carman was not left "without his costs" by a plausible fellow, who alighting at one door, and passing through the hall, went out at another, leaving the driver with the assurance, that " he would be back in a minute," to find that he had been employed, for perhaps an hour or two previously, by a heartless black- guard, who desired no better fun than "sconcing" him, I believe that a regulation has been since adopted which authorises a driver engaged by time to require payment in advance. I consider it a very great improvement. CHAPTER XII A GRATUITOUS JAUNT THE PORTUGUESE POSTIL- LION— MISCELLANEOUS SUMMONSES. A young woman who was servant in a house in Harcourt Street in which two students resided, had an altercation with one of them, which eventuated in a summons and a cross-summons before me. It appeared that the young man had imputed dishonesty to her, and she had been very indignant and abusive towards her accuser. He called his fellow-student as a witness, to prove that the girl threw a bottle at him, and that she freely used the terms of swindler, blackguard, &c. The charge of dis- honesty was unfounded, and the encounter between the parties terminated without any personal injury to either, but the damsel cross-examined the witness in reference to a transaction, and elicited a mode of procuring a jaunt across the city, which I hope that I shall not lessen the reader's interest in my observations and reminiscences of the Dublin carmen by briefly detailing. The woman acquired the knowledge of it by having overheard a con- versation between the young men. They had been invited to an early evening party at Summer Hill. They were not inclined to walk such a distance, and neither of them found it convenient to pay 4- no Gleanings and Reminiscences. for a vehicle. At last the one who subsequently com- plained of being termed a swindler and blackguard said that he would get a covered car without payment. Accord- ingly, having walked to the nearest " hazard/' he desired his comrade to get into a car, and also seated himself, he then directed the driver to proceed " to Santry." " San- try!" exclaimed the astonished jarvey \ " is it joking you are ? D 1 an inch I'll go to Santry to-night. Get out of my car if you plaze, the baste is tired, and I wont go." " My good fellow/' was the answer, " I shall not get out, and you may as well get on at once." "By gorra, if you don't get out, Til pull you out/' said the carman. " If you lay a finger on me/' answered the occupant, " I will resist you as well as I can, and I shall prosecute you for an assault." It was a bad business. The carman changed his tactics. "Why, yer honor," he mildly urged, " it is an unrasonable thing to ax a man to go to such a place even in the day time, for there's nethin but murdher and robbery on that bloody road, an' if I do go, we'll be all kilt, and you'll be robbed into the bargain ; shure you haven't right sinse to think of such a jaunt." " My friend/' said the fare, " there may be something in what you say, but I shall call at a house on Summer Hill and get firearms for myself and my companion, and with two case of pistols I fear no robbers." The carman grumbled, but he had a sturdy customer, so he mounted his seat and drove on. When they came to Summer Hill he was desired to pull up, and the two sparks alighted, assuring him that they would immediately procure the arms and resume their journey. As soon as they were inside the hall-door, the jarvey plied his whip, and rattled off as fast as he could, congratulating himself that he had escaped a drive to Santry, and leaving the two scamps to The Portuguese Postillion. 1 1 1 enjoy the joke of having got a gratuitous jaunt from Har- court Street to Summer Hill. There was at the time of my appointment to the magis- tracy, a car proprietor in Dublin, whose name was Bittner. His father had been a sergeant in the King's German Legion, had been invalided, and died in Dublin about the year 1810, leaving one son, who was then sixteen years of age. He was tolerably educated, intelligent, cleanly, active, and well-looking. A gentleman who was in delicate health, engaged the lad as his personal attendant, and was soon after advised by his physicians to betake himself to the south of Europe, in the hope of checking the progress of pulmonary disease. Lisbon was the only available place to the invalid, and he proceeded there, along with his youthful servant. He lived in Portugal for nine or ten years, and was so well satisfied with the care and attention of Bittner that he left him a legacy of JP250. The gentleman's body was directed by his will to be interred in Dublin, whither it "was conveyed by the faithful domestic. Bittner did not squander his money, neither did he become inactive. He was fond of horses, and of equestrian exercise, and engaged in the service of the late Mr. Quin, of Bray ; then the proprietor of an extensive hotel and first-rate posting establishment. The romantic scenery of Wicklow was then, as it must ever be, highly appreciated, and Quin's chaises conveyed many visitors to the varied and numerous scenes of picturesque beauty. On one occasion Bittner was directed to bring a chaise to the door, to take two foreign gentlemen through the Glen of the Downs, and on to Dunran. The travellers were quite unacquainted with the English language, and in the hotel, had recourse to signs and self-attendance as much as possible. They got into the chaise, having ii2 Gleanings and Reminiscences. previously pointed out on a map to Mr. Quin, the route they wished to take. On arriving at the gate of Dunran, they made signs to stop the vehicle, and alighted. They then began to bewail to each other, their ignorance of English, and their consequent inability to acquire informa- tion as to the scenery, residences, and other particulars usually interesting to tourists. They spoke Portuguese, and Bittner immediately accosted them in their own language, told them that he would procure a person to mind his horses, and that he would then take them up to the " View Rock," and conduct them to each of the many places worthy of their observation. They expressed the highest gratification, and availed themselves of his services. As they proceeded, he told them that Mr. Quin's was the greatest and best regulated establishment in the world. That there were postillions kept there who had been procured from every European nation. The French postillions had gone with a party of their countrymen to the " Seven Churches," and two Germans and one Italian had left, early in the morning, for the Vale of Ovoca. The Spaniard was gone to Luggelaw. " I," said he, " am the Portuguese postillion, I am delighted to have you, and can take you to all the beautiful places in Wicklow, but I am afraid that I shall soon have to leave this employment, for we hardly ever have a Portuguese gentleman at the hotel, so my chances are very poor." The travellers, driven by Bittner for about a-week, went to all the delightful scenery of Wicklow, and when departing, gave him a couple of sovereigns. In about three months after, Mr. Quin received a parcel in which there were two nicely bound volumes, and -a compli- mentary letter, sent from Lisbon by Don Pedro Cabrito. With some difficulty he got the letter translated, and also A few Hyperboles. 113 a couple of pages which had been turned down to attract his attention. He was then made aware that the Portu- guese traveller accorded the highest praise to the comfort and elegance of his establishment, and also to his anxiety to convenience his foreign visitors, by keeping postillions, who, in the aggregate, were acquainted with all European languages. The book also made honorable mention of the " Portuguese postillion," Bittner. The latter, as , I have already stated, became a car proprietor. His vehicles were cleanly and neat, his drivers well conducted, and a complaint against him was of very rare occurrence. On one occasion, after I had heard an explanation from his driver, he asked my leave to say "a word or two," to which I replied, "With pleasure Mr. Bittner, I shall hear you, provided you do not speak Portuguese/' " Oh ! your worship," said he, " I see you know that story. I suppose Mr. Quin told you." His supposition was correct. A FEW HYPERBOLES. One of the clerks in the police-court of Liverpool got leave of absence in, as I best remember, 1845. He came to Dublin with some other young Englishmen for a few davs of recreation. Curiositv induced him to visit our police-courts, where our clerks received him with fraternal courtesy. He told Mr. Cox that he and three others took an outside car, for a suburban drive. It happened to be on Corpus Ckristi day, and they were going along Rath- mines road, just as the religious procession incident to the festival was moving round the extensive court outside of the Roman Catholic church there. They directed the driver to stop, and then stood up on the seats to obtain a full view. Almost immediately one of them exclaimed, 1 1 14 Gleanings and Reminiscences. "Well, that beats the devil!" The carman touched his hat to the exclaimer and replied, " Yes, your honor, that 's what it 's for." I have heard the late Judge Halliburton (Sam Slick the clock-maker) say, that he asked a carman what was the reason for building the Martello towers ? and that the interrogated party told him, " he supposed it was, like the round towers, to puzzle posterity." The Spaniard, who described the rain as so heavy, that "it wetted him to the marrow," was not so poetical or forcible in his hyperbole as some of our jarveys have been. I recollect reading in a little work, published many years ago, and entitled " Sketches of Ireland," that when a gentle- man complained of the choking dust of the Rock road, and declared that he did not think it possible for a road to be so dusty, his driver remarked, " It's thrue for yer honor; but this road bates all others for dust, for, by all accounts, there was dust on this road the day after Noah's flood" . A lady who resided at Chapel izod was wont to give a car- man whom she frequently employed a glass of grog, along with his fare, at the conclusion of each engagement. However, she became too sparing of the spirits, or too generous of the water, but the grog eventually became so weak, that its recipient criticised it, of course with an oath, by asserting, that "if you threw half-a-pint of whisky- over Essex Bridge, you might take up as strong grog as that at the Lighthouse.*' MISCELLANEOUS SUMMONSES. According to my recollections of the summons cases of a police-court, apart from carriage complaints, I feel justi- fied in remarking on the mild and forgiving tendencies of the men, and the vindictive rancour of the women of Dublin. From recent conversations with police function- Miscellaneous Summonses. 115 aries, I am disposed to believe that the present time differs in no material respect from the past. The man claims the protection of the law; u he has no desire to injure the parties he complains of, but he wants them bound to the peace, just to keep them quiet." The woman wants " the coorse of the law/* and to have her adversary chastised and kept from killing the whole world, like a murdhering vagabone as she is ; it 's no use in talking but the street will never be quiet until she gets some little confinement just to larn her manners." Summonses for abusive lan- guage, or as the fair complainants term it, " street scandal," are, perhaps, the most numerous cases as a class ; and on the hearing of them, there is frequently elicited an amount of vituperation beyond anything that Billingsgate could attempt to supply. In almost every case a total absence of chastity is imputed as a matter of course; and if a foreigner would only believe both sides of a police sum- mons-book, he would be forced to the conclusion that chastity was a virtue rarely found amongst the lower order of Dublin females. Yet the very contrary is the fact : furious in their resentments, uncontrollable in their invec- tives, and inveterately addicted to assassination of charac- ter, they are, in general, extremely chaste ; and attest the value they attach to female virtue by invariably imputing its absence to their opponents. Sometimes, indeed, a novel term of reproach arouses volcanic fury, and an erup- tion of indignation is excited by the most extraordinary and unmeaning epithet. I cannot forget a fish-vendor from Patrick Street vociferating to me, that if her enemy was not sent off to Grangegorman at wanst, her life and her child's life (for she was enceinte) would be lost. " But what did she say ?" was my query. " What did she say ! yer worship, what did she say! Why she came down n6 Gleanings and Reminiscences. forenenst the whole world at the corner of Plunket Street, and called me " a bloody ould excommunicated gasometer/' I may mention that as female invective generally ascribed incontinency to its opponent, so the male scolds — happily not very numerous — had their favorite term of reproach ; and when they wished to destroy a man's reputation, they designated him — a thief? — no; a robber? — no; a mur- derer ? — no ; they satiated all their malignity in calling him " an informer." Disputes between manufacturers and their artisans or workmen were very rarely the subject of magisterial inves- tigation. There was, however, one case disposed of by me in which a comparison was instituted of a most extraor- dinary nature. A journeyman summoned an employer for abruptly dismissing him, without giving him, according to the usage of the trade, " a week's notice or a week's wages." I shall not mention the name, residence, or trade of the defendant; but I must say that his countenance exhibited the greatest obliquity of vision that I ever observed in a human face. All the trite phrases com- monly applied to squints would fail adequately to describe the tendency of his eyes to avoid seeing the same object at the same time. He admitted having summarily discharged the workman, and alleged that the complainant had totally spoiled an article which he had been directed to make in a hexagon form, and conformable to a pattern supplied, and had produced a piece of work in which shape and pro- portion had been totally disregarded. The complainant insisted that the work had been properly done, and in complete conformity with the model, and he asked why it was not produced, so that I might judge, by viewing it, whether it deserved to be condemned as crooked and shapeless. I suggested a postponement of the case, and Miscellaneous Summonses . 117 the production of the condemned article. The defendant, who was rather excited, replied, "Your worship, I was so vexed when it was brought in, that I threw it out of the window of the finishing room into the yard, and it was smashed to pieces, but I am ready to swear, in this or any other court, that it was as crooked as the two eyes in my head.'9 The laugh in which I indulged, at hearing this comparison, was lost in the risibility of all present. I suggested that the parties might come to an understand- ing, and that the complainant might be afforded another opportunity of making an article perfectly conformable to the pattern, and without any resemblance to anything else. This was agreed to, and they departed reconciled. CHAPTER XIII. DOGS — WHIPPING YOUNG THIEVES — GARDEN ROB- BERS REFORMATORIES — APOLOGIES FOR VIO- LENCE— TRESPASSERS ON A NUNNERY. The statute, passed since my retirement, to enforce and regulate the registration of dogs, has relieved the magis- trates from having to dispose, in the course of each year, of some hundreds of summonses against the owners, or reputed owners of dogs which were found " roaming at large on the public thoroughfare, without log or muzzle." In my time, I never found a summons in reference to a dog, at the instance of a constable, entered indiscriminately with other complaints. If the first case was a canine one, I might feel assured that it would be followed by forty or fifty others of the same description, and that the dogs would monopolise the day. It appeared to me that the police were occasionally directed to give special attention, for two or three days, to the unlogged and unmuzzled curs, and thus produce what our clerks used to term "a dog board." The appearance of a male defendant was extremely rare. The persons complained of were gener- ally working tradesmen or labourers, who, on receiving a summons, directed the wife to attend the court, as they could not afford to lose their time. When a defendant was called, his female substitute, eager to have the first tt Dogs. 1 19 word, answered to 'the man's name; but what she said referred to the animal. A mere listener might imagine that the defendants were either guilty of some atrocious offences, or were subjected, unheard and untried, to a fear- ful, fatal doom ; for instance — " Call James Foley ." €t He's drounded, yer worship, we drounded him ofl Wood Quay, the very evening that we got the summons, he was'nt logged or muzzled, but he is dead now, and the policeman 'ill never see him again." " You are fined two and sixpence/' Oh ! yer worship, that's very hard, and he dead." Call Peter Casey." He's hung, sir; he was very owld and stupid, and had'nt a tooth in his head, so we hung him, not to be bother'd with him any more," &c. Call Patrick Dempsey." Plaze yer worship, he's dead, and if the polisman knew him, he'll know that he's dead. We had him hung and got him skinned, and I have his skin here to show you." Perhaps another case would disclose the appalling fact, that Denis Reilly was " pisened by a young doctor that we got to sponge his nose with some Prooshun stuff, and it kilt him." Such calamities have been averted from the Foleys, Caseys, Dempseys, and Reillys of the present time, and the magistrates have been relieved from having to listen to such murderous details from the lips of the gentler sex by the magical effect of canine registration. WHIPPING YOUNG THIEVES. In a few years after my appointment, a statute passed authorising the infliction of corporal punishment on boys « 120 Gleanings and Reminiscences. convicted of thieving. The Act empowered us to order the offender to be flogged, if we were of opinion that his age did not exceed fourteen years. There was a lad named Lowry, who was an inveterate thief, and who received five or six castigations by my directions. The instrument employed was a birch rod, with which a constable gave the delinquent six heavy lashes. As soon as Lowry appeared before me, he seemed to disregard the details of the charge preferred. There were no protestations of in- nocence, no admissions of guilt; but the moment he entered, he commenced the loud and continued assertion, "I'm beyant fourteen, Fm beyant fourteen." On each occasion I differed from the opinion so forcibly enunciated, and ordered the application of the birchen correction. Finally, he withdrew from my quarter, and restricted his delinquencies to the B and C divisions. I was informed that he expressed his disgust at my decisions by saying — " If I was to live until I got as grey as the owld rascal himself, he'd still insist that I was not beyant four- teen." One day there were a number of packages lying in a heap on the floor of a shop in Parliament Street, and rather near the entrance. A label upon each stated the contents to be three pounds of tea, of the finest quality, offered by the proprietor of " The Golden Teapot " to his respected customers, at the unprecedented low price of seven shillings. The parcels were covered with bright tin foil, and had on each end a large seal in red wax. A detective passing at the opposite side of the street observed a boy stoop forward, just inside the door, and possess himself of one of the packages of " splendid tea/' The young thief was seized at once and brought before me, in about five minutes after he had stolen the article. I Whipping Young Thieves. 121 ordered him to be taken down stairs, to have six lashes administered, and to be discharged. I then directed the office messenger to run over to the establishment, and tell them to send some person to claim the property. On his return he said that the people were making fun of him, and laughing at the result of the young thief s attempt. I then raised one of the seals slightly with an office knife, and found that the parcel was a dummy, made up for show, and that the contents were sawdust. I told the messenger, when I had closed the seal with another touch of wax, to take it down and give it to the delinquent on his departure, as the owners had not claimed the property. The whipping was just over, and the sufferer issued forth, having under his arm the cause of his punishment, and for which it was to become his consolation. I was stand- ing at the window, and just as he passed the external rails, he stopped suddenly, and proceeded to examine the package. Instantly he tore the cover, and flung up the contents. The pain of the flogging seemed to return with augmented force, and he screamed forth the most vitupera- tive comments on my decision. " It wasn't tay at all. I was beat for sawdust, and there's no law for that. I'll get a letter wrote to the Lord Leftennant, you owld rascal, and he'll larn you the differ between sawdust and tay." Inspector O'Connor told me that the case was very fully discussed amongst the young thieves, and that the general conclusion was, " not to be too ready to steal parcels out of shops, without knowing what was inside of them." GARDEN ROBBERS. My immediate predecessors generally resided in Dublin, and they were considered by the proprietors of orchards and gardens in the rural portion of the district, as too 122 Gleanings and Reminiscences. lenient to depredators of fruit and vegetables. At the time of my appointment, there was no safety for such crops unless they were closely watched, and during the night, the discharge of firearms, to deter marauders, was almost continuous in Dolphin's Barn, Kilmainham, Har- old's Cross, and Crumlin. Any cessation of strict vigi- lance was certain to produce consequences which might be fairly termed calamitous to those whose fruits and vegetables were depended on for the maintenance of their families. There were many persons who followed garden robbing as their avocation, and the injuries inflicted by them frequently extended to the succeeding year. If they feared interruption, they would tear or cut the branches of the larger fruits, and entire gooseberry and currant bushes would be abstracted, to be picked at leisure. Small fines or short imprisonments had totally failed to check such offences. At the time to which I refer, I re- sided at Roundtown, and although I had gardens and a fine vinery there, they were never spoliated, so that in adopting towards fruit-stealers stronger measures than they had previously experienced, I was not actuated by any personal feeling. However, I had the birch very liberally used amongst the boys, and the more mature offenders were, when convicted by me, deprived of any opportunity for continuing their depredations on the grow- ing or ripening productions of the season. Personal motives were, nevertheless, sometimes ascribed to me, even by those who were highly pleased with my decisions. A very extensive orchard and garden at Harold's Cross were entered by three habitual thieves, and they were cap- tured whilst hastily filling two sacks with the choicest apples, pears, apricots, &c. They had taken the sacks from premises adjoining, and I convicted them of two Garden Robbers. 