Chancellor the exculpation he had extorted from his accuser. Of course he was not dismissed from the magistracy. Nor was his accuser dismissed, the government probably attributing his escapade to an exuberance of loyal zeal.

Of the accusing justice the following anecdote was told me by a beneficed clergyman of the Established Church. His worship had an inveterate habit of profane swearing. At a meeting of magistrates, presided over by the Protestant rector of the parish, who was also a magistrate, he, as usual, gave emphasis to his opinion by a blasphemous oath. The rector, scandalised at the impiety, said, "I shall fine you tenpence sir, for swearing in court." "Here it is by !" said the

other, handing up the tenpenny piece (it was before the days of the shillings) and accompanying the coin with a repetition of the blasphemy. "Another fine for that," said the rector. The justice tendered a second tenpenny with a similar profane accompaniment. And so on, the magistrate swearing, and the rector fining him, until he had emitted some eight or ten oaths, and got rid of a corresponding number of tenpennies. His worship probably considered the affair an excellent joke.

This gentleman was the juror who, at the Cork assizes, presented to the court, in the character of foreman, the verdict of guilty, which he had spelled "gilty."

"That's badly spelled," said the counsel for the defence,* who was near the box, and seized the paper in transitu.

"How shall I mend it?" inquired the foreman, abashed and confused at this public censure.

"Put n, o, t, before it," returned the counsel, handing back the paper for the emendation, which the foreman immediately made in bewildered unconsciousness of the important nature of the change.

"There that will do," said the counsel, taking the amended document, and handing up "not gilty" to the court. A fortunate interposition. The juror in question had a mania for hanging. He had, in his impetuous haste, handed in the issue paper without consulting his brethren of the jury-box. But if the prisoner, in that instance, escaped death, in how many instances were the miserable victims sacrificed? verdict of guilty was easily obtained from jurors who belonged to a class that deemed accusation sufficient to establish criminality, and with whom the received policy was that of hanging the accused," to make an example, and to preserve the quiet of the country."

* Harry Deane Grady.

A

CHAPTER VI.

“A man he was, to all the country dear."
GOLDSMITH.

THERE occurred in 1816, an incident strikingly illustrative of the Protestant ascendancy policy of making examples to preserve the quiet of the country.

The gentleman who officiated as peace-preserver on the occasion to which I now allude, was the Rev. John Hamilton, Protestant curate of Roscrea, in the King's county, and a magistrate. The reverend gentleman had been transplanted to Roscrea from the county Fermanagh. In politics he was an enthusiastic Orangeman; his personal disposition appears to have been romantic and adventurous.

Mr. Hamilton, on receiving his appointment to the magistracy, promised, as he afterwards boasted, to distinguish himself by his zeal in discharging the duties of his office. He speedily set about redeeming his promise. The Monaghan militia, commanded by Colonel Kerr, were at that time quartered in Roscrea. They were all of red-hot Orange principles; and it was the familiar practice of the reverend gentleman to obtain from the commanding officer parties of the men, who scoured the country, firing shots, playing party tunes, and thus exhibiting their ardent loyalty in a sort of irregular ovation of perpetual recurrence. But these triumphant feux-de-joie and the accompanying martial music could not long furnish serious occupation to a spirit so adventurous as that of the Rev. John Hamilton.

There resided at Roscrea two highly respectable Catholic distillers, the Messieurs Daniel and Stephen Egan. There was also in that town a rival distiller named Birch, a wealthy Protestant, in whose family the reverend gentleman had officiated as tutor for some time after his appointment as curate.

It occurred to the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, J.P., to evince his magisterial zeal by implicating the Messieurs Egan in a criminal conspiracy to murder the Protestant gentry of the neighbourhood. He was bustling, active, and artful; and finding in many of his neighbours the ready credulity of prejudice, he soon succeeded in creating serious alarm in their minds. He procured the aid of a confederate, named Dyer, who was groom or stableman in the employment of Mr. Birch (the reverend gentleman's patron); and Dyer, being duly

drilled by Mr. Hamilton, swore informations bearing that several persons, engaged in the murderous conspiracy aforesaid, occasionally rendezvoused in a valley called The Cockpit, situated in the domain of the Hon. Francis Aldborough Prittie, M.P., for the purpose of concerting their organization, and also of practising the manœuvres of military exercise.

Matters were not yet ripe enough to explode the plot against the Egan family. An assistant for Dyer was procured from Dublin, a dexterous practitioner in informations, named Halfpenny, alias Halpin. He was then in the police, an attachéof Major Sirr's office. He had in 1798 displayed great activity as an informer. On this man's arrival at Roscrea, he was taken into the councils of the Rev. Mr. Hamilton.

That reverend gentleman, his wife, and Halpin, dressed up a straw figure in a suit of Mr. Hamilton's clothes. They placed this figure, in a sitting attitude, at a table in a parlour on the ground floor of Mr. Hamilton's house; its back was turned towards the window; on the table before it was expanded a large Bible; a pair of candles stood upon the table. From without, the appearance of this pantomime was precisely that of the reverend pastor of the Roscrea Protestants, deeply immersed in the study of the Word of God. The scenic illusion in the parlour being thus prepared, the reverend gentleman furnished a pistol to Halpin, who, with Dyer, had received his instructions to fire through the window at the stuffed figure. A man named Quinlan was inveigled to join the shooting party. Dyer and Halpin, in obedience to Mr. Hamilton's injunctions, fired through the sash at that reverend gentleman's straw representative, the window-shutters having been left open for the purpose. The figure was hit in the back with a bullet-the Bible was dislodged-two bullets struck the opposite wall.

Dire was the commotion that instantly prevailed through the town. The shout rang from mouth to mouth that the excellent pastor had been fired at while studying the Bible. He had escaped-hurrah! by the special interposition of Providence. His preservation was, doubtless, miraculous; but who could say that the same overruling care would be vouchsafed to the other Protestant inhabitants, whose lives were equally menaced by the Popish conspiracy which had thus been mercifully baulked of its first intended victim? The Protestants clearly must defend themselves.

The drums beat to arms. Parties of the Monaghan militia paraded the streets. In half-an-hour the Messieurs Egan, who

were quietly sitting with some friends, were arrested by a piquet, and conveyed to the guard-house, where they were detained for the whole night on a charge of conspiring to murder the Rev. Mr. Hamilton. These events all took place on the night of the 28th of December, 1815.

Next morning the two Egans were bailed out with great difficulty by the strenuous exertions of their friends. For some days a calm succeeded, interrupted only by the occasional nocturnal visits of Mr. Hamilton and the police to Mr. Egan's house, under pretext of searching for arms.

It was surmised-I pretend not to say with what truththat the government felt rather disinclined to follow up the prosecution in consequence of the excellent character always borne by the parties accused. But Lord Norbury and the Earl of Rosse so vehemently urged the prosecution, that the scruples, if any, of the government were overruled. A fresh witness to sustain the accusation was procured in the person of one Hickey, brother-in-law of the first witness, Dyer.

Meanwhile the rampant delight of the Orange inhabitants of Roscrea was evinced in the most noisy and extravagant manner. Colonel Kerr was an active partizan of the Rev. Mr. Hamilton. He permitted the tattoo to be beaten through the town every evening, the drums being followed by a large military escort, at whose head the reverend gentleman ostentatiously strutted, arrayed in an orange cloak, and wearing round his waist a belt studded with pistols. This melodramatic exhibition was enlivened by such tunes as Boyne Water," and "Protestant Boys," played on the military fifes.

On the morning following the attack on the stuffed figure, the Hon. Mr. Prittie visited the Rev. Mr. Hamilton to inquire the particulars, and asked him whether his (Mr. H.'s) son had not had a great escape?

"Yes, sir," replied Mr. Hamilton.

"Where were you sitting," demanded Mr. Prittie, "when the shot was fired at you?"

"There, sir," answered Mr. Hamilton, pointing to a table in the room. Mr. Hamilton thus sought to confirm Mr. Prittie in the belief which that gentleman had, in common with the public, then adopted-namely, that the shot had been actually fired at himself. This attempt at deception should be carefully borne in mind, because it neutralizes the defence which the reverend gentleman set up for his conduct at a subsequent stage of the affair.

On the 11th January, 1816, the Messieurs Egan were arrested under a warrant of the Rev. Mr. Hamilton's. They were placed in the custody of a party of soldiers and marched to the inn, where they found some eight or ten persons in custody, on the charge of being also involved in the murderous conspiracy. The last-named parties were confined for the night in the guard-room.

At ten o'clock on the following forenoon all the prisoners set out to Clonmel, which is forty miles distant from Roscrea, escorted by a large body of military and police. The Egans travelled in a chaise, which proceeded at a footpace; the other prisoners walked, handcuffed, after the carriage. The first day's journey was to Templemore. It was rendered. extremely fatiguing by the slowness of the pace and the inclemency of the weather. The rain poured down in torrents, and the prisoners, on arriving at Templemore, were conducted to a miserable den without a fireplace, appropriately named the Black Hole, in which they would have spent the night but for the humane interposition of Sir John Carden, who obtained for them the accommodation of the inn.

Next day they proceeded to Cashel, where they were consigned to a small, dreary, damp apartment without any sort of furniture. They applied for permission to occupy the inn, but met a refusal on the plea that the disturbed state of the country would render compliance dangerous. It was, however, resolved to forward them at once to Clonmel.

A curious incident occurred within a few miles of the latter town. Two of the escort appeared to quarrel with each other, and in the course of the dispute they fell from their horses. The steeds, released from their riders, ran away, and the whole escort, with the exception of a single policeman, made off in pursuit of them. The solitary guard approached the Egans and strenuously urged them to escape. "I will follow my comrades," said he, "in pursuit of the runaway horses, and you can then act as you please." But the prisoners, apprehensive of some trick, rejected the advice thus urgently offered, and quietly awaited the return of the party of police.

Arrived at Clonmel, they were met in the jail by the Rev. Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Corker Wright,* a magistrate, who

* This Mr. Corker Wright's house, near Shinrone, was the scene of a bloody tragedy in 1815. A party had been got up to attack the house, it is supposed with his knowledge, and arranged by his steward, Hoey. At all events, the plan was fully known before it was acted upon, for a party of soldiers were in the house awaiting the assailants, in company