WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR SATURDAY & SUNDAY 25 & 26 July 2020

34 History 33 1798 (10 November) TheobaldWolfe Tone’s speech from the dock. Unsigned, written in Tone’s own hand. 4 pages, on Whatman paper watermarked 1794, quarto. Starts ‘Mr President & Gentlemen of the Court Martial. It is not my intention to give the court any trouble. I admit the charge against me in its fullest extent. What I have done I have done, and I am prepared to stand the consequence.’ I have laboured..... to create a people in Ireland by raising three Millions of my countrymen to the rank of Citizen. I have laboured to abolish the infernal spirit of religion persuasion by uniting the Catholics & Dissenters.’ It concludes ‘I have attempted to establish the independence of my country; I have failed in the attempt; my life is in consequence forfeited & I submit; the Court will do their duty & i shall endeavour to do mine.’ A unique and important manuscript written by “the father of modern Irish republicanism”. Examples of manuscripts in Wolfe Tone’s hand are excessively rare. TheobaldWolfe Tone; Appropriated by Adjutant-General Sir George Hewett; Thence by descent; Bonhams, London, 26 June 2019, lot 17; Private collection. Condition: Very good, no apparent faults. Of all the manuscripts in the Hewett archive, the most significant for its rarity is this heretofore unknown copy, in his own hand, of Tone’s address to the Court Martial, held it is said in what is now the Palatine Room at the Royal Barracks. Though an official copy is extant and the content of the speech known, this manuscript is unique for its symbolic value. Tone’s capture, trial and death were widely reported in the press, and several versions of published trial proceedings stated that he had addressed the court ‘from a paper.’ Press reports on the statement he read out varied, but the version referenced by Tone’s biographer Marianne Elliott (Wolfe Tone Prophet of Irish Independence (1989, p. 392-394; 2nd edition, 2012, p. 379-381), and reprinted in the Writings (Vol III, 2007, 396-8) is practically a mirror image of the manuscript offered here. This published version is held in the UK National Archives, Public Record Office/Home Office 100 series. Presumably Tone handed it over after his trial, as it was then forwarded from Dublin Castle to London by Captain Herbert Taylor. Taylor was then private secretary to General Cornwallis, serving as both Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and commander of the Crown forces in Ireland). Taylor sent it marked ‘Private’ and with a cover note, to WilliamWickham, under-secretary at the Home Office in London, and that he was enclosing ‘a copy of the paper from which Tone addressed the Court.’ It had not been circulated, and was to be treated as a ‘private communication.’ Both this PRO version and the one offered here are in Tone’s unmistakable and surprisingly steady hand. They are nearly identical, save for line breaks, and a short phrase written by Tone in the margin of the PRO copy: ‘Here the court interrupted & the prisoner struck out what appears within the lines. Not surprisingly, this was after he had uttered the following words: ’...looking upon the connexion with England to have been her bane I have endeavoured by every means in my power to break that connexion. I have laboured in consequence to create a people in Ireland by raising three millions of my countrymen to the rank of Citizen.’ It is known that Tone made copies of his outgoing correspondence, and in this case it is perfectly understandable, and not only because he had been a barrister, that he had kept a personal copy of his speech from the dock. However until now, its existence had not been known. Dr Sylvie Kleinman, March 2020 Estimate €50000-€70000 (approx £45,450-£63,640) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 33