quarter of an hour, returned a verdict, finding The prisoners were then remanded. The Jury retired, and, after deliberating a town. 664. Proceedings on the Trial of ROBERT EMMET, Esq. for High Treason; before the Court holden under a Special Commission at Dublin, on Monday September the 19th: 43 GEORGE III. A. D. 1803. Monday, September 19th, 1803. Robert Emmet, esq. was put upon his trial. He had been brought into court upon the 7th of this month, and then informed, that a bill of indictment for high treason was found against him, and he was desired to name his counsel and agent, which he did---but some alterations afterwards took place at his own desire, and the counsel and agent ultimately The following extract from the very interesting Life of the Right Hon. J. P. Curran by his Son W. H. Curran, Esq., will serve to explain the alteration which took place in the appointment of counsel assigned for the defence of the misguided subject of the present trial. It will also elucidate some parts of Mr. Emmet's conduct which are not generally understood. "In the following facts as far as they are generally connected with Mr. Curran, there is indeed no new disclosure. It is a matter of notoriety, that at this period his house was searched--that he appeared himself before the members of the privy council---and that a rumour prevailed, to which his political enemies gave a ready credit, and as far as they could, a confirmation, that he was personally implicated in the recent conspiracy. To be silent, therefore, upon a subject so well known, would be a fruitless effort to suppress it; to allude to it remotely and timidly would be to imply that the whole could not bear to be told it only remains then to give an explicit statement of the particulars, and to subjoin one or two original documents, which will be found to corroborate it in every essential point. "The projector of the late insurrection, Mr. Robert Emmet, who was a young gentleman of a highly respectable family, of very striking talents and interesting manners, was in the habit of visiting at Mr. Curran's house: assigned, were Mr. Burrowes and Mr. Mac Nally, counsel; and Mr. L. Mac Nally, agent. On Wednesday the 15th he was arraigned on the following indictment:-- County of the City of THE jurors for our lord the king upon Dublin to wit their oath present that Robert Emmet late of "Upon the failure of the insurrection, its leader escaped, and succeeded for some weeks in secreting himself. There is reason to believe, that had he attended solely to his safety, he could have easily effected his departure our said lord the now king his supreme true lawful and undoubted lord the cordial love and true and due obedience which every true from the kingdom; but in the same spirit of romantic enthusiasm which distinguished his short career, he could not submit to leave a country to which he could never more return, without making an effort to have one final interview with the object of his unfortunate attachment, in order to receive her personal forgiveness for what he now considered as the deepest injury. It was apparently with a view to obtaining this last gratification tha! he selected the place of concealment in which he was discovered: he was arrested in a house situate midway between Dublin and Mr. Curran's country seat. Upon his person were found some papers, which showed that subsequent to the insurrection he had corresponded with one of that gentleman's family: a warrant accordingly followed, as a matter of course, to examine Mr. Curran's house, where some of Mr. Emmet's letters were found, which, together with the documents taken upon his person, placed beyond a doubt his connexion with the late conspiracy, and were afterwards used as evidence upon his trial. "It was from this legal proceeding that Mr. Curran received the first intimation of the melancholy attachment in which one of his children had been involved. This is not the place to dwell upon the agony which such a discovery occasioned to the private feelings of the father. It was not the private calamity alone which he had to deplore; it came enbittered by other circumstances, which, for the moment, gave his sensibility an intenser shock. He was a prominent public character, and from the intrepid resistance which he had uniformly made in the senate and at the bar to the unconstitutional measures of the state, was inevitably exposed to the political hatred of many, who would have gloried in the ruin of his reputation as in a decisive triumph over those principles which he had all his life supported. He had seen and experienced too much of party calumny not to apprehend that it would show little respect for a misfortune which could afford a pretext for accusation; and however secure he might feel as to the final results of the most merciless investigation, he still could not contemplate without anguish the possibility of having to suffer the 'humiliation of an acquittal.' But his mind was soon relieved from all such distressing anticipations. He waited upon the attorneygeneral [the right honourable Standish O'Grady, the present chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland] and tendered his person and papers to abide any inquiry which the government might deem it expedient to direct. That officer entered into his situation with the most prompt and manly sympathy, and instead of assuming the character of an accuser of the father, more generously displayed his and dutiful subject of our said sovereign lord the king towards him our said lord the king should bear wholly withdrawing and zeal in interceding for the child. At his instance, Mr. Curran accompanied him to the privy council. Upon his first entrance there was some indication of the hostile spirit which he had originally apprehended. A noble lord, who at that time held the highest judicial situation in Ireland, undertook to examine him upon the transaction which