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TWO SINGULAR CASES OF ISOLATED TREASON.

A thing devised by the enemy.-Shakespeare.

MUCH to palliate, much even to defend, may be urged in favor of the loyal traitors who supported the cause of the exiled Stuarts. Theirs was a mistake between the rex de jure and the rex de facto-their fidelity to one king was their only treason against the other. They bore no private hate nor malice; of their sincerity, disinterestedness, and devotion, there could be no doubt; and even their enemies are now inclined to forget their errors in recalling the gallantry and heroism they displayed. Treason, however, seldom bears so venial a shape; and of all the species of this wicked and dangerous offence, few are more likely to hurt a country more than the two treacherous acts which form the subject of the following narrative. The baseness of the crime was increased in the earlier of these instances by the pecuniary views of the culprit. A melancholy interest notwithstanding attaches to offenders who, gentlemen in other respects, should so forget themselves in this. Pity, too, will be felt for the latter of them, whose faithlessness to his king was so cruelly matched by the system that was adopted to bring him to conviction.

The men who committed these treasons were Dr. Florence Hensey and the Rev. William Jackson. Nearly thirty years

elapsed between their respective crimes. To begin with the former of the two :

Florence Hensey was born in the county of Kildare, in Ireland. When very young, he came to England, and soon after went over to Holland, and was educated in the University of Leyden. He made great advances there in physic, science," and literature. He afterwards traveled to Switzerland, and continued some time at Berne, from whence he went to Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In these wanderings he gained a competent knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish; and his residence for some years at Paris enabled him to speak and write French with great fluency.

During his time abroad, he supported himself in the quality of a physician, and came over to England in hopes of settling here in that character; but either from want of interest or sufficiently known merit to recommend him, he had not many patients of consequence or profit. This disappointment, and the following circumstance, led to his criminality. Dr. Hensey had continued a literary correspondence, after he left his university, with a fellow-student who resided at Paris, and who had got there into the office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Hensey, whether so induced of his own wrong, or through some previous hints, wrote to this man, on his appointment, a more than usual complimentary letter, informing him in general terms, " he should be glad of an opportunity of doing him any service that lay in his power, and executing any commission he might have in London." This invitation, his correspondent, probably from some prior understanding, constructed into a desire of commencing a system of criminal communication. He did not, however, think proper to hazard any statement until such time as he should be convinced of

the doctor's real intentions; he wrote word back, "that he was infinitely obliged to him for the service he offered; and that if he understood him rightly, their correspondence might be rendered more advantageous to both by changing their topics from literary to political." The doctor replied, "He was glad to find so discerning a man in his fellow-student; and if he could obtain for him a recompense suitable to the trouble, he would endeavor to make his intelligence of the utmost importance." By the next post he received an answer, containing directions, and an appointment of five hundred livres (about twenty-five pounds sterling) a quarter.

The instructions were, to send lists of all British men-ofwar, in and out of commission; their condition, situation, the number of men on board each; when they sailed, under what commanders, from what ports, and their destinations ; details of the actual number of British troops; what regiments were complete, and which were recruiting; where they were quartered or garrisoned; the earliest accounts of any enterprizes against France; plans of fortified places in England, America, and so forth. Mention was made of those persons to whom he was to address outwardly; to some at Cologne, some at Hague, and some at Berne, in Switzerland; and these parties were to forward his letters, under cover, from their respective localities, to Paris.

A fierce war, it should be observed, was at this time raging between France and England.

The doctor, far from satisfied with the stipend of his treason, nevertheless thought proper to accept it, in hopes by his merit to obtain a greater salary. With this view he endeavored to insinuate himself into the good graces of some of the clerks in the public offices, trusting through their means to gain

intelligence of what was transacted concerning naval and military affairs. Not finding in them, to their credit, any such treacherous disposition as animated him, he, after some fruitless efforts, gave over the attempt, fearing their zeal might induce them to make a discovery of any hints he might give of his designs. It was not found, on his detection, that he had had any connection with the clerks in public offices, as some have supposed.

Being frustrated in this project, Hensey used to frequent all the political coffee-houses about town. He commonly passed hours in silence at Thom's, in Devereux Court, the largeness of his peruke, and his solemn air, rendering him unsuspected among the medical gentlemen who resorted there. He often pushed himself into the back room at Old Slaughter's, and picked up as much prejudice and ill-natured remarks upon the situation and conduct of our affairs, as replenished a sheet for the next post. He plied at the Mount, under pretence of reading the Hague Gazette, though he had got it by heart before at the Exchange. He was a constant customer at the St. James's or at the Smyrna coffee-houses, on a council day; and never failed being at the Cocoa Tree, after the House was up. By these means he got acquainted with many particulars, even while, to many in authority, they remained secrets. It is confidently asserted, that it was resolved in council, so late as the 24th of July, 1758, to attack Rochefort, and that Hensey's letter of the 29th of the same month, told this resolution to France, when the purposed leaders of the expédition, General Sir John Mordaunt and Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, were still unacquainted with the intent of the British Government. Hensey never entered into any political controversies at his various haunts; but when there arose an abso

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