been forced or deluded into rebellion every inducement to contrition and repentance. The particular provisions of the bill he thought equally objectionable; the bill ordained that an oath should be tendered, by which the elector should swear that he had never been an United Irishman or a rebel; thus making a man's own oath the proof, from which his guilt was to be established, and rendering him liable to a prosecution for high treason if he should take the oath. The provision, subjecting the person taking the oath falsely to the penalties of perjury, he considered perfectly innocent; as a man's guilt in this case would infer the previous guilt of high treason, and when he was hanged the punishment of the pillory would not be very injurious to him. He moved, "that the committal be postponed to "the 1st of June." The bill was vehemently supported by Messrs. Ogle, J. C. Beresford, and Dr. Duigenan: The attorney general considered that to pass this bill would be to commit a breach of the covenant of pardon made with the country; it would, he said, involve in its grasp many innocent and deluded persons, whose ⚫ return to loyalty was indubitable, but who in the early part of the system of United Irishmen, had entered into it from curiosity or from folly, and had retired the moment they perceived its wickedness; it would also involve all those United Irishmen, whose useful discoveries had enabled government to meet and baffle the dangers which threatened the country; and it would involve others, who without ill intention, but from ignorance, had been members of the Union. Gentlemen well knew, that Evil into the mind of God or man Might come and go so unapproved as leaves And this bill went to exclude them from a possibility of being restored to their former situation. A division took place, and the bill was ordered for committal on the first of June (by which it was lost.) On the 6th of April came before the house a matter of notoriety, very illustrative of the spirit, with which the late rebellion was according to some opinions checked, and according to others provoked. Lord Matthew presented a petition from T. Judkin Fitzgerald, Esq. late high sheriff of the county of Tipperary, praying to be indemnified for certain acts done by him in suppression of the late rebellion, not justifiable in common law. Lord M. bore testimony to the conduct of Mr. F. which, he said from a local residence in the county, he had frequent opportunities of observing; that he was an extremely active, spirited, and meritorious magistrate, and a very principal mean of putting down rebellion, preventing escapes, and preserving the lives and properties of his majesty's loyal subjects. The petition was received and read at the table. It set forth, that the petitioner had undertaken the office of high sheriff for the last year at the solicitation of the principal gentlemen of the county, with great hazard and inconvenience to himself, at a moment when the kingdom was menaced by invasion and rebellion, and that whole county organized for insurrection, and infested by United Irishmen, who held constant meetings, in co-operation with the plan of treason for subverting the state. That about the month of May, 1798, of the proclamation of martial law, the petitioner, at the head of a party of militia and yeomen, had been obliged to fight a body of rebels in that county, whom he caused to surrender; but finding it impossible to stop the progress of rebellion there, as in many other parts of the kingdom, or to discover the various and horrid plans intended by traitors for the destruction of his majesty's liege subjects, he had been reduced to the necessity, in many instances, under the advice of several most respectable magistrates and gentlemen of the county, when all offers of pardon and pecuniary reward had failed, to order corporal punishment of whipping to many persons, of whose guilt he had secret information from persons, whose names he could not publicly disclose, as many persons both before and since had been murdered for giving such information; and therefore, in order to encourage persons to give such information, the magistrates were publicly sworn to keep secret the names of informants. That in consequence of petitioner's exertions, in which he was obliged to do many acts not justifiable at common law, that county was saved from destruction. That for acts of notoriety done by him in suppression of rebellion, many actions had been brought, and many more threatened, at the instance of persons who had entered into subscription to support them. That two such actions had been lately had at the assizes of Clonmel, in both of which verdicts had been obtained against petitioner, one for words spoken, and the other for corporal punishment, inflicted publicly on the 29th of May, in the town of Clonmel, which was to have been attacked two days afterwards by 8000 rebels. The learned judge, who presided at said trials being of opinion, in point of law, that unless petitioner produced information on oath of the ground, on which he acted, his case would not fall within the provisions of the indemnity act passed last session; but that the petitioner, not feeling himself justifiable to disclose in a public court of justice the nature of the information on which he had acted, and knowing that many of the informations, on which he had acted were in the possession of several generals and other officers, who had since been ordered out of the kingdom; that some of the persons who gave such informations had been since banished to foreign parts; and feeling he should be guilty of a breach of faith and duty in disD d VOL. V. closing the names of his informants remaining in the kingdom, on whose informations secretly and confidentially given, he was induced to act as aforesaid, he did decline such disclosure. The petitioner therefore prayed, that, without exposing the persons who had given such information to the vengeance of their persecutors, he might be at liberty to have the same and the whole of his case investigated, and the truth thereof established in such manner as to the house should appear meet, so as that the state might receive no injury, and that the petitioner, and those under whose advice, assistance, and information he acted, might not be exposed to vexatious and ruinous proceedings at common law, and that honest men might not be deterred thereby from acting in perilous times for the safety of the state and protection of his majesty's loyal subjects. Mr. Holmes rose to move, that the petition be referred to a committee, and bore testimony to the very meritorious conduct of the petitioner, who, by his vigilance, activity, firmness, and indefatigable exertions, had defeated machinations in that country, which had well-nigh overwhelmed the lives and properties of its