Evidence to Character: being a Portrait of a Traitor by His Friends and by Himself

This print was no doubt intended by the Pitt administration, who commissioned it, to be the graphic equivalent of the contemporaneous pamphlet called Evidence to Character; or, the Innocent Imposture: Being a Portrait of a Traitor by his Friends and by Himself. Gillray's effort appeared in October of 1798, after the last throes of the Irish Rebellion, as a foldout plate in the Tory propaganda organ, The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, and as a separately sold print. The pamphlet, print, and magazine were all published by John Wright at 169 Piccadilly right next door to the unmarked editorial offices of the Anti-Jacobin Review.

Evidence to Character. . .

Evidence to Character. . . [October 1, 1798]
© Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

The brilliant pamphlet consisted of two parts: extracts from the testimonies of nearly all the leading Whigs at the trial of Arthur O'Connor at Maidstone in May, 1798 vouching for his character and patriotism juxtaposed with extracts from the subsequent confession of O'Connor (three months later) before the Secret Committee of the Irish House of Lords (August) in which he admitted his treasonous behavior. The only commentary on the extracts was the following devastatingly understated note:

Far be it from a generous and unprejudiced Mind, in times of candour and liberality like the present, to impute any other than the very best of all possible Motives to any Word or Action, of any Man or set of Men, upon any Occasion whatever!!!

But it is, at least right that the sober-minded People of this Country should be taught, how even those who have been represented as the most Respectable and most Honourable of Men, are to be deceived, when blinded by Party Prejudices.

It is right that they should know of every public Man, and especially of every Leader of a Party, and Candidate for Power, not only what Principles he professes, but who and what his Associates are.

A prominent member of the United Irishmen, Arthur O'Connor, along with Lord Edward Fitzgerald, had since 1796 been in contact with the French to orchestrate an invasion of Ireland coinciding with the Irish uprising. In February of 1798, he and four other Irish men had been on their way to France to plan another invasion when they were arrested and indicted for high treason. Before being apprehended, however, O'Connor and his associates destroyed most of the tangible evidence which could have been used against them. As a result, all but one of them were in fact acquitted at the Maidstone trial in May. But no sooner was the verdict read than O'Connor was arrested again on a warrant dated after the suspension of habeas corpus in April, 1798. That allowed the Pitt government to detain O'Connor and nearly all of the leaders of the United Irishmen indefinitely. The accumulation of evidence gained by this process led to a kind of plea bargain in which O'Connor was ultimately released and banished from the country for admitting his guilt and the role he played in the planned invasion.

Gillray follows the lead of the pamphlet by juxtaposing extracts from the testimonials of four of the most prominent Whigs (including Charles James Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Thomas Erskine, and the Duke of Norfolk) and the Irish patriot Henry Grattan against an extract from the confession of O'Connor himself. But since he is operating in a visual medium, Gillray includes the extracts in his print as if they were all part of the original trial in May.

But not suprisingly, he adds a few telling details of his own. For instance, while Fox is swearing that O'Connor is "a Man totally without dissimulation," Gillray shows Fox carrying in his pocket "Letters to Lord E[dward] F[itzgerald] which suggest that Fox himself is dissimulating and was likely aware of the plot. Sheridan meanwhile does his own swearing on a book that is not really a Bible, but a book entitled "Four Evangelists," a title that could just as easily suggest a playbook for the four Whig Evangelists—Fox, Sheridan, Erskine, and Norfolk. From his pocket Gillray has included a "List of [the] Irish Directory" again suggesting collusion between the Whigs and the leaders of the United Irishmen. In Erskine's case, Gillray continues the satiric reflection upon Erskine's relentless egotism which he highlights in Councellor Ego. I, little i, myself i by emphsizing the personal pronouns in his speech: "His friends are all MY friends, and I, therefore, feel MYSELF entitled upon MY oath..."etc.

But perhaps the most interesting additions by Gillray have to do with the presentation of Arthur O'Connor. For one thing he is not strikingly caricatured. His visage is closer to a sympathetic portrait than a caricature of an evil man, and the paper protruding from his pocket has no satiric edge, but is simply The Press, the Irish newspaper founded by O'Connor, and summarily shut down by the Irish government. Even more importantly, Gillray has added two hands emerging from a cloud behind O'Connor's head. One hand holds the scales of justice; the other, a noose around O'Connor's neck. If he were asked, I think Gillray would have explained that the noose is simply an allusion to hanging—the standard punishment for high treason. But I can't help suspecting that it alludes to an unfortunate discovery at the very start of the trial. That was the discovery of a letter by a Reverend Arthur Young explaining that even before the first witness had been called, he had personally tried to persuade three of the jurors that "the felons should swing."* Indeed, when this was revealed it seemed so much like governmental jury tampering that the judge in the case had to make special mention of it in his address to the jurors. If I am right, then, Gillray may be suggesting that the same invisible body holding the scales of justice may have attempted to pre-judge the case in order put a noose around O'Connor's neck.

Sources and Reading

Comments & Corrections

NOTE: Comments and/or corrections are always appreciated. To make that easier, I have included a form below that you can use. I promise never to share any of the info provided without your express permission.

First Name:
 Last Name:
Email Address:
Comments/Corrections: