Robert Emmet in the Words of Others |
 |
The Character of Robert Emmet |
|
“Were I to remember,
indeed, among all
I have known, who appeared to me to combine in the greatest degree,
pure moral
worth with intellectual power, I should, among the highest of the few,
place
Robert Emmet.” - Thomas Moore, a friend of
Emmet's at University College Dublin.
|
“So gifted a creature
does not appear
in a thousand years.” - Archibald
Douglas, a university friend of Emmet who became a famous
clergyman.
|
“Mr
Robert Emmet, a young gentleman of
highly respectable family, of very striking talents and interesting
manners,
was in the habit of visiting at Mr Curran’s house.”
- Biographer
of the lawyer John Philpot Curran, whose daughter Emmet courted.
|
"[Emmet
was] not a person who has been seduced by others, but a gentleman to
whom the
rebellion may be traced, as the origin, the life and the soul of it."
- Standish
O’Grady, Attorney-General
and prosecutor
at Emmet’s trial.
|
“He was a very young
man. He had not
that distrust of human nature which is the bitterest part of wisdom and
only
comes to men by long experience. He trusted too easily. Men failed him
through
weakness, through idleness, through all kinds of little, petty
weaknesses.
Some, too, perhaps were treacherous. His mind was in a flame with his
own
thoughts, with his own purposes. But such men, though they see often
less into
human nature than others until the world has schooled them, have often
been the
very masters of the world.” - William Butler Yeats, poet.
|
|
The Appearance of Robert Emmet |
|
“In 1798 he was near
twenty years of
age, of an ugly sour countenance; small eyes, but not near-sighted; a
dirty-brownish complexion; at a distance looks as if somewhat marked
with
small-pox; about five feet six inches high, rather thin than fat, but
not of an
emaciated figure; on the contrary, somewhat broad-made; walks briskly,
but does
not swing his arms.” - Reverend
Thomas Elrington, Senior Dean of Trinity College.
|
“He was above middle
stature, rather
slight and delicate, although endowed with nervous strength which
enabled him
to support great fatigue. He walked with a quick step, and all his
movements
were rapid. The portraits remaining of him have been made after his
death, and
the painter, it is said, preoccupied with his tragic fate, has given
him a sad
sombre expression which he had not in the happy days of life. His
countenance
was pleasing and distingué.
His hair
was brown and his complexion quite pale; the eyebrow was arched, and
the eyes
black and large with dark eye-lashes, which gave to his looks a
remarkable
expression of pride, penetration, and mildness. His nose was aquiline
and his
mouth slightly disdainful.
“Energy, delicacy, and
tenderness are
expressed in his melancholy and ardent features. Such was, however, his
total
absence of affectation and his simplicity, that modesty of his
character,
joined to a sort of habitual reserve, hid the working of his mind in
the
ordinary circumstances of life, but, were any subject started which was
deeply
interesting to him, he appeared quite another man.” -
Louise
de Broglie, Comtesse d’Haussonville, writing in 1858.
|
The Actions of Robert Emmet |
|
“I have been for some
time in
possession of everything that has been going forward in the college
– and I
know that Emmet is one of the most active and wicked members of the
society of
the United Irishmen – and I did desire the Provost not to
suffer any person to
take his name off the college books, that I might bring him and others
of his
association to punishment.” - Lord Chancellor
Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare.
|
“Early in the year
1801, Mr Robert
Emmet went over to the Continent with a mission to the French
Government from
the Executive Directory of the United Irishmen here. He was accompanied
by a Mr
Malachi Delany of the County of Kildare; Delany had
been formerly an officer in the Austrian service and was deeply engaged
in the
Rebellion of 1798. They travelled through England and embarked
at Yarmouth for Hamburg, Emmet
(against whom there was no charge) under his own name, and Delany under
the
name of Bowers… He returned to this country in November,
1802, where he
remained unmolested, as he had done before, there being no charge
against him,
this circumstance of his having been sent on this treasonable mission
having
only been discovered since the Insurrection of the 23rd
July.” - William
Wickham, Chief Secretary.
|
“Mr Emmet’s
powerful, persuasive
language, and sound reason, all coming from the heart, left it
impossible for
any Irishman, impressed with a desire for his country’s
independence, to make
any objection to his plans (particularly as Ireland’s great
opportunity seemed
now to have arrived for her freedom), save to bide the proper time, and
wait
for French aid. For my own part, I had no objections to make. I merely
observed
that I trusted the poor county of Wexford, and the other parts which
suffered
in 1798, would be spared until Dublin was ready to begin and take the
lead in
the struggle; that for the accomplishment of this enterprise there were
more
than three hundred brave county of Wexford fellows who escaped in
’98 and who
took refuge in Dublin and the environs, on whom we could count when the
time
for action arrived, and that with the aid of those tried man, and with
the
brave Kildare men and Dublin citizens, I trusted success was
certain.[…]”
“Both Mr John Patten
and Mr Philip Long
endeavoured to persuade Emmet of the urgent necessity of his going at
once to
France; to which he replied that it should never be said of him that he
had
abandoned the brave people implicated through his
means.[…]”
“I took my last
farewell of this
magnanimous young man, who during this interview never uttered a word
of blame
against any of those leaders who might have preserved discipline and
prevented
the disasters and false alarms which produced such bad effects on the
men in Thomas Street.” - Miles Byrne, revolutionary.
|
“He pronounced the
speech in so loud a
voice as to be distinctly heard at the outer doors of the
courthouse… moving
about the dock with rapid but not ungraceful motions.” - Dr Madden, commenting on the
trial.
|
“Never shall I forget
the moment when,
rising with a manner full of grace and mildness, Emmet offered to his
country
the sacrifice of his life. All eyes filled with tears. We went out
sobbing, and
I thought for a moment that justice was severe and the conspirator to
be
pitied.” - The
Marquis d’Harcourt, an English officer who had helped put
down Emmet’s
rebellion.
|
“Nevertheless, I must
say that he was
great amid all his errors. When, on the day of his trial –
the tomb already
open to receive him – he made the very walls ring with the
power of his
eloquence. I saw that viper (Plunket) whom his father had nourished in
his
bosom tremble under his lashes and that scum of humanity (Norbury), who
was one
of the judges, grow pale and tremble on his seat. It was, under such
circumstances, an effort almost superhuman: and when, after inflicting
that
memorable chastisement, and hurling that withering defiance at his
enemies, he
displayed a moral integrity a talent and intrepidity unparalleled in
the annals
of the world.” - St
John Mason, Emmet’s first cousin, writing to The Times in
1842.
|
The Trial and Dying Behaviour of
Mr. R.
Emmet, Who was Executed September the 20th, for His Treason. –
Together
with his Solemn Exhortation to his Countrymen to reject the proffered
Friendship and Assistance of Despotic, Cruel and Perfidious FRANCE.
On Monday September 19, ROBERT
EMMETT
was put to the bar, at Dublin, on trial for
High Treason. The prisoner challenged nineteen peremptorily out of the
pannel
for a Petit Jury, and six were set aside for the Crown.
The Attorney General took a
retrospective view of the public calamities incident to the spirit of
insurrection which had hitherto pervaded the minds of the common people
of that
country.
The prisoner at the bar, If Mr.
Attorney was properly instructed, would appear by substantial evidence,
together with a variety of corroborating circumstances, to have been
the prime
source, origin, and spirit of the recent insurrection in this city so
erroneously wicked in its conception, but so truly contemptible and
puerile
both in the plan and execution.
The prisoner in a speech marked
by some
trait of ingenuity and elocution, justified the conduct imputed to him,
on firm
and long adopted principles.
The Jury returned a verdict
GUILTY,
without leaving the box; and Lord Norbury pronounced sentence of DEATH
on him.
At ten o’clock this morning,
(Sept. 20), a confidential friend of this unfortunate Gentleman was
permitted
to visit him at Kilmainham gaol. The visitor, a Professional Gentleman
of
considerable eminence, on his entrance into the culprit’s
chamber found him
reading the Litany in the Service of the Church of England in the
presence of
the Rev. Mr. Gamble, the Ordinary of Newgate; after which he made a
hearty
breakfast. Retiring afterwards to a room with his friend, after certain
family
communications, he adverted to his circumstance of having his pockets
examined
in the dock on the preceding evening, for some instrument with which it
was
apprehended he might destroy himself. He disclaimed such notion,
alledging it
was incompatible with the religion he professed.
The culprit was led from
Kilmainham
gaol under a strong military guard, composed of detachments both of
Cavalry and
Infantry of the Regular Troops quartered at the Barracks. He arrived
about three o’clock at the temporary gallows, in
Thomas-Street, in a carriage
with two clergymen. In his progress thither his demeanour, however, did
not
appear of that serious call befitting the awfulness of his situation,
or the
religious sentiments he had uttered in the morning. He gazed about,
particularly in Dirty-lane, the scene of his exploits, with a species
of light
inattentive smile, approaching a laugh, until he was carried to the
place of
execution, and spoke and nodded to some of his acquaintance with the
greatest
coolness. After mounting the platform attached to the gallows, he
addressed the surrounding crowd in a
few words, saying he did in peace and universal love and kindness with
all
mankind. While the Executioner was adjusting the rope round his neck,
he became
very pale, and he seemed earnestly to talk and expostulate with him
most
probably about some awkwardness in his manner, from which he felt an
inconvenience. After the hangman had pulled a cap over his eyes, the
culprit
put up his hands, pinioned as they were, and partly removed it. The
platform
was dextrously removed. After which he hung for near a minute quite
motionless,
but violent convulsions then seized him, which lasted for several
minutes. The
process of beheading, &c, was afterwards gone through, and his
body removed
to Newgate.
The admirable description which
he drew
of the French fraternity must powerfully operate on that part of the
people of Ireland, who seek, through
the agency of the First Consul to disunite these countries
“I have”,
said he, “been accused of
being actuated by a wish to bring about a revolution of this country,
through
the means of French influence. I deny that either myself or the
Provisional
Government, had any such idea in contemplation. Our own resources were
sufficient to accomplish the object. As to French interposition, it
cannot be
too much deprecated: and I exhort the people of Ireland to beware of
such assistance. I urge them in the strongest manner to burn their
house; -
nay, even the very grass on which a Frenchman shall land. Various
opportunities
have occurred to me of witnessing the misery and desolation they have
produced
in every country where they have gained an entrance, under the
fallacious
pretences of aiding the inhabitants who considered themselves in a
state of
oppression.” - Bulletin
published and distributed by Dublin Castle after the execution of
Robert Emmet.
|