123 distinct offences. Each was sent for four months to Kil- mainham, with hard labour. Mr. Cox was engaged in drawing the informations and committals, when the pro- prietor exclaimed, in a tone of the highest gratification, " Oh ! Mr. Cox, is it not a blessing from God that we have now got a magistrate who has a garden of his own ?" Two musicians belonging to a regimental band were observed one night to cross a wall at Inchicore, into a garden abounding with every description of choice fruit. The police were quietly apprised of the offence, and the delinquents were apprehended coming out of the premises precisely at the place where they had entered. They were both Germans. Their pockets were crammed, and each had a handkerchief containing as much as could be bundled in it. They had not taken a peach, apricot, or plum ; even the pears and apples were disregarded ; and the produce of their daring raid consisted entirely of onions. I committed them for a week, and they were dismissed from the service by the regimental authorities. REFORMATORIES. Previous to my retirement from magisterial duty, the offence of fruit-stealing had greatly diminished, and I believe that it does not now attain one-tenth of its former frequency. When the magistrates were empowered to send juvenile thieves to reformatories, corporal punish- ment ceased to be administered. I preferred having a boy flogged and discharged to sending him to prison, to be kept, at the public expense, in baneful associations. As soon, however, as a reformatory became available, I trans- mitted the juvenile offenders, after a few days' imprison- ment, to the care and instruction which, in all those insti- tutions, have produced most beneficial results. My first 124 Gleanings and Reminiscences. consignment to Glencree Reformatory was made under circumstances rather extraordinary. I was invited by my kind and valued friend, the late Mr. George Evans, of Portrane, to spend a week at his hospitable mansion. Arrangements were made by me with my colleagues to admit of my absence for that time, and that I should take the duty on the Monday of the suc- ceeding week. Accordingly, I came to Dublin from Donabate by an early train, and commenced the custody cases about ten o'clock, a.m. A constable prosecuted a lad whom he had met on Rathmines Road about four o'clock on that morning, carrying a coarse bath-sheet, in which two check shirts, three pairs of cotton socks, and a washing waistcoat were wrapped. The prisoner was charged with having those articles in his possession, they being " reasonably suspected of having been stolen or un- lawfully obtained." I called on the prisoner to account to my satisfaction how he came by them. He declined any explanation, and produced a laugh in court by saying "that I would know time enough/' I ordered him to be imprisoned for a week, and then to be transmitted to Glencree for three years. On my return home to Round- town in the evening, I was told that my bath-sheet, night- shirts, &c, had been stolen on the previous night from a bleaching-line in the back yard, over the wall of which my first envoy to Glencree had managed to clamber. The articles did not remain long in the police store. APOLOGIES FOR VIOLENCE. Soon after my appointment to office, an election oc- curred, and the city of Dublin was keenly contested. I received an order to proceed, on the nomination day, to Green Street, to take charge of the civil force there, and to Apologies for Violence. 125 report myself to the returning officer, the High Sheriff. I had consequently, in my official capacity, to present my- self to my own brother, the late Joshua Porter, and I con- tinued during the election, which was protracted as long as the law allowed, ready to quell any riotous demonstra- tion. My brother was not fortunate enough to please all parties. His arrangements of booths and selection of de- puties were denounced as having been made in a partial spirit, and the mob vociferously expressed an anxiety to be actuated in their treatment of him by the greatest of Christian virtues, for they unanimously agreed that it would be a " charity " to pelt him, if any opportunity offered to make a liberal subscription of stones for the purpose. He was escorted each day to and from the court-house by a strong body of police, and he remained in it until the termination of the proceedings in the even- ings. There was usually, during the election, a troop of hussars stationed in Halston Street, at the rere of New- gate, and a party of police was distributed between them and King Street, North. One afternoon, just at twilight, I walked out of the court-house, and as soon as I got to the steps, a crowd in King Street uttered a yell of ani- mosity, and sent a volley of stones at me. I was not struck by any of the missiles. The police moved towards the mob, and the latter receded a few yards, but remained together. I walked towards them, and loudly informed them, that if they renewed their attack, I had the " Riot Act" in my pocket, and would instantly read it, and rep y by a discharge of carbine bullets. There was no further demonstration on their part, and I returned to the court- bouse. In a few minutes, I was departing for home, when I was accosted by a carman named Smith. He asked me, " Would I take a covered car ? " and I replied 126 Gleanings and Reminiscences. in the affirmative. He brought me home; and on dis- charging him, he said that the people had directed him to try " if he could get to say two or three words to me." He then conveyed to me the most extraordinary apology that could emanate from a mob for an attempted outrage. " Yer worship, I was tpuld to tell you that there wasn't a man or boy among them would throw anything at you or any other of yer magistrates, but whin you came out on the steps, in the dusk of the evening, they really thought that you were The High Sheriff." I may mention that being in London in 1849, on official business, I was invited to dine at the Mansion House at an entertainment given by the Lord Mayor of that year (Sir James Duke) to the judicial authorities, metropolitan magistrates, &c. I had the honour to sit beside Chief Baron Pollock, and in conversation with him and two or three others in my proximity, I narrated the preceding anecdote. He said that the apology tendered to me was not more ridiculous or absurd than one which had been offered by some of those engaged in the " No Popery" riots of 1780, connected with the name of Lord George Gordon. There was a house in Charles Street, from the precincts of which morality was totally estranged, and it was thoroughly devastated by a furious mob. Some of those concerned in wrecking it were subsequently arrested, tried and convicted of the offence. When brought forward for sentence, the judge gave them to understand that the reputation of the premises afforded no justifica- tion for their violence, nor could it be alledged in mitiga- tion of their punishment. Two or three of them exclaimed, " that if they had known what the house really was, they would never have attacked it; but they had been told, and fully believed, that it was a Nunnery" Trespassers on a Nunnery. 127 TRESPASSERS ON A NUNNERY. In twelve or eighteen months after the festive occasion to to which I have referred, I accompanied a friend to visit two of his daughters, who were pupils at the Loretto Convent, Rathfarnham. Mrs. Ball, the aged and respected Super- ioress, gave us a very kind reception. We were conducted through the gardens and conservatories. On returning to the house, we were plentifully served with refreshments. In the course of conversation, my friend expressed his regret that so much hostile feeling should exist against conventual institutions. I remarked that it was not at all so intense as it had been in the previous century, when in London the mere reputation of a house being a nun- nery was considered by the populace as fully sufficient to justify its destruction. To the best of my recollection, the Superioress observed — " I hope that those who enter- tained such hostile feelings lived long enough to repent of them. I think that the various classes of society are coming to a better understanding, and I expect great pro- gressive improvement. Here we have not suffered the slightest annoyance for more than thirty years, and the only matter of which we had to complain was not very serious. Shortly after this establishment was founded, two young fellows, who resided in the neighbourhood, formed a design to entice two very handsome and rich young ladies to elope with them. They provided ladders, climbed into the trees which overhung the wall, dropped notes at the feet of the lasses, and were for a time inces- sant in their amatory pursuit. However, a communica- tion with the guardian of one and the parents of the other, and the consequent authoritative expostulations, produced a satisfactory effect. They promised to relinquish their 128 Gleanings and Reminiscences. project, and as a token of their sincerity, sent us their ladders. I believe they repented of having given us any trouble, and they implicitly kept their promise. One of them is now a colonel in the army, and the other is a magistrate of police. Mr. Porter, let me request you to have some more fruit and another glass of wine." I admired the kind and forgiving sentiments of the Su- perioress, and felt very grateful for her courteous hospi- tality, but I had no idle curiosity to know the names of the two ladder lads to whom her observations referred. CHAPTER XIV, TERRY DRISCOLL's FICTION BRIDGET LAFFAN — SAILORS FISHER. I shall now revert to magisterial reminiscences, and notice an anecdote originally published in the Warder newspaper, as a portion of a letter signed " Terry Driscoll," which was the nom deplume of a well-known facetious and imaginative contributor named Jackson. It purports to be a report of observations addressed by me to a female who was repeatedly charged with being "drunk and dis- orderly." It states that Mr. Porter said to the delinquent that her frequent intoxication was always accompanied with indecent language and personal violence, so as to render her a public nuisance and a plague to the police. He then adjudged her, in default of solvent security for her good behaviour, to be committed for one calendar month, which time should be sufficient to bring her to a proper state of reflection on the past, and a disposition to reform her habits, and to curse Whisky. To this she is represented to have replied, " That she had no fault to find with Whisky, nor would she ever curse it, but from the bottom of her heart she could wish lad luck to Porter.'9 To this anecdote several English periodicals have afforded extensive publicity, and I have merely to say that it is altogether a fiction. K 130 Gleanings and Reminiscences. rB RID GET LAFFAN. There is, I believe, still living in Dublin, a woman named Bridget Laffan. I would readily wager that since 1 84 1 she has been the subject of more than two thou- sand committals, in which drunkenness, violence, abusive language, indecent expressions or behaviour, and occa- sional mendicancy, constituted the offences. Shortly before I retired, she was brought before me charged with intoxication, and with three distinct assaults; one being on a constable in the execution of his duty. I told her, the cases having been fully proved, that on each 6i the assaults she should go to prison, with hard labor, for two months, which would relieve the public and the police for the next half year from one who had become an into- lerable pest and disgrace to the community. When I directed her to be removed, she exclaimed that "she had got no fair play, and had not been allowed to say a word for herself." I then said that she was at liberty to speak, if it occurred to her that there was any favorable circum- stance in her case either as a defence or mitigation. Her reply was short and peculiarly argumentative. " It 's an unrasonable thing to sind me to Grangegor- man for six months, and to call me a pest and disgrace to the 'varsal world. If it wasn't for roe and the likes of me, that gets a bit disorderly whin we have a drop, and kicks up ructions now and then, there ud be very little call for polis magistrates and polismen, or such varmint. It's creatures like me that 's yer best friends, and keeps the bread in yer mouths, and all we get for it is jailing and impudence." Sailors. 131 SAILORS. During* the considerable time in which I discharged magisterial duties at the Head Office and also at Kings- town, I cannot recollect that more than five or six charges were preferred before me against sailors. When the Ajax was stationed at the latter place one of the crew stole some clothes and other articles from several of his shipmates. The thief was detected on shore with some of the property in his possession, and was summarily convicted before me, and imprisoned, with hard labor, for six months. I notice this case on account of the discontent which, I was cre- dibly informed, the treatment of the delinquent produced amongst the crew. It is generally believed that the aboli- tion of corporal punishment was anxiously desired by our sailors ; but in reference to the instance of thieving which was disposed of by me, it was regarded on board the ship as almost tantamount to the forgiveness of the delinquent. The opinion was most freely expressed that the fellow should have been sent on board, tried by court-martial, and flogged. It was the only offence of a mean and dis- graceful nature that Lever. knew to be charged against a blue-jacket. About twenty years have elapsed since " La Hogue" frigate came into Kingstown. One of the crew, as fine- looking a young man as ever I saw, came on shore and indulged too freely in strong potations. It required two or three constables to effect his capture and lodgment in the station-house. Next morning he was brought up before me, and the circumstances of his intoxication and resistance were in course of statement by one of his captors, who occupied the witness box, whilst the prisoner 132 Gleanings and Reminiscences. stood directly opposite to the bench, with the ship's corporal, who had been sent ashore to look after him, standing close beside him. I said to the sailor, " If you wish to put any question to the constable, you are at liberty to do so, and if you feel disposed to say anything for yourself, I am ready and willing to hear you." He stood silent and downcast, when the ship's corporal nudged him and said quite aloud, " Speak up for yourself like a man, the magistrate is a good gentleman and is ready to hear you." The prisoner replied in a desponding, but perfectly audible tone, " It 's no use, that fellow (pointing to the policeman) will swear anything, and the old chap will believe him." There was loud and general laughter at the estimate formed by the tar of the constable and of the magistrate. I discharged him, without pre- judice to informations and a warrant, and told the ship's corporal that the warrant should not be sent on board. T consequently restricted the sailor to remain in his vessel during her stay at Kingstown, which was for about another week. From the same ship a sailor came ashore attired in his best clothes and with seven pounds in his pocket. He was decoyed into a disreputable place, where, by the administration of whisky and snuff, he was rendered insensible. A detective observed a woman leaving the house, and carrying a bundle. He allowed her to proceed to the railway terminus, at the entrance of which he arrested her. The bundle contained the seaman's clothes, and the female searcher got a five pound note and two sovereigns secreted in the culprit's chignon. The police did not inform the sailor of the clothes and money having been found. They dressed him in some old ill-fitting habili- ments, and he looked most lubberly in his attire, and also Fisher. 133 deeply dejected at the supposed loss of his clothes and cash. His sadness was at once dissipated by the contents of the bundle being produced, and the bank-note and sovereigns completed the restoration of his spirits. There was, however, one small article missing, and in reference to it he made an earnest request of me, and accompanied it with an alluring offer, in the following terms : — t€ Your honor, my clothes are all here and my money is safe too. I only miss a little blue hankecher with white spots, I had it from mother when we last parted ; and it's dog's usage I Ml get from her if I haven't it at our next meeting. If you send out a smart chap or two in search of it, I think it will be easily got, and if it is, I'm d d but I '11 stand anything that you and your people choose to call for, all round." A summary conviction, with six months imprisonment, of the woman with whom the clothes and money were detected, terminated the proceeding. The kerchief was not sought for, and we had "all round" to content ourselves without the proffered libations. FISHER. One of the most extraordinary characters of the many who came under my frequent magisterial notice, was a man named Fisher. He was the most inveterate and incor- rigible drunkard that was to be found in Dublin, perhaps I might truly say, in the Empire. He had been educated, as I heard, in Stockholm, and acquired a proficiency in several European languages. He had also considerable classical attainments. His intemperance had ruined his commercial interests, and precluded his employment by others, even in very subordinate capacities. Occasionally he would be taken and kept almost as a prisoner in the 134 Gleanings and Reminiscences. concerns of an extensive timber merchant, arranging with the Norwegian or Danish people engaged in the delivery of cargoes. A suit of clothes and a pound or two would be thus acquired, but in a few minutes after his liberation he would assuredly be found in street or lane, hall or entry, dead drunk. He was never violent, abusive, blasphemous, or indecent, and as his senses returned, he became courteous and submissive. By the police he was generally pitied, and when a constable was obliged to state that he found " Mr. Fisher " drunk on a thoroughfare, he almost invariably added that he was very quiet. The magistrates were not severe on the wretched creature, and in general, the ruling in reference to him was deferred until the close of their sitting, (four o'clock,) and then the charge sheet was marked, " Dismissed with a caution." If there happened to be a paucity of cases, we were not disinclined to allow Fisher to address the bench, and state the grounds on which he expected or solicited exemption from punishment. He never "worshipped" us, but invariably named the magistrate, with the prefix of " My dear/' I recollect a short speech having been made by him before myself, which excited my surprise and admira- tion from its purity of diction and the combination of interesting ideas it evinced. The charge against him was " Drunk on a public thoroughfare," and the constable stated that he found Mr. Fisher lying on the steps of a hall-door in Peter Street, fast asleep, and having been aroused, he was very drunk, but perfectly quiet. " My dear Mr. Porter," said the prisoner, " I acknow- ledge and regret my lapse from propriety — • Facilis descensus Averai.' I have, however, been severely punished. I reclined on Fisher. 135 the steps where your constable found me, and immediately I sank into a slumber which, had it lasted for ever, would have afforded me a blissful immortality. Sweet visions of the past, retrospections of youthful joys, untainted by the errors and cares of the present, monopolised my imagination. A mother's lips were pressed to mine. A father's smile gladdened my heart. I had clasped a sister's hand, and a brother's arm encircled my neck. The home of my childhood arose before me, and the gar- den, with which my earliest recollections were associated, appeared in luxuriant, vernal beauty. The strong hand of your officer, firmly but not rudely applied, dispelled the delightful scene in which I was entranced, and recalled me to the sad reality of captivity and degradation. Have I not already suffered enough to justify the clemency which I implore ? '' The wretched man was cautioned and dis- charged. Having been brought before me on four successive mornings, I told him that I would not permit his coming so frequently, and that I adjudged him to pay a shilling, or to be confined for twenty-four hours. Thereupon he replied, " I regret, my dear Mr. Porter, that on this occa- sion you do not manifest your usual equanimity. I ac- knowledge my fault, but I am not worse to-day than I was yesterday or any of the previous days. Moreover, I must respectfully submit that you are greatly mistaken in your remarks as to my coming so often. I never came before you or any magistrate. I was always brought. If the police will leave me as they find me, I shall never complain of their want of attention, nor shall I ever in- trude on your presence. Strike off that paltry shilling, and let me depart once more." I told the constable to remove the prisoner, upon which he exclaimed, " If you 136 Gleanings and Reminiscences. are obdurate, and insist on marking a penalty, put five shillings on the sheet. It will look more respectable, and there is just the same chance of its payment." Fisher continued a hopeless, persistent drunkard. With natural talents of no mean order, and with educational acquirements from which great and varied advantages might be expected, he lived despised and ridiculed, and afforded to those under whose occasional observation he came, a melancholy but certain proof that when a man's habits render him his own enemy, he becomes incapable of deriving any benefit from the friendship of others. On a winter's night in, I believe, 1856, Fisher betook himself to a limekiln in Luke Street. He lay down too near the edge and fell asleep, never to awake again in this world. Suffocated by the fumes of the kiln, his corpse, after an inquest and verdict of " accidental death," was consigned to a pauper's coffin, and was ultimately made a subject for anatomical demonstration. His fate was truly melancholy, but some salutary reflections may be derived from contem- plating the final consequences of habitual and unrestrained intemperance. \/\ r\ /n / CHAPTER XV. A DUPER DUPED. I shall now proceed to relate a magisterial reminiscence in which the only fictions are the names of the parties, and I trust that at the termination of the narrative, my readers will agree in the moral which I shall attempt to deduce, that the person who commences a cheating game is not to be pitied, if, at the close, he finds himself the only loser. Twenty-five years have elapsed since, in an aristo- cratic family, in a central county of Ireland, a young woman was residing in a capacity rather difficult to define. She was somewhat above a menial and below a governess, neither the companion of her employers nor the associate of the servants. Her educational attainments were very limited, and her industrial power was of little value, for she was of small frame and delicate constitution. The care of two children was deputed to her, and all services necessary for their health, comfort, instruction, correction, or amusement were expected from Elizabeth Jones. She had enough to do, but she did not think so. Her life was monotonous, her tastes were not congenial to the circumstances and persons amongst whom she was placed. A native of Wales, far from her kindred, and prevented by her position from forming, amongst her own sex, a friend- ship, or even an acquaintance to which she could attach 138 Gleanings and Reminiscences. any value, her only resource was to fall in love, — and a few casual attentions from an officer of constabulary quite overcame poor Elizabeth Jones. " He dazzled her eyes, he bewilder'd her brain, He caught her affections so light and so vain." He perceived that he was loved, and pretended a recip- rocal feeling. He promised, and vowed, and swore that she should be his wife, and he deceived her. Richard Gilmore was sorely annoyed when Elizabeth Jones suggested very strong reasons for the immediate observance of his solemn promise of marriage; but he refused compliance, and sought to convince her that their union would only ruin him without saving her. She addressed her remonstrances to deaf ears. Marriage was out of the question, and she found herself a ruined, friend- less creature, with the certainty of a speedy and disgraceful expulsion from the house in which she had for some years humbly earned her subsistence. However, she vented no reproaches ; she only upbraided with a tear, and communi- cated her determination to depart and carry her sorrows to some distant locality. Of this intention Richard fully approved ; and he congratulated himself on the prospect of being so soon delivered from any future annoyance on the part of Elizabeth Jones. She fixed the time for leaving her situation, and requested a last interview with Mr. Gilmore, at an early hour, before the inmates of the house were stirring. Richard was punctual. She opened a writing-desk, and informed him that she had come to the resolution of releasing him from every promise on his part, from every claim which she could advance then or at any future time, on one condition : she only required his written pledge, upon his honor as an officer and a gentle- A Duper duped. 