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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. / errata !d to It ie pelure, con u n 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 8 6 V;.;^' AN ACCOUNT OF THE ATTEIWPTS 7 TO ESTABLISH FENIAN ISM IN MONTREAL A MEMOIR: BY THE HON. THOS. D'ARCY M'GEE. laken from the Montreal Gazette, of im, 2W and '2Srd Aug., 1867. 1^ Jllontrcal : The Post Printing and Publishing Company, 761 Craig Street. 1882. 1 '? AN ACCOUNT OP THE ATTEMPTS TO ESTAI^LISH FENIANISM IN MONTREAL. ^ 1} I,: The Grovernmeiit of Canada, for reasons which they deemed suflicient, have avoided brino-ing before the ordinary tribunals those persons amongst us who were- well known for their complicity in the Fenian conspiracy against the peace and well being of this country. The arrest of Michael Murphy, of Toronto — the Canadian head-centre — and his companions, when actually en route to join the Fenian inA*aders of New Brunswick, in April, 1866, and their preliminary examination before the Cornwall magistracy, was likely to prove an exception to this rule ; but the principal prisoners having effected their escape before the term of Queen's Bench arrived, the extent of the ramification of the conspiracy in Canada — or rather the evil industry with which it was attempted to establish it here — has never been clearly exhibited to the public. The same persons engaged in that conspiracy in Montreal having now emerged from their covers — having shown themselves in public as an organization — having decided in secret council who shall and who shall not have freedom of speech in this city ; these emissaries, agents and correspondents of the New York Fenians, having attempted to take the destinies of the city under their control by force and violence, Mr. D'Arcy McGree, in defence of the liberties of the city, and in self-defence, has recourse by the present means, to the columns of the publie press in order to make known the story of the conspiracy through a medium where, fortunately, free discussion cannot yet be stifled. • The facts stated in this memoir have reached the writer during the last few years from many sources, but chiefly from old friends in New York, Boston, Chicago, and elsewhere in the United States, opposed on principle to Fenianism. Also from Canadians resident in the United States ; also use is made of the reports, circulars and plans of the New York Fenian leaders, copies of which could always be had for a trifling consideration ; also of the Irish Fenian trials of 1865-66 and the present year, reports of which are before the writer, Of k and in which occasionally much light is shed on the designs against Canada. No document in the possession of the Canadian authorities is quoted unless such document was communicated to them by or through Mr. McOee, having first reached him through one or other of the above sources. ^ III. A brief retrospective view is necessary at the outset. Secret Irish societies, chiefly combinations of laborers from par- ticular counties in Ireland, to obtain exclusively employment on public and other works have long existed in the United States. They were chiefly imitations of the agrarian secret societies such as Ribbon- men in Ireland. One of the best known of these Irish-American orders was the " Shamrock Society," which excluded natives of Cork and Connaught, King's and Queen's counties, and which was formally condemned by Archbishop Hughes, soon after his elevation to the See of New York. Notwithstanding this condemnation this secret laborers' society continued to exist, and may perhaps still exist. In 1853 its headquarters were at Brooklyn, New York, Michael Newman being "Greneral President," and Jonn Dowd "General Secretary." The pass-words I peace-w^ords of the initiated for " The May Quarter," 1853, .e the following : — Q. How do you like our present appearance ? A. I think your love of friendship is admirable. Q. A true knowledge of it would convince you y A. I have been weighed in the balance and not found wanting PEACE- WORDS. Q. Shall we quarrel for nothing? A. No ; friendship now prevents us. NIGHT-WORDS. • Q. All night, my friend ? A. A part will do me. The Shamrock and similar societies, though sometimes used for American electioneering purposes, resembled rather trades' anions than the revolutionary organizations of the European continent. . The time era of the establishment of the latter description of organization, of which Fenianism has been the most successful specimen, is the year 1849 or 1850, and the circumstances which led to this portentious novelty must be briefly explained, as being necessary to a clear understanding of this statement. IV. The Young Ireland party who seceded from O'Connell in July, 184G, so late as January, 1848, after a three nights' discussion in I the Rotunda, voted down, by a majoriry ol" 3 to 1 , Mr. John Mitchell's n'volutioiuiry programme. Mitchell was sustained in his course by Mr. Devin Keilly, who some years since died in an olhcial position at "Washington ; by Mr. Eugene Olleilly, subsequently a Sardinian offi- cer and an olhcer in the service ol' the Sultan, under the style of Hassan Aga; by Mr. John Fisher Murray and others of less note. On the other side were Messrs. Smith O'Brien, Duffy, O'Gorman, Meagher, Dillon, McGree, etc., the latter being the youngest active member of the party, Just then turned 22 years of age. The modera- doea, as they were called, contended only for the repeal of the Legis- lative Union ajid the restoration of G-rattan's constitution of 1782. The revolutionary party ridiculed this Juste millieu course in some eleven doggerel verses which \i\ii]\ejackeen imagination to a "T," and the refrain of which ran — " The constitution of '82, * Dideruui doo ; diderura doo I" Unfortunately for the maintenance of the moderate and consti- tutional course decided on in January, the French revolution of 1848 broke out in February, followed by a general European explosion. The Dublin mob were carried away with the torrent and, truth to tell, most of the leadtn-s too. The reading rooms, first founded by Mr. McClet' in the winter of 1840 for the information of the young men of that party, were turned into gun clubs. Nothing was heard among the mass of the populace but revolutionary slang. The last time the present writer .spoke in public in Dublin, some weeks after the French revolutionary mania ])roke out, was m the Abbey street theatre ; and when ipme of the audience cried out, " Republic ! Republic !" he turned round to the quarter from which the cry proceeded and answered, " A Republic, it you had a Republic you would not know what to do with it.' For this he was hissed ; and but for a gentle- man, now a well-known citizen of Montreal, might have been roughly handled. But all attempts to put on the bral?;es were in vain. The venerable Robert Holmes, the equally venerable Lord Cloncurry ap- pealed to Mr. Smith O'Brien and his friends, and all but went on their knees to beg them to stop in their mad career. A false sense of honor drove them on to their ruin. They had "gone too far" to retrace their steps without the imputation of cowardice, and the lear of being thought afraid led men lengths that in their inmost hearts they knew to be unwise and ruinous. Writing with the impartiality of history it * must be recorded that the moderate men among the Young Irelanders after the French revolution of 1848 failed in moral courage, and thereby threw the reins into the hands of the Mitchellite sect, who had a definite object, though a mad one, set steadily before them. ^ 'V.. • If, however, Fenianism has come out of Young Irelandism, it is as maggots come out of flesh wounds ; not as the healthy plant comes from the wholosome sooding', or as the l)riin(h comes IVom the tree. It Ik quite true the iiiHammatory literature of Youiiy Irehiiid has been pressed into the Fenian service, — that their lavorite motto is taken from Thomas Davis, an Irish Protestant patriarch; who died all too soon, and whom poor Meacfher used to call, "(hir Prophet and our Guide." But it is equally true, and it is but just that it should be of this record, that no member of the Youni»- Ireland party was ever sworn to secrecy ; that no party oath ever existed amonu,' them, that neither sign nor password was ever introduced amonu' them. To the last all the principal men of that set, all the " moderadoes' certainly remained resolute enemies of sworn secrecy as applied to the politics of Ireland. Smith O'Brien in his letter from Dalkey to the editor of the Nation, a year or two before his death, denounced Fenianism as heartily as ever Mr. McGree did in Montreal ; and l^Vnianism, true to its baser instincts, returned the compliment. It hooted Dillon and Duffy