And whereas the said intended meeting and procession, and the objects of the persons to be assembled, and take part therein, are not legal or constitutional, but are calculated to bring into hatred and contempt the government of the United Kingdom as by law established, and to impede the administration of justice by intimidation, and the demonstration of physical force.

Now we, the Lord Lieutenant and General Governor of Ireland, by and with the advice of her Majesty’s Privy Council in Ireland, being satisfied that such meetings and processions as aforesaid can only tend to serve the ends of factious, seditions, and traitorous persons, and to the violation of the public peace, do hereby caution and forewarn all persons whomsoever that they do abstain from assembling at any such meeting, and from joining or taking part in any such procession.

And we do hereby order and enjoin all magistrates and officers entrusted with the preservation of the public peace, and others whom it may concern, to aid and assist the execution of the law, in preventing the said intended meeting and procession, and in the effectual suppression of the same.

   Given at the Council Chamber in Dublin, this Twelfth day of
   December, 1807.

   RICHARD C. DUBLIN. 
   A. BREWSTER, C.
   MAYO. 
   STRATHNAIRN. 
   FRED. SHAW. 
   R. KEATINGE. 
   WILLIAM KEOGH. 
   JOHN E. WALSH. 
   HEDGES EYRE CHATTERTON. 
   ROBERT R. WARREN.

Everybody knew what this proclamation meant.  It plainly enough announced that not only would the further demonstrations be prevented, but that the Dublin processionists were to feel “the vengeance of the law”—­that is the vengeance of the Manchester executioners.  Next day the city was beset with the wildest rumours as to the arrests to be made or the prosecutions to be commenced.  Everyone seemed to conclude of course that Mr. John Martin, Mr. A.M.  Sullivan, and the Honorary Secretaries of the Procession Committee, were on the crown prosecutor’s list; but besides these the names of dozens of gentlemen who had been on the committee, or who had acted as stewards, marshals, &c., at the funeral, were likewise mentioned.  On Saturday it became known that late on the previous evening crown summonses had been served on Mr. J.J.  Lalor, Dr. J.C.  Waters, and Mr. James Scanlan, requiring them to attend on the following Tuesday at the Head Police Office to answer informations sworn against them for taking part in an “illegal procession” and a “seditious assembly.”  A summons had been taken out also against Mr. Martin; but as he had left Dublin for home on Friday, the police officers proceeded after him to Kilbroney, and “served” him there on Saturday evening.

Beside and behind this open move was a secret castle plot so utterly disreputable that, as we shall see, the Attorney-General, startled by the shout of universal execration which it elicited, sent his official representative into public court to repudiate it as far as he was concerned, and to offer a public apology to the gentlemen aggrieved by it.  The history of that scandalous proceeding will appear in what follows.