had occasioned his attendance. To do this was undoubtedly his duty; but overstepping his duty, or at least his prudence, he thought proper to preface his intended questions by an austere, authoritative air, of which the palpable meaning was, that he considered intimidation as the most effectual mode of extracting the truth. He fixed his eye upon Mr. Curran, and was proceeding to cross-examine his countenance, when (as is well remembered by the spectators of the scene) the swell of indignation, and the glance of stern dignity and contempt which he encountered there, gave his own nerves the shock which he had meditated for another's, and compelled him to shrink back into his chair, silent and disconcerted at the failure of his rash experiment. With this single exception, Mr. Curran was treated with the utmost delicacy; for this he was principally indebted to the friendship of the attorney-general, who finding that every inquiry and document upon the subject explained all the circumstances beyond the possibility of an unfavourable conjecture, humanely and (where it was necessary) firmly interposed his authority, to save the feelings of the parent from any additional affliction. "The following are the letters which it seems requisite to introduce. There was a time when the publication of them would have excited pain, but that time is past. The only persons to whom such a proceeding could have given a pang, the father and the child, are now beyond its reach; and their survivor, who from a sense of duty permits them to see the light, does so under a full persuasion, that all those who from personal knowledge, or from report, may sometimes recal their memories with sentiments of tenderness or esteem, will find nothing in the contents of those documents which can provoke the intrusion of a harsher feeling.' "From Mr. ROBERT EMMET to JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN, Esq. "I did not expect you to be my counsel, I nominated you, because not to have done so might have appeared remarkable. Had Mr. been in town, I did not even wish to have seen you; but as he was not, I wrote to you to come to me once. I know that I have done you very severe injury, much greater than I can atone for with my life: that atonement I did offer to make before the privy, council, by pleading guilty, if those docu contriving and intending the peace and common tranquillity of this kingdom to disquiet molest and disturb and the government and ments were suppressed. I offered more---I offered, if I was permitted to consult some persons, and if they would consent to an accommodation for saving the lives of others, that I would only require for my part of it the suppression of those documents, and that I would abide the event of my own trial. This also was rejected; and nothing but individual information (with the exception of names) would be taken. My intention was, not to leave the suppression of those documents to possibility, but to render it unnecessary for any one to plead for me, by pleading guilty to the charge myself. constitution of this realm to change subvert "My dearest Richard; "The circumstances that I am now going to mention, I do not state in my own justification. When I first addressed your daughter, I expected that in another week my own fate would be decided. I knew that in case of success, many others might look on me differently from what they did at that moment; but I speak with sincerity, when I say that I never was anxious for situation or distinction myself, and I did not wish to be united to one who was. I spoke to your daughter, neither expecting, nor, in fact, under those circumstances, wishing that there should be a return of attachment; but wishing to judge of her dispositions, to know how far they might be not unfavourable or disengaged, and to know what foundation I might afterwards have to count on. I received no encouragement whatever. She told me that she had no attachment for any person, nor did she seem likely to have any that could make her wish to quit you. I staid away till the time had elapsed when I found that the event to which I allude was to be postponed indefinitely. I returned by a kind of infatuation, thinking that to myself only was I giving pleasure or pain. I perceived no progress of attachment on her part, nor any thing in her conduct to distinguish me from a common acquaintance. Afterwards I had reason to suppose that discoveries were made, and that I should be obliged to quit the kingdom im-you-I have injured the happiness of a sister mediately; and I came to make a renunciation of any approach to friendship that might have been formed. On that very day she herself spoke to me to discontinue my visits: I told her that it was my intention, and I mentioned the reason. I then, for the first time, found, when I was unfortunate, by the manner in which she was affected, that there was a return of affection, and that it was too late to retreat. My own apprehensions, also, I afterwards found, were without cause, and I remained. There has been much culpability on my part in all this, but there has also been a great deal of that misfortune which seems uniformly to have accompanied me. That I" have written to your daughter since an unfortunate event has taken place, was an addi "I find I have but a few hours to live, but if it was the last moment, and that the power of utterance was leaving me, I would thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generous expressions of affection and forgiveness to me. If there was any one in the world in whose breast my death might be supposed not to stifle every spark of resentment, it might be you-I have deeply injured that you love, and who was formed to give happiness to every one about her, instead of having her own mind a prey to affliction. Oh! Richard, I have no excuse to offer, but that I meant the reverse; I intended as much bappiness for Sarah as the most