Chapter XIV: Leonard Mcnally (2)

A moral, well-acted play [he writes] is of more real benefit to
Society at large than all the inflated harangues of puritanical
declaimers. To men of letters the drama affords a most delightful
recreation, after their understandings have been absorbed in
perplexities, or their intellectual powers strained by continued
study.

O what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive.

The elder Farran began his career in Dublin, and McNally's criticism helped to make it a success. Mrs. Edwin, Miss Walstein, Fullam, Williams, Young, all were cleverly reviewed. It was not necessary, he said, for a tragedian to roar like a lion, or for a comedian to grin as through a horse-collar. Two letters signed 'L. M. N.' espouse the part of Mrs. Edwin, who had met with some unkindness. The concluding sentence is characteristic: 'Allow me, madam, to inform you, that while I continue your Panegyrist, you shall never know me. All old men are more or less eccentric. I have my whims, and one of them is a dislike to being thanked for doing what I think to be my duty.'

Friendly relations were established between the popular journalist and his contributor, but at last they seem a little strained. The paper got into trouble with a very formidable enemy to popular principles, Jack Giffard, known as the 'Dog in Office.' The officiousness of McNally, if he had no deeper design, is shown by Lonergan in a hurried leader of September 17, 1818--the italics are his:--

MR. JOHN GIFFARD _versus_ THE 'MORNING POST.'

We did not and could not anticipate that an attempt would be made
to induce the Recorder to fix on a day for the trial, so early as
Thursday (this day!). Now, it is certainly not our intention that
one hour's unnecessary delay should take place on the part of the
proprietor of this paper, in meeting the Corporators face to face
in Court, or elsewhere. It was, however, extraordinary, that a day
so very early should be sought for, and that the motion should be
made at a time when we could have no notice of even the Bills being
found! This prosecution, in other respects _unique_, is equally
unprecedented, we believe, in this _extreme_ anxiety to hurry
the business forward. The Recorder did not countenance this very
suspicious haste. Like an upright judge, he guarded the interests
of the absent.

He said it was of little consequence whether a day was fixed or
not, as he supposed the case would be put off until next sessions.

Mr. M‘Nally--'I understand, My Lord, they do not intend to traverse
in _prox_. _Suppose your Lordship says Thursday next._'

Recorder--'No, Mr. M‘Nally. _I cannot fix a day for the trial
of an indictment only just found; especially as there is not any
reason, that I can perceive, for such haste._'

We have made this extract from one of the newspapers. If it be
correct, may we ask Mr. M‘Nally _who instructed him to speak for
us_? We had no counsel or agent present--how then could the worthy
gentleman, with all his shrewdness and sagacity, _understand_ what
was our intention? Mr. M‘Nally, finding that nobody present was
authorised to speak in our behalf, as _amicus curiæ_, we suppose,
states to the Court our intention; but how Mr. M‘Nally discovered
that intention, it puzzles us to find out, for Mr. M‘Nally, with
all his legal knowledge and abilities, is no conjuror. We wait then
to hear from this gentleman by what authority, he, employed on the
other side, in the absence of counsel or agent for the proprietor
of this paper, did undertake to state to the Recorder what were our
intentions? We think the conduct of Mr. M‘Nally, in this instance,
of a piece with the rest of this curious proceeding.

Some legal proceedings are reported by the Dublin papers of September 18, 1818, as having been instituted by the histrions of Crow Street Theatre for the recovery of their salaries. McNally's swaggering pretensions to pose as an honourable man are amusingly marked. He was counsel for the lessee, Frederick W. Jones.

Mr. MacNally--Now, Sir, you suppose your profession to be a very
honourable and gentlemanlike employment--equally respectable with
my own as a barrister. Now, Sir, let me ask you, are you not a
servant?

Mr. Gladstone--Most certainly. I consider myself the servant of
Mr. Jones and the public. But there is higher authority than mine,
for the Lord Chancellor of England declared, at an investigation
of the affairs of Drury-lane Theatre, that all the performers were
servants, and must be paid before any other creditor.

The Lord Mayor instantly ordered Mr. Gladstone his money.

The last important case in which McNally figured was that of the Wild Goose Lodge murderers at Dundalk. This case, highly tragic in its nature, has been invested with thrilling interest by the powerful pen of Carleton.

'From grave to gay' marked his course on circuit. A glimpse of the 'chaff' which followed McNally at mess is shown by Charles Phillips.

It was a common practice with the juniors to play upon his vanity
by inducing him to enumerate the vast sums he made by 'Robin
Hood.' The wicked process was thus. They first got him to fix the
aggregate amount; and then, luring him into details, he invariably,
by third nights and copyright, quintupled the original. Woe to
the wight, however, luckless enough to have been detected in this
waggery. He was ready with his pistol.

Phillips also describes 'Mac' as ever varying in his account of how he lost his thumbs, and that one night, tired and perplexed by repeated questioning on the point,[513] he at last exclaimed, 'I don't know how I lost them!' It seems to me that 'Mac' was too cool and cunning to trip. Phillips, as a most distinguished co-operator with the Catholic Board, was a man worth McNally's while to 'draw'; and the hoary-headed 'father,' in encouraging the juniors' chaff, probably feigned features which he did not possess. We have seen how resolutely incredulous Phillips stood when the spy's real character was first impugned. Phillips is remembered by the English bar as a very cunning man. But as regards McNally's treachery he died unconvinced. The man whose seeming simplicity he loved to chaff was of deeper acumen. The 'Metropolis,' a review of the Bar, printed in 1805, indicated among McNally's gifts--

With all he saw or learned his memory fraught
Acute perception of his neighbour's thought.

Phillips seemed to pity the awkward simplicity of his venerable friend; but it was clearly McNally's game at times to pose as a 'butt,' and Charles adds no more than the truth in saying, 'his eyes and voice pierced you through like arrows.'

'Howell' should be consulted by those who care to trace the forensic career of McNally--

'L' stands for Lysaght, who loves a good joke;
'M' for MacNally, who lives by the rope!

sings 'the Alphabet of the Bar.' But it is McNally's speeches as a democratic orator, delivered on all great national occasions, in which he appears to best dramatic effect.

The mission of General d'Evereux to Ireland, with the object of raising troops for Bolivar--the South American patriot--took place in 1819, and with it is involved McNally's last important acts of espionage. A military passion had seized on the popular mind. For many weeks the streets of Dublin, gay with plumage, reminded one of Paris during the Napoleonic fever. The city swarmed with stalwart, ruddy youths, clad in uniforms of green and gold, their swords clanking at every step. Levées were held by D'Evereux with all the pomp of a court; public banquets sought to do him honour. At first these things caused alarm at Dublin Castle; but, finally, it was decided that the statute which forbade foreign enlistment might be suffered to lie dormant: after all, the opportunity was not a bad one to rid the land of those military spirits whose presence could never conduce to its repose. In this connection Dr. Scallan has something to say:--

The badge of the United Irishmen worn by Lord Edward Fitzgerald,
and taken from his remains when he lay dead in Newgate, was given
by Leonard McNally to General d'Evereux, who recruited a number
of Irishmen and drilled them, and formed a regiment with which he
sailed to Venezuela, and there attacked the Spaniards and drove
them from the country and freed the Venezuelans from the Spanish
yoke, which had grown into an intolerable tyranny. The badge has
attached to it a paper on which is the following inscription:--

'From Leonard MacNally, Barrister at-law, to General d'Evereux of
the Irish Legion, raised by him for emancipating the oppressed
inhabitants of South America, and punishing their Tyrants. 20 July,
1819.'

This presentation would appear to be one of the, no doubt, many
acts of McNally done for the purpose of concealing his perfidy and
gaining his ends.

My father-in-law, Laurence Esmonde White, of Scarnagh, exerted
himself very much in assisting to procure men and officers for
the Legion; and very successfully, as he had much influence with
the people of the County Wexford, in which he always resided, and
where his family had extensive estates. General D'Evereux gave him
several tokens of his gratitude, of which the badge of Lord Edward
was one. He also gave him a deed of gift, witnessed by his military
secretary, of 200,000 acres of land in Venezuela. Which deed I
have; but no one went there to take possession of the land, and it
would seem to be lost through neglect. An old friend of mine (now
deceased) who travelled much in that country, told me that the land
was worth at least 50,000_l._

I never could understand how the badge could have got into the
possession of McNally, until his perfidy was revealed by Mr.
Fitzpatrick. Then all was made clear. He, no doubt, obtained the
badge from his paymasters in order that he might use it as he
did.[514]

During the passage from Dublin to Venezuela dissensions arose among the officers, and some came back complaining that they had been misled in the business. D'Evereux returned to justify his conduct, and a committee, consisting of Lord Cloncurry, with Counsellors Curran, McNally and Phillips, was appointed to inquire and report.

