WHEN it is confidered that five months have

elapfed, fince you undertook to pledge the faith and honor of Lord Cornwallis's adminiftration, in a tranfaction, which it fhall be the business of this letter to explain, it cannot be imputed to me, that I have been actuated by any unmanly impatience under the infults, the injuries, and the calumnies to which your dishonourable conduct, for a time, has exposed me, or that what I fhall fay has been the refult of paffion and not of the moft mature deliberation. I fhall first state the tranfaction, in the order in which it has happened, and then draw fuch conclufions and offer such remarks, as will place your conduct in such points of view, as that they that run may read.

I will not lofe time in ascertaining how or from whom the idea of propofing terms for faving the lives of Bond and Byrne originated; it was a circumstance of which I had no knowledge. On the 24th of July laft, Mr. Dobbs and the Sheriff entered my prifon with a written paper, figned by seventy state prisoners, purpofing "to give fuch information as was in their power, of arms, ammunition, and schemes of warA 2 puuduka fare,"

fare," (of which it is now manifeft they knew little or nothing)" and to confent to leave Ireland, provided the lives of Bond and Byrne, (both under sentence of death (fhould be fpared." I refused to fign it, not only from a deteftation of entering into any conditions with thofe, who compofed the councils of Lord Cornwallis's adminiftration, but because in the maffacre of my unarmed country men still raging, I did not think that any object, which was not general, could warrant me, in whom fuch confidence was placed by fo many millions of my countrymen, to enter into any fuch compact, and because the poffibility of its being attributed to a defire to fave my own life, in the peculiar fituation I ftood in, was in my mind an infuperable objection, if there had been no other. Befides, it seemed to me that to fave the lives of Bond and Byrne, enough had signed their felf-facrifice to induce the minifters, already fated with blood (as you and Lord Clare appeared to be when we met) to acquiefce; but in this I was deceived, a council fat on the fate of Byrne-he was executed, In this barter of blood, although you had leffened your quantom by half, yet you raised your demands for the price of the other, and proposed to those who had figned the paper, that they should deliver up names. The heroism and utter contempt, with which fo many thousands of my brave countrymen had met death in preference to life, and thofe profufe rewards they were preffed to accept to betray their affociates, and the unparalleled fortitude with which they endured the moft excrutiating tortures, not only at Beresford's riding-boufe, Sandys's-provot, the old Custom-boufe, and the Royal Exchange, but thefe torturing and lafhings,

which refounded in every hamlet throughout the nation, rather than violate the principles to which they had sworn, should have deterred you from offering a propofition fo truly difhonourable. You may enjoy all the fatisfaction your heart can reap from being the author of fuch a propofal, whilft the expression of the contempt and abhorrence with which it was rejected, refts with those to whom you proposed it,

Immediatiately after this base propofition had been retracted, on the eve of Bond's execution, (a beloved friend, whom I myself had brought into the undertaking) furrounded with the horrors of a charnelhouse, where, day after day, I had feen the companions and friends of my heart dragged before fome tribunal or other, "from whose bourn no traveller returns," whilst not an hour that was not the meffenger of fome direful difafters, where my countrymen without leaders, ammunition or arms, continued the victims. Thus environed with horrors, it was intimated to me, that at the council, which had fat on the fate of Byrne, the parties had been nearly ballanced, those who were fated with the blood that had flowed and those that were not; that the latter, who had been triumphant in the cafe of Byrne, had made my confenting to facrifice my a fine qua non, and that my compliance would incline the ballance in favour of the party, which had declared against shedding more blood, of which party Lord Cornwallis was not only the head, but that he was the father of this fentiment to which a part of the council now professed to be converts. How far this intimation was fact it was impoffible for me to afcertain; but whether I confidered the extent and value of the object, in putting a stop

to

to the indifcriminate maffacre of a difarmed people, the truth of which, though not the extent, has been fo fully proved by fome of thofe enquiries which have been made by Lord Cornwallis, fo much to his credit; or whether I confidered it as affording my countrymen an opportunity to make their retreat from an effort not worse conducted than it had been unwifely concerted, as putting a stop to thofe horrible tortures, fo univerfally practifed to extort confeffions, it appeared to me as holding out advantages too confiderable for my beloved countrymen, to authorize me, in the first inftance, to decline holding an interview with the Irish government, to try how far any facrifice I could make, consistent with honor, could enable me to obtain objects fo devout to be wished, With this view, I yielded to the folicitations, which were made to me, to undertake to make terms for the country with those, in whose hands the government was vested; I confented to meet you for this purpose, but foreseeing that the mifrepresentations and falfhood which have been practifed, would be attempted, I exprefsly ftipulated, that fome men upon whofe honor I could rely, should accompany me― Emmet and McNevin were accordingly joined with me, upon the part of the state prisoners.

A fhort time after we had been in one of the lower apartments in the castle, you entered, when I accofted you, with ftipulating that we should have the right of publishing, in order to fecure us from calumny, you then requested that we would confent to the Chancellor's being prefent; Mr. Cooke made a third on the part of government, as I fuppofe in his official capacity. When we were all affembled, the firft

demand

demand I made was, "that I might not be required
to fign any conditions with the Irish government;
but that I might be brought to trial upon whatever
evidence could be produced against me, and that
whatever quarter government might give to a dif-
armed people, might be granted without forcing me
to facrifice myself for an equivalent." This you would
not affent to, which convinced me that it was pre-de-
termined, as I had been informed, that my devoting
myself was made a fine qua non, and that without it,
the fyftem of blood would still be triumphant. I told
you, you had no evidence whatsoever against me,
which you did not deny. Having put it beyond doubt,
that a regard for felf or for life had no fhare in the
part I was now forced to adopt, to fave the blood of
my countrymen, and that I was throwing myself be-
tween them and the perfecution to which they ftill
were a prey, my next concern was to make the terms
as wide as I could. To this end, I obferved that as
the information I should condition to give might be
made a fubject for grounding a charge of conftructive
treafon against the whole Union, as had been at-
tempted fo widely in England, I could not confent
to give any information whatever, unless I was affured
that no more blood fhould be fhed for any thing that
had paffed in the Union. The Chancellor affirmed
that constructive treason was law, and that if his ad-
vice had been followed, every member of the Union
would have been profecuted for treafon; to which I
replied that he must have profecuted the People of
Ireland to extermination, as nearly the whole popu-
lation was of the Union, againft which he was to
draw his bill of indictment; a fact from which nei-

ther