166 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'i S. VIII. Aug. 27. '59. 



they gave us so heavy a fire of musketrj' that our land- 

 ing was impracticable, besides, nor could our sailors stand 

 by their oars for some minutes. Upon seeing the boats 

 wherein the regts. were embarked pulled about, the sol- 

 diers seized the oars, backed water, and drew off from the 

 fire. We learnt that upon the General's seeing these 

 large bodj's of the enemy in the village, he ordered the 

 retreat to be beat, which we did not hear, being under the 

 fire of the enemy. On this repulse, the whole of the 

 troops reembarked on board their respective ships. The 

 following is an account of the killed and wounded of the 

 three companys of Light Infantry : 10 ofiicers wounded ; 

 36 privates wounded, and 26 killed. 



"N.B. Also 10 sailors killed and wounded belonging 

 to the Sunderland man-of-war." 



J. Noble. 



Invemess. 



AN IRISH JUNIUS. 



I Lave a pamphlet of rather a curious descrip- 

 tion, which I think " a Note of" may perhaps be 

 recorded in "N. & Q." It is an Svo.'^of 121 pages, 

 the following being the title and imprint : — 



" The Arguments of the Gentlemen who were of 

 Council for Joseph Cavendish, on his Trial for publishing 



a Libel against the late Lord T n, together with the 



Letters that appeared in the General Evening Post, under 

 the Signature of Junius, Junius Secundus, and Junius 

 Hihernicus. Dublin : printed in the Year m.dcc.i.xxxiii." 



It appears, by a short " advertisement," that 

 Mr. Cavendish was the then printer of the General 

 Evening Post (Dublin newspaper) ; and, in 1782, 

 a letter signed "Gracchus" appeared in that 



paper, accusing Lord T of partiality in his 



decisions, and for this the printer was tried. The 

 afiair was a political one, and the " arguments of 

 the two gentlemen" were speeches, very powerful 

 and eloquent, on behalf of the defence ; but this 

 is not the interesting portion of the publication. 

 The letters alluded to are what I consider worthy 

 of remark, and a note on a fly-leaf at the end. 

 There were several blanks, which have been filled 

 up by a pen. In the same hand as the note, — 

 which is an extremely neat small hand, very clear, 

 and approaching to feminine. It appears Lord 



T was " Tractor," and was a judge of one of 



the Irish superior courts. The names of the per- 

 sons to whom the letters were addressed were 

 in Initial, but filled up by the same hand and the 

 same Ink. The first letter Is addressed to the 

 Right Hon. Baron Power, signed " Junius Secun- 

 dus," dated 28th May, 1781. The second to 

 "Frederick, Earl of Carlisle," with the above 

 signature, dated 26th June, 1781. The third 

 to the Right Hon. Henry Flood ; same signature, 

 date Dec. 10th, 1781. (That Henry Flood, the 

 person whom Valeat Quantum, In " N. & Q." 

 (2"^ S. vill. 101.) tries to make the world believe 

 was the real Junius of undiscoverable Identity.) 

 There are two other letters by the same hand, 

 addressed to Mr. Flood. The next is a letter ad- 



dressed " to the volunteer corps who met at Dun- 

 gannon on Friday the 15th February, 1782 ;" and 

 another to the same by " Junius Secundus," dated 

 10th March, 1782. Then come two more letters 

 to Henry Flood, between that and Nov. 1782. 

 The next letter is addressed to the Right Hon. 

 Henry Grattan, 26th Dec. 1782, signed "Junius." 

 The next Is a letter to Lord Tracton, signed 

 " Junius HIbernicus ; " and on the margin of the 

 first and last pages of that letter are the follow- 

 ing manuscript notes : — The writer of the letter 

 says to his lordship : " Your taste for Mr. Shake- 

 spear — that pretty poet, to use your own words." 

 Here Is the note on that : — 



" Mr. Yelverton, when at the bar, having, in illustrat- 

 ing a passage, cited our immortal bard, he was inter- 

 rupted by Lord Tracton, saying ' Mr. Shakespeare was a 



pretty poet.' Lord Y '— communicated this to Mr. 



Egan, from whom I had it. — W. A." 



On the last margin this Is the note : — 



" The publication of this letter affected Lord Tracton 

 to the last degree. He suspected Hoan to be the writer, 

 and was confirmed in that opinion when H. refused 

 taking an oath that Lord Tracton tendered him upon the 

 occasion, as Mr. Egan informed me. — W. A." 



There are three other letters ; one addressed to 

 Lord Tracton, one to the Earl of Shannon^ and 

 one to Lord Libel (Tracton, I suppose), signed 

 j "Junius HIbernicus," between July, 1781, and 

 Nov. 1782. These documents are written with 

 power, and In a masterly style. There wei-e few 

 Important personages of the day that are not 

 alluded to In the letters. The freedom of the 

 press and many other topics are discussed with a 

 boldness that astonishes one, when one remembers 

 what Ireland was at that historical and interesting 

 period. The following Is the note on the back 

 fly-leaf of the work : — 



" These letters were all written at the time they bear 

 date by William Fletcher, Esq. (now 4th J. in C. P.), 

 and my much valued friend John Egan, Esq. The 

 former wrote under the signature 'Junius Secundus,' and 

 the latter under that of ' Junius Hibemicus.' Mr. Egan 

 was furnished with the particulars respecting the late 

 Mat Parker (as he informed me) by the present Richard 

 Viscount Longville, as set forth in the preceding letter. 



" W. Adams. 



« Dublin, December, 1809." 



Perhaps the above note may be Interesting to 

 Irishmen of the present day, and It is a pleasant 

 thing to have such a publication as " N. & Q.," 

 which acts as a sort of mirror whereby we can see 

 through times past. Qu. Was John Egan the 

 renowned Irish barrister and M.P. who was called 

 "Bully Egan"? And, if so, why was he called 

 by that name ? I understand this pamphlet is 

 very scarce — is It so ? S. Redmond* 



Liverpool. 



