¹ The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw Collected Plays with their Prefaces, ed. Laurence, Dan H. et al. , VI. 45–6Google Scholar: Humphreys, Travers, Criminal Days (London, 1946), p. 221Google Scholar. The historiography of Casement is extensive and peculiar: but Inglis, Brian, Roger Casement (London, 1973)Google Scholar is excellent, while Reid, B. L., The Lives of Roger Casement (New Haven, Conn., 1976)Google Scholar is a useful additional scholarly voice. All students of Casement's Congo career should consult the writings of W. R. Louis. Casement's Trial was edited for the Notable British Trials series by Knott, G. H. (Edinburgh, 1917)Google Scholar, W. Teignmouth Shore (second edn., 1926), H. Montgomery Hyde (third edn., 1960), while Colonel Montgomery Hyde amplified his introduction and altered his appendices for a Penguin edition of the editorial matter without the text (Harmondsworth, 1964). Hyde is much more scholarly than Knott (if not always accurate), but Knott's introduction is valuable as contemporary informed comment from the British side (Shore merely added minor details). Unfortunately Knott succumbed to the usual practice of inviting prominent counsel to ‘revise’ their speeches, a courtesy which while possibly advantageous to the editor is deleterious to the reader. Hansard as a source suffers from the same deficiency, and the whole procedure makes for a personally-dictated style of history. Hyde did not seek to improve Knott's text. The judges in the High Court and Darling, J., in the Appeal, are simply stated as having ‘read’ the report of the trial, and the Appeal judgment, respectively, and certainly Darling in particular is served up fairly raw. I have examined the reports in The Times, the Scotsman, the Morning Post and the Daily Graphic. The editor of the Irish Times, John Healy, was Dublin correspondent of The Times and his despatches reflect his editorial insights and outlook. In fact, Smith does not seem to have changed much in his remarks, so far as can be judged. The chief textual problem about his opening speech (delivered 26 June 1916) lies in its close similarity to that in the Magistrate's Court (15 May 1916), for which I have also consulted the newspapers listed above.

² Frederick, [Second] Earl, of Birkenhead, , Frederick Edwin, First Earl of Birkenhead, II (London, 1935), 61–79Google Scholar; see also I (London, 1933), passimGoogle Scholar. The book was revised and republished as F. E. (London, 1959)Google Scholar, and while it contains interesting additional matter it also has significant deletions. The best portrait of Smith's politics before 1914 may be found in Dangerfield, G., The Strange Death of Liberal England (London, 1935)Google Scholar. Sullivan's, brief references to the case may be found in his Old Ireland (London, 1927), pp. 187–200Google Scholar, and The Last Serjeant (London, 1952), pp. 264–74Google Scholar, while his politics and character emerge, respectively, from his pamphlet The Road to Irish Liberty (Dublin, 1918)Google Scholar and his cousin Maurice Healy's kindly but critical comments in his The Old Munster Circuit (London, 1937)Google Scholar. Isaacs' character and early career are charmingly presented in the first volume of his son's biography (London, 1942); unfortunately the account of the Casement trial in the second volume (London, 1945), pp. 19–22, is perfunctory and dependent on Smith's speeches. See also Donaldson, F., The Marconi Scandal (London, 1962), esp. pp. 94, 99 101, 230, 249–55Google Scholar. On Isaacs under pressure, see also Jackson, R., The Chief (London, 1959), pp. 126–46Google Scholar, throwing light on the lurid circumstances of his exchange of the Bench for the Viceroyalty. The richest account of the Smith-Isaacs relationship is Smith's, own, in his Contemporary Personalities (London, 1924), pp. 103–13Google Scholar. I have used the surnames with which the actors in the case were born to avoid confusion incidental to jumps from Isaacs to Reading, and Smith to Birkenhead at the appropriate time.

³ Poland, to the Editor, in The Times, 29 05 1916Google Scholar. But Poland also wrote to The Times complaining about the permission given to Casement to read his final speech, which he saw as unprecedented: given the prosecution's concern about insisting to a world audience that the trial had been fair, Poland's cousin, Archibald Bodkin, junior counsel for the Crown, and his successor as Recorder of Dover, might have induced his relative to offset the implication that the scales had been tipped against Casement (The Times, 1 July 1916). See also Sir Homewood Crawford to the Editor, 3 July 1916, J. G. Swift MacNeill to the Editor, 4 July 1916, and Poland to the Editor, 10 July 1916. Bernard Shaw also wrote to The Times on the point, but his letter was not printed (see Shaw, The Matter with Ireland, ed. Greene, D. H. and Laurence, Dan H. (London, 1962), pp. 125–9)Google Scholar. The problem is discussed ably if naively in Heuston, R. F. V., Lives of the Lord Chancellors 1885–l940 (Oxford, 1964), pp. 374–5Google Scholar as to whether Smith, in thrusting the diaries at the defence, was actuated by ignorance or malice.

⁴ Trial, pp. 8–9 (the text has the same pagination for all editions; it is not included in the Penguin, ‘Famous Trials: 9’ (1964), hereafter Hyde, CasementGoogle Scholar). Smith-Asquith relations are conveniently summed up in Jenkins, R., Asquith (London, 1964Google Scholar; pbk. edn., 1967), pp. 249–50, quoting Smith to Asquith, n.d.; Heuston, , Lord Chancellors, pp. 365–7Google Scholar. The classic account of the howling-down is in Dangerfield, , Strange Death (Fitzroy, edn., London, 1966), pp. 55–8Google Scholar.

⁵ Trial, pp. 7, 28–9, 49–52, 55–7, 150–4 (followed by collapse), 201–4. Shaw, unpublished letter to the Editor of The Times, (Matter with Ireland, p. 128) ultimately published in the Manchester Guardian, 22 July 1916. But Casement deleted a much more pointed reference to Smith in his final speech some hours before he delivered it, fearing it might hurt Smith's feelings (Jones, T. Artemus, Without My Wig (Liverpool, 1944), p. 165)Google Scholar.

⁶ Vincent, J. and Stenton, M., McCalmont's Parliamentary Poll Books (London, 1971), pt. II, 93Google Scholar. Lynch, Arthur, My Life Story (London, 1924), pp. 15–16, 224–33Google Scholar. See also his Ireland: Vital Hour (London, 1915)Google Scholar, passim, and the excellent Fitzpatrick, D., Politics and Irish Life 1913–21 (Dublin, 1977), pp. 87, 96, 113, 116–17, 122, 310Google Scholar. On Davitt, , see his The Boer Fight for Freedom (London, 1901)Google Scholar, a book which has been described by an authority as not knowing blacks existed. Casement contrasted his own verdict, sentence and impending death with the cases of Lynch, and MacBride, : as Colonel Montgomery Hyde notes (Casement, p. 127 and n.)Google Scholar, he probably did not realise MacBride was dead. But Casement, although he became more sympathetic to the Boers and, after personal acquaintance, to MacBride between 1902 and 1913, sneered at Lynch's trial, sentence and elections as ‘unreal shams’, and when in Germany saw a deep contrast between his own enterprise and that of Lynch, his own being ‘premeditated, clearly thought-out’ (Sir Roger Casement's Diaries: His Mission to Germany and the Findlay Affair, ed. Curry, C. E. (Munich, 1922), p. 20)Google Scholar.

⁷ Jackson, S., Mr Justice Avory (London, 1935), pp. 118–27Google Scholar: Trial, pp. 10–12, 16–39, 134; and Avory, pp. 130–3. Smith did not take these examinations, but his speech prefigures their evidence: perhaps the original idea of stressing the point originated with Bodkin, save that Bodkin and Humphreys markedly differed from Smith in their belief in moderation in the conduct of a prosecution (See their entries in D.N.B., 1951–60).

⁸ See, for example, Colvin, I., Life of Lord Carson, II (London, 1934), p. 153Google Scholar; ibid., Ill (London, 1936), pp. 413, 415.

⁹ Fitzpatrick, , Politics and Irish Life, pp. 117, 316–17Google Scholar. See also p. 113 for Lynch's statement, made in February 1914, that he would support the Empire should war break out.

¹⁰ Hansard, , Parliamentary Debates. House of Commons, 3rd series (26 04 1916)Google Scholar; The Times, 4 Aug. 1916; Scotsman, 4 Aug. 1916; SirMallet, Charles, Lord Cave (London, 1931), p. 181Google Scholar; Heuston, , Lord Chancellors, p. 373Google Scholar; John, , Simon, Viscount, Retrospect (London, 1947), pp. 109–11 and n.Google Scholar; Theodore Roosevelt to Lee, A. H., 7 June 1916 (The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, ed. Morison, E. E. et al. (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), VIII, 1054–5)Google Scholar. Thomson, Basil (The Scene Changes (London, 1939), p. 278)Google Scholar, states that naval and military opinion favoured a court-martial. Although his writing needs to be treated with caution, this statement is acceptable, particularly with reference to his friend, Reginald Hall, who had examined Casement on his arrival at the Tower.

¹¹ Conor Cruise O'Brien, in an unpublished and unperformed television dramatised documentary, 1969–70. I am deeply grateful to Dr O'Brien for giving me access to his script and for discussing his conclusions. See also Trial, pp. 44–7.

¹² Admiral SirJames, William (The Eyes of the Navy (London, 1955), pp. 110–11)Google Scholar, makes it very clear that Hall was tracking Casement and had been making plans for his arrival in Ireland since 1914 (ibid., pp. 44–5, 47, 52–3).

¹³ Humphreys, , Criminal Days, pp. 222–3Google Scholar; Jackson, R., Case for the Prosecution (London, 1962), p. 139Google Scholar , on Smith's opening; but see n. 1 above. Sir Ernley Blackwell wrote the Cabinet statement issued on Casement's death; Smith as a member of the Cabinet had to approve it, and he was the only Government witness, other than Humphreys (who of course was not at Cabinet), to its offer to the defence. Doyle's, Conan final statement on Casement was ‘a fine man afflicted with mania’ (Memories and Adventures (London, 1924). p. 274)Google Scholar, an opinion he voiced when Casement's pro-German statements could no longer be set aside by him as bogus reports. Casement himself was nasty about this when Doyle's, opinion came to him, and he sneered in his diary in 12 1914 about his ‘friend’ (Casement Diary, p. 126)Google ScholarMacColl, R. (Roger Casement (London, 1956), p. 160, n.)Google Scholar, is worth reading on the point: and see ibid., pp. 287–8, quoting the aged A. M. Sullivan who, for all of his regard for Smith, had no doubt at all as to the passing of the ‘Black Diaries’ to the defence being the Attorney-General's trick to outflank the defence and destroy the reputation of the accused.

¹⁴ Sullivan, apart from his collapse in the course of his speech for the defence, also erred in failing to return, as the judges expected, for a second appearance before the Appeal court to charge misdirection on the ground of bias in Isaacs' charge to the jury (Hyde, , Casement, pp. 142–3, 147Google Scholar). It may be that Sullivan was frightened of making too forceful an attack on the formidably courteous Isaacs; on the other hand he certainly did show such courage in his later career at the English bar, denouncing Hewart, L.C.J., for bias when Sullivan appeared for the blackmailer, William Cooper Hobbs. In any case, Sullivan might well feel he had done a great deal, at considerable cost to his health.

¹⁵ Sullivan was very grateful to Smith for seeking to have the Chancellor call him to the English inner bar, given the anomaly of having the leading counsel for the defence (and so experienced a barrister) obliged to appear as a junior, but Buckmaster had refused to confer any silk gowns for the duration of the war to protect those junior counsel who were serving in the forces. Sullivan was ultimately called to the inner bar by Birkenhead (Heuston, , Lord Chancellors, pp. 274–5Google Scholar; Sullivan, , Last Serjeant, p. 274Google Scholar).