In 1820 Ireland lost her Grattan.[515] The man who had long shadowed him vanished at the same time. Catholics may care to know, though they will hardly attach much importance to the accession, that Leonard McNally, 'after life's fitful fever,' sank into the bosom of Rome. Father Smith, of Townsend Street Chapel, on February 13, 1820, gave him the last rites. This priest, having got word that 'the Counsellor' wished to see him, went to his house in Harcourt Street, where Mrs. McNally informed him that her husband was then asleep, and must not be disturbed. McNally's son, who happened to be coming down stairs at the moment, reproved his step-mother for the indisposition she evinced to admit the clergyman, adding, 'Can't you let him go to the devil his own way?'[516] He then conducted the priest to the sick man's room. Father Smith put on his stole, and heard muttered from the parched lips of Leonard McNally a general confession, embracing the frailties of his youth and the sins of his manhood. Contrition was manifested, and the priest gave him absolution.[517] Within an hour McNally was dead. In life he had been no coward, but the death-bed was no place to show old instincts. His funeral _cortège_ wended its way to the old graveyard of Donnybrook, where his bones now lie, near those of Dr. Madden, the historian of the 'United Irishmen.'

McNally had married Miss Janson, the heroine of his famous lyric, 'Sweet lass of Richmond Hill;' but it was his second wife, _née_ Edgeworth, who appeared to Father Smith. The son had acquired a rough reputation, and having been once robbed near Rathcoole, his father asked Parsons, 'Did you hear of my son's robbery?' and received for reply, 'No, whom did he rob?' This son died in 1869, leaving no representative.[518]

An action was brought by old McNally's administrator regarding the house in which he died. 'I was present at the trial,' writes 'Rebellion Smyth,' an aged correspondent. 'Judge Burton gave McNally a high character for legal learning and worldly simplicity. "In the affairs of the world" said Burton, "he was as simple as a child."'[519] The eminent judge for once was mistaken.

Grattan's name has been mentioned by McNally as privy to the plans of 1798. What truth may be in the assertion that Grattan would join in an appeal to arms is a point which may never be fully determined. It is certain that in 1782 he would not have hesitated to employ physical force. His friend Mr.--afterwards Justice--Day records of him that 'Grattan was resolved to assist, even by arms, if driven to it, the liberties of Ireland.'[520]

Neither Grattan[521] nor Curran were United Irishmen [writes
Macnevin shortly before his death]. It was known in the event of
success Grattan would have accepted an important appointment in the
new Government; but Curran was continually consulted by them, knew
everything that was going on, and his whole heart was in the cause.

FOOTNOTES:

[427] Vide _Notes and Queries_, October 8, 1859.

[428] _Curran and his Contemporaries._

[429] _Life of Curran_, by his Son, i. 384.

[430] McNally had spoken against time for an hour and three-quarters, as he states in an autograph note. This has been enlarged into 'three hours and a half' by Dr. Shelton Mackenzie in his _Life of Curran_, p. 228, while professing to quote from McNally's note as given by Thomas Davis in _Curran's Speeches_, p. 365.

[431] _Life of Curran_, v. i. 397.

[432] From Curran's lines, 'The green spot that blooms on the desert of life.'

[433] _The Freeman's Journal_, October 13, 1817.

[434] _Curran and his Contemporaries_, p. 376. (Blackwood, 1850.)

[435] _Cornwallis Papers_, iii. 320.

[436] Sirr Papers, MS., Library, Trinity College, Dublin.

[437] Secret Aid. 75_l._ would be a quarter's pay.

[438] Cornwallis, ii. 350.

[439] This letter, signed 'J. W.', speaks of Father Quigley, dressed _à la militaire_. The _Cyclopædian Magazine_ for 1808 says that McNally had lived at Bordeaux, and spoke French well (p. 537). The proceedings of the Whig Club are reported. McNally was a member of this club.

[440] Halliday Collection, Royal Irish Academy, vol. 613.

[441] MS. now in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy.

[442] The attorney for the Ulster United Irishmen (see _ante_, p. 36).

