^ 
 
c 
 
"~1 
 
f 
 
 IRELAND IN '98 
 
LORD EDWAKP FITZGEUALD. 
 
IRELAND IN '98 
 
 BASED UPON THE PUBLISHED VOLUMES AND SOME UNPUBLISHED MSB 
 OF THE LATE DR RICHARD ROBERT MADDEN 
 
 WITH ENGRAVED PORTRAITS AND CONTEMPORARY ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 J. BOWLES DALY, <LL.D. ^^/ 
 
 X 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'BROKEN IDKA.1,3 ' 'RADICAL PIONEERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CKNTURT ' 
 ' IRELAND IN THE DAYS OF DEAN SWIFT ' ' STORM HEROES ' 
 
 LONDON 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LOWREY, & CO. 
 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 1888 
 
 BOSTON GOLLEGH LIBRARl" 
 CHESTMUT HILL, MASS. 
 
' By the laws of God, of Nature, of Nations, and of your 
 Country, you are, and ought to be, as Free a people as your 
 brethren in England' — Swift 
 

 U4- 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Ireland is now under the magnifying glass of public 
 opinion ; her past, present, and future, the subjects 
 of anxious and thoughtful deliberation to faithful 
 English friends. There can be no doubt, therefore, 
 that a short history, based upon the most trust- 
 worthy documents, and dealing with a memorable 
 period of English legislation — that of '98 — will be 
 of service. The present volume supplies information 
 which no other work of the day can possibly furnish. 
 Much credit is due to Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein 
 & Co., for their enterprise in purchasing the valu- 
 able manuscripts of the late Dr. Madden, as well 
 as in supplying portraits of the leading men of the 
 time and some rare old prints of the period. Dr. 
 Madden was a voluminous writer, a great traveller, 
 and a philanthropist, whose services were recognised 
 by the country, and who gave powerful assistance in 
 the abolition of the slave trade. As Colonial Secre- 
 tary, his services were recognised by the Colonies and 
 the English Government. His son, Thomas More 
 
 1863 
 
vi Ireland in '98. 
 
 Madden, M.D., cherishes a sincere regard for his 
 revered father, and possesses valuable documents 
 relating to his life, which he intends publishing. 
 Dr. Madden's greatest energies were devoted to his 
 country, and, with the view of vindicating the 
 aspersed memory of Ireland's noblest sons, he col- 
 lected every shred of information connected with the 
 men of '98; crossed the Atlantic, and interviewed 
 relatives, friends, enemies, and followers, to accom- 
 plish his object. As might be expected, this infor- 
 mation accumulated into a large mass of materials ; 
 halting old age, in the meantime, crept in, and pre- 
 vented him from giving to the world the results of 
 his indefatigable toil in the shape and form it 
 deserved. Some of those manuscripts were placed in 
 my hands, and I have sifted, selected, and arranged 
 them in a cohesive form. I thought first of giving 
 Dr. Madden's words as closely as I could, but wider 
 knowledge of the subject induced me to abandon this 
 plan, owing to the mass of extraneous matter, repe- 
 titions, and what appeared to me unnecessary details. 
 I have used the materials before me as a text to go 
 on, rejecting what I believe to be irrelevant, supply- 
 ing many gaps from the copious notes and other 
 sources, and aiming at giving as representative a 
 sketch of the times as is needed. My critics who are 
 acquainted with Dr. Madden's volumes on United 
 Irishmen will appreciate my method and the labour 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 it entailed ; should any object to my plan, I cheer- 
 fully take the consequences, and only ask that the 
 author of the manuscripts may not be made respon- 
 sible for my shortcomings. I have approached the 
 task with some confidence, having devoted several 
 years to elucidating the rise of the Radical move- 
 ment in England given in my ' Radical Pioneers of 
 the Eighteenth Century,' which has been well re- 
 ceived by the public, and the same pains have been 
 taken in the present selection. My main desire is to 
 put before the mass of English readers a true report 
 of the most stirring and eventful chapters of Ireland's 
 history, suggesting valuable lessons to the legislators 
 of the day. I am also proud to admit and glad to 
 acknowledge that the Irish question has now ap- 
 proached its termination. Thank God, the hatchet 
 is buried, and the old animosity which, for centuries, 
 divided two peoples is fading away like clouds before 
 the sun. The old jealous feeling is fast dying out, 
 and the grateful hearts of Irishmen in every country 
 and clime will rally round England, proud of their 
 common empire and ready to shed their blood in its 
 defence. When Ireland is allowed to regulate her 
 own affairs and develop her resources, she will 
 look up to England, as a young brother reveres the 
 head of the house ; England will also regard Ire- 
 land with respect, no longer as a younger brother 
 dependent on the bounty of the elder, Ireland will 
 