and denied them a hearing- at the election of 18(55 at C'loiimel ; it cried "Traitor" at two of the best and ablest men Ireland in this age has produced, because one was a Colonial Minister and thc^ other a candidate for the House of Commons. ICven in Americji no leading Young Irelander, except poor Doheney (de innrtnia est nil tiisi bomim), ever recognized or associated with these scamps. Men Ibrmed in the school of the old Nation would have felt such association to be a per- sonal and national degradation to themselves and to their cause. Whatever Young Ireland's faults and follies may have been it was not by fleecing the ignorant or dazzling their eyes with impossibi- lities, while at the same time picking their pockets, that the leaders of that sect sought to serve their country. So much common justice de- mands to have recorded, ^ VI. Bnt the turning of the Irish mind towards France in 1848 and the apparent hopelessness of constitutional agitation which died with O'Connell, in 1847, predisposed some ardent and not over-scrupulous spirits to fall ba^^k, after the Young Ireland fiasco, on sworn secrecy as the true revolutionary basis. Mr. James Fenton Lalor, of Abbey- leix, Queen's County, a man who in a deformed and decrepid body concealed the daring spirit of a Dan ton or a Marat, established some sort of secret system in Dublin, as early as 1848. But his death soon after retarded its development. It was undoubtedly out of the embers of that first fire that Mr. James Stepnens was able to get up, some years later, a new and more widespread brotherhood. In New York, so early as 1852 (perhaps before), a secret revolutionary Irish society called the " Phcenix" had been established by Colonel Doheney, Mr, John Savage and others. This society was soon extended by the agency of Stephens into the southern counties of Ireland, especially Cork and Kerry. In 1857-8-9 several arrests were made in Ireland of " Phoenix Boys" and some severe sentences were passed. The old story over again ; several of the brethren, and notably one O'Sullivan, i .£ called (tIiou/(i, turiu'd Crown evideiuo on their associates, and the law was lirmly and justly enforced aj^ainst the conspirators ; but the ex- amples made and the inability of the brotherhood in America even to fee counsel for the defence of their dupes at home, acted as an extin- guisher on the " rhd'nix Society." VII. The last and most misi^hievous of these orfj^anizations had its commencement in New York in IHaT. In his translation of Keating's history, Mr. O'Mahoney hud found, })oth in the introduction and in the body of the book, very glowiniz; references to a military organization among the Pagan Irish h by his friends, his scholarship is amply shown in his translation of Keating's Irish History of Ireland (New York, Haverty, 1857.) He had soon after coming to New York gone stark mad on spirit rapping, and had been an inmate of the Flatbush Insane Asylum. Mr. O'Mahoney, like Mr. Ste])hens, and more recently, Mr. lloberts, had been in personal communication with the leaders of the secret revolu- tionary societies of Europe and he organized his new brotherhood on the true Mazzinian basis. It was to be both a civil and a military organization, and so soon as it mustered men enough Mr. O'Mahoney took to himself the brevet rank of Colonel. He was joined by Colonel Doheney and the debris of "The Phcenix Boys;" by Captain, after- wards General Corcoran (court martialed for refusing to taV e out his men to receive the Prince of Wales, in 1860), and some others. The military department of the brotherhood, however, made no great stride till the breaking out of the civil war. According to the audit of the Motlatt Mansion accounts (published in the New York World), Mr. O'Mahoney's entire receipts from 18*^7 till 1861 inclusive did not exceed i|10,000, or !|8,000 per annum. L..t from 1861 till 1805 inclu- sive the total exceeded $250,000 <^ree}ibn<:ks, or a quarter of a million. It was during this latter ]>eriod when the organization was petted as a recruiting agency by the Federal Government ; when appeals to the Irish intipathy against England resounded on every side ; when JSenators and Governors of I^egislative Assemblies and judges of the land did not hesitate to resort to such incendiary appeals ; it was during this period, before the splitting off of the Hoberts' wing, when the head centre was full of funds and his staif full of insolent confi- dence, that the first stealthy attempts were made to introduce Fenian- ism into our principal Canadian towns and cities, and also into some of our Irish Catholit^ rural settlements. My present business, however, is v. ith the attempts made to establish the (conspiracy in Montreal ; 8 but I shall he ohligod to r«'l»'r iiicidt'iitjilly U> tlu' inon' (siiccosslul offbrtK made in Toronto, l)eoaus»» to a ccrtjiin «'xl«'nt tlu» Monlronl attempts were subordinate to, if they vver*' not actually regulated Irom, Toronto. VIII. One word as to the time chosen Ibrmakinii- i)ul)lir this statement. I frankly declare that evrti now if, after th»> «»xhil)ition O'Mahoney, Stephens, Roberts and the rest of them have made of themselves, ii even now I could only hope their sympathizers and th undertaken to control the destinii's of tht^ city, to elevate one of their chief patrons into a legislator, to di'oree in their hidden conclaves who shall and who shall not have libi-rty of speech among us ; they have merged from darkness into daylight, and so must " their works follow them." Whatever may be the consequenc«' to a few scoundrels (and no honest man need tear my revelations), this narrative, at least, is placed beyond the power of accident to interrupt or destroy. IX. The existence of such an organization as the F. 15. or the 1. K. in the United States had not attracted much attention in Canada, except among those who, like the writer, were accustomed to watch Irish- American atfairs somewhat c osely up to the close of the year IHOl. Every Montrealer will remember the Trent atiair and the state of feel- ing in the city durins: those exciting days and weeks, when, in the ab- sence of the cable, we were waiting for the mails which were to bring us England's ultimatum. It was at that period Mr. McGee's attention was first drawn to the existence of a pro-Fenian sentiment or element in this city, as yet incohate and unformed, but still very undesirable to have in our midst in case of trouble. There seemed at one time a possibility of war arising out of the capture of Mason and Slidell, and men of all classes were vyin<>" with each other in ofTering their servi(;es to the Government. A meeting was called by myself and some others to form an " Irish battalion," with a view of placing them at His Excellency's disposal. It was held in Nord- heimer's Hall, Mr. Marcus Doherty, the President of St. Patrick's Society, in the chair. Mr. George Daly, now in Australia, and the present writer spoke, or rather attempted to speak. The meeting, though with us by a very large majority, was systematically and vio- lently disturbed from first to last, and among the heading disturbers were identified on the spot Mr O. .1. Devlin and several of Mr. e Devlin's then irompjiny, tho Princo ol' Wal"N n'j:finu'iil. Captain Devlin was not pn-stMit in person. What, however, ^avc sit^nilieanee to the aJUiir was that it had its ori^'in amonjT the F. \\. in Rutland. Vermont. A Mr. Keojrh, or MucKeojrh, of thiit town, with twelve or thirteen others, purehasiul return tickets at Rutland and eame into Montreal that day. They were the nucleus oi" the rioters and this Mr. MacKeoj^h was so elated with his su«cess on his return to Rut- land that hi* desi-rihed the whole scene ol' the break up ol' "the Irish battalion meeting" in a letter over his own name, addresful to the editor of the Irish American, of New York, a paper edited by Senator Meehan, of the F. 15., and now the rtHognized organ of the Roberts or anti-Canadian Fenians. X Anxious to prevent at the outs«^t, if possible, the introduction of 80 dangerous a society into Montreal, Mr. McGee, soon after the above occurrence, published a warning letter in the Montreal Herald, with which he was then on friendly terms, over the signature Civis Cana- diensis, referring especially to the very severe act against secret seditious societies remaining on our Lower Canada statute book since 1839, the two first clauses of which he quoted and re-quoted in a letter to the Gazette over his own name somewhat later. These clauses are to be found on page 48 of the Consolidated Statutes of Lower Canada and, as they define the illegal nature of Fenianism precisely, may here be owo more quoted : — < 1 . " Any perHOU wlio, in any foiiii, ivdniinistcn's ov ciiuses tu be admini-stcred, or is aiding or jne.sont at and consenting to the administration or taking of any oath or i-ngagcunisnt imrposing or intending to bind the person taking the same to commit any treason or niiuuU'r, or any ftdony punishable with death, or to engage in any si^ditious, rebellious or treasonable purpose, or to disturl) the public peace, or to be of any ass )ciation or confederacy formed for any such purpose, or to obey the order or comn)ands of any committee or body of men not lawfully constituted, or of any leader or commander or other person not haviUp, authority by law for that purpose, or not to inform or give evidence against any associate, confederate or other person, or not to reveal or discover any illegal act done or to be done, or not to reveal or discover allegal oath or engagement administered or tendered to, or taken by such person or pei.sous, or to or by any other person, or the import of any such oath or engagement, shall be guilty of felony and mai/ be imprisoned iti the Prooincial Penitentinr// for any term of years not exceed ny twenty-one years." 