ardent love could have given her. I never did tell you how much I idolized her:-it was not with a wild or unfounded passion, but it was an attachment increasing every hour, from an admiration of the purity of her mind, and respect for her talents. I did dwell in secret upon the "The original, from which the above has been copied, is not signed or dated. It was "written in the interval between Mr. Emmet's "conviction and execution." `Curran, crown and government of this kingdom to depose and deprive and our said lord the present king to death and final destruction to bring and put he the said Robert Emmet on the twentythird day of July in the forty-third year of the reign of our said lord the king at Thomasstreet aforesaid in the city and county of the city of Dublin aforesaid with force and arms falsely wickedly and traitorously did compass imagine and intend our said lord the king then and there his supreme true and lawful lord of and from the royal state crown title power and government of this realm to depose and wholly deprive and our said lord the king to kill and bring and put to death and that to fulfil perfect and bring to effect his most evil and wicked treason and treasonable imaginations and compassing aforesaid he the said Robert Emmet as such false traitor as aforesaid on the said twenty-third day of July in the fortythird year of the reign of our said lord prospect of our union. I did hope that success, while it afforded the opportunity of our union, might be the means of confirming an attachment, which misfortune had called forth. I did not look to honours for myself praise I would have asked from the lips of no man; but I would have wished to read in the glow of Sarah's countenance that her husband was respected. My love, Sarah! it was not thus that I thought to have requited your af fection. I did hope to be a prop round which your affections might have clung, and which would never have been shaken; but a rude blast has snapped it, and they have fallen over a grave. "This is no time for affliction. I have had public motives to sustain my mind, and I have not suffered it to sink; but there have been moments in my imprisonment when my mind was so sunk by grief on her account, that death would have been a refuge. "God bless you, my dearest Richard. am obliged to leave off immediately. "ROBERT EMMET."" I the king at Thomas-street aforesaid in the city and county of the city of Dublin aforesaid with force and arms falsely maliciously and traitorously did meet consult combine conspire confederate and agree to and with divers other false traitors whose names are to the jurors aforesaid unknown to raise levy and make a public and cruel insurrection rebellion and war against our said sovereign lord the king within this kingdom and to procure great quantities of arms and ammunition guns swords pistols gunpowder and shot for the purpose of said rebellion and to alter subvert and overturn the constitution of this kingdom and the government of our said lord the king of and in this realm. And that afterwards to wit on the said twenty-third day of July in the said forty-third year of the reign of our said lord the king with force and arms at Thomas-street aforesaid in the city and county of the city of Dublin aforesaid the said Robert Emmet as such false traitor as aforesaid in farther prosecution of his treason and treasonable purposes aforesaid falsely maliciously and traitorously did procure great quantities of arms and ammunition guns swords pistols gunpowder and shot and did then and there falsely maliciously and traitorously make and prepare and did cause and procure to be made and prepared a great number to wit one thousand pikes with intent that divers other false traitors whose names are to the said jurors unknown should be armed with the said guns swords pistols and pikes and being so armed should use the same and the gunpowder shot and ammunition aforesaid in and for the raising making and carrying on insurrection rebellion and war against our said lord the king and in and for the committing and perpetrating a cruel slaughter of and amongst the faithful subjects of our said lord the king in this kingdom And that afterwards to wit on the said twenty-third day of July in the said fortythird year of the reign of our said lord the king with force and arms at Thomas-street aforesaid in the city and county of the city of Dublin aforesaid the said Robert Emmet as "This letter was written at twelve o'clock such false traitor as aforesaid in farther proon the day of Mr. Emmet's execution, and the secution of his treason and treasonable pur firmness and regularity of the original hand- poses aforesaid falsely wickedly and traitorwriting contain a striking and affecting proof ously did associate himself with and did be of the little influence which the approaching come one of a certain society of persons then event exerted over his frame. The same en- and there formed and associated under the thusiasm which allured him to his destiny, name of the Provisional Government for the enabled him to support its utmost rigour. He purpose of raising levying and making public met his fate with unostentatious fortitude; war against our said lord the king within this and although few could ever think of justify-realm and of altering subverting and overturn ing his projects or regretting their failure, yet his youth, his talents, the great respectability of his connexions, and the evident delusion of which he was the victim, have excited more general sympathy for his unfortunate end, and more forbearance towards his memory, than is usually extended to the errors or sufferings of political offenders."-The Life of Curran by his Son, 224-239. ing the constitution of this realm, and the government of our said lord the king of and in this kingdom, the said Robert Emmet then and there well knowing the purposes for which the said society was so formed and associated as aforesaid ག And that afterwards to wit on the 'said twenty-third day of July in the forty-third year of the reign of our said lord the king with force and arms at Thomas-street aforesaid in cealed a certain proclamation manifesto and the city and county of the city of Dublin afore- declaration purporting to be a proclamasaid the said Robert Emmet as such false tion manifesto and declaration of and by traitor as aforesaid in farther prosecution of divers persons to the jurors unknown then his treason and treasonable purposes aforesaid and there formed and associated together falsely wickedly and traitorously did make under the name of the Provisional Gocompose and write a certain proclamation ma- vernment and importing that the said pernifesto and declaration purporting to be a sons so formed and associated had determined proclamation manifesto and declaration of to separate that part of this kingdom called and by the said Provisional Government Ireland from that part of this kingdom called and purporting among other things that England and for that purpose to raise levy the said Provisional Government had de- and wage a public war against our said lord termined to separate that part of this king- the king within this kingdom with intent that dom called Ireland from that part of this the said proclamation manifesto and declarakingdom called England and for that pur- tion should be published as and for the propose to make levy and wage open and pub-clamation manifesto and declaration of the lic war against our said lord the king and his said persons so formed and associated and troops within this realm with intent that the that it should be spread amongst the people said proclamation manifesto and declaration of this kingdom and should incite them to should be published as and for the proclama- enter into and continue in rebellion and war tion manifesto and declaration of the said against our said lord the king Provisional Government and that it should be spread amongst the people of this kingdom and should incite them to enter into and continue in rebellion and war against our said lord the king. And that afterwards to wit on the said twenty-third day of July in the said forty third year of the reign of our said lord the king with force and arms at Thomas-street aforesaid in the city and county of the city of Dub. lin aforesaid the said Robert Emmet as such false traitor as aforesaid in farther prosecution of his treason and treasonable purposes aforesaid falsely wickedly and traitorously did make compose and write a certain proclamation manifesto and declaration purporting to be a proclamation manifesto and declaration of and by divers persons to the jurors unknown then and there formed and associated together under the name of the Provisional Government and importing that the said persons so formed and associated had determined to separate that part of this kingdom called Ireland from that part of this kingdom called England and for that purpose to raise levy and wage a public war against our said lord the king within this kingdom with intent that the said proclamation manifesto and declaration should be published as and for the proclamation manifesto and declaration of the said persons so formed and associated and that it should be spread amongst the people of this kingdom and should unite them to enter into and continue in rebellion and war against our said lord the king And that afterwards to wit on the said twenty-third day of July in the said fortythird year of the reign of our said lord the king with force and arms at Thomas-street aforesaid in the city and county of the city of Dublin aforesaid the said Robert Emmet as such false traitor as aforesaid in further prosecution of his treason and treasonable purposes as aforesaid falsely wickedly and traitorously did keep and conceal and did Cause and procure to be kept and conVOL. XXVIII. And that afterwards to wit on the said twenty-third day of July in the forty-third year of the reign of our said lord the king with force and arms at Thomas-street aforesaid in the city and county of the city of Dublin aforesaid the said Robert Emmet as such false traitor as aforesaid in further prosecution of his treason and treasonable purposes aforesaid with a great multitude of persons whose names are to the said jurors unknown to wit to the number of one hundred persons and upwards armed and arrayed in a warlike manner to wit with guns swords and pikes being then and there unlawfully and traitorously assembled and gathered against our said lord the king falsely wickedly and traitorously did prepare levy ordain and make public war against our said lord the king against the duty of the allegiance of him the said Robert Emmet against the peace of our lord the king his crown and dignity and contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided And the jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid further present that an open and public war on the said twenty-third day of July in the said forty-third year of the reign of our said lord the king and long before and ever since hitherto by land and by sea was and yet is carried on and prosecuted by the persons exercising the powers of government in France against our said lord the king and that the said Robert Emmet a subject of our said lord the king well knowing the premises. not having the fear of God in his heart nor weighing the duty of his allegiance but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil as a false traitor against our said lord the king his supreme true lawful and undoubted lord and contriving and with all his strength intending the peace and common tranquillity of this kingdom to disquiet molest and disturb and the government of our said lord the king of this kingdom to change subvert and alter he the said Robert Emmet during the war aforesaid to wit on the said twenty-third day of 4 B |