loyal inhabitants. There was scarcely a man, on whom corporal punishment had been inflicted to extort confession, who did not acknowledge guilt, and discover wide-extended accompliceship in treason. Immense quantities of arms of every kind were discovered, and in consequence cart loads were daily brought into Clonmel from all quarters of the county. Under those important considerations, he thought the house in its wisdom and justice could not hesitate to give its protection to a man who had deserved so well of his country. Mr. secretary Cooke fully concurred in the sentiments expressed by Mr. Holmes, and was enabled from his own knowledge to state, that the most essential services had been rendered to the state and to the country by Mr. Fitzgerald. Sunk in a dangerous security, the gentlemen of the county of Tipperary were wholly ignorant of the extensive system of organization, which prevailed in that county, when the activity, enterprise, and unwearied research of Mr. Fitzgerald developed a system of the most formidable treason, which would have been attended with consequences much more fatal and extensive, than in any other county in the kingdom. A similar indolence and security had in the counties of Kildare, Wicklow, and Wexford suffered, and in some degree nurtured, treason, into open and terrible rebellion. Had the early, prompt, and vigorous activity, so happily manifested by Mr. Fitzgerald, been adopted in those ill-fated counties which he had mentioned, their principal inhabitants would not have lost their lives or their fortunes. The attorney general bore testimony from official information, as well as from local knowledge of the very spirited and meritorious conduct of Mr. Fitzgerald, and he trusted the house would cheerfully accede to the prayer of his petition. Honourable Mr. Yelverton said, he should be one of the last men to refuse indemnity or protection to any deserving magistrate or loyal man for acts warranted by justice or necessity, in putting down conspiracy or rebellion, but he could not sit silent and hear the falsehood attempted to be palmed on the house by this almighty sheriff, in the petition now on the table. The petition stated, that the judges who presided at that trial, who were Mr. justice Chamberlain and lord Yelverton, had given their opinion in point of law, that unless Mr. Fitzgerald could produce the information on oath, on which he could justify his flagellation of the plaintiff Wright, he could not come under the provisions of the Indemnity Act. No such thing was ever said by either of the judges. He was present at the trial, and not a single title of evidence had come out in defence of Mr. Fitzgerald, nor was even a pretence pleaded that could found a scintilla of suspicion against the plaintiff Wright, to justify those unparalleled cruelties exercised upon him, for which the jury, a most respectable one, awarded 500%. damages, and which the learned judges declared ought to have been considerably more than the sum claimed. With the permission of the house he would shortly state the facts, as they appeared on evidence of several most respectable witnesses, and from those facts he would appeal to the house, whether such sanguinary, wanton, and unparalleled cruelties were entitled to their sanction and indemnity ?* The action brough. by Mr. Wright was for assault and battery. It appeared that Mr. Wright was a teacher of the French language, of which he was employed as professor by two eminent boarding-schools at Clonmel, and in the families of several respectable gentlemen in the town and neighbourhood. Mr. Wright had heard that Mr. Fitzgerald had received some charges of a seditious nature against him, and with a promptitude not very characteristic of conscious guilt, he immediately went to the house of Mr. Fitzgerald, whom he did not find at home, and afterwards to that of another magistrate, who was also out, for the purpose of surrendering himself for trial; he went again the same day, accompanied by a gentleman, to the house of Mr. Fitzgerald, and being shewn into his presence, explained the purpose of his coming, when Mr. Fitzgerald drawing his sword, said, down on your knees, you rebellious scoundrel, and receive your sentence. In vain did the poor man protest his innocence: in vain * As much of this case is omitted as is contained in a former note. did he implore trial on his knees. Mr. Fitzgerald sentenced him first to be flogged, and then shot. The unfortunate man surrendered his keys to have his papers searched, and expressed his readiness to suffer any punishment the proof of guilt could justify: but no-this was not agreeable to Mr. Fitzgerald's principles of jurisdiction: his mode was first to sentence, then punish, and afterwards investigate. His answer to the unfortunate man was, "What, you Carmelite rascal, do you dare to speak after sen"tence?" and then struck him and ordered him to prison. Next day this unhappy man was dragged to a ladder in Clonmel street, to undergo his sentence. He knelt down in prayer with his hat before his face. Mr. Fitzgerald came up, dragged his hat from him and trampled on it, seized the man by the hair, dragged him to the earth, kicked him and cut him across the forehead with his sword, and then had him stripped naked, tied up to the ladder, and ordered him fifty lashes. Major Rial, an officer in the town, came up as the fifty lashes were completed, and asked Mr. F. the cause. Mr. F. handed the major a note written in French, saying, he did not himself understand French, though he understood Irish, but he [major Rial] would find in that letter, what would justify him in flogging the scoundrel to death. Major Rial read the letter. He found it to be a note addressed for the victim, translated in these words: “SIR, "I AM extremely sorry I cannot wait on you at "the hour appointed, being unavoidably obliged to attend sir "Laurence Parsons. "Yours, "Baron de CLUES." Notwithstanding this translation, which major Rial read to Mr. Fitzgerald, he ordered fifty lashes more to be inflicted, and with such peculiar severity, that, horrid to relate! the bowels of the bleeding victim could be perceived to be convulsed and working through his wounds! Mr. Fitzgerald finding he could not continue the application of his cat o'nine-tails on that part without cutting his way into his body, ordered the waistband of his breeches to be cut open, and fifty more lashes to be inflicted there. He then left the unfortunate man bleeding and suspended, while he went to the barrack to demand a file of men to come and shoot him; but being refused by the commanding officer, he came back and sought for a rope to hang him, but could not get one. He then ordered him to be cut down, and sent back to prison, where he was confined in a dark small room, with no other furniture than a |