3. " And every jicrson who takes any such oath or engagement, not being compelled thereto, shall be guilty of felony, and may be imprisoned in the Provin- cial Penitentiary for any term of years no*; exceeding seven years." 2 Vic , (2), chap. 8, sec. 1, and 6 Vic, chap. .'), sec. 4. - This warning did not prevail. Fenian sentiments were expressed and were traced to more than one individual among us during 18G2 and 1863. In September of the latter year 1863 there was evidence enough of the spread of such sentiments to some considerable extent, to call the attention of his Lordshij) Monsignor Bourget to the subject. Our Bishop accordingly issued a solemn pastoral letter of warning 10 and condemnation against all such societies vhich was read and com- mented on with great force and energy by the llev. Mr. Dowd from the pulpit of St. Patrick's Oharch. Nevertheless, so besotted were those ensnared by the enemy that some of them were heard to declare coming out of church " Oh Father Dowd did not mean what he said ; he only did it for policy sake," an imputation which the basest and bitterest enemy of the church and the clergy could not excel in malignity. This too shows that when Catholic Irishmen surrender their moral sense to such a triljunal as Fenianism they rapidly lose the laculty of distinguishing between right and wrong. XI. In November, 1863, Mr. McGree had occasion to visit Peterborough C.W., where he committed one of his unpardonable sins, " lecturing against Fenianism." In reply to a published address from the St. Patrick's Society of that to\7n, Mr. McGee. whose information on the subject was all along accurate, early, and verified by the facts as they were, said : — " But, gontlemen, I have heard of late that there is another description of society, secret, and, it is alleged seditious in its nature, attempted to be introduced by our countrymen by birth, settled in certain of our frontier towns and cities. Against such a society as that I take this occasion to warn (not you, for I know you would abhor it as I do), but to warn those who at any point or pl'ce within this Province are exposed to its seductions. Its specious object, I am told, is to pro- mote union among Irishmen. But how can such a society i)romote such a union when it is sure to have more of us against it than for it, lot it enlist ever so many dupe-* ? It can only divide and weaken us and deliver us over an easy prey to our social and political opponents ; for, I suppose, like all other men, we have such opponents. Such a society is, therefore, self-condemned by its own declaration ; but, moreover, expressly condemned by the voice of that Church which all Ci'tholic Irishmj:: bf^-lieve to be, in matters of faith and morais, the voice of God . I Ti>p J, . .;m quite sure that the secret society to which I refer hag made as vft. TM ^'i.)^,i^ll■s.■! wluitf v'er among our countrymen in Canada. But emissaries are abroid, ''v... fcvues o: this continent are full of plots and oimspiracies, as well as A, ,.rc itno u,te..i.ious of w'rs. A warn ng voice has already been issued cu this s.'^bjru ;rom the highest ecclesiastical authority in the diocese in which I reside, and I now give you, geutlemen, as a layman addressing laymeu, in answer to all your kind, to all your undeserved compliments, the best proof I can give at this moment of my thorough devotion to the true interests of the Irish in Canada No man shall ever live to say that when the appearance of even a new danger menaced you Thomas D'Arcy McGee basely held his peace for any personal consideration whatever. " My opinion ivs to societies is this — encoui;iige your lawful, paiiiotic and public societies, which both the human and the divine law sanction, but avoid as you would the "jaws of hell" this secret brotherhood, at whose threshhold you must lay down every manly tn-erogativo and every moral responsibility, to obey a tribunal sitting in darkness, and whose end must be, like its orgin, repugnant alike to the laws of man and the laws of God." II VTT At the dpte of the above address, there were distinctly traceable at Toronto and Montreal and elsewhere, systematic and continuous attempts to turn whatever pro-Fenianism sentiment existed in the Province into a regular Fenian organization. This determination manifested itself in several incidents, which we shall proceed to re- late. At the Cincinnati and Chicago Conventions of the F. B. in 1863 and 1864, delegates from Canada were reported to be present, but 1)0 names v,ere given. In Toronto, the Hibernian Society, originally organized in 1858, under the pretext of being a protective society, as against Orangeism, there was strong ground to suspect had become closely affiliated with the F. B. at New York. These suspicions were after ward=i fully borne out by the President, Murphy, calling publicly on a St. Patrick's day for three cheers for James Stephens, the great- est living Irishman, and by Murphy's subsequent arrest and examin- ation. Murphy, whom I iiever saw to my knowledge, is described to me, by those who knew him in Toronto, as at one time a prosperous cooper, with much mother wit, and great sturdiness of character. He was not merely the Irish Canadian Head Centre, he was also chief or- ganizer for Canada. He was more than once on his organizing business in Hamilton, Ottawa, Quebec, and this city. Of two, at least, of his official visits to Montreal, I have a memorandum made at the time. That these facts will come in in the proper place. XIII. Instead, however, of forming ostensible " circles" of the F. B. with recognized centres in Canada, vhich it was known our law would not permit, the plan was recommended from iNew York that the sympathizers in Canada should endeavor co do the same thing under aamyther name ; or else to get hold of existing societies, such as the St. Patrick's Society of this city, and convert them to Fenian purposes. Both means were tried in Montreal ; one failed, thanks to Father Dowd ; the other has partially succeeded in spite of his advice and en- treaties ; in spite of Mr. McGree and of every resj ectable Catholic Irishman in the city. The evil is not contemptible, which all these means combined could not wholly arrest or eradicate. The failure happened thus. A few young men, with two or three elders, who ought to have known better, determined in 1863 to organize an Hibernian Society here on the Toronto plan, though there could be no pretext here for such a protection against Orangeism in Montreal. Some of the first meetings of this society were held at the office of Mr. 0. J. Devlin, Little St. James street, or in the rooms of Mr. B. Devlin, in the same building. The highest number present at any one meeting was 17. But the spark might spread, and, therefore, it was better to drop it in time. Mr. Henry J. Clarke had been invited to become its President, and draft a consti- tution, but, having put in the first clause that " no member of a se- 12 cret society " could belong to the Hibernian Society, Mr. Clarke and his draft were suddenly dropped. Subsequently, Mr. Walsh, (bro- ther to my esteemed lato partner, Mr. T. J. Walsh,) became Presid- ent. The Rev. llr. Dowd's attention, having been drawn to this So- ciety, as directly transgressing the Bishop's pastoral, he took occasion to warn the members of his congregation, from 'he pulpit, against it. Thereupon the Hibernians sent a deputation to remonstrate with Fa- ther Dowd, and to ask the removal of the censure ; the Rev. gentle- man, before replying to the deputation, asked to be allowed to see their constitution and by-laws. These were left with him, and on the face appeared unexceptionable ; but in cross-questioning. Father Dowd found