[157] Froude's English in Ireland, iii. 290.
[158] There were informers from the first, but not to the extent suggested; nor can it be fairly said that they were men 'deepest in the secret.' 'This and similar information,' writes Mr. Froude, 'came in to them (the Government) from a hundred quarters' (p. [177]). 'They had an army of informers' (p. [174]). The historian here writes of the year '96, and rather overrates the extent of the treachery. Dr. Macnevin, writing in 1807, says that the secrets of the United Irishmen were kept with wonderful fidelity. Their society existed from 1791; it was not until 1798, when ropes were round their necks, that Reynolds and McGuckin proved false; and the same remark applies to most of the others.
[159] As regards Pelham's correspondent in 1796, and Downshire's in 1797, does Mr. Froude mistake, for two distinct betrayers, the one Informer? His striking scenes, his dramatic situations, his fine painting and accessories, remind me of a stage where the movements of a few men convey the idea of an advancing 'army.' That 'Downshire's friend' had been previously known as an informer is proved by a letter from the Viceroy Camden to Portland, dated December 9, 1797.
[160] Lives and Times of the United Irishmen, iv. 22.
[162] Appendix No. 1 to Report of the Secret Committee of the House of Commons, 1798.
[163] See ante, p. [2]; Froude, iii. 279.
[164] The French minister at Hamburg.
[165] The noble editor of the Castlereagh Papers says that this name is an alias for Samuel Turner.
[166] Mr. Froude errs in stating (iii. 260) that Macnevin himself carried the Memorial to Paris.