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.)