viii Ireland in '98. 
 
 be considered a creditable addition to the old family ; 
 
 proud of its traditions, devoted to its interests, and 
 
 honoured by being a conjoint member of the greatest, 
 
 the wealthiest, and most humane nation in the 
 
 universe. If this history is in any way instrumental 
 
 in brina'ino; about this much-wished-for consumma- 
 
 tion, by opening the eyes of friends and foes alike to 
 
 the evils of the past, I shall feel thankful for the 
 
 double privilege of being helpful to my country and 
 
 useful to the land of my adoption. I have only to 
 
 request those who do me the honour of perusing these 
 
 pages to believe that the gleanings of history here 
 
 displayed have been collected, not to furnish ' fire ' to 
 
 inflame the minds of any, but to supply ' light ' into 
 
 dark places, where only too many deeds of violence 
 
 were committed. 
 
 J. BOWLES DALY. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Introduction xiii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ROBERT EMMETT, 
 
 Parentage — Thomas Addis Emmett — Anecdote — Education of 
 Robert Emmett — Exj^elled frum Trinity College — Leaves 
 Ireland — Napoleon Buonaparte — Emmett arrives in Dublin — 
 His leadership — Penal laws — Peace of Amiens — Plan to seize 
 depots and arsenals — Treachery — Attack on Dublin Castle — 
 Want of discipline — Lord Kilwarden — Flight of Emmett — 
 Sarah Curran — Arrest and imprisonment of Emmett — Anne 
 Devlin — Anecdote — The trial — Lord Norbury — Emmett's de- 
 fence — Execution — Causes of failure — Secret-service money 
 — Spies — Grief of Sarah Curran — Major Sturgeon — Sarah 
 Curran's fate — Moore's lines in memory of her 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SECRET SOCIETIES. 
 
 Whiteboys — Religious persecution — Nicholas Sheehy — Accusa- 
 tions against him — His fate — Oakboys — Hearts-of-steel boys 
 — Religious war^Peep-of-day boys — Orangemen — Their ex- 
 cesses — First Orange lodge — Address of Lord Gosford — 
 Orange toast — Conspiracies of Orangemen — Joseph Hume — 
 Puritan resolutions — Outrages committed by Orangemen — 
 Lord Castlereagh — Contagion of American and French revo- 
 lutions — Use of torture — Mr. Beresford's ' Mangling ' esta- 
 blishment — 'Beresford's Bloodhounds' — His failure and ruin 
 
Ireland in '98. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Colonel Luttrell — Junius, on his degradation — Lady 
 Elizabeth Luttrell — Her degradation and fate — Barbarities 
 of Hepenstall — 'The Walking Gallows' — Lord Norbury — 
 Anecdotes — Absentee bishops— Pension list — The Duke of 
 Rutland — Anecdote ........ 41 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 
 
 Parentage — Education — Military profession — Arrives in America 
 — Anecdote — Returns to Ireland — Enters Parliament — 'The 
 faithful Tony' — Visits Gibraltar — Henry Charles Sirr — 
 Cobbett — First love — Member for Athy — Noble character — 
 Voting with the Opposition — Promotion — Quarrel with Duke 
 of Richmond — Opinion of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland — 
 Conduct in the House — Thomas Paine — Cashiered — Madame 
 de Genlis — Pamela — Romantic history — Fatal beauty — Lord 
 Edward in love — Marriage and departure for England . . 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD (continued). 
 
 Arthur O'Connor — Adventure — Negotiations with France — Con- 
 nection with United Irishmen — Arrests at Bond's — Conceal- 
 ment — The traitor Reynolds — Narrow escape — Capture of 
 Lord Edward — Imprisonment in Newgate — Death — Bill of 
 Attainder — Efforts to reverse it— The Prince Regent . .113 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN. 
 
 Parentage — Education — Tour in Holland — Visit to America — 
 Lasting impressions — Travels on the Continent — Marriage 
 and return to Ireland — The Whig Club — Joins United 
 Irishmen — Tone's account of the Society — Duel — Arrest — 
 Trial — Imprisonment — A packed jury — Romantic escape — 
 Reward of 1,000L — Peasan^ loyalty — Arrival in France — 
 Fresh adventures — The Reign of Terror — A letter from 
 Castlereagh — Pardon^Retirement — A good citizen . . 149 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THEOBALD WOLFE TONE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Parentage — Education — Marriage — Contributor to magazines — 
 Called to the bar — Founds the Society of United Irishmen — 
 Republican principles — Catholic convention — Rejection of 
 petition — Thomas Russell — French proposals — Jackson's mis- 
 sion — Tone arrives in Philadelphia — Mission to France — 
 Interview with Carnot — General Hoche — Narrow escape . 191 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THEOBALD WOLFE TONE (continued). 
 
 French Expedition for Ireland's liberation — Nearing Bantry Bay 
 — Strange fatalities — Hurricane — Return of the Expedition- 
 Extracts from letters — Dutch preparations — The Fleet at the 
 Texel — General Daendel's instructions — A foul wind — Bad 
 news from Ireland — Delays — New plans —Failure — Buona- 
 parte — Matthew Tone's fate — Fatal expedition — Tone's 
 recognition — Imprisonment and trial — Last words — Death . 275 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THOMAS RUSSELL. 
 
 Malicious accounts — Parentage— Education — Five years' service 
 in India — 'Beautiful Bess Goddard' — Second love — Friend- 
 ship with Tone — They establish Society of United Irishmen in 
 Belfast and Dublin — -Thomas Digges— Russell's embarrass- 
 ments — Fresh career — Remarkable pamphlet — Extracts — 
 Arrest — Correspondence — Verses — Arrival in Paris — Dis- 
 astrous mission — Government reward — Trial — Affecting speech 
 — ' The Grave of Russell ' — His character and motives . . 297 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WILLIAM JAMES M'NEVEN. 
 
 Descent — Education in Germany — Return to Ireland — Catholic 
 Committee — Represents Navan — Joins United Irishmen — 
 Dangerous mission — ' Protestant ascendency ' — Secret Com- 
 
Xll 
 
 Ireland in '98. 
 
 mitteeof House of Lords — Examination of M'Neven — Second 
 Examination — Arrest and imprisonment — Fort George — Visits 
 to the Continent — Commission in French Army — Resignation 
 — Arrival in New York — Successful career — Marriage — Devo- 
 tion to Ireland — Public ordeal — Domestic affliction — Severe 
 illness — Death — Tribute to his memory .... 
 
 341 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW TEELING. 
 
 Descent — Luke Teeling — Unjust persecution — Bartholomew's 
 childhood — Education — Mrs. Teeling — Military associates — 
 Joins United Irishmen — Enters the Army of the Rei)ublic — 
 Friendship of Lord Edward Fitzgerald — ' Erin go Bragh ! ' — 
 Accompanies Humbert's expedition— Firing on the Hag of 
 truce — Battle of Ballinamuck — Teeling made prisoner — Hum- 
 bert's Remonstrance — Trial — The defence — Humbert's letter 
 — Sentence .......... 375 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD 
 
 ROBERT EMMETT .... 
 
