No. 5.
[Extract.]

Mr. Waddington to Mr. Hammond.—(Received February 3.).

Referring to the correspondence which has already taken place relating to foreign enlistment, I am directed by Secretary Sir George Grey to transmit to you a newspaper containing a report of the proceedings at the police office, Exchange court.

And I am to request that you will lay the same before Earl Russell, and inform his lordship that the case has been directed by the lord lieutenant to be submitted to the law officers of the crown for their consideration.

[Enclosure in No. 5.]

Newspaper extract.

Head Police Office.Enlistment for the American Service.—(Before Mr. Allen.)—Yesterday Patrick H. Finney was summoned by William Pike for refusing to pay him £3 7s. 9d. wages.

Mr. McKenna appeared for the defendant.

The complainant stated that he was a painter by trade, and last worked with Mr. Marsh, of Omagh. He claimed the wages for writing and circulating through the town for Finney that he had come here for the purpose of taking out 3,000 emigrants to America to work on railways, &c. Witness acted along with two other persons named Hynes and Byrne. The agreement was that they were to work for Finney and for no other person, and that he would pay better than any one else in Ireland could or would. Finney went to Galway, and after he returned, witness showed him names of persons. Finney said that not more than two hundred of those would suit.

Mr. Allen. How did you get introduced to Finney?

Witness. I was in Saunders’s News-Letter office, and was told by a party present that Finney was in the London hotel for the purpose; the witness further said that he went to the hotel and asked Finney the terms, Hynes and Byrne being present; told him he could get him plenty of men. Finney did not name any sum; he said he would take them in a steamboat from Galway to Boston; the emigrants were to get a free passage, but were to repay the passage money afterwards. The only other person present at that interview was the wife of the hotel-keeper. Witness procured him about three hundred and sixty-five [Page 445] names altogether. Finney, after his return from Galway, said he wanted tip-top men; he did not say how many of the persons witness did get would suit him, but said he would see about it; witness saw money with him, and got 8s. 6d. from him at different times. Afterwards Finney showed him the bounty that was being given for the American army, and from some conversation with him he believed that was the purpose for which he wanted the men; Finney said he conceived they would all join the army when they saw the amount of wages and the bounty that were being given; witness called on him for a settlement at different times.

Mr. Allen. You were not going to America yourself?

Witness. No. I don’t intend to go. I have been there before.

Mr. McKenna. You did not intend to go?

Witness. At first I did; he said he came here to give the people bread, but, from the conversation I heard afterwards, I thought it was lead he wanted to give them.

To Mr. McKenna. I wrote letters for him, and a copy of the agreement that the men were to sign; I wrote one letter to Sable & Searle, of Liverpool, by his direction; I wrote it in his name; I wrote a copy of the agreement for him on the Monday he went to the park. The substance of the agreement was that the undersigned, in consideration of Finney advancing them various sums of money, would proceed to Boston, in the United States, and agreed to work in the Charlestown water-works, in the city of Charlestown, for the Barr Valley and the Franklin Coal Companies, for the Boston and Hartford railway, &c. At first Finney said he would pay witness and others better than any one else could for their trouble, but later in the evening he said he would give them 2s. a man for every man they got.

Mr. Allen. Were you to get anything else?

Witness. Yes, I was to get a free passage and a position in America.

The witness said, in reply to the defendant’s attorney, that on different occasions he brought Finney able-bodied stout men, and not a mere list of names; brought him more than twenty, and he said, “All right, that will do.” Finney showed him that the soldier’s pay was equal to £40 a year; that the government city bounty was $85; and that, on the whole, the person accepting the engagement would have £140 to his credit at the end of the year.

Mr. Allen. Did you get it from his own mouth?

Witness. I did, when there was no other person present, in the little parlor in the hotel in D’Olier street; he calculated it on paper at the table, but took the calculations away with him. The memorandum now produced is my own.

Mr. McKenna submitted that if there had been an enlistment for foreign service the plaintiff could not recover his demand.

Witness. He was talking about the army: he said, “You see the difference; it is a far better place than Ireland; we can’t hold them if they go into the army, but we can hold them if they attempt to work for any one else.” He did not say he wanted them for the army, but he showed the difference.

Mr. Allen. I am afraid I cannot give you anything. According to your own statement, this gentleman came to you to agree with him to get recruits from Galway and different places for the American army. Now, to raise troops in that manner here is illegal, and no one can get any compensation for doing what is contrary to law; in fact, the only recompense you can get here is punishment. I dismiss the case.

The defendant said he got his agreement examined by Lord Duncannon.

The complainant, in reply to Mr. Allen, said he did not know what became of the men he did get.

[It is almost unnecessary to say that the conversation referred to by the witness in the above case as having taken place in Saunders’s News-Letter office, must have passed between him and some reader of our advertising sheet in the outer office.)