[443] _Cornwallis Papers_, iii. 320. See Appendix to present work for some account of Mr. John Pollock, who first succeeded in seducing the once staunch patriot.

[444] Lecky, vii. 139.

[445] Lecky's _England_, vii. 140. (Longmans, 1890.)

[446] _The Grand Juries of Westmeath, from 1727 to 1853_, by J. C. Lyons, p. 200.

[447] Madden, iii. 37.

[448] This letter reports an early meeting of the rebel conclave, and is dated March 30, 1792. (MSS., Dublin Castle.)

[449] _Life of Curran_, by his Son.

[450] For a notice of James Tandy, afterwards stipendiary magistrate for Meath, see Appendix.

[451] Lecky, vii. 141.

[452] Dr. Madden assigns Conner's death to the year 1796, but McNally's report is dated September 17, 1795.

[453] Moore's _Journal, &c._, vii. 75. Edited by Lord John Russell.

[454] _Cyclopædian Magazine_, 1808, p. 539. A sensational and detailed account of the rescue, evidently supplied by McNally, is culled from a contemporary newspaper, and, in response to the present writer, appears in _Notes and Queries_, of May 19, 1860, p 293.

[455] _Recollections of John O'Keefe_, ii. 45.

[456] McNally's name is amusingly mentioned by the _Saturday Review_ (lxvi. 516) in a paper on the 'Immortals of 1788.'

[457] Mr. Lecky thinks that, had not McNally become a spy, he might have risen to the judgment seat. This, with the testimony of Phillips and Staunton before us, is doubtful: but I am bound to say that many contemporary Irish judges were bad lawyers, who owed their promotion solely to political claims. Higgins does not seem to have known that McNally was also a spy. He often reports him to Cooke: 'Counsellor McNally told me this night at Parisoll's, that Government had offered a sinecure employment, which he rejected. I offered to hold him 100 guineas that his services were never sought for, which completely put him down.'--Francis Higgins to Cooke, November 18, 1797. MSS. Dublin Castle.

[458] _Sketches of Irish Political Characters_, 1799.

[459] _Personal Memoirs._

[460] This passage has been culled by Mr. Lecky.

[461] Sermon on Concealment of Sin.

[462] J. W. to Cooke, June 5, 1798.

[463] Lecky, vii. 142, 401.

[464] All these men, Keogh alone excepted, though never brought to trial, underwent a prolonged term of imprisonment. Keogh was the highly influential leader of the Catholics, and the Crown, probably, wished to make an exception in his favour.

[465] Lecky, vii. 55.

[466] _Ibid._ p. 337.

[467] See O'Connor's letter (_United Irishmen_, ii. 234), saying that in 1797 he expressed abhorrence of the Union _Star_, which had urged assassination; whereupon Cox, its editor, instantly discontinued it. Then, as regards Macnevin and Lord Edward, they are described by Reinhard as 'of the moderate party.' See the _Castlereagh Papers_, i. 283.

[468] Lecky, p. 423.

[469] _Ibid._ p. 331.

[470] _Ibid._ p. 462.

[471] Plowden's _Historic Review_, ii. 537.

[472] Berwick to Grattan. See _Life of Grattan_, vol. v.

[473] 'Trials, if they must so be called, were carried on without number, under martial law. It often happened that three officers composed the court, and that, of the three, two were under age, and the third an officer of the yeomanry or militia, who had sworn, in his Orange lodge, eternal hatred to the people over whom he was thus constituted a judge. Floggings, picketings, death, were the usual sentences, and these were sometimes commuted into banishment, serving in the fleet, or transference to a foreign service. Many were sold at so much per head to the Prussians. Other less legal, but not more horrible, outrages were daily committed by the different corps under the command of Government. The subsequent Indemnity Acts deprived of redress the victims of this widespread cruelty.'--Lord Holland's _Memoirs of the Whig Party_.

[474] This despatch is dated merely 'Tuesday, 25th'; but a second on the same subject bears 'April 27, 1798.' (MSS. Dublin Castle.)

[475] In 1810, Sir William Stamer, who seized John Keogh's papers in 1803, gave a masquerade. McNally went as Æsop, but scorned to wear a mask. Huband, whom he often reports, went as Pan; Dogherty, afterwards Chief Justice, as Jeremy Diddler; Wolfe, afterwards Chief Baron, as a hair-dresser; Sir Jonah Barrington as a friar; and 'Doctor Turner' (no doubt Samuel, LL.D.), as Punch. For a full account, see _Hibernian Magazine_ for 1810, p. 125.

