A matter of judgement.

Judge Robert Johnson.

The history of Judge Johnson, whose name occurs in a previous page as counsel for the Sham Squire, discloses some curious features.

In “The Step-ladder” of General Cockburne, we obtained a view of the Backstairs Cabinet who carried on the government of Ireland, to the almost utter exclusion of the Viceroy, during the reign of terror. This clique was succeeded by another, less sanguinary but equally mischievous. Lord Hardwickc, who became Lord Lieutenant in 1801; was a prim but pliant nonentity, personally amiable, though easily made a tool of* *by designing men.

He stood a vapid cipher in the midst of a cluster of figures. Every newspaper in the country applauded his policy. Even the *Dublin Evening Post, *the long-recognised organ of Irish nationality, flung the censor with unceasing energy. Emmet’s speech in the dock - one of the most eloquent and touching on record - was suppressed by the *Post, *with the exception of a few garbled passages, more calculated to damage his position than *to *serve as his vindication.

[Frequent payments to “H. B. Code” appear in the Secret Service Money Book, in 1802-3. This individual was engaged to conduct the *Post *during the long and painful illness of John Magee; but for paltry bribes he quite compromised its polities, until John Magee, junior, rescued the paper from his hands. Mr Code subsequently received, under Mr Beresford, an appointment of £900 a year in the revenue. A notice of him appears in Watty Cox’s *Magazine *for 1813, p.l5l.]

To the plausibility of Lord Hardwicke’s government, men hitherto considered as stanch patriots fell victims. Grattan eulogised him; Plunket accepted office. The press teemed with praise; the people were cajoled. One man only was found to tear aside the curtain which concealed the policy and machinery of the so-called Hardwicke ad-ministration. A judge, with £3,600 a year from Government, was perhaps the last man likely to take this course. And yet we find Judge Johnson penning in his closet a series of philippics under the signature of “Juverna.” He declared that Lord Hardwicke was bestrode by Mr Justice Osborne, Messrs Wickham and Marsden, and by “a Chancery Pleader from Lincoln’s Inn,” which was immediately recognised as Lord Chancellor Redesdale. Giving rein to his indignation and expression to his pity, he exhorted Ireland to awaken from its lethargy. The main drift of the letters was to prove that the government of a harmless man was not necessarily a harmless government. The printer was prosecuted, but to save himself he gave up the Judge’s MS. [Lord Cloncurry, in his “Personal Recollections,” says, (2d edit., p. 253,) “The manuscript, though sworn by a crown witness to he in Mr Johnson’s handwriting, was actually written by his daughter. This circumstance he might have proved; but as he could not do so without compromising his amanuensis, the jury were obliged to return a verdict of guilty.” We have been assured, however, by Miss Johnson herself that the MS. was really an autograph of her father’s. She added, that the judge having taught her to write, their handwriting closely assimilated.] Great excitement greeted this disclosure, and Judge Johnson descended from the bench, never again to mount it.

A public trial took place, of which the report fills two portly volumes; and the Judge was found guilty. Before receiving sentence, however, the Whigs came into power; and Johnson was allowed to retire with a pension. But be considered that he had been hardly dealt with; and the prosecution had the effect of lashing the Judge into downright treason. He became an advocate for separation, dressed *a la militaire, *and wrote essays, suggesting, among other weapons of warfare to be used in “the great struggle of national regeneration,” bows, arrows, and pikes. The “Journals and Life of Tone,” the ablest organiser of the United Irish Project, was published at Washington in 1828. Public attention was immediately called to it by a book, printed in English at Paris, entitled “A Commentary on the Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone,” which has always been confidently pronounced as the work of Judge Johnson. [See Recollections of Lord Cloncurry, p.253; Moore’s Journal, vol. vi., p. 146; Daunt’s Recollections of O’Connell, vol. i., p. 18; *Irish Quarterly Review, *vol. ii. p. 10; *Irish Monthly Magazine, *p. 120, &c.] The Memoirs of Tone, and the Commentary which succeeded it, appearing at a crisis of intense political excitement, and displaying conclusions of singular novelty and daring, produced a powerful impression. The Duke of Wellington, then Premier, assured Rogers that he had read the Memoirs of Tone, from cover to cover, with unflagging interest. But it is doubtful if the Duke would ever have seen it had not the “Commentary” reached him from the British ambassador at Paris. An interesting letter from the late Robert Cassidy, Esq., narrates the fact, previously a secret, that the material only came from Judge Johnson, and that Mr Cassidy edited the MSS. The letter was written in reply to one from the present writer, mentioning that he had purchased, at the sale of Mr Conway’s library, a volume of scarce pamphlets, containing the “Commentary” with Mr Cassidy’s autograph, and offering it to his acceptance.

Monasterevan, July 3, 1855.

“The Commentary on the life of Wolfe Tone was published under very peculiar and rather strange circumstances. The papers forming it were detached, and not arranged. In a state just out of chaos, they were intrusted to me, to make such use of for the advance of this country as I might deem useful.

“The dedication, written in Paris, puzzled the few French printers able to print English. [“They could not, for the life of them, imagine why an English book, dedicated to all the blockheads in the service of his Britannic Majesty, should be printed in an alien country.” - Subsequent communication from Mr. Cassidy.] Didot, under guarantees supplied by my banker, (D. Daly,) published the book almost *malgré lui. *I had to attend more than one summons at the Palais de (in-) Justice in 1828, to protect the printer.

“The paper caused some sensation. Every ambassador in Paris paid for the sheets as printed - some for 10 copies, before bound. One hundred copies were sold in sheets.

“I had to correct the press for French compositors, and brought over 50 copies. I have made a look through my books this day, and, to my surprise, find I have not a copy of the original exemplaire.

“To repossess the copy most probably lent Conway, is desirable. I shall receive it from you, not as a restitution, but as a gift - Yours faithfully, Robert Cassidy.

“To W. J. Fitzpatrick, Esq.”

Judge Johnson was a fluent correspondent and some of his letters on the capability of Ireland for effective warfare appear in the ” Personal Recollections of Lord Cloncurry.” His grandson, Robert Alloway, Esq., now holds an interesting selection from the Judge’s papers. It may scandalise surviving politicians of the old Tory school to hear that among his chief correspondents were John Wilson Croker and the King’s brother, the Duke of Sussex.

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