¹⁶ Gwynn, S., John Redmond's Last Years (London, 1919), pp. 223–4Google Scholar; Gwynn, D., The Life of John Redmond (London, 1932), p. 481Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Thomson, B., Queer People (London, [1922]), p. 94Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Camp, w., The Glittering Prizes (London, 1961), p. 120Google Scholar; Heuston, , Lord Chancellors, pp. 377–8Google Scholar; and Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury to Buckmaster, 1 August 1916, quoted ibid., pp. 276–7. It is one of the ironies of Ireland's place in English politics in the summer of 1916 that while Lansdowne opposed Lloyd George's peace plan and Smith supported it, Lansdowne sought clemency for Casement against Smith's intransigent opposition (Jenkins, , Asquith, pp. 450, 452–3Google Scholar). On Fryatt, see D.N.B., 1912–21, and Daily Graphic, 27, 29, 31 July and 4 August, 1916. Bernard Shaw vainly pleaded that Britain could now show that the mentality which killed Fryatt in Germany did not control and characterise British policy (Shaw, to the Editor, Daily News, 2 08 1916Google Scholar(Shaw, , Matter with Ireland, pp. 130–1Google Scholar). On American grievances against Britain in 1916, see Link, A. S., Wilson V: Campaigns for Preparedness and Peace (Princeton, N.J., 1965), pp. 10–20, 65–80Google Scholar; Carroll, F. M., American Opinion and the Irish Question 1910–23 (Dublin, 1978), pp. 69–83Google Scholar on the Casement repercussions in the United States.

¹⁹ Fryatt is ignored in most British accounts of the war. He remained a reminder to British bomber pilots of the ambiguity of their position in international law and their possible fate if captured. See Ellis, P. B. and Williams, P., By Jove, Biggies!—the Life of Captain W, E. Johns (London, 1981), p. 95Google Scholar.

²⁰ Rudkin, David (‘The Chameleon and the Kilt: the complexities of Roger Casement’, Encounter, xli (08 1973), 70–7)Google Scholar, and his Cries from Casement as his Bones are brought to Dublin (London, 1975)Google Scholar, has valuable insights.

²¹ George Young, first secretary at the British Embassy to Washington (quoted by Fisher, H. A. L., James Bryce (London, 1927), II, 23–4)Google Scholar. Young compared Casement's confrontation of Taft to that of a black snake fascinating a wombat.

²² Fitzgerald, D., Memoirs 1913–1916 (London, 1968), p. 141Google Scholar.

²³ Doyle, A. Conan, ‘Great Britain and the Next War’, Fortnightly Review (02 1913)Google Scholar. Casement's reply, ‘Ireland, Germany and the Next War’, was drafted for the Fortnightly, but could not appear as he was unable to sign his name at the time, being still in the civil service. It later appeared in the Irish Review and is reprinted in Casement, The Crime Against Europe, ed. H. O. Mackey (Dublin, 1958), pp. 72–80. The articles in general throw considerable light on Casement's scheme of Europolitics with reference to Ireland, the title coming from his belief that Britain was preventing Europe from having the advantage of Ireland's participation in European development. Conan Doyle's article is significant in its humour and hostility to jingoism. Casement in Germany declared himself to be ‘a representative of a still remembering people’ (Casement Diaries, p. 20, entry of 7 November 1914). On the later fate and motives of the Casement Brigade, see Childs, W., Episodes and Reflections (London, 1930), pp. 113, 163–64Google Scholar. The presence of former Irish prisoners of war at Casement's trial to give evidence against him also raises some questions about German motives, their release of the former inmates of Limburg clearly having the effect, and possibly the design, of ensuring Casement's death. Casement's relations with Conan Doyle and conversion of him to Home Rule are clearly documented by Conan Doyle's letters to Casement preserved in the National Library of Ireland (MS 13073), which also make it clear that the character of Roxton, Lord John, in Doyle's, ConanThe Lost World (London, 1911)Google Scholar, is partly drawn from Casement, especially in chapter 6.

²⁴ Trial, pp. 156–63, Trial of William Joyce, ed. Hall, J. W. (London, 1946)Google Scholar, despite its proximity to the trial, had the courage to indicate its criticism of the verdict. West, Rebecca (The Meaning of Treason (London, 1949, 1952, 1965)Google Scholar, supported the verdict but adds interesting biographical data, esp. part I, section 1, on Joyce's Black-and-Tan background.