139 man, that be would never seek to renew his acquaintance with her, or even pretend to know her if they met. To this he joyfully acceded, and placed the required document in her hands ; but his curiosity induced him to enquire as to her motive in seeking such a solemn written undertaking. " Richard Gilmore," she said, " I was prostrated by acute and increasing misery, but a door of escape from total disgrace and destruction has been opened. I can never be happy, but I may have some opportunity for reflection, and ultimately, my mind may become some- what tranquil. I shall soon be a mother. I am about to depart from Ireland for ever, and shall fix my residence in a retired part of England, and there, in the garb and under the designation of a widow, I shall devote myself to the care of the child of whom you are father, but for whom, I only insist and have stipulated with you, that you shall never disgrace your offspring by disclosing its paternity, and never remind me by your presence of the degradation to which, by your falsehood, I have been reduced. " " But," said Gilmore, " your means are scanty, and for a time you must be incapable of any industrial pursuit or exertion. I can give you some pecuniary assistance ; it is my duty to do all I can to alleviate your sufferings. I deserve your reproaches, and would gladly do anything to prove that I am not so utterly heartless as you think me." " No, Richard Gilmore ; not a farthing would I receive from you, if it were to save me from starvation. To you I owe my ruin, but with you I have no further communi- cation ; and I shall never allow you to think that I have compromised my wrongs for money, or taken a price for my character. Moreover, I may now tell you that I shall not want your assistance ; and as I feel that you dare not break your written undertaking, you may read this/' 140 Gleanings and Reminiscences. She placed in his hands a letter, of which the following is a copy, substituting fictitious names : — " Abergavenny, June 14th, 1847. " Miss Elizabeth Jones, " Madame, I hasten to apprize you of the death of your lamented aunt, Miss Rebecca Jones, who expired yesterday morning, after a very short indisposition. The respectable deceased applied for my professional assistance about three weeks since, in the settlement of her worldly affairs. For some years she had lived in great seclusion, and was extremely averse to any communication with your brother ; she would never see his wife. In fact, her relatives seem to have been disliked in proportion to the proximity of their residence ; and it is to your long absence from her that I ascribe the preference which she has evinced towards you, on which I offer you my respectful congratulations. " By your aunt's will (which is in my possession) she has devised to you several freehold interests in and adjacent to this town, producing about ^300 per annum; she has also bequeathed to you ^2,000 secured by mortgage on the property of Mr. Deacon, of Aberystwith, and a bond of Mr. Edmond Morgan, of Cardiff, for ;£ 1,100. " I hope, Madame, you will feel that in the capacity of your respected relative's confidential adviser I have not been hostile or even indifferent to your interests ; and I beg to assure you that, if your affairs are entrusted to my care, I shall make every exertion to justify the preference that I respectfully solicit. " I have the honour to be, Madame, " Your obedient, humble servant, " David Wynne, Solicitor, " PS. — Mrs. Wynne desires me to convey, with her respects, a request that, if you visit Abergavenny, you will honor her and me by becoming our guest during your stay." "Good heavens!" exclaimed Richard Gilmore, "how delighted I am, my dearest Lizzie, at your good fortune. I shall fully and faithfully observe my pledge ; but before we part, consider well whether you should not use your altered circumstances for your own comfort, for the com- plete prevention of every future pain and difficulty, and above all, for the sake of your unborn offspring. If I A Duper duped. 141 could, without absolute ruin, have redeemed the promise which my passion produced, you should never have had occasion to upbraid me. I loved you fondly, dearly; and it is in your power to give me an opportunity of proving, whilst we live, a faithful and devoted husband." u Ah no ! " said Elizabeth, a our marriage could never be happy; we would be mutually miserable. You would never respect her whom, in her supposed poverty, you scorned ; and our union now would be as much the sub- ject of scandalous comment as if you wedded me this day openly at the church of Castle — »> " If you marry me, my darling Lizzy, I shall adopt means to prevent exposure, or even suspicion. You shall leave this place immediately, go up to Dublin, and take a lodging in one of the small city parishes, where few Pro- testants reside. I shall obtain leave of absence, follow you to Dublin, take out a licence, and after a short stay I shall return and effect an exchange to a remote county, where I can present you to society as my wife, without any suspicion being entertained that our union has been too recent for your reputation. There your child can be born without any stain on its birth, or any cloud on its future prospects. Come, Lizzy dear, forget and forgive ; I am still your own fond Richard/' He seized her hand, her struggle was slight, his arm encircled her waist, and on her lips he imprinted the seal of his future truth and of her present forgiveness. In two days Elizabeth Jones was lodging in Nicholas Street, Dublin, and in about a week Richard Gilmore was married to her in the church of St. Nicholas. The wedding was very private and quiet, the only witnesses being the man in whose house they lodged, his wife, and two young persons whose attendance they procured. 142 Gleanings and Reminiscences. Three or four days elapsed, and Richard Gilmore ac- costed his bride. " Lizzy," he said, " I cannot delay my return to duty beyond another Veek. I have already made application for an exchange ; but before I return to the country, I think it would be well if I went over to Wales and regulated the future receipt of your rents, and also ascertained how the money due by Deacon and Morgan is circumstanced. If they pay five per cent, punctually, we shall be very comfortable. I have calcu- lated that, with my pay, we shall have near ^doo a-year. I shall buy a nice jaunting-car and " " You need not trouble yourself, Richard," said Mrs. Gilmore, very solemnly, "about my property in Wales. In fact, I have just taken a leaf out of your own book, and if the perusal is disagreeable, it is not to me that the authorship should be imputed. You made me a promise of marriage, you broke your word, and refused to save me from disgrace and misery. I procured a letter to be written about property that never existed, and made you believe that it was your interest to marry her whom your affection or sense of honor did not suffice to shield from destruction." "You infernal Jezebel! you lying profligate! debased and degraded you shall be. I shall never live another hour with you. I shall never give a farthing to save you or your brat from starvation." " I thank you, Mr. Gilmore, for myself and my coming brat. Thank heaven, you cannot say my bastard. You know what course it best answers you to take, but—-" Richard Gilmore was gone. Presently he was heard descending the stairs, and in a few minutes more the landlady announced to Mrs. Gilmore that her husband A Duper duped. 143 had departed, having first paid the lodging rent for the coming week, and having relinquished any further tenancy. Mrs. Gilmore heard this intelligence with surprising calmness, and replied by informing the landlady of Mr. Gilmore's position, and of the place where he was sta- tioned ; adding that she would stay for the time for which the rent was paid, and that then, when she would be really destitute, she would go to the workhouse. She imparted a good deal of confidence to the landlady, whom we shall name Mrs. Canavan, and who, seeing that she would not lose anything, gave Mrs. Gilmore her utmost sympathy. Mrs. Canavan was a fair specimen of human nature; for we never refuse our sympathy to our unfortunate fellow-crea- tures when we are not asked for anything more. In another week Mrs. Gilmore proceeded to the South Dublin Union Workhouse, and there informed the admis- sion committee that her husband was a constabulary officer ; that his income was about double the reality ; that he had some private property and great expectations ; and that she, on the eve of her accouchement, was deserted by her husband, and compelled to become an inmate of the workhouse. The committee admitted the applicant, registered the admission, and brought the case before the Board of Guardians on the following Thursday, when they obtained a ready sanction to prosecute Mr. Gilmore for deserting his wife, and leaving her, as a pauper, chargeable on the rates. A summons bearing my signature issued, and the constabulary officer appeared at the police-court. The marriage was proved, as were the circumstances of the desertion. On the part of the Guardians a demand was made for the immediate committal of the delinquent, to be imprisoned, with hard labor for three months. Richard 144 Gleanings and Reminiscences. Gilmore escaped a formal conviction by paying the ex- penses already incurred, and undertaking to allow twenty shillings weekly for his wife's maintenance. All parties left the police-court ; but in an hour or two after the case had been heard, Richard Gilmore returned and applied to me to have Elizabeth Jones, calling herself Gilmore, ap- prehended on a charge of bigamy. He alleged that she had been married in Wales about four years previous to her marriage with him, and that her husband, Thomas Jones, was still living. His assertions were made on statements which he had received from others. He had no legal evidence of the charge, and I refused to issue a warrant for the apprehension of the alleged bigamist, but he determined to persist in the accusation. He seized on his wife in the public street, and gave her into the custody of a constable on a charge of felony. On the following morning he stated on oath that he had been informed, and fully believed, that the prisoner had been married to one Thomas Jones in a parish church near Carnarvon ; that said Thomas was still living; and he further swore to the marriage of the prisoner with himself in the city of Dublin. He asked for a remand, and stated that he expected to produce witnesses from Wales to prove his charge. I remanded the accused for six days, and Richard left Dublin by the next Holyhead packet in quest of evidence to con- vict his wife. Before she wis removed to prison she sent to me a short note, in which she implored me to direct that no person should be permitted to see her in the prison unless at her own request; and further, that on the day for resuming the investigation, she should be placed amongst a number of females, and that the witnesses should be required to identify her from amongst the others. I considered those requests to be fair and reason- A Duper duped. 145 able, and directed that they should be complied with. Richard Gilmore returned to Dublin the day before the resumption of the case. He brought over two witnesses, and sought at the prison to give them a view of the accused, but they were denied admittance. On the ap- pointed day Elizabeth Gilmore was brought from the prison, and placed in the carriage-court with about a dozen of other females, amongst whom was Mrs. Canavan, her Nicholas Street landlady, who manifested great interest in her sufferings, and great indignation at Richard Gilmore's attempt to transport an innocent creature whom he had ▼owed to love and cherish. Without separating the prisoner from the other women, I proceeded to swear the first witness, one William Jones, who stated that he was a parish clerk of some unpronounceable place in Wales ; that he remembered the marriage of Thomas Jones and Elizabeth Jones, and he produced the registry ; he recol- lected the matter very distinctly, the more so from the parties being both of the same name as himself. I directed him to look at the women present, and to point out the one whom he had seen married at the time mentioned in the registry if she was amongst them. Mr. Jones walked to the group, viewed all the women, and very deliberately placing his hand on Mrs. Canavan's shoulder, identified her as the culprit. He was instantly electrified by a burst of abuse, delivered in an accent acquired much nearer to Patrick Street than to Penmanmawr. Mrs. Canavan's vocabulary was too copious to be select. I do not think that I could have restrained her, and I admit that I allowed her a latitude from which I derived some amusement. She descanted on the propriety of "cropping the ears"* of perjured parish clerks, but gave « * Cropping the ears was in former times a punishment for perjury. L 146 Gleanings and Reminiscences. up that idea as, on full consideration, it appeared too mild a treatment for the Welshman. She proceeded to assure him, that there was not a gaol in Ireland that would refuse him admission ; and that in no place of such a description could he meet with anyone worse than him- self. She appealed to my benevolent tendencies to have the Welsh fellow transported at once, upon the grounds that it would be "a charity;" and she descanted on the physiological defect in such a parish clerk having been born without handcuffs, suggesting an artificial amend- ment of the natural deficiency. She thanked Mr. Jones for the pleasant news, that she had one husband in Dublin and another in Wales, and assured him that he might expect some very particular attentions from the Dublin one in acknowledgment of his testimony. " And still she talked, and still the wonder spread, That one small tongue could utter all she said/' The parish clerk was overwhelmed with confusion, but Richard Gilmore persisted in his charge, and demanded the examination of his remaining witness. Accordingly, a Mrs. Edwards was sworn. She deposed that the Thomas Jones mentioned in the registry was her brother. She had not been present at the marriage, but was satis- fied that her brother was living, for she had seen him at Swansea about a month previous, at which time he was proceeding to America as supercargo in a merchant vessel. On further examination, she stated that she was aware that Thomas and Elizabeth Jones had separated within the last two years, and this put an end to the case, for a reference to Gilmore's information showed that his ac- quaintance with the prisoner commenced nearly three years before their marriage. I remarked that the only A Duper Duped. 147 allegation fully and clearly proved was the marriage of Mr. Gilmore to Miss Jones in the church of St. Nicholas ; and it only remained for me to discharge the prisoner, to congratulate the parties on the removal of all imputation on the legality of their union, and to wish them many years of connubial happiness. Richard Gilmore did not manifest the slightest gratitude for this kind expression ; he left the court without asking his wife to accompany him, but she was not compelled to betake herself again to the workhouse. Her weekly stipend was continued. Soon afterwards a son was born, and he is now a confidential em ploy 6 in an extensive mercantile establishment in Dub- lin. I do not believe that he ever sought his father, or that his father ever took the slightest notice of him. Wishing him prosperity and happiness, I hope that he may never be necessitated to engage in any correspond- ence or enquiry relative to his mother's property in Wales. She resided for a considerable time in one of our southern suburbs, and latterly affected no secrecy as to the means which she adopted to effect her marriage. In the year 1858, I expressed, in some conversations with a medical man of her acquaintance, a wish for the particulars, and a copy of the letter which I have given to my readers was enclosed to me by post, without any accompanying condi- tion, or even an indication of the quarter from whence it was furnished. CHAPTER XVI. WHO THREW THE BOTTLE ? — EXCISE AND CUSTOMS CASES. In the "Dublin Annals" given in Thorn's Almanac and Official Directory, it is stated in reference to the year 1822, " Riot in the theatre, on the Marquis of Wellesley, the Lord Lieutenant's first visit thither, during which a bottle was flung into his Excellency's box." At the time referred to, I had not attained a profession, and my magisterial position was twenty years distant. I have, however, a very distinct recollection of the affair, as I was seated about the centre of the pit during the riot, and I have to notice that the statement in the Dublin Annals is incorrect. It contains, perhaps, the only inac- * curacy that can be found in that voluminous and compre- hensive publication. No bottle was flung into the viceregal box, but a rattle was thrown, which struck the front of the box, fell inside, and was raised and held up to the view of the audience by the Lord Lieutenant himself. A bottle was thrown from one of the galleries, and it struck the curtain in the middle with such violence, as to form a kind of bay for itself, and it slipped down on the stage, close to the foot-lights, and was taken up unbroken by the leader of the orchestra. Who threw the Bottle ? 149 Prosecutions for riot were instituted, and amongst others a man named Henry Hanbidge was indicted. To him was imputed the throwing of the bottle, and some persons swore informations to the effect, that they were in the middle gallery, and that the bottle was cast from the upper gallery to the centre of the curtain. The proceed- ings for riot were ineffective. There was no conviction. When I became a magistrate, in casual conversations with Pemberton, Cox, and others, the " bottle and rattle riot" formed a topic. They said that the assertion of the bottle having been cast from the upper gallery was generally disbelieved. It was, in fact, regarded as an impossibility. Major Sin* and Alderman Darley went one morning, whilst the prosecutions were pending, to the theatre, bringing a large hamper of bottles, and accompanied by some active and powerful peace-officers, who were directed to throw bottles from the upper gallery to the curtain, but not a bottle reached even the orchestra. The roof of the theatre sloped forward and downwards, and the elevation required to send the missile to the curtain invariably smashed it against the ceiling, and distributed the broken glass about the pit. The Major and Alderman came to the conclu- sion that the riotous bottle had been cast from the boxes or lower gallery. In about ten years after the affair at the theatre, the house of Sir Abraham Bradley King in Dame Street was consumed by fire. The conflagration commenced in the lower part of the premises, in which there was a great quantity of sta- tionery. The first and second floors were almost imme- diately in flames. The catastrophe occurred on a Sunday morning. No fire brigade was then organized, no fire escapes had been provided. A man was in the top front 150 Gleanings and Reminiscences. room, and he had no access to the roof. A fearful death appeared to be his inevitable fate, when another man emerged from the roof of a neighbouring house, carrying a rope of six or seven yards in length, at one end of which he had formed a running noose. He stood on the narrow parapet over the window, and let down the looped end to the poor fellow, whose only chance of escape depended on the sheer strength and steadiness of an individual. The rope was fastened round the waist of him whom the flames were fast approaching, and he was carried along by the intrepid fellow whose courage and humanity excited him to risk his own life to avert destruction from another, until the window of the adjoining house was reached, and the rescue was completed. This heroic act was accom- plished by Henry Hanbidge. I had been ten or twelve years in office as a police magistrate when I was applied to by a poor old fellow who was suffering acutely and completely debilitated by rheumatism, to sign a recommendation for his admission to Simpson's Hospital. The applicant was Henry Han- bidge. I most readily complied with his request, and told him that I would insert a few observations on his noble achievement at the fire in Dame Street. He expressed the deepest gratitude for my disposition to serve him. When I was giving him the document, I said, "Now, Hanbidge, might I ask you who threw the bottle ?" He replied, u I did, your worship." I asked him "from what part of the house was it thrown ?" " From the upper gallery, your worship. A friend and I had emptied the bottle, and I ran my stick into the neck, and shot it straight to the curtain off the stick." My predecessors had not thought of such a mode of projection. Excise and Customs Cases. 151 EXCISE AND CUSTOMS CASES. During my tenure of office I had an undesirable monopoly of the cases brought forward for infractions of the Ex- cise laws, and also an ample share of imputed viola- tions of the statutes regulating the Customs duties in the City and County of Dublin. The barristers who preceded me as magistrates of the Head Police Office, had, in con- sideration of such business being disposed of by them, an addition of £105 to their salary ; but when I was about a month in office, I was favored with a communication that, without prejudice to the continuance of the work, I was to be exonerated from the trouble of receiving or acknow- ledging the usual pecuniary remuneration. The proceed- ings instituted by the Excise were, almost invariably, of an uninteresting character. I only recollect one which I consider worth recording in these pages. The premises of a maltster were visited by a revenue officer, and in one of the rooms he observed that a board of the floor was rather loose under his step. He raised it, and found a shoot which led to another floor in adjoining premises, which were apparently untenanted, and in which a large quantity of fresh malt was in process of drying. The prin- cipal workman in the maltster's employment dropped on his knees, implored mercy, and said that he would confess all. He then stated that he had made the communication for the purpose of stealing his master's malt, and that he had taken away all that was found by the officer in the adjoin- ing store. He produced from his pocket a key for the ex- ternal door of the building in which the malt was found. The maltster escaped the infliction of a very heavy penalty, but the workman was convicted on his own confession of stealing the malt, and was sentenced to twelve months' 152 Gleanings and Reminiscences. imprisonment. I subsequently was informed that during his confinement the man whom he had robbed (?) sup- ported his family most comfortably, and as soon as the culprit terminated his incarceration, he was received back into the maltster's employment. As to the infractions of the Customs laws, my cases all consisted of tobacco or brandy, and the seizures were, in almost every instance, effected immediately on the arrival in port of the respective ships. I believe that the intelli- gence of smuggling ventures being on board was almost always furnished by those from whom the contraband articles were purchased, or by the attendants in taverns or liquor shops, before whom unguarded conversations might have occurred, and in some instances from both sources. According to my recollection, the great majority of detec- tions occurred on board vessels coming from places belong- ing to the British Crown. Jersey contributed largely to the contraband traffic, Gibraltar afforded an occasional venture, and the timber ships from the British provinces in North America were frequently made available to the illicit importation of tobacco. A fine brig from St. John's, New Brunswick, named, as well as I can remember, " The Hope/' arrived in Dublin in the summer of 1852. She was boarded in the bay by some officers of Customs, to whom the master stated that his cargo was exclusively timber. No other description of goods was mentioned in the vessel's papers. The officers proceeded to raise some boards at the foot of the cabin stair, and took out a large quantity of Cavendish tobacco. They then entered the cabin and removed some other boards, finding an abun- dance of tobacco which had been there concealed. The master was arrested, and having been brought before me, I remanded the case, by the wish of all parties, for a week. Excise and Customs Cases. 153 The revenue authorities did not institute any proceedings involving the condemnation of the brig, but they sought the conviction of the master, who was adjudged by me to pay two hundred pounds, or in the default of such payment, to be imprisoned for six months. His wife had been the companion of his unfortunate voyage, and their separation, on his committal to prison, was extremely sad. He was a fine-looking young man; I think his name was Harris, and he stated that he belonged to St. John's. The wife was also a native of that place, and I never beheld a woman who, in my opinion, surpassed her in personal beauty. Moreover, she was very near the time when to the designation of €t wife " the term " mother " would be added. Whilst I condemned the man I deeply com- miserated the woman, and all who witnessed their parting sympathized in her affliction. At the Richmond Bride- well, he was treated with much kindness, and was fre- quently allowed access to the gardens, to which, as well as to his prison-room, his wife was constantly admitted. There was a young man confined at that time at the instance of some of his relatives. He was a very extra- ordinary person. In him great literary attainments were combined with imaginative power : he had a mind which could " Give to airy nothing A local habitation and a name." He sometimes lapsed into excessive intemperance, during which he exhibited such violent tendencies as justified a committal for two months in default of substantial bail. This imprisonment brought him into association with Harris, the tobacco smuggler. They became confidential friends. At this time about two months of the smuggler's 154 Gleanings and Reminiscences. term had expired, and his fellow-prisoner expressed an anxiety that they should both be liberated together. Harris could not perceive how such a wish could be accomplished, but the other thought it perfectly feasible. He prepared a memorial to the Commissioners of Customs, which he desired Harris to sign, and it was forwarded forthwith. In a few days I received a letter from the solicitor of the Customs, and with it the memorial. The Commissioners expressed their willingness to have three months taken off the term of the smuggler's incarceration, provided that the committing magistrate did riot object to such a com- mutation. I immediately forwarded the fullest approval of such lenity, and having read the memorial, I returned it to the solicitor. I regret that I did not keep a copy of it, for it was a document which I feel myself incompetent to describe in terms suitable to its merits. In refined and elegant language it acknowledged the commission of the offence and the justice of the punishment inflicted. It de- clared a determintaion to abstain in future from every wilful infraction of the laws, and implored the commiseration of those to whom it was addressed for the misery to which the memorialist was reduced, even though it had originated in his own misconduct. His young and affectionate wife, who had accompanied him from her native country, had been unable to withstand the pressure of their misfortunes, and had gone to an early grave in a strange land, being attacked by premature childbirth. He had not even the mournful privilege of assisting at the interment of his beloved consort and her offspring; but from the gloomy precincts of a penal prison he besought the authorities to come to the merciful conclusion that he had suffered enough. Half of his imprisonment was abrogated, and the time Excise and Customs Cases. 155 of his discharge was at hand. I was about to leave the police-court on an afternoon, when I was informed that a lady earnestly requested an interview for a few minutes. To this application I acceded ; and the fair visiter, having apologized for her intrusion, proceeded to inquire — " If you please, sir, will you kindly inform me whether my husband's time of imprisonment * is to be calculated from the day of his arrest or from the day of his trial ? " I asked the name of the lady, and she replied that she was Mrs. Harris. I remarked that " I was agreeably surprised, as I had seen it stated that she was dead." €t Oh, sir," she exclaimed, " that was put in the memo- rial by Mr. without even ray husband's knowledge. However, I lost my little baby. But I hope that you will not tell that I am alive/1 I then informed her that her husband's term commenced from the date of his convic- tion, and she retired. I did not feel it necessary to give any publicity to Mrs. Harris's continued existence. When the Ajax man-of-war was stationed at Kings- town, the officer in command frequently exercised his crew in warlike operations. In the year 1844, as well as I now can recollect, he announced his intention to have a mimic attack made on the ship, by boats, at night. A vast number of persons assembled to behold a spectacle intrinsically grand and peculiarly novel to a Dublin public. The operations commenced about ten o'clock, and con- tinued for upwards of an hour. Signals of alarm were displayed by numerous lights of various colours, and they were succeeded by tremendous discharges of artillery and musketry, above which the cheers of the supposed com- batants were frequently audible. At length the assailants retired, and the Ajax remained intact and triumphant. The spectators were most enthusiastic in their applause of 156 Gleanings and Reminiscences. m the bloodless conflict, which certainly was most deserving of public admiration. However, it afterwards transpired that during the sham battle in the harbour, some extraor- dinary operations were effected in the vicinity. A smug- gling vessel landed a cargo of tobacco close to the Kings- town end of the eastern pier, but outside the harbour. The venture was completely successful, and several days elapsed before the revenue authorities received any intima- tion of such a daring proceeding. The cargo was con- veyed away partly by rail, partly by road, and it was re- ported that almost the whole of it was transmitted to Limerick, but nothing tangible resulted from enquiries or searches. On the same night another cargo was landed on Dalkey Island, and hastily concealed amongst the rocks. It was supposed to have been brought by a con- sort of the craft which had made the other run. On the following day, a man, apparently of the seafaring class, gave information to the Customs that he knew where there was a large quantity of contraband tobacco con- cealed, and that he was willing, for the usual remunera- tion, which I believe was nearly half the value of the commodities, to conduct them to the place. He accord- ingly took them to Dalkey Island, where they found the tobacco. It was subsequently rumoured, and I believe the rumour was well-founded, that he was the master of the vessel from which it had been landed; and as one cargo had been successfully smuggled, and the vessels had got away in safety, the reward, incident to discovering the other cargo, was sufficient to pay the prime cost and expenses of the two ventures, and to realize a considerable profit on the whole transaction. Lest the favorable issue of the illicit speculation which I have last narrated should have the effect of encouraging Excise and Customs Cases. 157 or even suggesting to any individual any connection with such traffic, I would say that I noticed the successful issue of the enterprise as an extraordinary and exceptional incident. Detection is generally the result, with forfeiture of the goods, fine, or imprisonment. About four years before I retired from office, a young man, who had a fine fishing boat at Howth, and who was engaged to be mar- ried, went off to Jersey, and freighted his craft with to- bacco and brandy. A revenue cutter was sent to meet him, and he was captured within view of his native hill. His vessel forfeited, his cargo seized, himself a prisoner, and utter ruin substituted for his dazzling but delusive hopes, he lapsed into the extreme of despair, jumped over, board, and perished. His fate should deter, -more than a casual and extraordinary escape should encourage, an in- fraction of the revenue laws. CHAPTER XVII. JOHN SARGEANT — THE MAGISTERIAL OFFICES TWO MURDERS ONE REPRIEVED DELAHUNT's CRIMES. I shall now present a magisterial reminiscence which derives its greatest interest from antecedent occurrences, the first of which brings me back to 1821, the year in which George the Fourth visited Ireland. If I become a little diffuse in my recollections of the period, it is because they are strongly impressed on my meqnory and extra- ordinary in their nature. Nothing could exceed the universal homage tendered to the king. If it has been termed " servile adulation" by some, I am not prepared to insist on a complete exoneration of our national charac- ter from such an imputation. I was then an undergra- duate of the University of Dublin. On the day of the Royal entry, we, the students, possessed ourselves of the railings in front of the College, as affording an excellent view of the procession. The rails were freshly painted, and produced a most piebald appearance on our hands and clothes, (blue coats with "welcome" buttons, white waist- coats and trousers.) We rubbed some of the paint off our hands on the faces and clothes of each other previous to proceeding to the Castle with the University Address. John Sargeant. 159 On entering the upper yard from Cork Hill, we marched to the right by the footway, and had an opportunity, of which we availed ourselves, of pulling the white caps off some of the cooks and scullions who were viewing us from the two lower windows in the farthest corner of the yard. We jostled each other up the staircase, and during the reading of the Address, amused ourselves by climbing on each other's shoulders by turns in order to have a better view. " Some of us, amongst whom I was one, suggested rather loudly, that cakes and wine would be acceptable. This produced a counter suggestion from some officials of our immediate retirement from the State apartments. On, reaching the hall, I observed the porters and other attendants sternly expelling a tall female who was dressed in deep black. She appeared in great affliction, but was accorded no sympathy. No one thought that anyone else had a right to be sad when the King was in Ireland. I subsequently saw the " woman in black," at the review in the Phoenix Park, vainly endeavouring to approach the Royal presence. I was a spectator of the various public demonstrations during the Royal sojourn, and enjoyed the exciting pageantry as anyone of my age and tempera- ment might be supposed to do. I pass, however, to the day of the king's departure, the 3rd of September. On the morning of that day, the place of his embarkation was Dunleary, but on his arrival he changed its designa- tion into "The Royal Harbour of Kingstown." He en- tered his barge very near the place where the commemo- rative column stands, and close to the inner end of the east- ern pier. The "woman in black" somehow managed to get very near. She endeavoured in vain to address him, and just as the Royal barge was shoving off, she rushed forward, holding a paper in her hand, and, in her frantic 160 Gleanings and Reminiscences. haste, was precipitated into the water, from which, how- ever, she was speedily rescued. The king saw enough of her exertions and mishap to excite his curiosity, and or- dered her communication to be received and laid before him. It was a petition imploring the Royal mercy for her husband, who was then under sentence of death in a southern county, for burning his house with intent to de- fraud an insurance company. Her prayer was favourably considered. An act of clemency appeared peculiarly suit- able to the termination of the Royal visit, and the sen- tence on John Sargeant was commuted to transportation. At the time to which I refer there was a considerable portion of Kilmainham prison appropriated to the recep- tion of convicts under sentence of transportation ; and in a short time after the successful exertions of the " woman in black" at Kingstown, John Sargeant was transmitted to Kilmainham, there to remain until a sufficient number of convicts were congregated to form a living freight for a transport ship, and to transfer the future advantages of their patriotic exertions to a southern hemisphere. I use the term " patriotic" in the same sense as the accom- plished pickpocket, Barrington, applied it in a prologue spoken by him previous to the performance of a play at Sydney by a company consisting exclusively of transported thieves — " True patriots we t for be it understood, We left our country for our country's good." At the time of Sargeant's arrival at Kilmainham, I had a very near relative who was a member of the committee or board which superintended the gaol, and I frequently accompanied him to the prison. Sargeant was a person of considerable educational acquirements. He managed to ingratiate himself with some of the authorities of the John Sargeant. 161 convict dep6t, especially with a Dr. Trevor. He was fre- quently employed in copying documents, which business he discharged most satisfactorily; and I have often seen him thus engaged. When the other convicts were sent off, some pretext or excuse was made available for retaining him, and after the expiration of two years, he succeeded in obtaining a pardon, and was released from confinement. The "woman in black" did not witness his liberation; she had previously succumbed to that fate which crime inflicts most severely on those whose love clings to un- worthy and guilty objects, even in suffering and disgrace ; love which, like the ivy, will embrace a ruin with greater tenacity than it would if the structure stood in its pristine strength or in renovated beauty. About three years more had elapsed, and I was residing in London, attending the number of terms requisite for a call to the Irish Bar. At Gray's Inn I was an adept in all the duties then requisite for an admission to the status of a learned barrister-at-law, and indeed I brought to their inception no slight qualifications. I could decant old crusted Port wine without a funnel, my carving was con- sidered faultless, and the salads of my dressing would gratify the palate of Apicius Ccelius. In that society there was far greater intercourse between the Bar and the students than I ever observed at our King's Inns. I fre- quently derived great pleasure* and, I believe, no slight advantage, from the conversation of those whose deep research and matured experience qualified them to utter words of wisdom and suggestions of prudence to their juniors. I was fond of attending the courts, and criminal trials possessed for me a peculiar attraction. One day I sat close to two barristers whom I had occasionally met previously. They spoke with great interest of a trial M 1 62 Gleanings and Reminiscences. which was expected to be held at the Old Bailey on the following morning, and suggested to me to be present at it, and I followed their advice. The prisoner was alleged to have been concerned in various frauds, but the specific offence for which he was tried was for obtaining upwards of ^800 under false pretences and representations, and by means of forged documents. It appeared that a West Indian Creole, Mr. D , had arrived in London some months previous, possessed of an immense fortune. He indulged in habits of extravagance most frivolous and ostentatious. He fell into the error of considering fast society good society, and formed acquaintances and esta- blished confidences which a very moderate share of dis- cretion would have made him avoid. Mr. D had seen a lady, a member of a noble family, whose ancient lineage connected them with the most remote periods of English history, and in which gentle blood was thoroughly united with personal worth. Mr. D- became deeply enamoured, and made no secret of his admiration, but he could not procure an introduction. His tropical tempera- ment spurned all patience and prudence, and an Irish gentleman, Mr. John Sibthorpe, took him under his guidance and protection, and promised to realize all his visions of matrimonial bliss. Sibthorpe advised that the lady's maid should be approached, and enlisted, with an ample bounty, in the Creole's service, and that she might be induced, in a short time, to convey letters to the adored one, who could not long continue indifferent to the suit of an amiable, wealthy, and disinterested lover. The bait was swallowed. One hundred sovereigns were confided to Sibthorpe to be transmitted to Kitty, and a note in reply, purporting to be written by her, acknowledged the Creole's generosity and promised her best exertions. John Sargeant. 163 More money was sent and more notes were received. The lady was described as expressing a lively and grateful interest in the man who had manifested such an attach- ment. This encouraging communication produced a most respectful but ardent letter from the lover to the lady, and a further douceur to the maid. In due time Mr. D received a note couched in terms most favourable to his suit, and professing to be written by the fair hand which he panted to possess. Enraptured beyond expression, he imagined himself at the summit of his wishes, when he casually and suddenly learned the afflicting intelligence that the lady's nuptials with a noble suitor were fixed for an early day. Unable to restrain his feelings, he rushed into her paternal hall as she was about to enter her car- riage, and kneeling before her, besought her pity for a broken-hearted man to whom she had kindly written. Mr. D was interrupted in his expostulations by being kicked out of doors by the footmen, and he soon dis- covered that Sibthorpe had forged the correspondence on # the part of both maid and mistress. The delinquent was apprehended, prosecuted, and convicted. I heard him sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor, and as he stood at the bar I had no difficulty in recog- nising the object of anxious solicitude to "the woman in black," the pardoned incendiary, the profligate John Sargeant. In two or three months after the trial of this swindler, I returned to Ireland, and engaged in professional pursuits, to which I devoted my attention for about twelve years. I then became a magistrate of police. In 1844, I was doing duty in College Street Police Court for the late Alderman Tyndall, who was suffering from severe indis- position. An application was made to me by a director 164 Gleanings and Reminiscences. and secretary of one of the principal banks in the city, I think it was " The Royal." They were accompanied by their solicitor, and it appeared that a bill of exchange for «^ioo, purporting to be the acceptance of a gentleman of high position in the county of Wicklow, had been ten- dered for discount on the previous day, and that they had ascertained it to be a forgery. A close description was given of the accused, who had been told to call at the bank at two o'clock. An information was sworn and a warrant issued, and the delinquent was apprehended in the vestibule of the bank, whither he had the audacity or folly to proceed on his nefarious design. On being placed before me, he stated his name to be John Sharkey, and that he had recently returned from Oporto, where for several years he had been employed as a clerk in an English house engaged in the wine trade. I remanded the case for the production of the alleged acceptor, and during the intervening time very conclusive evidence was obtained as to the body of the bill having been written by the prisoner. At his final committal, I told him that, although I never before had any magisterial cognisance of him, I had no difficulty in recognising the person whom I had seen convicted at the Old Bailey, and who had previously been an inmate of Kilmainham, after having the sentence of capital punishment commuted to transpor- tation. The latter punishment was subsequently awarded to him in Green Street, and thus, as far as I am aware, was closed the career of Mr. John Sargeant. THE MAGISTERIAL OFFICES. My magisterial office was held for twenty years and four months. During that time I was a Justice of the Peace for the city and county of Dublin, and for the Two Murders. 165 counties of Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow. The division appurtenant to the Head Office comprised, at the time of my appointment, (in January, 1841,) about one-half of the southern moiety of Dublin, in which were contained the poor and very populous districts known as "The Liberties." In about six years after, we were required to supply a magistrate daily to the Police Court at Kings- town, for the discharge of the business incident to the townships of Kingstown, Blackrock, and Dalkey ; and in about three years later, the entire of the Metropolitan Police district south of the Liffey was assigned and con- solidated into one division, in which my two colleagues and myself had to discharge the magisterial duties. Per- sons apprehended in the police district for offences com- mitted in other parts of Ireland were brought before us to be remanded or transmitted, according to circumstances. I mention these particulars to enable my readers more fully to appreciate the extraordinary fact, that during the period which I have specified there never was brought before us an individual charged with a capital offence. I do not mean to induce an impression on the reader's mind that our locality was free from crimes of magnitude. Two murders occurred in our division during the time referred to, but in each case the culprit was committed by the coroner. One of them was in the city, and the other in the county portion of our district. The former case was the deprivation of a wife's life by the hand of her husband. He was a house-painter, a journeyman bearing an excel- lent character for knowledge of his business, industry, honesty, and strict sobriety. She was the daughter of a tradesman in Rathfarnham, and her person was exceed- ingly comely. Very soon after marriage, she lapsed into 1 66 Gleanings and Reminiscences. habits of the grossest intemperance, so as to acquire the soubriquet amongst her neighbours of "the drunken beauty." She was a frequent, though involuntary, visitor to the police court for having been found " drunk and incapable" in the public streets. One evening her hus- band found her completely intoxicated, and he discovered that his best clothes had been pawned to furnish the means for her inordinate indulgence. She replied to his complaints and reproaches in abusive and opprobrious terms, until exasperated beyond the control of reason, the unfortunate man seized an old sword-stick which hap- pened to be at hand, and with that weapon he pierced her eleven times through the body, three of the stabs perfo- rating the heart. Curiosity led me to visit the scene of the sanguinary termination of a union which commenced in ardent love, and might have lasted long and happily, if every hope of domestic peace and enjoyment had not been subverted by intemperance. I was present at the inquest, which resulted in a verdict of " wilful murder " against the husband. He was subsequently convicted at the Com- mission Court, and received sentence of death. I exerted myself in procuring memorials to the Executive for a commutation of the capital punishment, and in an inter- view with the Chief Secretary and the law officers I argued that the multiplicity of the wounds inflicted on the wretched woman denoted a sudden burst of uncon- trollable passion, and not a premeditated design of deli- berate and malicious destruction of life. I expressed an opinion that one mortal stab would indicate more malice than could be inferred from the eleven furious blows. My representations were received with courteous atten- tion, and the applications for mercy were acceded to ; but the unfortunate man died in the Richmond Bridewell in Two Murders. 167 less than six months after the transaction. His heart was broken. I may mention here, that whilst I was a crown prosecutor on the Leinster circuit, and during my tenure of magisterial office, I never knew of an applica- tion for mercy to be made to the Executive that did not receive the fullest and fairest consideration, and I believe that all the Governments of which I have had any know- ledge or experience were equally desirous to avail them- selves of any opportunity for tempering justice with mercy. The other murder which occurred in our division was perpetrated in December, 1841, by a young man named Delahunt. In the character of this culprit there was an amount of cool, dispassionate, and deliberate predilection for crime, surpassing any details in the pages of the "Newgate Calendar," or the "Archives of the Parisian Police/' About one year previous to the last-mentioned date, a poor Italian organ-grinder was found lying close to the wall of Rathfarnham demesne, on the roadside near Rathfarnham bridge. His throat had been cut, and a belt which he usually wore round his waist, and in which it was supposed that his scanty savings were stowed, had been taken away. A man named Cooney, a tinker, had been seen in the immediate vicinity of the place, and he had been taken into custody on suspicion, by the constabu- lary. An inquest was being held, when Delahunt accosted Colonel Browne, the Commissioner of the Dublin Metro- politan Police, in the Castle yard, and told him that he (Delahunt) had seen the murder committed. The Colonel immediately directed one of his sergeants to take the man out to the coroner, as the offence had been committed in the county, and outside the police district. On being pro- duced at the inquest, Delahunt swore that he had seen Cooney murder the Italian. A reward of twenty-five 1 68 Gleanings and Reminiscences. pounds had been advertised for the conviction of the per- , petrator of the fearful assassination, and that accounted for Delahunt's promptitude in offering his testimony. On the trial of Cooney at the ensuing commission, the jury disbelieved Delahunt, and acquitted the tinker. I am satisfied that they arrived at a proper conclusion, and I strongly suspect that if Delahunt really knew anything about the crime, it was owing to himself being the per- petrator. In about four months after the trial of Cooney, there was a contested election in the city of Dublin, at which it was deemed expedient to utilise the canvassing abilities of a considerable number of coal-porters. These energetic advocates of liberty took considerable liberties with such voters as they found recusant to their wishes, or even tardy in complying with their demands. They were provided with hackney cars, and provided themselves with cudgels. Individual resistance or even indifference to their behests occasioned very forcible applications to the heads and shoulders of any elector, and when they brought him to the hustings, his attention was invited to a reserved body specially stationed in the vicinity of the polling booths from whom he was informed that he might expect very strong censures on his want of patriotism, if he voted on the wrong side. After the election, some prosecutions were instituted for threats and actual assaults on voters, and there was one case in which a retired military gentle- man had been dragged from his bed in a state of illness, and violently assaulted with cudgels. A reward was offered for the discovery and conviction of his assailants, and Delahunt at once came forward. He pointed out, on the quay, six coal-porters as the guilty parties, swore that he had heard them directed to go to the gentleman's resi- DelahunVs Crimes. 169 dence and bring him to the poll, and that he followed them and witnessed the entire transaction. They were com- mitted for trial at the Commission Court, and there Delahunt most positively identified the six. One of them had a large hare-lip, and the party who had been assaulted swore that* the fellow with the split lip was not present at the outrage. Another of the accused established the fact, by the evidence of constables and turnkeys, that he had been convicted on the day previous to the attack on the voter, and that he was in gaol for drunkenness and dis- orderly conduct at the time when Delahunt swore to having seen him assaulting Captain C . The six coal- porters were acquitted, and Delahunt' s sanguine expecta- tions of an ample reward were completely disappointed. On the 20th of December, 1841, a little boy named Thomas Patrick Maguire, eight years of age, was playing with some other children in Blackhall Row. The children were of the humblest class, and Maguire was bare-footed. Delahunt, having previously ascertained his name, and that he lived with his mother in Plunket Street, told him that he had been sent to bring him to her. The poor boy went with him, but was not brought home. Delahunt took him to a distant part of the city, and called at his (Delahunt's) brother's lodgings in Little Britain Street, where he stated to his sister-in-law that Maguire was a stray child whom the police had given into his care to take home. He sharpened two knives at his brother's, and after his departure with the child, one of the knives was missed. In the meantime, he brought the little fellow across the city, bought some cakes for him, and took him into a lonely lane in the suburbs, close by Upper Baggot Street, and there between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, he cut the child's throat. In a very short time, 170 Gleanings and Reminiscences. the body was found, and taken to a police-station in order to have an inquest held. Delahunt reappeared, and stated that he had passed the end of the lane, and had seen a woman throw the little boy down, and that she passed close to him, and went hurriedly away. He said that he had no idea of the child having been killed at the time, but thought that the woman had chastised him for some offence or naughty trick. He named a woman, and de- clared that he could swear to her. Unluckily for him, the woman whom he designated had been very sick during the entire day, and confined to bed, to the positive know- ledge of several friends and neighbours. Some persons recognised Delahunt as having been with the boy, and amongst them was the woman from whom he had bought the cakes. In a field adjoining the lane where the corpse was discovered, a knife was found, which was sworn to by his sister-in-law as having been sharpened by him, and subsequently missed. She also identified the body of the child as that of the boy whom Delahunt had with him at her residence. He was finally tried and convicted of the murder on the 14th January, 1842, and was executed on the 5th February. He made a full confession of his guilt, and acknowledged that he had falsely accused Cooney the tinker of murdering the Italian, and that his evidence against the coal-porters was totally unfounded. He dis- claimed all malice or illwill against the poor child, Maguire. He declared that he only wanted to be rewarded for con- victing some person of murder, and that he could not ori- ginate such a charge without the preliminary procurement of a corpse. In a volume of Dickens's periodical, All the Year Round, and under the title of " Old Stories re-told," there is a full narration of murders committed by Burke, Bishop, and Hare, for the purpose of selling the bodies of Delahunt1 s Crimes. 171 their victims to anatomical schools. Each distinct case of crime perpetrated by those miscreants was of less aggra- vated turpitude than the offence for which Delahunt was hanged, for they contemplated the destruction of the sufferer as the consummation of a design, but Delahunt deprived one individual of life on the speculation that he would thereby be enabled to obtain a reward, perhaps a trifling one, by consigning another fellow-creature to the precincts of a gaol, and ultimately to the ignominious hor- rors of a public execution, for a crime committed by him- self, and imputed, by his deliberate perjury, to an innocent being, whose hand was unstained and whose heart was untainted. For a considerable time after his execution, he was reputed, especially amongst the humbler classes, to have been a police spy, and to have been in receipt of fre- quent subsidies from the detective office. He was never produced in any court as a witness at the instance of the police. In the case of the coal-porters, he applied to me for funds to enable him to remain in Dublin until the trial was held and I refused his application. He repeatedly offered superintendents and inspectors to swear to cases of illicit or irregular traffic in liquors, but they never be- lieved his statements, nor would they, in any instance, avail themselves of his proffered testimony. No villainy could be more unprofitable than Delahunt's systematic attempts to support himself by false accusations of others. I feel perfectly satisfied that, instead of deriving the wages of an informer or spy from the metropolitan police or from the constabulary, he never cost the public one penny be- yond what sufficed for his maintenance in gaol whilst under committal for his diabolical offence, and to provide the halter which he most thoroughly merited. The contemplation of such a character may not be 172 Gleanings and Reminiscences. unproductive of some salutary results. Whilst we ac- knowledge and admire the blessed tendencies of the most elevated virtues, a wholesome and very instructive lesson may be derived from the contrast exhibited and the even- tual disgrace and destruction almost invariably incident to a complete lapse into utter depravity. CHAPTER XVIII. MURDER OF MR. LITTLE — DETECTIVE INEFFICIENCY INDIVIDUAL EFFICIENCY A FALSE ACCUSA- TION EXPOSED EXTRAORDINARY GRATITUDE A SALUTARY REFORMATION A CHARGE OF FE- LONY POOR PUSS, WHO SHOT HER? — BAXTER AND BARNES. I shall now advert to a most atrocious murder which was committed in the Metropolitan Police District in 1856. It occurred in the Northern division, and I was requested by the present learned and worthy Chief Magis- trate, Mr. J. W. O'Donnell, to assist in its investigation. Mr. George Little, the Cashier of the Midland Great Western Railway, had not returned to his residence on the evening of the 14th November, and on the following morning, his relatives enquired for him at the office in the station. The office door was broken open, and he was found lying on his face in a pool of blood, his throat having been cut from ear to car. At first the impression was that he had committed suicide, for a considerable sum of money was on his desk. However, it was ascertained by an examination of the body, that many very severe injuries had been inflicted, and that the scull had been fractured by blows from a heavy blunt instrument. A 174 Gleanings and Reminiscences. coroner's inquest returned a verdict of " Wilful murder by some person or persons unknown," and a large reward was advertised for the discovery and conviction of the per- petrator. No arrest was made on suspicion until the 2ist of December, when a person was brought before the Northern Police Court, but was very speedily discharged. I refrain from mentioning the name, because there is no doubt that the charge was unfounded. It was rumoured that an experienced London detective had been specially engaged to afford his assistance in the furtherance of justice, but nothing of importance transpired until the 26th June, 1857, when a woman, named Spollen, informed a superintendent of police that her husband, James Spollen, was the murderer, and that he had concealed the bank- notes which he took from Mr. Little's office in a certain place immediately adjoining a small house which he occu- pied on the railway premises, he being in the Company's employment as a painter and cleanser. The superin- tendent immediately arrested Spollen, but kept him in his own custody from ten o'clock in the morning until nearly ten o'clock at night, when he brought him to a police 1 station-house and gave him in charge for the murder, pro- ducing the wife of the accused as the charging party. The place indicated by the woman was immediately searched, and a considerable sum in bank-notes was dis- covered concealed in an ashpit, and packed in a small firkin, which had previously contained white paint. Some money in silver was also found in a canvas bag deposited in a cistern, and the utmost publicity was given to the searches, the results, and the source from whence the information concerning them was derived. Hi% wife's evidence against Spollen was properly rejected by the magistrates; and although the case was sent for trial on other grounds, the Murder of Mr. Little. 175 result was an acquittal. During the magisterial investiga- tion, I suggested that a portion of the Royal Canal close to the railway premises should be drained and searched, as I considered it very probable that some of the imple- ments used in the murder had been thrown into the water. When the search commenced, the superintendent an- nounced that whoever found the razor should receive a guinea. A razor was accordingly found in the mud almost immediately, but it was manifest that it had not been there until the search was directed, for it was perfectly free from rust or corrosion. However, another razor was found, and the name of " Spollen *' was on the handle. A fitter's hammer was also taken out of the canal, and it was more than probable that the razor and hammer had been in fatal proximity to the throat and head of the unfortunate George Little. After the trial, some of the London papers commented in the strongest terms on the ignorance and stupidity evinced in the preliminary proceedings of the police officer to whom the case had been assigned. The bungling, blundering incompetency which characterised the transaction was described as truly Irish. They also complained that the English detectives who had been sent to Dublin were thwarted and impeded in all their efforts by the members of the Dublin force. I fully admit that the case was thoroughly mismanaged, but I must add that the person most prominently engaged, the superintendent, was an Englishman, and I deny that English detectives had to encounter Irish jealousy, as no person of the description was sent to Dublin in reference to that crime, or indeed in any instance within my recollection, without meeting a cordial, perhaps I might venture to say, a fraternal, reception from the Dublin Police. I may add that whenever our constables were sent to the English 176 Gleanings and Reminiscences. metropolitan district they invariably returned with a grateful recollection of the kindness manifested towards them. In the case to which I have last adverted, and in some others which came under my observation, I attribute the failure of justice to the ignorance and consequent incapa- city of members of the police force or of the constabulary engaged. However, I consider it only just to remark on the paucity of instruction afforded to constables for detec- tive purposes. Activity of body, corporeal strength, general mental intelligence, and moderate educational acquire- ments, are considered sufficient qualifications for the dis- charge of detective duties, and further teaching is left to be acquired by future experience. In several continental states, reports of important criminal trials are arranged for the use of the police by an archiviste, and instruction is thereby afforded as to the means by which guilt was established, or, perhaps, to the mistakes or rash preci- pitancy by which justice was defeated, or innocence accused. The essential difference between our police and that which I have observed in France, Belgium, and Rhenish Prussia, is exhibited in the speedy arrests of suspected persons here, compared with the tardiness of apprehension in the latter countries, unless the prisoner is actually caught in flagrante delicto. The moment that a suspicion is entertained in Ireland, the supposed delinquent is seized, and thereby all chance of obtaining evidence by his subsequent acts is completely lost* The foreign system is to watch him night and day. This frequently eventuates in detecting him concealing property, weapons, or blood- stained clothes, or suddenly quitting his abode without any previous intimation, and perhaps under an assumed name. If we are to have an efficient police, we will find Detective Inefficiency. 177 . — - £. it indispensably necessary to keep well-informed, shrewd, patient, watchful detectives. I have known many who contended that a constable should adopt no disguise, but that, in the uniform of the force to which he belongs, he should perambulate the streets, suppress disorders, appre- hend offenders, and when directed to execute warrants, he should go in search of the culprit openly and avowedly. To such I would suggest, that if in the organization of a police there is anything unconstitutional, it is rather to be found in the adoption of a uniform than in the attire of " plain clothes." The old common-law constable had no uniform ; he went, and came, and mixed amongst other men, without a number on his collar or a crown on his buttons, and still his office and its functions were not denounced as unconstitutional. A policeman in uniform may patrol our streets, suppress riots, restrain indecency, and apprehend the pickpocket or drunkard ; but it is not by such that the progress of the swindler is to be traced and stopped, the haunts of the burglar ascertained, or that the minute circumstances, trifling to the casual observer, but amounting, in the aggregate, to perfect conviction, are to be discovered and concatenated to establish the fearful guHt of the murderer. Having remarked the inefficiency manifested by the officer to whom the management of the murder case at the railway was assigned, I think it fair to state, that amongst some other members of our detective division I have known instances in which great sagacity and promp- titude were evinced. Shortly after my appointment to the magistracy, an old man died in a lodging-house in Bishop Street. The place in which he had lived for nine or ten years was a small room without the slightest indication of comfort or even of cleanliness. Nevertheless, he was N 178 Gleanings and Reminiscences. reputed to have been possessed of a considerable sum of money, which was supposed to be hoarded in some part of his humble habitation. Two of his relatives made oath that they believed him to have accumulated some hundreds of pounds; that they suspected and believed that the cash had been purloined; and they demanded that the house should be strictly searched. I gave a search-warrant to a detective named James Brennan, who proceeded to the house, and stated his function to the landlady. She declared that the man had been miserably poor, that he died in complete destitution, and that they had to bury him in a parish coffin. Brennan searched the premises most rigidly, but the expected treasure was not forthcoming. Some of the landlady's female neighbours expressed great indignation at "any honest woman's place being ransacked after such a manner." One of the garrulous sympathizers declared that " so far was the landlady from having a lot of money, that she was hard set to live, and that the very night the old man died, the poor woman had to pledge her best feather bed, at Booth's the pawnbroker's, for a few shillings." Brennan took his leave, and immediately went to the pawn-office. He had the bed produced, and observed that the stitching on one seam was fresher in appearance than on the others. He ripped the seam, and in the middle of the feathers he found seven notes, each of a ^100, and two of ^Szo. The affair eventuated in the money being divided amongst the kindred of the deceased. The landlady denied all knowledge of the money, and insisted that the old man' must have concealed it himself. She was not prosecuted, but Brennan's intelligence was rewarded with one of the £%o notes. The residence of the late Dr. Graves in Merrion Square Individual Efficiency. 