Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/378

 312 NOTES AND QUERIES, [io* s. iv. OCT. u, IMS. making this clear, as MR. MACDONAGH states they do, the official documents can be referred to in the opposite sense. Mr. Wickham's letter of 28 August, 1803, states, "The only evidence which could at present be produced against him [Emmet] is what follows" (the italics are in the book), but there is not a single word in reference to documentary evidence which could not be produced ; and I am not surprised that other official letters contain no reference to the correspondence between Miss Curran and Enitnet. It was unnecessary to refer to it, as it was unnecessary to produce it. The Chief Secretary (Mr. Wickham) writes to Curran:— " The Lord Lieutenant is obliged to direct that a search should be made in your house for papers connected with the late treasonable conspiracy. The Lord Lieutenant is persuaded they have been concealed there without your knowledge, but it is not the less necessary that the search should be made with the utmost exactness. As the circum- stances which lead to this investigation particularly affect Miss Sarah Curran, it will be necessary that she should be immediately examined." Mr. Wickham (9 September, 1803) informed the Home Secretary of Major Sirr's report on Miss Curran's state of mind :— " Unfortunately, Mr. Curran was not at home, and still more unfortunately the young lady was not up, though the rest of the family (two other daughters and a son) were assembled at breakfast, so that the major entered the room where she was still in bed. This circumstance occasioned a scene of great con- fusion and distress, and was also productive of some inconvenience, for whilst the major and the other daughter were giving assistance to Mr. Emmet's correspondent — who was thrown into violent convulsions—the eldest Miss Curran con- tinued to destroy some papers, the few scraps of which that were saved are in Mr. Emmet's hand- writing." In his book MR. MACDONAGH ungrudg- ingly refers to Major Sirr as "a capable and daring officer.1' I do not suppose the search was made but with "utmost exactness." Mr. Wickham does not mention with what result. MR. MACDONAGH remarks, however, that Major Sirr's report " states " that Sarah Curran's "brother and sister succeeded in burning, in the breakfast-room downstairs, whatever compromising documents were in the house, and that therefore no papers fell into his hands." Presuming the report really states this, and if MR. MACDONAGH can show that it was only in this house and at this visit that correspondence could have been found, then it must be that the report was immediately sent off, before the full search was conducted. (But I should like to see the report, for other reasons already stated.) The Major awaited the visit of the Attorney-General, and Mr. Wickham's reply, given at 10th S. iii. 303, and preserved with Major Sirr's papers in T.C.D. Library. As the outcome of the Lord Lieutenant's decision that no action should be taken against Miss Curran, Mr. Wickham added (to the Home Secretary):— " The Lord Lieutenant particularly requests thtt Miss Curran's name may not be mentioned. It is difficult that it should be long concealed, but it is desirable that it should not be first mentioned by any member of Government in either country." MR. MACDONAGH writes :— "Chief Secretary Wickham, writing to Pole Carew of the Home Office about the trial [of Emmet], says Mr. Yorke will have observed thtt the Attorney-General, when he gave in evidence such parts of the yonng lady's letter found upon Emmet as it was found necessary to produce, stated boldly that the letter from which the extracts was made had been written by a brother conspirator. Unfortunately, a barrister of the name of Huband, who is said to have paid his addresses formerly to the young lady, recognized the handwriting when the letter was laid on the table."—P. 398: the italics are in the book. I do not think it can be made clearer from the official documents given by MR. MACDONAGH why the correspondence be- tween Miss Sarah Curran and Robert Emmet which was in Major Sirr's keeping was not requisitioned or mentioned, and there is the best of evidence in support of Dr. Sirr's testimony as to the great tenderness with which Miss Curran was treated. This young lady unquestionably had much on her mind. Even so, I think she was not particularly strong. We learn of her violent convulsions, and I believe MR. MACDONAGH states that she lost her reason for a while. She died in 1808 • The Gentleman's Magazine states in a rapid decline, while it is popularly thought she died of a broken heart. Possibly she altered her views (which no doubt had been in- fluenced by exaggerated presentments in print of the revolutionary doctrines preached in France) when she married an army officer. However this may be, Dr. Sirr merely made a brief note : but he suggested her mind was not strong when she was under Emmet's influence, and I think the fact of her violent convulsions and subsequent loss of reason is not incompatible with his wording. I judge from their long letters printed in the book that both Miss Curran and .Robert Emmet wrote with ease (Emmet was quite proficient in the art of disguising his hand- writing), and without doubt they had much time on their hands. I have received^ a sympathetic letter with reference to Dr. Sirr and implications about