there was another purpose, not expressed on the face of the document, but known among the members, as sending relief to Ireland. What the character and direction of this relief were, one il- lustration may suffice to show. At the time when the remains of the Fenian McManus, (whose name recently graced our City Concert Hall), were brought from California to Neiv York and New York to Dublin for interment, Archbishop Culieii refused their admission into the Metropolitan Church of that city. The result was the procession bore the body pafit the Archbishop's residence, groaning loudly ; and a refractory priest from Mayo, the Rev. Mr. Lavelle, pronounced an ovation over the coffin of the deceased in the cemetery of Glasnevin, according to the continental fashion. For this breach of all discipline Father Lavelle was suspended, or silenced, for two or three years. He consequently became the proto-martyr of the F. B. He became more — he ripened into a regular correspondent of Meehan's paper, the Irisk American, and Murphy's paper, the Irish Canadian, still published at Toronto. Subscriptions were raised in America to sustain the Fenian priest against the traitor of an Archbishop ; and among the remiti-xnces acknowledged by him as received was, "The Hibernian Society, Montreal, Canada, $110 (or $120), per J. Walsh, President." The Hiberniaii Society in Montreal existed a year or two ; it was then abandor *»{! for it was found an effective method of doing the same thing under another name to try to get hold of the St. Patrick's Society. XIV. The present St. Patrick's Society, of Montreal, is exclusively an Irish and Roman Cai-holic Society, founded in 1854, of which, the Right Rev. Monsigiior Bourget is patron, and the Rev. Clergy of St. Patrick's Church are chaplains. It bears, therefore, a national and religious responsibility, and its reputation, in both respects, ought to be above suspicion. The design of the F. B. to get control of the St. Patrick's Society dates back certa;inly four yc^rs, and first showed itself in a very insidious, and apparently trivial "movement. In the autumn of 1863, the Committee of the Society had consid- ered the expediency of having a winter coarse of lectures. Mr. Thomas McKenna was then President, and Mr. McShane Vice Presid- ent — two of the most worthy, upright, and law-abiding men in this % la Passing one day in November through Little St. community. James Street, the President was accosted by Mr. F. B. MoNamee, contractor, who stated that he was about to start for New York, and would endeavor to engage, if so authorized, lecturers fiar the Society's course. Mr. McKenna entered with Mr. McNamee the office of Mr. J. J. Curran, who was then one of the Secretaries of the Soc^iety, and in discussing who the Society should invite, Mr. McNamee suggested the name of Mr. John O'Mahoney. Mr. McKenna, who like many others at that day had his attention much drawn to th»? F. B. or their doings, after some further pressure by McNamee, gave the lat- ter a formal letter of credentials, signed by the President and Secre- tary of the St. Patrick's Society, Montreal, to the Head Centre of the F. B. New York. This was an error of judgment on the part of Messrs. McKenna and Curran, but it was nothing mo.e. But mark the sequel. Mr. F. B. McNamee, armed with his official introduction, visited the F B headquarters, Duane street, New York, and readily obtained the ear of the head centre, O'Mahoney. What he reported of Canada in, general, and Montreal in especial, we can only judge by the tenor of the letter which O'Mahoney wrote back to our society. In this letter he regretted his inability to come himself to Montreal, but re- commended to the committee his particular friend Mr. John Savage or Richard O'Grorman ; he expressed his great satisfaction that the F B of New York and the St. Patrick's Society of Montreal had entace lor this city and district. It was their bounden duty not to sulfer such conspirators to be at large, and I have always said to them what 1 now repeat that they should have acted with greater decision. But the desire to avoid an unenviable notoriety; the heicditary Irish fear of the nickname "informer ;" the contempt which these gentlemen felt for the consp racy and its special representatives in Toronto and Montreal ; the belief that the miser- able thing would die out by degrees ; all these considerations must be allowed to have iniluenced them in taking a dilferent course. One method of raising funds, to which I may refer to here, was by rallling a watch or some other article of value, often won, but never delivered. This served the dotible purpose of having a select meet- ing of the initiated " admission by ticket," and also by imposing a proprotionate tax on each i)erson present. Lists of persons who attended some of those Fenian rattles in Montreal and Quebec were within forty-eight hours in the possession of the authorities. Three such lists are among my own papers, as regards this city. The numbers returned vary from forty to hfty, but I am happy to be able to say that, except a very few already familiar names, there was not a man present of the least character or consec|uence. I am very far, indeed, from rellecting upon the day laborers, carters, or any other class of honest, hard-working men. I know there are in that order men as worthy of respect for their probity as in any other rank of life; but when it is a question of upsetting dynasties and overthrowing governments I do not think that men of that class, as a general rule, ought to be held responsible for adopting the errors of those who ought to know and to do better. I hit only at the petty demagogues and chief promoters of this mischief, and I, therefore, decline to make public the list of those who " raffled" for Fenian watches in this city and so contributed, knowingly or ignorantly, to the Fenian funds. 18 XVIII. At the end of April, I8t)4, Mr. McGco bccarao Minister of Aj^ri- culture and tStatistics, an oifico which he continued to hold until the expiration of the late Canadian Government, on the last day of Juno, 1807, a period of three years and three months. In some respects this term of olFice was a very tryin*?one for him. The only Irish Catholic in the Government — with this terrible pestilence abroad among the class to which he belonged — with these daily disclosures dropping in on individual members of the Government and on the whole execu- tive collectively, his position was not enviable. After writhing under the effects of these disclosures, he was o])liged to attend public meet- ings and to speak on topics ot the day. Reasoning with himself on his duty he iised to say, " if I do not set an example of determination and vigor, of moral courage in this case, how can I expect my friends A. 13. or C, who have no especial responsibility to the public, as I have, to fight the incoming evil in their private walks of life." Rightly or wrongly this was the reasoning that mainly determined Mr. McGee's course in doing what Mr. Devlin so much condemns " lecturing the people against Fenianism." XIX. Hearing what he could not but hear, and knowing what he could not but know, Mr. McGee, at the annual St. Patrick's Society festival for the benefit of the poor (January 11, 1805), felt it to be his duty — and in th( then state of facts felt free to make the following statement in the City Hall, full of Irish and other citizens : — " Tliore is another subject which more innnediately concerns ourselves in Montreal and in Canada, which lias lately occupied a good deal of the attention of the press — I allude to the alleged sjjread of a seditious Irish Society, originating at New York, whose founders have chosen to go behind the long Christian record of their ancestors to find in days of Pagan darkness and blindness an appropriate name for themselves. A statement having been made the other day in the Toronto Globe, on the authority of its ISfontreal correspondent, that there were 1,500 of these contemporary Pagans in Montreal — a statement made, I am sure, without intentional malice on the correspondent's part — I felt bound, as I suppose you may have seen, to deny absolutely that statement. The denial was not given in my own words, but the alleged fact was denied and that Avas the main point. I now, in your [ resencc, repeat that denial on behalf of the Irish Catholics of this city ; I say thcsro could not be 15 such scamps associated and meeting together, not to say 1,500, without your knowledge and mine, and I repeat absolutely thai there is no such body amongst us and that the contrary statements are deplorably untrue and unjust and impolitic as well as unjust. I regret that papers of great circulation should lend themselves to the propogation of such