179 was robbed several years ago, by the thiePs entrance at the windows of the front drawing-room, which had been left unfastened. The balcony did not appear accessible by ordinary means, but was easily attained from that of the adjoining house. Brennan was sent to examine the premises, and he at once perceived the traces left by a soiled foot in climbing by the pillars of the hall-door next to Dr. Graves's ; he then walked over to the rails of the square, and found marks which satisfied him that some person had recently crossed; amongst the bushes there were a few heaps of twigs, the parings or prunings of the shrubs ; $nd beneath one of them he discovered an exca- vation or cache, in which was a quantity of the stolen property. At night he lay down at a little distance from the place, and was not long there before a person ap- proached and proceeded to take up the property. At the rails he was giving it to an associate, when, on a signal from Brennan, some other constables came forward, and the burglars were secured. They were subsequently con- victed and transported. A FALSE ACCUSATION EXPOSED. » I have known several instances in which innocence has derived complete protection, even from the inconvenience of any arrest or personal interference, from the tact and intelligence of members of that force, to which a most greedy appetite for convictions is freely attributed. About ten years before I became a magistrate, a con- siderable portion of the County of Cork was a scene of disturbances, which might be fairly termed insurrectionary. Amongst other outrages which were then perpetrated, was the murder of a clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Hewson, who was shot on the high road, and in the open day, in the 180 Gleanings and Reminiscences. vicinity of Bandon. No clue was obtained whereby the guilty parties could be discovered, and the offence has never been punished. In the year 1842, a soldier in a regiment stationed at Fredericton, New Brunswick, stated to his officer that he had been concerned in the crime, and he named two persons as his accomplices; the man was sent home and brought up before me for examination. A detective informed me that he had been, at the period of the murder, orderly to the constabulary officer at Bandon ; that he had been at the scene of the offence very soon after its commission, and that he wished to be present at the examination of the self-accused prisoner. To this I acceded, and the soldier detailed that on the day and at the hour when the clergyman was murdered, he and two men, whom he named, met the unfortunate gentleman on his way home, that one of them seized his horse, and the other shot him with a blunderbuss; that they immediately fled, and he made a statement of where and how they spent the remainder of the day. The detective, whose name, if I recollect rightly, was Benson, by my permission asked him, " Which of you backed the horse, and over- turned the gig into the ditch at the road-side ? " to which the reply was, " I did." He then asked, * Which of you cut the traces ? " The response was, " L did." He proceeded, "Which of you struck the poor woman who saw the murder, for screaming?" He was answered, " p did." The interrogator then declared to me that the fellow was telling a tissue of falsehoods, for the horse had not been backed into the grip, and the vehicle was not a gig, but an outside jaunting-car ; that the traces had not been cut, neither was any woman near the place assaulted by the murderers. Subsequent inquiries established the fact, that one of the persons accused in the soldier's Extraordinary Gratitude. 181 confession was, at the period of the murder, apprentice to a cabinet-maker in Cork, a reference to whom and to whose books showed that the party sought to be implicated had been in his master's concerns during the day of the assassination, and for a considerable time previous to and after the transaction ; and it appeared that the statement had been made for the mere purpose of its fabricator being sent home from service in a regiment with which he was discontented, and in which he had acquired a most dis- reputable character. EXTRAORDINARY GRATITUDE. The discharge of magisterial duties with firmness and impartiality occasionally evokes expressions of approbation from those by whom proceedings may have been instituted or closely observed, and may even elicit a complimentary notice from an editorial pen. A deep sense of gratitude for the exercise of magisterial functions is not so fre- quently avowed or ascribed. I am therefore disposed to bring before the reader the circumstances which, in a very public place, produced a compliance with a request of mine, accompanied by the expression, " Anything that I could do for you, Mr. Porter, if it was even to put my hands under your feet, should be a duty and a pleasure, for I can never be too grateful to such a worthy magistrate as you." This was said by a station-master of the Great Southern and Western Railway named Duffy, in 1851, in reply to an application for a coupee carriage for a friend of mine who was going to Cork with his wife and daughter. The guard of the train was directed by Mr. Duffy to be most attentive to the party. My friend subsequently remarked to the guard that the station-master evinced a great anxiety to please me. " So he ought," was the 182 Gleanings and Reminiscences. reply; "the poor fellow is married to a real incarnate devil, and Mr. Porter sends her to gaol whenever she is brought before him." Habitual intemperance, with concomitant violence, occasioned the frequent incarcerations for which the delinquent's husband felt so grateful* A SALUTARY REFORMATION. About the time to which the last anecdote refers, I was applied to, on a Monday afternoon, by a gentleman who asked and obtained a private interview. He was in a high social position, and possessed an ample fortune. He stated that his wife had lapsed into habits of intemper- ance which rendered his life wretched, and estranged him from association with his friends, to whom he could not bear to have her deplorable tendencies exposed. When inebriated she was excessively violent, and did not hesitate to assault the domestics, and that on the preceding even- ing she had assaulted, in his presence, a female servant, with a poker. I told him to have her summoned by the servant for the following Thursday, and I had three o'clock mentioned as the hour for hearing the complaint. The lady did not attend, and on proof of the service of the summons and a sworn information of the assault, I issued a warrant for her apprehension. She was brought before me after all the other business of the next day had been finished, and I required her to give bail in two sureties to keep the peace, and in default of such, to be imprisoned for three months. At Grangegorman, she was not com- pelled to associate with the other prisoners, and the matron's attention was invited to the case. At the termi- nation of the second month, her husband, who had re- ceived frequent letters from her, felt confident that she had become reformed, and I discharged her at his instance A Charge of Felony. 183 and on his surety. I afterwards met them frequently in society. I have seen her at viceregal parties, and never observed the slightest appearance of, or tendency to, her former indulgence. I do not believe that she ever re- lapsed ; but whilst I am happy to notice a complete refor- mation, my satisfaction is alloyed by the reflection that it was the only instance of such a change that I ever knew to occur. A CHARGE OF FELONY. I was frequently invited to the hospitable and joyous table of my cousin, the late Anthony Hawkins of Leopards- town, Stillorgan. On one occasion he entertained about a score of guests, of whom I was unquestionably the senior. Choice viands and generous wines sustained and stimulated the utmost hilarity ; and when some of the company expressed apprehensions that further indulgence might bring them under the cognizance of the police, the host remarked that they would have a friend in court, for it could not be supposed that the jolly old magistrate would lean heavily in the morning on those who had been his boon companions of the preceding evening, and that each of them would get off for a song, which he would suggest to be given in advance. Two young fellows re- minded me that they lived on Merchants' Quay, and as that was in my division, they entertained no fears. The company separated in time to avail themselves of the latest train to Dublin, and the two sparks travelled in the same carriage with me. Neither of them was in the slightest degree "the worse for liquor ;" and when we parted at Harcourt Street Station we shook hands, and one said, "Good night, your worship, I hope you'll not be hard on us to-morrow." Next morning I was on duty at 184 Gleanings and Reminiscences. Exchange Court, and when the charge sheets from Chan- cery Lane were laid before me, I was astonished beyond description to find my companions who had bespoken my leniency brought forward on an accusation of Felony. A constable stated that he had seen one of the prisoners get on the shoulders of the other, and pull down a large gilt salmon, which formed the sign over the door of a fishing-tackle establishment on Essex Quay. On taking down the salmon, they were crossing over to the quay wall when he intercepted them, and with the aid of another policeman and a civilian, he captured and brought them to the station-house. Another witness proved that the prisoners stopped at the door over which the sign was suspended, and that one of them said, " Let us give the poor salmon a swim." This evidence induced me to believe that the transaction was not a deliberate theft, but a wanton, mischievous freak. The proprietor of the shop expressed the same opinion, and urged a summary adju- dication. They offered to pay for the sign, as it had been broken bv an accidental fall ; and the court was convulsed with laughter when the proprietor observed that the salmon had been taken " out of the lawful season." The spree cost the two delinquents the moderate sum of six pounds. The subsequent banterings which they had to endure amongst their festive associates completely deterred them from any further manifestation of fishing propensities. POOR PUSS ! WHO SHOT HER ? A friend to whose inspection I submitted the preceding pages suggested that as they detailed many mistakes and peccadillos of others, a reader might consider it an agreeable variety if 1 inserted a couple of errors peculiarly mine own. In accordance with his opinion I have to mention Poor Puss ! Who shot her ? 185 that shortly after I assumed magisterial duties at Kings- town, the proprietor of an extensive hotel in the immediate vicinity of the police-court received several letters threaten- ing speedy and fatal violence to him and his family, unless certain demands on the part of his waiters, postillions, and carters, were complied with. He was justly incensed and alarmed at such threats, and submitted the obnoxious documents to the consideration of the authorities and to the detective agencies of the police force. His garden wall was close to the yard of the police-court, between which and the sea no building at that time intervened. It happened that an official, connected with the fiscal business of the county of Meath, had embezzled a con- siderable sum and attempted to abscond, but was captured on shipboard at Kingstown, and committed for further examination. The delinquent had provided himself with a most ample outfit for emigration and residence abroad ; and the articles found in his possession were deposited in a room adjoining the police-court and overlooking the hotel garden. Amongst them was a rifled air-gun of great power, and after the business of the court had been disposed of, I was, along with the chief clerk, Mr. Lees, indulging my curiosity by pumping and discharging the weapon. There was a bag of small bullets, of which we directed two or three at the wall of the yard. An unfor- tunate cat chanced to make her appearance in the hotel garden at a distance of fifty or sixty yards, and exclaiming that " I would give puss a start," I sent a bullet in her direction, without the slightest expectation that the shot would be fatal. The cat fell dead on the garden walk ; we closed the window, locked up the gun and bullets, and departed. Next morning, I was about to commence the charge-sheets, when the proprietor of the hotel applied 1 86 Gleanings and Reminiscences. most earnestly for a private interview. He was greatly agitated, and declared that he felt convinced of his life being in danger from those who threatened to assassinate him. " Your worship/' he added, " they are manifestly bent on mischief, for our poor cat was found dead in the garden, and on examination she was found to have been shot. The fellow who killed her, did so only to show that I might expect the same treatment if an opportunity of- fered for shooting me." The poor man little knew that the weapon which inflicted the injury was in the apart- ment where he was expressing his direful apprehensions, and that he was seeking the sympathies and protection of him who had done the mischief. I took means, through a particular channel, to disabuse his mind of the feeling that the cat's fate was intended to precede a similar ter- mination to his own existence. BAXTER AND BARNES. The carriage complaints were usually disposed of at the Head Police Office in a court upon the the ground floor. The light was derived from windows opening on a yard, and they were so near to the magisterial bench as to en- able its occupant frequently to hear observations and con- versations of an extraordinary nature. It was my custom to remain after the carriage cases were heard, and when the criminal charges or summonses were, in the upper court, brought before some of my colleagues. I was thus enabled, in comparative quietude, to prepare reports on memorials referred by the executive or revenue authorities, or perhaps, to enjoy an occasional leisure hour over a magazine or newspaper. When the upper court was crowded, persons would betake themselves to the yard and Baxter and Barnes. 187 frequently engage in conversation close to the windows, which in warm weather were generally open; but there was no indication to those outside of the presence inside of a listener to their communications. In the summer of 1854, 1 was sitting alone, and reading the latest news from the Crimea, when two women took their stand outside the open window, and one of them proceeded to impart her sorrows to her sympathizing friend. At the time to which I refer, recruiting was very rife in Dublin, and it was not uncommon for us to attest one hundred persons in a week. The utmost vigilance was exercised to prevent or detect desertion, and in the apprehension of deserters, a police sergeant named Barnes had particularly exerted himself, and had consequently received rewards to a con- siderable amount. This was the reason uhy his name was introduced into the narrative which I happened to overhear, and which I inscribed on a blank leaf of an inter- leaved statute. There is not one original idea of mine in the production, and I should not submit it to my readers if I did not consider it essential to the appreciation of the criticism subsequently pronounced by Mr. Barnes. Musha ! Katey Doyle, do you know what ? Shure Jem has took the shilling, And off he 's gone to Aldershot, It 's there he '11 get the drilling. The polis now along the Coombe* No more will be resisted, And Fordham's Alley 's all in gloom Since Jem has took and listed. So have you got a dhrop at all ? My sperrits is so sinking, I do not think I'd stop all If wanst I take to drinking. * A long thoroughfare in the Liberties of Dublin, supposed to have been originally called "The Come." 1 88 Gleanings and Reminiscences. The night afore he wint to list I cribb'd his half week's wages, And when the two 'r three hogsf he miss'd At wanst he wint outrageous. Next mornin' to the Linen Hall He goes and takes the bounty ; It would not be so bad at all If he had join'd the County ; For they 're not gone to foreign parts, And won't encounter dangers, But, just as if to break our hearts, He join'd the Connaught Rangers. The night afore he wint away He came to bid "good-bye" there. I thought to get him for to stay, That thrick we couldn't try there, For Barnes was watching, skulking round When Jem and I were parting — That polisman would make a pound On any boy desarting. I'm shure I'd like to take a quart Of Jameson's distillin', To drink bad luck to all his sort — The tallow-faced ould villin. So Jem is gone to Aldershot, Where 'tis I've no idea ; Of coorse it is some desprate spot, Nigh-hand to the Crimea. There 's some entrench'd upon a hill, Some hutted in a valley; I'm sure Jem would be better, still At home in Fordham's Alley. For the Cossacks now he'll have to stob, Or shoot 'em holus bolus ; I'm shure 'twould be an easier job At home to face the polis. t A term used for English shillings, which previous to the change of currency, in 1825, passed in Ireland for thirteen pence each. Baxter and Barnes. 189 In a week or ten days after I had perpetrated this pro- duction, I was sitting in the upper court, when I was informed by the usher that Sergeant Barnes was most anxious to speak to me at my convenience and leisure. I directed that he should be admitted, and be proceeded to request that Mr. Baxter, one of the junior clerks, should be restrained from singing a song which he had picked up somewhere, and occasionally lilted to the other clerks when unemployed, as it was most disrespectful, and even termed him, Sergeant Barnes, " a tallow-faced old villain." I told the complainant that I should certainly prohibit Baxter from continuing his vocal pastime, as it was calcu- lated to annov an active and meritorious member of the police force. Barnes expressed his gratitude, and added, " I knew that your worship would never tolerate any of the clerks in abusing or ridiculing us. I readily acknow- ledge that I have received nearly ^30 for detecting and taking deserters, but I would spend every farthing of the amount if I could only discover the author of Mr. Baxter's song, and I *d punish him to the utmost severity of the law for writing such a rigmarole about me." In about ten minutes after the interview, the song uas torn out of the interleaved statute by the hand that had inscribed it. The sergeant soon after retired from the force on a pen- sion, and was, for several years, in a confidential situation at the premises from which the whisky was considered so desirable to "drink bad luck to all his sort/' namely, Jameson's distillery. CHAPTER XIX, A RUN TO CONNAUGHT A PRESENT A PUZZLE MOLL RAFFLE — A LUCKY ACCUSATION CROWN WITNESSES WHO BLEW UP KING WILLIAM ? SURGICAL ASSISTANCE A REJECTED SUITOR GEORGE ROBINS THE GREEK COUNT : THE RATS THE CHILD OF THE ALLEY THE LUCKY SHOT. In the year 1842, 1 indulged in an excursion to the County of Mayo, and enjoyed a sojourn of a fortnight at the house of a most hospitable friend near Crossmolina. On leaving Dublin, I travelled by rail to Mullingar, and from thence proceeded by the mail-coach to my destination. I may mention here that a few months previous, a transac- tion had occurred in the vicinity of Strokestown which was of a most unusual, perhaps I might say an exceptional, character in Connaught — namely, the murder of a land- lord. I was the sole occupant of the inside of the vehicle, and as the journey was nocturnal, I had several hours of sound and refreshing sleep. The stoppage of the coach in Strokestown to change horses awakened me, and I lowered the window in order to alight. The door was at once opened for me by a young fellow, who said, " Strokes- town, sir." " Oh ! " I replied, u this is where you shot A Run to Connaught. igi Major M " " Troth1 it is," said he, " we are all rale docthors here, and when we can't cure, of coorse we kill." Such a jest, although prompt and witty, was not calcu- lated to produce a favorable impression on the mind of a stranger; but during my visit to the West, I did not hear an angry word spoken, nor did I observe any tendency on the part of the humbler classes to treat those in higher positions with hostility or disrespect. I was perfectly pleased with the country and the people, and my friend's hospitality afforded me social gratifications in which there was one novelty which I peculiarly relished. It was a liquor derived from no foreign vineyard, but was so pecu- liarly Irish as to induce one whom I am certainly not sin- gular in believing to be the greatest lyric poet that ever existed, to make it the subject of a song, adapted to the joyous and spirit-stirring air of " Paddy O'Rafferty." I shall quote the lines of the immortal Moore as fully justi- fying the predilection which I have acknowledged for the potation he describes : — 11 Drink of this cup— you 'II find there 's a spell in Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality ; Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen, Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality. Would you forget the dark world we are in, Just taste of the bubble that gleams on the top of it ; But would you rise above earth, till akin To Immortals themselves, you must drain every drop of it. Send round the cup — for oh ! there 's a spell in Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality ; Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen, Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality. $4 Never was philter form'd with such power To charm and bewilder as this we are quaffing ; Its magic began when, in Autumn's rich hour, A harvest of gold in the fields it stood laughing. 192 Gleanings and Reminiscences. There having, by Nature's enchantment, been flli'd With the balm and the bloom of her kindliest weather, This wonderful juice from its core was distill'd To enliven such hearts as are here brought together. Then drink of the cup — you '11 find there 's a spell in It *s every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality ; Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen, Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality. " And though, perhaps — but breathe it to no one — Like liquor the witch brews at midnight so awful, In secret this philter was first taught to flow on, Yet 'tisn't less potent for being unlawful. And ev'n though it taste of the smoke of that flame, Which in silence extracted its virtue forbidden, Fill up, there 's a fire in some hearts I could name, Which may work too its charm though as lawless and hidden. So drink of the cup— for oh ! there *s a spell in Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality ; Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen, Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality." A PRESENT. Amongst my convivial friends in Mayo, I expressed my regret that the liquor which I enjoyed so much in their festive society was almost unknown and unattainable in Dublin. In two or three weeks after my return home, I received an anonymous note, stating that a box would be delivered at the Head Police Office, directed to me, and advising that I should not have it opened by any other hands but my own. The box arrived, and was treated according to the suggestion. It contained two jars, each holding two gallons of "the reality." A flat bottle was frequently filled, and conveyed, in my breast-pocket, " to enliven such hearts as i wished to bring together ;" but at last I found that the jars were nearly empty. About half a pint remained, and it was never drank. I was aware A Present — Moll Raffle. 