[476] Lecky's _History of England_, vii. 142.

[477] _The Metropolis_ (Dublin, 1806), p. 43, second edition.

[478] McNally always describes himself, in his secret letters, as 'my friend.'

[479] Spy as he was, McNally trembled throughout the troubles, and is not likely to have delivered the defiant reply which he claims to have done. On May 24, 1798, he describes his family as 'all females--all live in terror.' He has moved them a short way from Dublin. He hopes that Cooke's interest will prevent the impending evil of free quarters on his house. It was astutely felt at Dublin Castle, however, that the more McNally seemed to suffer persecution for justice sake, the more freely would popular confidence be reposed in him. On June 27, 1798, he writes to Cooke, bitterly complaining that his house had been attacked by soldiers, who refused to respect Castlereagh's protection.'

[480] _Life of Curran_, by his Son, ii. 148-9. Compare Lecky, viii. 24, where MacNally seems humanely to lament the theft by soldiers, from a Dublin barrister, of a stand inscribed 'Erin go bragh.'

[481] J. W. (secret), September 19, 1800.

[482] Wickham seems to allude to this fact in the _Colchester Correspondence_, i. 456.

[483] Mr. Ross, in his preface to the _Cornwallis Papers_, states that Wickham's papers are destroyed. His grandson tells me that the papers are safely in his possession.

[484] Now the cemetery at Harold's Cross, Dublin.

[485] Madden's _United Irishmen_, iii. 330.

[486] J. W. to Mr. Secretary Cooke: endorsed 'November 1797.' McNally adds, of a subsequent Whig Lord Chancellor, on whom he had his eye: 'Geo. Ponsonby is not of the private meetings at Grattan's or Curran's.'

[487] _Life of Curran_, by his Son, ii. 385.

[488] The same manuscript further records, under the respective dates, March 16, 1803, and November 26, 1803, two sums of 100_l._ each, paid to 'J. W.'

[489] Mr. W. B. Kelly, who held the copyright of a book of mine called _The Sham Squire_, got it reprinted in Edinburgh many years ago. I had no opportunity for revising the proofs, and I am anxious to correct the strange misprint at p. 250, of '1,000_l._' instead of '100_l._' to McNally. The original edition, at the same page, states the amount correctly.

[490] Camden to Portland, December 2, 1797.

[491] Most of McNally's letters are endorsed by Cooke. This is marked by Pelham, 'November 8, 1797.'

[492] McNally himself.

[493] Cloncurry did not see Ireland again until his liberation from the Tower. The object of his mission to England was mere surmise. Pelham assumes that he carried a despatch to the French Republic (Froude, iii. 287); but Cloncurry, ignorant of the above letters, tells his law adviser: 'No papers on politics were found on me, for I never had such' (_Memoirs_, p. 138). Previously, he casually mentions that his father 'insisted upon my going to London to keep my terms at the Temple, which I accordingly did _in November_, 1797,' the very date of McNally's letter. (_Memoirs of Lord Cloncurry_, p. 57.)

[494] Endorsed, 'M. secret. November.'

[495] _Personal Recollections of Lord Cloncurry_, p. 219.

[496] Not one of McNally's letters is dated beyond the day of the week; but many have a correct date endorsed. Some conjectural dates, supplied in late years by an official pencil, are often wrong.

[497] In 1807-8 he appears as a defendant in several judgments 'marked' by the King's Bench. To Benjamin Bradley, 38_l._ 4_s._ 9_d._; to Thomas Shaw, 56_l._; to the administrators of Hatch, and others; and the search, if continued, would show the same results in after years. Curran frequently accommodated him, as well as William Godwin and others.

[498] _Wellington Correspondence (Ireland)_, p. 192.

[499] _Wellington Correspondence (Ireland)_, pp. 99-100.

[500] Ireland, 1810, August to December, No. 648, State Paper Office.

[501] _History of Ireland since the Union_, by Francis Plowden, iii. 896.

[502] The late Michael Staunton to W. J. F.

[503] Ireland, 1811, January to June, No. 652. Peter Finnerty, who, in 1798, had been pilloried as editor of the _Press_, was now (1811) in Lincoln Gaol for a libel on Lord Castlereagh.