statements which have a direct tendency to foster and enhance the very evil they intend to combat. Sec what the result has been in some parts of Upper Canada. Any two or more nervous or mischievous magistrates — and with 11,000 men in the commission of the peace there must be some of both these sorts — any two or moie of these may subject a neighborhood to all the rigors of martial law. Already indecent and unauthorized searches have been made for concealed arms in Catholic churches ; already, as in I i:i Id some of the towns of Eruce, tlin magistrates are very improperly, in my opinion, arming one class of people against another. What conseciuenccs of evil may flow from this ote[) should make any responsible man shudder. And what is it all owing to 1 Why to these often invented and always exaggerated ncwsi)a])er reports. Observe the absurd figure Upper Canada is made to cut in all this business — the Protestant millions are made to tnnnblo before a fraction of a fraction ; for if there are Fenians in tliat quarter of tlie world I would venture to say they are as wholly insignificant in numbers as in every other respect. At the risk, however, of sharing the fate of all unasked advisers, I would say to the Catholics of Upper Canada in each locality, if there is any, the least jtroc^ that this foreign disease has seized on any, the least among you, establish at once I'or your own sakes, for the country's sake a cordon sanitaire. around your people ; e.stablish a committee which will purge your ranks of this political leprosy ; weed out and cast off those rotten members who, without a single governmental grievance to complain of in Canada, would yet weaken and divide us in these days of danger and anxiety. Instead of sympathy for the punishment they are drawing upon themselves there ought to bo general indignation at the perils such wretches would, if permitted to exist among us, draw upon the whole community socially, politically and religiously. How would any Catholic who hears me like to see the parish ehurch a stable and St. Patrick's a barrack 1 How would our workingmen like to see our docks desolate, our canals closed, our 1,100 new buildings arrested, ruin in our streets and famine shivering among the ruins 1 And this is what these wretched conspirators, if they had the power, would bring to pass ixs surely as fire produces ashes fram wood or cold produces ice from water. I repeat here deliberately that I do not believe in the existence of any such organization in Lower Canada, certainly not in Montreal ; but that there are, or have been, emissaries from the United among us for the purpose of establishing it has been so often and so confidently stated that what I have said on the general subject will, I hope, not be considered untimely or uncalled for." Mr. McGee felt able to deny the existence of " any such body," or " any such organization amonj^st us" in January, 1865 ; the anxious days of the I7th March, 1805 and 18(56, had not yet come ; at the January meeting? of the same Society, for either of the following years, he could not, unfortunately, have made a similar statement though he might have repeated and emphasised the warning given a year earlier. XX. That the crime of incivism, of bad citizenship and treacherous neighborship, can be brought home to the Fenian sympathizers among us no one can for a moment consider doubtful. In September, 1865, the Philadelphia Convention, at which McGrath of the Hibernian Society was present as one of the delegates from Canada, was held. At that Convention the organization as it had existed since 185t was changed into a formal parody of a government under the title of "The Irish Republic." Col. O'Mahoney was elected President, a Senate was chosen, and Secretaries of the Treasury of War and Civil Affairs were created. Within three months, however, the new cast broke in two ; the Senate and the Secretary of War (Sweeney), went oA'-er to President Roberts on the avowed issue of finding "a case against England" in Canada. Whoever, therefore, after that date adhered to 1] 20 tho Roherts-Sweoncy faction, whoever fyavo aid and comfori to the enemy without was not only guilty of incivism towards Ihe ICmjure bnt of a treacherous ])eirayal of the peace and w^cll-hcin"- of (\ina(hi to its avowed d(uidly enemies. It is to l)e noied artly by the demon- strated hopelessness of dissevering the Irish in Canada as a whole from their duty to the country of their adoption. But I will give two illustrations of the danger which fortunately i)assed over us. I state, and I defy the parties accused to submit it to a judicial investigation, that a former citizen oi Montreal, now residing in New York, and it is known to ten or twelve persons at least who will rtnid tliest^ lines, having espoused the Fenian cause Avrote letters here diiring th(^ last exciting period on the frontier, advising a run oji the banks as a co-operative movement and that a run w^as commenced on the Savings' Bank and to a less extent on some of the other banks. I have an authentic extract of a very clever and bitter letter before me at this moment to this effect, from the party referred to, to the most active sympathizer in this city ; and the copy of another letter to the same effect to another resident of Montreal. But it was not by pecuniary confusion and loss alone we were to be attacked. Schooled as the B. were in the desperate strategy of the civil war our towns and cities were to be assailed from within by fire and faggot, if the enemy were once able to make a lodgement on our soil. Had the case of Michael Murphy only come to trial it would have been proved that there existed a deliberate plan to fire our towns and cities in order to distract the movements of our troops and to occn.py our people? in various places simultaneously. It would have been proved on Murphy's trial that the chief organizer of the AVestern States, an attorney called McCormack, and sometimes addressed as .Judge McCormack, visited Murphy early in 1800 in Toronto and proposiid to him this scheme of co-operation. That subsequently McCormack returned to Cleveland, Ohio, from w^hich grenades and other combus- tibles were forwarded by a special mr^ssenger, who was then at Kingston. It would have been proved, that though abandoned or rejected by Murphy in March, 1800, this incendiary plot was entertained and encouraged by some among us and that three boxes of grenades were forwarded from Chicago later in the year in charge of three Irish- American soldiers, called Burke, Fitzgerald and Lynch. So confident, indeed, of a Fenian rising in our towns and cities were the 21 Foniaii Icadors at Now York, that on the Kith of March, last yoar, the Ibllowiiiii: tcli'unini was scut Iroin Now York oiid dclivorod to an orj^anizt'r in \\w. West : — " Kvci'} tiling' prof^'rt'Hsinj; s|il(in(liilly. Sulid work, boing action cvorywhoro. Will wriio. (';iii;i(I:i ours in 20 tliiyH. 'usly omjiloycd in (lunula. A choice collection of ihreateninii' letters miy'ht bi; madc! by Ihe present writer. Ihit whnl was mnch more serious woro the attempts made, and which are best known to the military authorities, to corruj^t the rcii-ular and volunteer forces. One oilender, Michael McDonnld, uot very i)i'oi)erly lour months and a line of !i!i')() for tuuiperinu,' with the regulars. Men were sent from New York with s))«M'ial instructions to enlist in reiiiments which mij^'ht })e ordered to Ciuiiidn. and Stephens personally })oasted to a credible intormnnt of mine that if he visited Montreal he would u'ct men wearing* Iler Majesty's uniform "to dine aiul winci him." This may have been all Id b/(ii>-fff', but certainly the army ond volunteers were exposed to very danuerous inlluences, and it is uTcatly to thecredit both of officers and men that, all things considenid, there was so little serious disallection. A like propoganda was carried into the poli(^e. When our worthy Mayor, Mr. kStarm^s, two years ag"o lelt it necessary to administer the oath of allegiance to all persons in the employmiMit of the city seven men stepped from the ranks and n'fus(»d to take the oath. One was a Quaker, and therefore a non-combatant, one a Fronc^h-Canadian and live were Irish. Of these last one appeared at a meeting of Fenians soon after in Portlaiul, Maine, was glorified as a martyr and dropped like a hot potatoe ! Even in the workshops and service of our great railway, so essen- tial at such a time, the conspiracy was carried with some success, and when early last year Mr. Brydgt^s first undertook to form his men into a special cori)s between 80 and 1>0, almost all of them, I regret to say, my countrymen by l)irth, refused the oath of allegiance and declined to defend their own workshops where they were daily em- ployed in earning