193 that the next day was fixed for the hearing of a number of complaints preferred for the evasion or violation of excise laws. I directed the office-attendant to wash and tho- roughly cleanse the inkstands, which were on the public table, for the use of parties prosecuting or defending, and to bring the glasses to me. I procured some ink powder, on which I put the remaining portion of the Mayo st phil- ter,," and supplied the stands with excellent ink, well suited for transcribing a strong charge or a spirited defence. It was not inodorous, and I was greatly amused by hearing the excise officers frequently observing to their superior and to their solicitor, that "they smelt illicit spirits/' Mr. Morewood and Mr. Stormont also recognised the peculiar smell, and formed various conjectures ; but none of the persons engaged ever imagined that the ink in their pens was made upon potteen. Immediately after the ter- mination of the excise cases, one of my colleagues had the inkstands emptied and replenished with the ordinary ink. He said that "it was a fair joke on the gaugers, but when they were gone he could not submit to be tantalised by the smell without any chance of enjoying the taste." MOLL RAFFLE. I was sitting one day at the police-court in Dublin, along with another magistrate, when a gentleman entered and preferred a very urgent request that one of us would accompany him to Kingstown, to witness and certify the execution of a power of attorney by his mother, in reference to certain funds in the Bank of England. The applicant was reputed to be the natural son of a very dis-< tinguished nobleman who had discharged viceregal duties in Ireland, and also in very important and extensive oriental territories. I never heard what the original name of the o 194 Gleanings and Reminiscences. lady had been, but she was known by the rather inelegant soubriquet of Moll Raffle. She had followed her aristo- cratic paramour to Ireland, and he had relieved himself from her claims or importunities by providing her with a husband, and her son with an official appointment of respectable rank and emolument. I had never seen her, and I was influenced by personal curiosity to accede to her son's request. We proceeded to Kingstown, and on arriving at a commodious and genteel residence, he desired the servant to inform Mrs. that he had brought the magistrate for the business required. In a few minutes she appeared, and although no longer youthful, or even middle-aged, a second look was not necessary to convince me that she must have been exquisitely beautiful in her features, and of a tall and symmetrical figure, Her right arm was bandaged and in a sling, and she exclaimed to her son that she was deeply mortified at having given me the trouble of coming so far on an ineffectual mission, for that she had unfortunately sustained a severe fall, having trodden on a loose stair-rod just after he had started for Dublin, and her wrist and hand were so much bruised as to render her incapable of making her signature. I told her that if she took the pen in her left hand, I would, at her instance and request, guide it so as to write her name, and that I would explain the matter in a special magis- terial attestation on the document. To this suggestion she readily acceded, and the power of attorney was promptly perfected. She insisted that I should take luncheon, after which I left. Not having to return to official duties, I sauntered through Kingstown until about four o'clock, when I went to the jetty, which was crowded, as a mili- tary band was playing there. I was not long on the jetty before I saw Mrs. with half-a-dozen companions, but A Lucky Accusation. 195 the sling was gone, and her right hand seemed perfectly capable of managing her parasol. I subsequently ascer- tained that "Moll Raffle" had never been taught to write, and that she thought it more agreeable to pretend that her hand had been hurt than to acknowledge her educational deficiency. A LUCKY ACCUSATION. In the year 1846, the Ribbon association, or fraternity, prevailed very extensively in the city of Dublin, and in the counties of Dublin, Wick low, Kildare, and Meath. I believe that religious opinions or political tendencies had very little influence on their deliberations or proceedings. All the information that I acquired in reference to them led me to the conclusion that their temporal interests actuated them throughout. Threats, menaces, and even murderous violence were used without hesitation to deter competition with a ribbon-man in affairs of tenancy, traffic, or employ- ment. I notice these tendencies merely as being connected with a most extraordinary incident at the time. A man named Lacy held a small farm somewhere between Brittas and Blessington, and at an early hour, on a Satur- day morning, he left home, bringing, with a horse and cart, various commodities for sale in Dublin. Having disposed of his goods, he was about to start for home in the evening. He stopped at a shop in Bride Street to purchase some groceries, and tendered in payment a crown- piece. It was a coin of George the Third's reign, was rather worn, and had acquired a dark and very question- able appearance. The proprietor of the shop pronounced the crown to be base, and used some expressions which irritated Lacy, who replied to them in vituperative terms. The grocer observed a constable passing, and having called 196 Gleanings and Reminiscences. upon him, charged Lacy with tendering a base coin. The man was taken to the station-house in Chancery Lane, his horse and cart were sent to a livery stable, and he re- mained in custody until Monday morning, when the charge was laid before me. Mr. Stuart, of Dame Street, a silversmith, was examined, and in my presence tested the crown. He pronounced it to be perfectly genuine. I accordingly directed the accused party to be discharged from custody, and I was not surprised at his expressions of indignation for having been detained and locked up amongst thieves and disorderly characters, and his horse and cart sent to livery, whilst his family could not but feel alarmed for his safety, when he failed to return at the expected time. I directed his horse and cart to be given to him, and that the livery should be defrayed from the police funds. Scarcely had I disposed of the case when Lacy's wife arrived in an indescribable state of joyful ex- citement. She clasped him in her arms, exclaiming, " You 're safe, all is right, thanks to God." She mani- fested no resentment towards the grocer, but wished him good luck and prosperity. The cause of her delight may be briefly explained, but it is not the less extraordi- nary. Her husband had incurred the resentment of the ribbon-men of his vicinity, by offering for land against one of the fraternity. On the Saturday night an armed party entered his house for the purpose of killing him, but their diabolical design was thwarted by the circumstance of their intended victim being in custody of the Dublin Police, upon an unfounded, but certainly not an un- fortunate accusation. His family had communicated with the constabulary, lest the intended assassination might be perpetrated on his journey home, and early on Monday morning his wife started in search of him, with the result which has been stated. Crown Witnesses. 197 CROWN WITNESSES. For several years subsequent to my appointment to ma- gisterial office, there were two houses in Great Ship Street, on the side now entirely occupied by the barrack, which were appropriated to the accommodation of crown witnes- ses. There was an internal communication between those houses, and the witnesses, of both sexes, were allowed to associate free from all supervision, except what served to keep them from leaving the premises, unless accom- panied by an attendant, and examining letters received or despatched by them. Their meals were generally taken together; and for the amusement or employment of their evenings, they were left entirely to themselves. Amongst those witnesses almost every variety of character was to be found. A young man, whose name has lapsed from my recollection, was charged by a female with attempting to commit an offence which I need not particularise, and I was directed to investigate the affair at the premises, without imparting to it any avoidable publicity. The accused party denied the misconduct imputed to him, and attributed the charge to spite and resentment on the part of the complainant and another inmate of the place. A woman stated that " the girl was vexed by the questions put to her, and the faults found with her evidence every time that her case was tried/' I was greatly surprised to find that the crown witnesses were accustomed to have their evidence rehearsed before an amateur judge, an im- provised jury, and a couple of supposed counsel, one to prosecute and the other to defend. If a case failed, the witnesses were instructed as to their deficiencies, either in manner or matter; and they were drilled to avoid admissions of any nature calculated to weaken their 198 Gleanings and Reminiscences. testimony. I made such representations to the Executive as produced the suppression of the Ship Street establish- ments. WHO BLEW UP KING WILLIAM ? Very soon after my appointment to the police magis- tracy, there was a person named Jones convicted of being deeply implicated in the Ribbon system. He was not committed for trial from the Head Office, and I was not officially connected with any of the proceedings in his case. After he had been sent to another hemisphere under sentence of transportation, I heard casually from a professional man, on whose statements I placed the ut- most reliance, that Jones had acknowledged to him being the person by whom the statue of King William in College Green was blown up in 1 836. There was no prosecution instituted as to that extraordinary affair, and I notice it only on account of the statements subsequently made, and an incident which may be considered of an amusing character. Two women of a disreputable class were stand- ing at the corner of Church Lane in College Green just after midnight. A man, whom they had not previously observed, descended quickly from the statue, and having crossed the rails which then intervened between the pedes- tal and the thoroughfare, he ignited a fuse which had been previously connected with some explosive substance placed between the figures of the steed and the rider. The man rapidly decamped, the fuse burned quickly, and there was an explosion which was heard in almost every part of the city, and by which the figure of the monarch was com- pletely separated from his horse, and thrown into the pub- lic carriage-way, several yards from the pedestal. It was reported that a respectable citizen residing in the immediate Surgical Assistance. 199 vicinity, who had been suffering for some time previous from disease of the heart, rose from his bed in hasty alarm, and almost immediately dropped lifeless. Jones, accord- ing to the statement of my informant, subsequently tried to cut the head off the prostrate figure, but was deterred by the approach of a party of police from College Street. I believe that those who examined the figures of man and horse expressed a decided opinion that the explosion had not been effected by gunpowder, and the statements of the acknowledged delinquent denied that gunpowder had been used, but without his specifying what material had effected such an extraordinary result. SURGICAL ASSISTANCE. In the year 1836, Lord Mulgrave, afterwards Marquis of Normanby, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He had an aid-de-camp, a Captain B , who has since supple- mented that name by another commencing with O. That gentleman then was, and has since continued to be, a most desirable addition to any social or convivial re-union in which wit and comic humor were appreciated. On the night of the explosion, Captain B was returning from some festive scene, and reached College Green, on his way to the Castle, a few minutes after the occurrence. He instantly ordered his driver to make for Merrion Square as quickly as possible, and to stop at the residence of Crampton, who was the first surgical practitioner of the time, and who was very generally considered to have a most persistent anxiety to establish acquaintance and even intimacies amongst the aristocracy. Captain B ap- plied himself to the knocker and door-bell until he had completely roused every inmate of the house, and to the first, who enquired the reason for his urgent application, 200 Gleanings and Reminiscences. he replied, " To let Surgeon Crampton know that a very distinguished personage had fallen from his horse in Col- lege Green, and sustained serious injuries." The hoax was successful. Crampton proceeded with the utmost haste to the place designated, and subsequently he caused considerable surprise by becoming the frequent narrator of the trick to which he had been subjected. A REJECTED SUITOR. In offering to my readers an incident or anecdote, I have the advantage of being free from any necessity for a consecutive arrangement. My recollections may suggest occurrences anterior to some already narrated without pre- cluding me from a description of them. About the time, however, to which I have last adverted, I was residing in Lower Fitzwilliam Street, and a young lady, a near relative of my wife, was a frequent visiter. She was decidedly hand- some, and possessed other attractions of no inconsider- able value. Her admirers were numerous, and amongst them there was no more ardent suitor than a Mr. Richard S . He was an accomplished gentleman, of handsome counten- ance and fine portly figure. He sang very well, and almost always adapted his voice to the music of his own guitar. His family was of high respectability in a southern county, but some banking speculations had seriously diminished their financial resources. His addresses were most ardently directed, but the fair ladv was not to be won. She was informed that her admirer supported himself by some em- ployments or agencies in the corn trade. He was refused, and almost immediately disappeared from Irish society. When I resigned the police magistracy in 1861, I was invited by my friend, the late Marcus Costello, to visit him at Gibraltar, at which place he held the office of Attorney- George Robins. 201 General. In a few weeks after my arrival there, he told me that some Spanish officers of high distinction were to cross from Algesiras, to visit the fortress and see the extra- ordinary productions of nature and art which are there so abundantly displayed. I accompanied him and several other functionaries to the Governor's residence, at which, amidst the firing of salutes and other manifestations of respect, the Spanish officers were received. The principal personage amongst them was highly decorated. He had distinguished himself in the then recent warfare with the Moors, and was a general in the army, besides holding an important provincial office wliich, as well as I recollect, caused him to be designated " Intendente." To my great astonishment, Don Kicardo de S. advanced to me, proferred his hand, enquired about many of his old acquaintances, and enabled me to recognise the quondam guitar performer, whose personal qualities and capabilities had been better appreciated abroad than in his native land. I may, in some later pages, have occasion to refer to other recol- lections of Gibraltar. w » GEORGE ROBINS. About the time of my accession to magisterial office, a sale was advertised of two properties on the river Black- water. The descriptions specified two fine mansions, with the adjuncts of extensive stabling, gardens, ornamental plantations, and such a number of acres suited for pasture or tillage as would fairly entitle each place to be considered a demesne worthy of the attention of all who desired a residence fit for high rank and liberal expenditure. The advertisements stated the properties to be beautifully pic- turesque, and as affording ample means to the sportsman for the gratification of all his tastes or inclinations. But 202 Gleanings and Reminiscences. _ * public attention was peculiarly excited by the announce- ment that the sale by auction would be conducted at Morrison's in Dawson Street, by the far-famed London auctioneer, Ghorge Robins. Not being the least curious of the community, I betook myself to the place appointed, and found the room crowded at the hour of one o'clock, p.m. George allowed fifteen or twenty minutes to elapse before he appeared and offered an apology for his delay, as having been occasioned by the breaking down of a vehicle. He then proceeded to address his auditors in a tone of, perhaps assumed, despondency and discontent, to the following effect: — "Ladies and gentlemen, I feel deeply mortified at having to submit for public competition these properties, of which I have not the slightest personal knowledge. I regret having accepted the engagement, which I am decidedly unable to discharge to my own satisfaction. It was my intention to have viewed the houses and lands, so as to know what I could truly state ; but I was unfortunately detained in London, until it became impossible for me to run down to Mallow or Youghal before the auction. I think it very probable that I shall take an early opportunity to see the places which I am now about to sell. My curiosity has been excited greatly by two gentlemen who travelled in the coach with me on my journey through Wales. They knew me; and in the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I was proceeding to Dublin to sell these two properties on the Blackwater. They stated that they knew the places per- fectly well, and that I might expect a brisk competition. As we passed through the lovely scenery of Llangollen, Clwyd, and some other enchanting places, I expressed the most unqualified admiration of landscapes uniting all the beauties which hill and valley, wood and water, towering The Greek Count : The Rats. 203 rocks and verdant glens can present to the view of a de- lighted traveller. My companions did not join in my fervent appreciation of the Welsh scenery. They said that it was certainly agreeable to the eye, but when com- pared with that of some other localities, it did not surpass mediocrity. When I reiterated my opinion that I had never previously viewed such beautiful landscapes, they replied that if I only took a glance at the places on the Blackwater, which I was going over to sell, they would monopolise my admiration, and convince me of the utter in- feriority of the most picturesque portion of Wales. I have consequently a very great desire to see the two splendid demesnes which I must now offer for your competition." I do not insist on my readers giving implicit credence to the tale about the travelling companions. Whoever dis- believes it will not be singular. THE GREEK COUNT — THE RATS. I had the pleasure of being intimately acquainted with the late Thomas Symes of Leinster Street. He was a solicitor of the highest respectability, and was an universal favorite in a very extensive circle. He had travelled much, especially in the southern parts of Europe ; and few foreign- ers from those localities, if of rank or consideration, came to Dublin without experiencing his attentions. Amongst those whom I met at his house, there was only one in whom I observed a tendency to make statements which were worthy of observation and productive of amusement from the total absence of any truthful ingredient. He was a Greek, and was also a Count, and not a Baron, so that he could not be mistaken for a personage of the latter dignity, whose name commenced with the same letter. Count M was not the veritable Baron Munchausen, 204 Gleanings and Reminiscences. but he was decidedly his rival in demands on the credulity of those who heard his asseverations. He never spoke to the disparagement of any human being except Otho, who was then King of Greece, and whom he occasionally ex- pressed a wish to burn. He spoke English and some other languages with wonderful fluency, and no matter what subjects appeared most agreeable to any company, the Count never failed to introduce and expatiate on the surprising intelligence of Rats, and he invariaby closed each anecdote with a declaration that "upon his sacred word of honor it was strictly true." " I was obliged/' said he " to leave Athens by the tyran- nical persecution of Otbo, and I betook myself to Zante, in which island I possessed extensive currant grounds and olive plantations. In our oil cellar we had a large tun and a great number of jars and flasks, which were generally well filled. We found, however, that the jars and bottles pre- pared for corking and sealing in the evening were lessened by some inches as to their contents in the morning. Having closely and quietly watched, we found that the rats took it in turn to let down their tails into the vessels, so as to enable the others to lick off the oil thus abstracted. The store tun appeared to be full to the bung-hole ; but when the contents were drawn off for refining, we discovered that the rats had kept the oil up to the orifice by dropping pebbles into the vessel. I pledge you my sacred word, &c. " I was one day strolling through the currant grounds, and provided with an excellent fowling-piece, in the hope of meeting with quail. I was near to a small stream, when I observed two rats approaching the water. They were so close together that their sides appeared to be touch- ing, and I killed both in one shot. On going to the spot vi here they were lying, I immediately perceived that one The Child of the A lley. 205 rat was blind, and between them there was a little straw blade, of which each had held an end in his mouth. It was thus that the blindness of one was productive of sa- gacious care and attention in the other. I pledge you/' &c. I have lately observed that the Count is mentioned in The Life and Recollections of the Hon Granville Berkeley, but without any allusion to the extraordinary tendencies and dexterous expedients which, amongst us, he attributed to such hateful vermin. THE CHILD OF THE ALLEY. Amongst my personal recollections, there is one which I hope to narrate without ruffling or alarming the most sensitively delicate of my readers, although amongst the prominent characters of the scene about a dozen belonged to the most wretched and degraded portion of the female sex, and dwelt in a mean, loathsome, and disreputable locality named Cole Alley, which was, and perhaps still continues to be, occupied by denizens of a similar descrip- tion. I shall apply to them the term adopted by Hood in his exquisite production of " The Bridge of Sighs/' and designate them " unfortunates.0 I had been a magistrate for three or four years, when I was one day informed by the attendant of the police-court that a deputation of females from Cole Alley earnestly besought me to give them an audience. My colleagues were amused at the application, and ironically congratulated me on such an exclusive preference; but