The Dock and the Scaffold | Page 3

declared themselves American citizens, and claimed their

discharge. Williams said he was a bookbinder out of work; Whyte
described himself as a hatter, living on the means brought with him
from America. The magistrate was about disposing summarily of the
case, by sentencing the men to a few days' imprisonment, when a
detective officer applied for a remand, on the ground that he had reason
to believe the prisoners were connected with the Fenian conspiracy.
The application was granted, and before many hours had elapsed it was
ascertained that Martin Williams was no other than Colonel Thomas J.
Kelly, one of the most prominent of the (O'Mahony-Stephens) Fenian
leaders, and that John Whyte was a brother officer and co-conspirator,
known to the circles of the Fenian Brotherhood as Captain Deasey.
Of the men who had thus fallen into the clutches of the British
government the public had already heard much, and one of them was
widely known for the persistency with which he laboured as an
organiser of Fenianism, and the daring and skill which he exhibited in
the pursuit of his dangerous undertaking. Long before the escape of
James Stephens from Richmond Bridewell startled the government
from its visions of security, and swelled the breasts of their disaffected
subjects in Ireland with rekindled hopes, Colonel Kelly was known in
the Fenian ranks as an intimate associate of the revolutionary chief.
When the arrest at Fairfield-house deprived the organization of its
crafty leader, Kelly was elected to the vacant post, and he threw
himself into the work with all the reckless energy of his nature. If he
could not be said to possess the mental ability or administrative
capacity essential to the office, he was at least gifted with a variety of
other qualifications well calculated to recommend him to popularity
amongst the desperate men with whom he was associated. Nor did he
prove altogether unworthy of the confidence reposed in him. It is now
pretty well known that the successful plot for the liberation of James
Stephens was executed under the personal supervision of Colonel Kelly,
and that he was one of the group of friends who grasped the hand of the
Head Centre within the gates of Eichmond Prison on that night in
November, '65, when the doors of his dungeon were thrown open.
Kelly fled with Stephens to Paris, and thence to America, where he
remained attached to the section of the Brotherhood which recognised
the authority and obeyed the mandates of the "C.O.I.R." But the time

came when even Colonel Kelly and his party discovered that Stephens
was unworthy of their confidence. The chief whom they had so long
trusted, and whose oath to fight on Irish soil before January, '67, they
had seen so unblushingly violated, was deposed by the last section of
his adherents, and Colonel Kelly was elected "Deputy Central
Organiser of the Irish Republic," on the distinct understanding that he
was to follow out the policy which Stephens had shrunk from pursuing.
Kelly accepted the post, and devoted himself earnestly to the work. In
America he met with comparatively little co-operation; the bulk of the
Irish Nationalists in that country had long ranged themselves under the
leadership of Colonel W.R. Roberts, an Irish gentleman of character
and integrity, who became the President of the reconstituted
organization; and the plans and promises of "the Chatham-street wing,"
as the branch of the brotherhood which ratified Colonel Kelly's election
was termed, were regarded, for the most part, with suspicion and
disfavour. But from Ireland there came evidences of a different state of
feeling. Breathless envoys arrived almost weekly in New York,
declaring that the Fenian Brotherhood in Ireland were burning for the
fray--that they awaited the landing of Colonel Kelly with feverish
impatience--that it would be impossible to restrain them much longer
from fighting--and that the arrival of the military leaders, whom
America was expected to supply, would be the signal for a general
uprising. Encouraged by representations like these, Colonel Kelly and a
chosen body of Irish-American officers departed for Ireland in January,
and set themselves, on their arrival in the old country, to arrange the
plans of the impending outbreak. How their labours eventuated, and
how the Fenian insurrection of March, '67, resulted, it is unnecessary to
explain; it is enough for our purpose to state that for several months
after that ill-starred movement was crushed, Colonel Kelly continued to
reside in Dublin, moving about with an absence of disguise and a
disregard for concealment which astonished his confederates, but which,
perhaps, contributed in no slight degree to the success with which he
eluded the efforts directed towards his capture. At length the Fenian
organization in Ireland began to pass through the same changes that had
given it new leaders and fresh vitality in America.