their daily bread. XXIII. • I return now to the systematic and persistent attempts of the Fenians to get hold of th(^ St. Patrick's Society of this city, and to make it their instrument in working out the plot against Canada and the Empire. It was felt that Mr. McG-ee was a serious obstacle to the succ(>ss of this plan. All his personal friends were strong anti-Fenians ; he himself had frequently denounced the brotherhood 22 by voice and pen ; he was the author of the onti-Fenian test of membership ; h(^ was more than suspected of havinj? helped to extin- guish the Hibernian Society. It was felt also that Mr. Bernard Devlin, for sundry reasons, was quit»^ willinjj^ to ])e put forward as the antaj^onist of Mr. McClet^'s iH)licy and politics, as well as of that gentleman persoiuilly ; and, therefore, a sudicient infusion of the wrong sort of members havin«^ been month by month recruited and enlisted Mr. Bernard Devlin was on the first Monday, 1805, tdected President of the Society. XXIV. A few weeks later an opportunity was given to the respective sections of Irish opinion to try their strength. Mr. McGee had gone to Ireland to reprcvscnt this country at the opening of the Industrial Exhibition bv H. li. H. the I'rincc; of Wales. On the 10th of May he made his well-known Wexford speech, in which he committtvl ovc^r again the unpardonabh' sin of lecturing against Fenianism. In that speech, among other results of his " twenty years experience of Irish life in America," the speaker had said : — " However it may coutlict witli any oxistiii}:; theory, I mu.st ;^ot out with tlit! plain statement of tlie fact — which every one who know.s the United States peophi knows to 1)0 true — namely, that there is no such thing in existence as a national sentiment of sympathy witli Ireland in tliat country. The eh^ctiomieriu},' rhetoric of the stump orator, the spontaneous benevolence of the Anutricans during the famine — a honevolence which tlu^y exercised townrds ^[adeira and the (Jape de Verdes in their famine, and Hamburg, when it was laid in ashs, Ju.st as cheerfully as towards Ireland — has misled many in this country to attributt! to another ami more permanent cause that noble exercise of national benevolence. J hit I .state, here, as an indisjmtaMo truth, that there is no more national sympathy for Indand, as Ireland, in the United States, than Jajjan and far less than exists for Itu.ssia." And ','1* the Fenians in the United States he had given in the same speech this account : " It is true the emis.sarios of th(!so illuminated rogonerators of their race of whom yon have heard so much, whose head-centro Avas brought l)y spirit-rajiping to Bedlam and who came out of Bedlam a head-centre, tliis hopeful socit^ty of regenerators, deploring the b(>nightt'd state of their provincial countrymen, do sometimes seduce them from their allegiance to a government against which, as administered, there is not a shadow of grievance ; but the Irishmen in ('anada, with a very rare exce])tion, show such emissaries the door in double qnick time. 1 have never myself seen a specimen of the (/cims Fenian in Canada ; but I hear there are and I dare say there may be seen old [?] ones among our half million, since Solomon says " the number of fools is infinite." [Laughter.] JUit their number is at most insignificant and I have no doubt that their number in the United States is grossly and purposely exaggerated. Their morbid hatred of England has been jjlayed upon during the civil war by bounty broker.^ and recruiting sergeants, and they have mistaken the surface slang of two or three great cities for the settled national sentiment of the Ame,rican people which is not, I repeat, one sheet []] more pro- Irish than it is pro- Japanese, iihay have deluded oac'n other and many of them are ready to betray each other. I have myself seen letters from 2a sotno of tli(! l»n'thr(Ui I'ruiii ( 'liica^,'o, ('incinmiti iind ulli(*r placcH uUVriu^' tlioir siKirot niinutc.H anditorial and other columns of Messrs. IVniiy and Wilson's paper during the last three years ; but commercial men of Montreal wl:o havt; these proofs before them, deeply interested as they are in the security of life and property in this city, must decide for themselves whether this is a paper they ought to uphold and sustain. XXVI. During the winter, 18G5-18G7, th',^ Fenian excitement in the United {States continued, the Itoberts o; anti-Caiuidian wing seiuning to gain in men and means upon Ihe O'Mahoney-Stephens' faction. All information, public and private, went to show that the British provmces might expect a raid early in spring, i>rol)ably on or about St. Patrick's l)ay, 18G6. Great anxiety was naturally felt for the ]K'ace of our chief cities on that day. Strong pressure was brought to bear on the Government "to vn'ocl-nm" Toronto, at least, under military law, but, as the result proved. Sir John Macdonald showed his wisdom in refusing to recommend such a proclamation. Murphy and his gang were allowed to parade the streets unmolested, and a few days afterwards Murphy, Moriarty, Sheedy and others v/eiL- anested at Cornwall with arms, ammunition and tit-kets to Portland on iheir persons, on their way to join the April expedition against Canii)obello. As a paper relating to this period the following secret circular may here be given : — (SECKET CIKCULAK.) Council Ciiamuehs, Hkadqu.vutkks, F.B., 3? East 17tli Street, New York, .Miucli 31, ISOO. BnoTiiEKS, — Let all inouof tho tirst-class prepare at once tj reeeive onliii's. Let all otlu rs send every available dollar aud all available w;ir imilei'ial at tlie earliest nioiaiiut to these head(juarters. Direct eveiyiliiiig to -iohii ( )']\rahoiioy. In tho I resence of (Jod and our Fatherland wo pledge you to strike. Should wo fail to redeem this phfdge, trust us no longer. In fraternity, (Signed) Jamkh,!. L'ogeks, 1'. A. SiNNOTT, John M. Touin, -Jkukmiah Kavanacii, James .McIjuatii, John O'.Mahoxev, II. ( ., K. 1!., Wii.Mv.M G. IIai.i'LV, 1. \l. A., John McCaeeeutv, Capt. I. li. A. While the Uoberts-Sweeney faction were promising their dupes on the other hand ihat (.'anada would 1)0 theirs "in twenty days" of the same month it was thought n.ghly desirable that a pul)lic demon- stration should be made by the several Irish societies in this city of their loyalty to the Crown and Government. Lord Monck happiiuing or. tho to be then staying at the St. Lawrence Hall, it was arranged by Mr. McGree that he should publicly receive the St. Patrick's, the Bene- volent, the Temperance and Young Men's Society in joint procession on the forenoon of the l*7th of March. The scene of that day in front of the hotel is too fresh in the public memory to need description, but it was an occasion not unattended with anxiety. Had the Fenian faction mustered courage to give tongue, all the intended good efP^ct would have been lost. As it was, two members of the Committee of the St. Patrick's Society reported to me as Mr. W. B. Linehan, now Recording Secretary, and a Mr. Callahan, a printer lately from tho United States, standing right opposite His Excellency, refused tj uncover at "Crod Save the Queen." There were a few hisses as t.'ieair ended and the vast mass moved oif ; and the loyal members oi" the Society spoke unreservedly of expelling the two offenders from their ranks. But as usual the quiet men relapsed into their quietude, while the conspirators, emboldened by impunity, w^ent on from bad to worse. It was on this occasion Mr. McG-ee indignantly repudiated for his countrymen in Montreal, " as a body," every taint of Fenianism ; and, as a body, he repudiates the sam«} charge now as he did then. As a body he utterly denies that the Irish Catholic population of this city are to be held accountable for the criminal conduct of eight or ten conspirators and their few dozens or scores of dupes, be the same more or less. And it is precisely one, among many reasons, that the good and sound body of the Irish of Montreal may be ever separated from this wretched clique of conspirators that these papers are now made public. XXVIII. Before and after St. Patrick's Day, the Fenians in the National Society were particularly busy in recruiting their numbers. A silly but mischievous rumor having gone abroad, on the strength of a speech of Mr. O. R. Gowan, in Upper Canada, that the Grovernmeiit " intended to arm the Orangemen," instead of making inquiry of myself or any other member ot the Executive then sitting in Montreal Mr. Devlin and his disturbers call in hot haste a special meeting of the society to interrogate the Grovernment officially and peremptorily on the subject. If the man has any sense of proi3riety left he must long remember the cool and coructive reply he received in return from the Provincial