[504] Mr. Lecky thinks that, so early as 1795, McNally reported to the Government a secret conference of Curran and Grattan. _Hist._ vii. 145.

[505] _Life of Curran_, i. 147.

[506] These papers are exclusively quoted in the _Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell_ (edited by W. J. F.), ii. 420.

[507] For details, see _Ireland before the Union_, p. 8. (Dublin: Duffy.)

[508] _The Correspondent_, November 4, 1817.

[509] Letter of Mrs. John Philpot Curran, dated 'The Priory, Rathfarnham, September 14, 1872.'

[510] John Egan, a member of the Irish Parliament, lost a judicial office he held by voting against the Union, and died in poverty. A staunch patriot to the end, he belonged to the set which numbered Curran and McNally. Curran's first acquaintance with him was in an affair of honour. Egan, a large man, complained of the great advantage which Curran's diminutive figure gave him. 'I scorn to take any advantage of you, whatever,' replied Curran. 'Let my size be chalked out on your side, and I am quite content that every shot which hits outside that mark should go for nothing.'

[511] It is a question whether 'Mac,' in society, drank as much as he may have pretended to do. See _ante_, p. 185.

[512] _Life of Curran_, 1820, ii. 380. Italics in original.

[513] He seems not to have been so badly maimed as he gave Phillips to believe. John P. Prendergast, a nonagenarian, remembers McNally saying at the Trim Assizes in 1817, 'I have a finger and thumb to tweak the nose of any man who dares to question my acts.' Luckily the present writer did not live in those days. How one thumb went, see p. 177.

[514] Letter of J. J. Scallan, Esq., M.D., to the author. Black Rock, April 23, 1890. The Doctor may not be quite right in his assumption.

[515] Mr. Lecky says that 'McNally had specially good opportunities of learning the sentiments of Grattan' (vii. 281). Grattan died May 14; McNally on February 13.

[516] Rev. John Kearney, P.P., St. Catherine's, to the author, February 10, 1860.

[517] McNally and Father Smith seem to have been old chums. So far back as 1805, 'J. W.' writes, in one of his undated letters: 'Smith, the priest whom I have before mentioned, informed me last night that a person arrived here from France within these few days. The intelligence he brings is an assurance of a Descent by the French, and that the Fleet is now in the Atlantic with this object. I do not give credence to his Information. I found it impossible to extract particulars or names, but I am to see him to-morrow (Sunday).'

Smith, suspecting McNally to be a spy, is likely to have charged his news with sensationalism, and 'Mac,' no doubt, found him useful as a scout. That he was an open-mouthed gossiping man, his account of his very solemn mission to the death-bed of the spy shows. He never received promotion, and in the end became so deaf that when officiating in his confessional he always reiterated audibly the character of the sin disclosed, so as to be sure he heard it correctly, and the result was very painful embarrassment to such neighbouring worshippers as could not fail to become _en rapport_ with the conscience of the penitent. Compare _Wellington Correspondence (Ireland)_, pp. 192-3, and the 'Information of a Priest regarding threatened Invasion.'

[518] Lyons, in his _Grand Juries of Westmeath_, records, deprecatingly, that Leonard McNally's people were engaged in trade; but, according to their tombstone at Donnybrook, they once owned the castle and lands of Rahobeth. Like other Irish gentry of the proscribed faith, they sank during penal times, and the name of Leonard McNally is found in the official list of 'Papists' who 'conformed' early in the reign of George III. How this came about is traceable in Sheil's notice of McNally in 1820: 'His grandfather made a very considerable personal property, which he laid out in building in Dublin; but having taken leases liable to the discovery of this property, in consequence of a bill under the popish laws, he was stripped of it. His father died when he was an infant, at which time the bill of discovery was filed, and little attention was paid to his education.' The 'will of Leonard McNally, Dublin, merchant,' who died in 1756, is preserved at the Record Office.

[519] William Smith, B.L., died at Torquay, April 29, 1876.

[520] See _Life of Grattan_, by his Son, ii. 272.

[521] One of the more voluminous of the secret reports signed 'J. W.' is dated March 24, 1797, and details twenty-three propositions of a plan, through which the United Irishmen were to act with Grattan. The proceedings took place at a meeting at Chambers's, one of the Rebel Directory. (MSS. Dublin Castle.)