I determined to accede to the request, and directed them to be admitted. About twelve of them entered the court, and amidst the " unfortunates" I perceived a female child of ten or eleven years of age. 206 Gleanings and Reminiscences. The spokeswoman of the party led this child forward, and addressed me to the following effect : — " Yer worship, this poor little girl was born in the alley. She was not quite a year old when the collar (cholera) made a great sweep up there, and took off her mother, who was one of us. The child had no one to care her, so we agreed to do the best we could for her, and we gave her a bit of food, a rag or two to cover her, and she lived about among, us, so that we used to call her our own child. But now, yer worship, we see that she is coming to a time of life when to stay in the alley would be her destruction. We are doatingly fond of her, and it would be a heartscald to us all to think of her ever falling into our course of life. We would beg of you to have her put into some school or institution where she will be reared in decency, and trained to earn honest bread." I at once stated to "the deputation" that I should do my utmost to realize their wishes, and that they might leave the child to my care. They embraced her most affectionately, and with the warmest thanks for my com- pliance, they departed. The Poor Law Unions had not been organized at the time, and I sent the child on a remand committal to the worthy matron of Grangegorman Prison, Mrs. Rawlins, with a note explaining the circum- stances, and requesting that the little girl should be kept apart from the juvenile delinquents. My wishes were strictly complied with. On the following day, I dined at Portrane with the worthy George Evans. I mentioned the transaction to him, and he communicated it to his sister, Mrs. Putland. That lady was an impersonation of chanty, and at once offered to have the " child of the alley " placed in one of the many institutions which she contributed to support. I regret that I am unable to state any further The Lucky Shot. 207 results, having omitted to make ulterior inquiries, but I have always considered the earnest application, perhaps I might fairly term it the supplication, of. the Cole Alley " unfortunates " as the strongest acknowledgment, offered sincerely and spontaneously, by Vice of the superiority of Virtue. the lucky shot. A female of the class to which I have adverted was an inmate of one of the many disreputable houses which constituted almost the entire of a street on the south side of Dublin. It was called " French Street ;" but the ob- noxious establishments having been suppressed, it is now designated " Upper Mercer Street." An English com- mercial traveller betook himself to the house in which the a unfortunate " resided. He was in a fearful state of delirium tremens; and having been refused a further supply of liquor, he took out a pistol, and shot the "unfortunate," lodging two bullets in her body. He was seized, and the woman was conveyed to Mercer's Hospital, which was in the immediate vicinity. Her wounds did not prove mor- tal, the balls were extracted ; but whilst her recovery was uncertain, I went several times to the hospital for the purpose of taking her informations. She never expressed any resentment against her assailant, and she refused to prosecute him. Some of his family and friends contri- buted about £%o> which sum was paid to her a few days before she was discharged, and she appropriated it to de- fray the expenses of her emigration. I was informed by the attendants that she often spoke of the lucky shot, by which she was enabled to quit a course of sin and degra- dation, and to essay a new life in a new land. This oc- curred, I think, in the year 1843. CHAPTER XX. V O'CONNELL — SMITH O'BRIEN AND MEAGHER — JOHN MITCHEL INFORMERS THE CLOSE OF 1 848 THE MILITARY A FRENCH VIEW OF POPULAR COMMOTIONS. In 1844 there was the most intense excitement amongst all classes, sects, and parties of the Irish community, aris- ing from the prosecutions instituted by the Attorney- General,. Thomas Berry. Cusack Smith against O'ConneN and several others for various alleged violations of the laws in their meetings, publications, and other proceedings adopted by them to promote a repeal of the Union. The preliminary informations were sworn before a judge, and none of the police magistrates were called upon to inter- fere, in any way whatever, from the commencement to the conclusion of the affair. On thq 30th of May, the accused were sentenced to certain terms of imprisonments and fines, and they were liberated on the reversal of the judg- ment by the House of Lords, on the 6th September. A few days before the sentence was pronounced, I dined in company with Mr. John O'Connell, when he stated that they expected to be sent to Newgate or Kilmainham. I advised him to have a special application made to the court to order the imprisonment in the Richmond Bride- well, which was cleanly and spacious, and where they O'Connell. 209 might have access to two extensive gardens. My sugges- tion was adopted, and the prisoners were sent by a cir- cuitous route, avoiding the great thoroughfares of the city, to the bridewell. In the evening I was going home to my residence in Rathmines, when I overheard a woman loudly expressing to a number of sympathetic listeners, her hearty detestation and curse upon all " who had any hand in sending the Liberator to the same place as that to which Porter sends his blackguards." Thomas Berry Cusack Smith, the Attorney-General, had been nicknamed, " Alphabet Smith," from the multi- plicity of his names, and when the judgment of the Queen's Bench was reversed, a ballad appeared to the tune of " The Shan van vocht." A police inspector asked my opinion as to the prevention of it being chanted by the street vocalists, and I advised him against making it more known and more relished by the multitude, as it would be by his interference. It is as follows : — " Musha, Dan who let you out ? Says the T. B. C. For you 're here beyant a doubt, Says the T. B. C. Sure I thought I locked you in, You contraries! of min, And what brings you here agin, Says the T. B. C. % Through the chimney did you climb ? Says the T. B. C For you 're up to any crime, Says the T. B. C. There were locks both great and small, Did you dare to pick them all ? Did you scale the prison wall ? Says the T. B. C 210 Gleanings and Reminiscences. No, I did 'nt scale the wall, Says the Dan van vocht, Through the flues I did 'nt crawl, Says the Dan van vocht, Not a weapon did I take, And no lock I tried to break, Such attempts I 'd scorn to make, Says the Dan van vocht. But might is foiled by right, Says the Dan van vocht, As the darkness by the light, Says the Dan van vocht, My cause was on a rock, 'Twas the law that picked the lock, And I 'm free, my bantam cock, Says the Dan van vocht. Oh ! confusion to you Dan, Says the T. B. C. You 're a divil of a man, Says the T. B. C. And we 're in a precious plight, By your means this very night, For you 've bothered us outright, Says the T. B. C.w During the progress of the prosecution against the repealers, Tom Steele, who was one of those indicted, interrupted the proceedings several times, audibly contra- dicting some expressions of the Attorney-general, and annoying him bv exclamations and gestures. Tom prided himself on being considered the Jidus Achates of O'Connell, and was never so happy as when closely associated with his political leader. It was said, and I believe it was perfectly true, that Smith succeeded in quieting Tom, by intimating that if he continued to exclaim and gesticulate, his name should be struck out of the indictment, and his O'Connell. 211 chance of participating in the expected martyrdom thereby annihilated. Whilst O'Connell and the other state prisoners were in the Richmond Bridewell, they received a continual supply of the choicest provisions and wine sent as presents by their political adherents. It would be very difficult to particularise any article suited to a luxurious repast, which was not tendered for their enjoyment. I was twice at the prison, on magisterial business, during their detention, and on each occasion I saw materials fit for princely banquets brought for their use. I was rather surprised at one contribution which very soon disappeared. It was half a ton of ice, and it did not preserve its consistency beyond a few hours. I heard from some of the prison officials that O'Connell's meals were generally simple in their material, but that his appetite was healthy and strong. When released from confinement, he did not appear to have been weakened by its infliction. It would not be in accordance with the objects of my reminiscences to advocate or condemn the political opinions or proceedings of any portion of the community, unless they involved direct incitements to, or the actual adoption of, open violence. In noticing O'Connell as a remarkable public character, I may express my conviction that he had a decided repugnance, even in the hottest times of political excitement, to the application of actual force. It may be said that he could " speak daggers," but he was disposed to " use none." Whenever I had an opportunity to hear him, whether on legal or political occasions, I availed myself of it, in the anticipation of being highly amused, and I was scarcely ever disappointed. I am tempted to detail two or three of my recollections, which have not been noticed by any 212 Gleanings and Reminiscences. ^■l _ a. ^m. .J— ~ ■ _ . ■ *-" - of his biographers. I am aware that my expressions must be far inferior to his diction, but my readers will not, I hope, be too severe in criticising my inefficiency. I was present at the trial of a very beautiful young lady who, with her mother and two other persons, was indicted for conspiring to take away a minor from his parents, and have him married to the young lady in Scot- land. The prosecution was conducted with considerable acrimony, and the Gretna-Green bride was described as a person of very tarnished reputation, whose favorite para- mour had been a blacksmith. No proofs were adduced of the imputed immorality, and O' Conn ell, in a speech for the defence, denounced it as a fabrication "which had not even the merit of originality, but was borrowed from the mythological assignment of Vulcan to Venus." At the commencement of the first viceroyalty of the Marquis Wellesley, a newspaper was started in Parliament Street by a Mr. Hayden. It was called The Morning Star, and its editorial articles were almost exclusively devoted to the most disparaging and insulting productions in reference to the Lord Lieutenant or O'Connell. The latter was never forgotten ; and every term of obloquy was put in requisition for his diurnal vilification. Firebrand, Rebel, Arch-mendicant, Liar, Impostor, Schemer, were liberally appropriated to him, and even the shape of his hat, and the mode of carrying his umbrella, became subjects of offensive observation. The attention of the Attorney- General was attracted to an article in The Morning Star, headed "The profligate Lord Wharton/' the writer of which stated that the history of the Wharton viceroyalty had never been fully published, because a true description of such a character would be considered as an incredible exaggeration, but that it might now be produced without O'Connell. 213 any apprehension of such an opinion prevailing, inasmuch as its worst details would be found fully equalled in Dublin Castle under the auspices of its present occupant. A criminal information was filed against Mr. Hayden for a libel on the Lord Lieutenant ; and he became extremely apprehensive of a severe punishment, resulting from his very offensive comparison of Lord Wellesley with Lord Wharton. He immediately engaged William Ford as his attorney, and the next step was to retain O'Connell as his principal counsel. The latter agreed to act, but required that he should be left completely free to adopt whatever line of defence he preferred, and to manage the case at his own discretion. The trial was held in the King's Bench before Bushe, the Chief Justice, and the opening statement for the prosecution was delivered by the Attorney-General, Plunket. Sir Charles Vernon, who held the appointment of registrar of newspapers, was the first witness; and he produced the official copy of the paper containing the alleged libel, and it was read by him for the court and jury. O'Connell was then at the outer bar, and occupied a seat on its front row. He submitted to the judge, that when a document was given in evidence, either party could insist on the entire of it being read. To this proposition the Chief Justice acceded, expressing a hope, however, that his time would not be wasted in listening to irrelevant matter. O'Connell then required Sir Charles to read sundry portions of the paper in which " a person named O'Connell " was made the subject of the most defamatory animadversions. The entire auditory were convulsed with laughter, as he gravely proceeded to elicit ardent wishes for the speedy hanging or transportation of the arch-agitator, the apostle of mischief, the disseminator of disaffection, the mendicant patriot, the disgrace to his 214 Gleanings and Reminiscences. profession, and the curse of his country. When the case for the prosecution closed, he proceeded to address the jury, and his speech was replete with the highest enco- niums on the Marquis Wellesley, to whose Indian govern- ment and diplomatic services he referred as exhibiting all the qualities of perfect statesmanship. He then expressed his surprise at the Attorney-General condescending to no- tice the publication of a mere newspaper squib, which could not possibly affect the illustrious viceroy. In the paper produced there were several unwarrantable attacks upon some person named O'Connell, who had instituted no proceedings against their publisher, although, perhaps, he was very likely to be affected injuriously by them, especially if his livelihood depended upon his character and reputa- tion. Bitterly as he had been assailed, he had remained quiescent, and so regardless of the invectives directed against him, that it was very probable he had no desire whatever to mulct or incarcerate his assailant, but would rather aid in terminating his anxieties, and sending him. home to his wife and Jive children. At the conclusion of his speech O'Connell left the court. I had been sitting very near him, and went out at the same time. Ford was in the vestibule, and when they met, O'Connell said, " Ford, I hope that I did not make a wrong cast in my closing sentence ; is the fellow married ?" Hayden was not convicted, the jury disagreed, and the prosecution was not renewed. The publication of " The Morning Star " was almost immediately discontinued* In 1834, the question of Repeal of the Union was in- troduced by O'Connell to the House of Commons, and negatived by an overwhelming majority. The principal opponent of the motion was Thomas Spring Rice (after- O'Connell. 215 wards Lord Monteagle) who was then one of the members for Limerick city, and a very general opinion was imme- diately entertained that he would never be elected there on any future occasion. In the autumn of 1834, I was appointed a revising barrister in reference to tithes, and in that capacity I visited Limerick. I had finished my busi- ness, and was preparing for my departure, when about two o'clock in the afternoon, O'Connell arrived at the hotel, (which was, I think, Cruise's,) and the street was immediately thronged to excess by an enthusiastic multi- tude. He was on his way to Dublin; but whether he wished to address the people or not, it was manifest that a speech from the balcony was unavoidable. I got as near to him as the crowded state of the apartment permitted, and was enabled to hear his oration fully ; but of course I cannot do more than give its general import, and endea- vour to describe its effect. He commenced by stating that a report had been circulated that he intended to interfere with the people of Limerick, and to direct, and even to dictate, the choice of their Parliamentary representatives. This rumour he denounced as a scandalous, infamous lie. He had no wish to curb or trammel them in the exercise of their rights, and he was not such a fool as to attempt dictation to a community too independent and intelligent to yield to any influence except dispassionate arguments suggested by patriotism and conducive to the welfare of their beloved country. Frequent and rapturous cheers from listening thousands evinced their appreciation of his address, especially when he referred to the valorous defence of their city by their forefathers. At length he said that his topics were exhausted, and that he had nothing to add unless they wished him to tell them a little story. Shouts were immediately raised for " the story, the story," and he 216 Gleanings and Reminiscences. proceeded to narrate that about the beginning of the pre- sent century an opinion was very prevalent that the French intended to invade Ireland, and it was considered probable that their fleet would enter the Shannon, and land the troops on the left side of that splendid river, in the vicinity of Limerick. The French had exacted such heavy contri- butions from the continental states which they had occu- pied, that very great apprehensions were entertained that their invasion of Ireland would be attended with similar results, and that the industrial resources of the country and the savings of the people would be speedily spoliated. There then lived near Foynes a farmer named Maurice Sullivan, a man of excellent character, religious, sober, thrifty, industrious, and intelligent. He had a loved and loving wife, comely and amiable, who made his home happy by the observance of every domestic duty, On a Sunday morning, they were returning from Mass, and were chatting as to the probability of the French coming over. He said that they would ruin thousands who were then comfortable and contented, and that they would help themselves to everything they fancied. " I have now," he added, " to tell you, my dear Jenny, that I have more money than you knew of. I have had good crops, and the cattle and sheep have thriven well and fetched high prices, and I have laid by close on eight hundred pounds. If a French- man came across my savings, he would not ask leave or licence, but plunder me at once." " Maurice," replied his wife, " I must acknowledge to you that I have put by more than one hundred pounds that I made from time to time by the poultry and eggs and early vegetables. Now that we have made a clear breast to each other, what course shall we take to keep the money safe ? " O'Connell 217 " Well," said he, " I was down, a few evenings ago, in the old churchyard, and noticed a hole at the corner of the big monument belonging to the Rice family. I think if I got a strong canister or jar, and packed the money in it, and hid it under the monument, closing up the hole com- pletely, nobody would ever think of ransacking such a place as that, or suppose that it contained anything valuable/' "Maurice," replied Jenny, "it was a cute notion of yours, and I am sure that no Frenchman would ever go to root out your canister, but still with my consent not even a farthing shall ever be put there." " Why, what is your objection ? '' said her husband. " My objection is very simple," answered Jenny; "do anything else that you please, but not that, for I wouldn't trust a Rice, living or dead." The "little story " was vehemently cheered, and its concluding words became a political maxim amongst the repealers of Limerick. Rice had no longer a chance of election there, but he was returned at the next dissolution for an English borough, I believe for Cambridge. The €t little story " appeared to me rather an extraordinary sequel to the disavowal of any desire to interfere, to direct, or to dictate. In some recent publications I have seen it stated that O'Connell achieved a complete triumph over an inveterate termagant named Biddy Moriarty, whose quickness and copiousness of abusive diction deterred all others from engaging her in any wordy warfare. His success was ascribed to the application of mathematical terms to his vituperative antagonist, who became completely bewildered at finding herself designated a detested parallelogram, a notorious hypothenuse, an octagonal diagram, of rectan- 218 Gleanings and Reminiscences. gular habits and rhomboidal practices. I do not believe that he ever came in collision with the redoubtable Biddy, for the tale of her discomfiture was very rife before O'Connell had attained to great eminence, either politically or professionally, and I have heard it told in the year J 817 in the presence of Curran, who was mentioned as her successful antagonist, and complimented on the effective means he adopted to overcome the incorrigible scold ; and I recollect hearing him state that the encounter took place at Rathcormack, in the County Cork. He added, that having declared, towards the conclusion of the verbose strife, that he could never condescend again to notice such "an individual," the exasperated woman replied that he had a power of impudence to say the like, for that she was no more an andyvidjal than he was himself. In reference to O'Connell, I have a very distinct re- collection that in 1837-38 he took a prominent part in opposing combinations amongst the working tradesmen of Dublin. He attended public meetings, and spoke of the evils arising from combinations or trade-strikes in the strongest terms. Hostility, amounting to threats of personal violence, was displayed towards him by some of those to whose opinions and proceedings he was adverse. I have heard Joseph Denis Mullen state that he suggested to O'Connell that the course adopted by him might endanger his popularity, to which he replied : — "When my popularity depends on the surrender or compromise of my conscientious convictions, I shall not seek to retain it." It was in reference to his conduct at that time that the late Lord Charlemont, when presiding at a public banquet to the metropolitan members, of whom O'Connell was one, and proposing the toast of the evening, O'Connell. 219 applied a very appropriate quotation, derived from classic knowledge and suggested by classic taste — " Justum, et tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentitim ; Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida." — * In April, 1835, I had occasion to visit London, and, during a sojourn of about three weeks, I spent several evenings in the gallery of the House of Commons. There had been a recent change of ministry, and the Melbourne cabinet was formed. In the preceding Government Lord Ashley had been a Lord of the Admiralty, and at the time to which I refer, a sergeant-at-law, named Spankey, had been returned, on the liberal interest, for a metropolitan constituency, I believe Finsbury. I happened to be in the gallery one evening when there was not a member of the administration present, and the opposition benches were also unoccupied by any of the leading conservatives. There was no probability of any interesting discussion arising, and the secretary of the admiralty was engaged in moving the navy estimates to which he did not appear to apprehend any objection, as they had been framed at a considerable reduction of the preceding amounts. I was about to retire from the gallery^ when Lord