Secretary. Yet the folly of the act at such a time could only be surpassed by its mischievous tendency. If Mr G-owan made an unwise speech in a time of general excitement, Mr. Devlin taking up the cudgels on .the part of an exclusively Catholic Society was not going to mend the matter, but quite the reverse. But this meddling looked like zeal to the ignorant ; it served the purposes of Fenianism to pretend that the Catholics of Upper Canada were in imminent danger from Orangemen ; and so it was " a good enough Morgan, 'till after the election." At the annual election in April, Mr. Devlin was re-elected President, and in the same month a curious 26 incident occurrev^ "When Murphy was in jail at Corn wall, a member of the Society, said to be Diiniel Lyons, visited him there, in order, among other things, to otl'cr Mr. Devlin's professional services for the defence of the head-centre. Of course, Mr. Devlin could not plead in an Upper Canada court without being regularly called by the benchers, on an examination after twelve months' notice given. This he right well knew. Why then this pretended professional inter- ference, repeated subsequently with the Fort Erie raiders in Toronto jail '? Was it not under the guise of a mistake as to the rules of the profession in Upper Canada ^o ii;et an opportunitij oj lioldinf^ confidential intercourse with the prisoners ? Mr. Devlin says that this branch of his conduct was strictly professional ! If the Fenians had sent for him it, no doubt, would have been. But was it strictly professional to go all the way to New York to tout for Fenian clients in the bureau of President Roberts ? Mr. Devlin says he has and his committee have been showing about a letter of Mr. Cameron, Q.C., of Toronto, agreeing to undertaive the defence of the Fort Erie raiders for a certain fee. From whom did Mr. Devlin obtain the letter of Mr. Cameron? From the Fenian chief who alone had possession of it. And what must we think of a relation between a Colonel of Canadian Volunteers and President Roberts, when the latter would place in the hands of the former his private (correspondence with any third party ? The entente must have been cordial when such proofs of intimacy exist to illustrate it. XXIX. But later iu the year, in the memorable first days of June and July, I can show Mr. Devlin's conduct to have been wavering and suspicious in the extreme. In those days several consultations were held among influential Irish Catholics as to the necessity of filling up the ranks of the skeleton companies of the Prince of Wales regiment and of taking an active part with the rest of our fellow-citizens in the drill associations formed under the Hon. James Ferrier. Some of these consultations were held at the home of my friend, Mr. M. P. Ryan, and some at my residence. On one or two occasions Mr. Devlin was present, and it will be within the recollection of many who were also present, that Mr. Devlin distinctly refused to aid us in recruiting at that time — that he det^lared " he v/ould not make himself unpopular" by such effort ; that he had already made sacrilices enough for the service, and that he was disgusted with the whole thing. It was at dhis critical time Mr. Devlin made his rather artful attempt to get the Canadian Crovernment to send him out of the country as an ambassador to the F. B. The facts are thus related in a recent correspondence in the Daily News : — " Now, Sir, vdiat will yoiu' con-cspcndont Scay wlum I tell him, ou the best authority, that Mr. Devlin (Colonel, 1 Leg his piirdou) not only asked for leave of absence, but a'^ked the Ooverunient lor permission to leave the country and remain iu the United States 'U'.'injf the critical days of June, 1866 ? t 2t " Such is the fact — and here's the proof und(r the pk>a of using liis moral in- fluence " (where acquired Ust himself as the defender of that 'ilk' account) Mr. Devlin sent j\[r. Charle? Schiller to the Hon Mr. Cartier to asic authority to go to JSew York, and there to negotiate with the Fenian leaders, and to try, with his persuasiveness, to induce thora not to invade us ! Prodigious ! Tliis would have given the Colonel leave of absence for an indefinite time, and at the expense of a Government he alfects to disperse and would also have given him further notoriety and eclat as an embassy to the F.B. " Mr Cartier's instantaneous answer, of course, was that the Canadian (:Iovern- ment could recognize no negotiations with marauders iind filibusters like the Fenians." Of Mr Devlin's military conduct when actually under arms I say nothing as I know nothing' of my own knowledge. But he refused to exert himself to recruit the ranks of his own reii'iment before he went, I repeat ; that he went unwillingly, I repeat ; that he talked of " the hardship of fighting against his own countrymen" — that is the American city rabble, I repeat ; that he took the very first opportunity he could seize to cast up his commission and peel olf his uniform, I also repeat. It is pretended that he resigned in his over-zeal to serve his regiment. That he considered the Prince of W' les Regiment were badly treated while out on the frontier by some person or per- sons in authority. Did he ever specify any such charge of ill-treat- ment ? Did he ever demand any enquiry into the circumstances ? I assert he never did anything of the kind, and that there is not a scrap of writing in any Grovernment office in relation to the alleo-cd cause of his prompt resignation. He seems, in short, to have felt when he got back with safety from Durham : " Well, I had to go out that time, lucky it was a false alarm — but if they ever catch me again " — and so he resigned. XXX. Drring the critical days of March and June it is well known that several persons, most of them in humble life, left the city. Two of my near neighbors lost their coachmen, ai^d others their gardeners and others their servants. Wages, w^hich liiid accumulated, were drawn by both male and female domestics, but whether to be iuA'ested in Irish Republican bonds as they foolishly boasted, there is no proof. A person namea George Maguire, a ship chandler, who made himself very busy in writing anonymous letters to the press and private indi- viduals, had stated that he had seen such bonds offered for sale in this city. Fortunately Mr. McGee collected from different sources five of these letters, all in the same handwriting, and traced them to Maguire. lie was arrested and had up before M. Delisle, Esq., then acting /wge de la Paix. He got a tliorough sifting, but it came out that he had only heard of, not seen, the bonds. His affidavit is a curiosity of the anonymous letter writing school. Th^s same fellov^ was the author of two alarming letters to Mr. Ferrier and Professor Cornish, stating that the Bible Society's house would be burned by incendiaries ; fortunately the letters were shown to Mr. McGree and by companies 28 with the others in his possession their author and their true value were ascertained. A.s to the fugitives of June and March, 1866, some of them have returned to the city and others have not. One of the latter, whose address is before me, assured a younsr gentleman of this city, in whose father's employment ht had been and who some- time since met him in New York, " that he was a true Fenian and had it not been for a very slight mistake the Fenians of Montreal would have risen in the night between the 2nd and 3rd of June and one of their first acts w^ould have been to assassin nte the Hon. Mr. McGree." I quote verbatim the statement of my informant. XXXI. •7 Uninstructed by the mutual exposures of the Roberts and O'Mahoney factions and the miserable failures of Ridgeway and St. Armand, the sympathizers in Montreal continued active as ever. The Fenian trials, instead of acting as a sedative, actually proved a stimu- lant. If Mr. Devlin could have had the trials in Montreal, he would, no doubt, have found a jury to his own mind. But a Toronto and a township jury w^ere less tractable. Mr. McGee was severely blamed for his letter to Fathe ; Hcndvicken, of Waterbury, for refusing to interfere for one Terence McDonald, who retarned himself in the prisoners' list as a native of Paisley, Scotland, religion none. This McDonald is now an inmate of the Connecticut State Prison for rape ; the worthy colleague of that O'lJrien. also one of our "liberators," who was executed last week for the brutal murder of his mistress. There is, however, no doubt that the acquittal of the Rev. Mr. Lumsden and the condemnation of the Rev. Mr. McMahon gave a great handle to the F. B. If one was guilty, the other was equally so ; indeed the evidence of the written protection given by Mr. Lumsden was stronger than any one point proved against Mr. McMahon ; and I will venture to say now what I could not appropriately say before, that it ought to be a matter of serious reconsideration for the Government of the new Dominion, this case of Father McMahon. Uninstructed and undeterred by these and ine outlawry of Murphy and his men, ovir sympathizers still kept recruiting. Advancing in boldness they placed on the walls of the City Hall the names of the Fenian "martyr" McManus and the Fenian General Corcoran among the names Irishmen in Canada should hold in vene- ration. It is said these names were un two or three meetings before they were observed ; it may w^ell be so lor in that long and not over brilliant room few mottoes, except those near the chandelier, are ever seen at night. Last January, however, they were seen and the fact became public. It naturally excited the public indignation. But the new members and their President, so ready to call public meetings on any or all pretexts, did not dare to nft the subject. The question still remains unanswered. By whose orders were those Fenian mottoes printed and put up on behalf of St. Patrick's Society on the walls of the City Hall of this city. At a meeting held in the ■» p 29 Society's rooms, after the business was over, Fenian songs such as the " Wearing of the Green" were about this time frequently introduced and no notice was taken of the offence by the President, who was personally cognizant of the fact. It remains only to add that at the last election for the St. Patrick's Society, when it was so necessary to Mr. Devlin to renew^ his lease of office, in order to h'vve that vantage ground of attack upon me, another fusion of pro-Fenians took place. The meeting before the annual election about 90 new members were admitted for $1 or $2, of which Mr. Daniel Lyons paid, out of his own pocket, the collective initiation fee of $81 or $82 dues. Does any one suppose this was a private gift of Mr. Lyons ? And if not from what fund was it taken ? And what was that fund ? of % ». xxxn. Beside Judge McCormack Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal were favored with the presence, from time to time, of other organizers from the United States. So late as October last, one of the agents of the organization, named John Lennon (if that was his original name), was at the St. Lawrence Hall, in this city, where he had entered him- self under the name of Reynolds. While here he consulted (as he himself said), with two men especially, named McNamee and James Carroll. He (Lennon alias Reynolds), had previously visited Ottawa city ; had paid particular attention to the armoury and the Parlia- mentary buildings there ; had been more than once at Prescott and had made notes of the state of things along the Ottawa and Prescott railway. These notes he communicated to a tveaker brother at Troy, on his return to the United States and by a round about which I do not feel more particularly bound to explain. The accounts of Mr. Lennon's Canadian tour found their way into my personal custody. xxxm. These and other pieces of evidence in the exclusive possession of the executive, which I have no access to, and to which I have no right to refer, more than to say that they exist, forced the Canadian Grov^ernment, in the session of 1866, to make Fenianism the subject of legislation. On the assembling of Parliament the very first day, His Excellency, who had just opened the House by his speech, remaining on i,ne precincts to give his sanction to the requisite measure, the Habeas Corpus Act, for the first time in 28 years, was suspended by a unanimous vote of both Houses, all the three readings being had at one sitting. Another act was the same day passed with equal celerity extending to Lower Canada the provisions of the Upper Canada Act. to punish in the section as a felony trieable by court martial all " lawless aggressions from the subjects of foreign countries." Two months later our sympathizers again compelled Parliament to remind them that it was aware of their existence when it passed the Act founded on the Irish Act against unlawful training and drilling, and 80 allowing any Justice of the Peace to seize any " pike, pike head, spear, dirk, dagger, sword, pistol, gun, rifle, or other weapon, gunpowder, or lead or cartridges, bullets, or other ammunition or munitions of war" if informed by the oaths of two witnesses that they " are for any purpose dangerous to the public peace," and it subjects every one found carrying or keeping such arms, if the Justice has jmt grounds for suspicion to be arrested, and if indicted and convicted, punished by fine and imprisonment." The first and third of these Acts were, of course, directed against traitors in Canada conspiring against the peace of the country ; fortunately, though three or four arrests took place under the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, none were of consequence sufficient to induce the Government to depart from its resolution not to have a State trial in Canada except under circumstances of peculiar aggravation. Every man of patriotic leeling must feel that it is a sad pity the Statute Book of Canada should be disfigured by the suspension of thv^ Habeas Corpus Act in the year of grace 1866 ; but let not Irishmen in Canada deceive themselves ; it is to the frenzy of some of our deluded countrymen in Monti eal and elsewhere — and to the bad faith and false citizenship of the demagogues who have misled them that this stigma owes its origin. XXXIV. 1 have thus run rapidly over the attempt to establish Fenianism in Montreal during the last few years. The facts stated iii my paper of Friday last, or in my paper of Tuesday, have not been questioned over any man's name out of our whole 130,000 inhabitants I perceive that Mr. Devlin has applied for a justicial investigation on one point, the reported burning of the books at St. Patrick's rooms on the night of the 14th of January last. I am glad that his auducity has carried him so far, though up to this hour [Wednesday, at midnight, August 21], no summons of any count has reached me. But he has asked for a justicial investigation and he shall have one, and I trust it may take place before the Montreal election. There are witnesses to be found whose testimony will enlighten and serrethe city — that is all I will say on that head at present. The narrative which I have thus hastily thrown together, while ill in body and pre-occupied in mind between two contested elections, in constituencies nearly a hundred miles apart, I present to the public — especially to my fellow-citizens, with all its imperfec- tions on its head. For every fact stated I am personally, politically, morally and legally responsible. I can safely say I have overstated nothing for any case whatever, against any person whatever. But it was mv intention, as I conceive it was my duty, time and occasion concurring, to bring the burning glass of public opinion to bear full on the chief offenders. It was my duty to exhil)it to our fellow- citizens generally the fierce, though suppressed, struggle which has been going on of late between the Fenian sympathizers and the good subjects of our own city. It was a struggle not confined to Montreal 1? H 81 nor to the Irish ranks. When one sees the Herald for party purposes take up these miserable conspirators, and the Toronto Globe lend its type to Mike Murphy's paper th» Irhh Canadian, to enable the Fenian organ to issue " Clear Grit" extras, one can fancy the lengths to which party spirit is capable of leading such people. I present this narrative of facts, in conclusion, to my neighbors and fellow-citizens to show them some of the dituger they have safely passed in the dark and the necessity for marking those gulfs and pitfalls with more lights and other precautions. Instead of overstating I have under- stated my case ; and if the (dtizens generally stand by me, as I believe they will, we shall fairly, legally and constitutionally overthrow and extinguish the hopes of the clique of Fenian conspirators who still remain in Montreal, and every man of whom are now active backers of Mr. Devlin. Mr. Linehan and Mr. Lyons are doing their best for him, as they did for Mike Murphy. Mr. O. J. Devlin, Notary Public, is particularly active for his brother ; Mr. F. B. McNamee organized the first Devlin meeting, at the Mechanics' Hall, on the night of the — ultimo, by moving Mr. Peter Donovan to the chair, which Mr. Donovan graciously accepted on the motion of Mr. F. B. The group is as complete as the demonstration is complete, and it is now for the good people of Montreal to decide whether they shall govern the city or the city govern them. 4- Erratum. — The Quaker who refused the oath of allegiance did so at the Grand Trunk Railroad Works, not at the City Hall.