 UMBERLIP, THE PRIEST KILLER 
 
 PEEP-OF-DAY BOYS 
 
 MR. BERESFORD's RIDING HOUSE 
 
 LORD CARHAMPTON's BLOODHOUNDS 
 
 PAMELA ..... 
 
 ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN 
 
 THEOBALD WOLFE TONE 
 
 THOMAS RUSSELL .... 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW TEELING 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 face p 
 
 1 
 
 
 44 
 
 
 50 
 
 
 62 
 
 
 65 
 
 
 75 
 
 
 149 
 
 
 191 
 
 
 297 
 
 
 375 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 The day has at last dawned and the great clock of 
 Thne has chimed the quarter previous to the horn* 
 when the large heart of the English nation will be 
 roused to concede rights long claimed by the Irish 
 people, but hitherto denied by profligate and in- 
 terested rulers. The banner long trailed in the mire, 
 trampled upon, despised and denounced, has been 
 picked up and borne to the front by W. E. Gladstone, 
 the greatest statesman of the century, supported by 
 the sympathy of the people of England, Scotland, and 
 Wales. Much credit is due to the chieftain who has 
 had the courage to break with old companionship in 
 carrying his plan into operation, and consecrating the 
 last days of his busy and glorious political life to an 
 act of reparation for the misdeeds of his predecessors. 
 And further credit is due to the Irish contingent who 
 closed their ranks and, for the first time in their 
 stormy career, presented an unbroken phalanx, de- 
 manding; a domestic Parliament to administer to the 
 wants of their country. 
 
 We write a report of the men of '98 to meet a 
 practical want of the day and hour, as the gi-eat mass 
 
xiv Ireland in '98. 
 
 of Englishmen are ignorant of the history of Ireland. 
 They do not know the hundredth part of the crimes 
 that have been perpetrated against that country in 
 their name and by their authority. Educated English- 
 men know more of the Peloponnesian wars than of 
 the wars of Ireland, native and Saxon ; are more at 
 home in the siege of Troy than the siege of Limerick ; 
 are better read in the laws of Solon and Lycurgus 
 than in the Penal Code ag-ainst Irish Catholics. The 
 time is come when this must be changed. The 
 English people must inform themselves of the facts of 
 Irish history, and the state of things which has grown 
 out of these facts. For some time past the Irish 
 question has absorbed the mind of the day, pushed 
 every other topic aside, and has at last obtained pre- 
 eminence. Nothing is more conducive to the final 
 settlement of the difficulty than a close acquaintance 
 with those events out of which the present perplexi- 
 ties have mainly arisen. 
 
 To understand the motive which caused the re- 
 bellion of 1798 it is necessary to look backward to 
 the seventy or eighty years preceding that period. 
 No people ever rebelled without adequate cause ; and 
 to detail the sieges and battles of a civil war without 
 a previous understanding of the exciting causes would 
 be futile. The outbreak of '98 did not begin with 
 that year ; the evil which led to it had been ferment- 
 ing generations before ; it was not a sudden whim of 
 popular passion, but the culmination of years of mis- 
 rule, the crisis of the fever. Here we must ask what 
 
Litroduction. 
 
 XV 
 
 was the previous condition of Ireland, the spirit of 
 her laws, the character of her Government ? 
 
 During the eighteenth century there existed in 
 Ireland two classes, one servile and the other tyran- 
 nical, living on the same soil, but without moral or 
 social community, severed by a gulf of religious 
 hatred as wide and as impassable as that described 
 by Lazarus. Five- sixths of the Irish peojjle stood 
 to the remaining one- sixth as slaves and enemies, 
 as slaves despised, as enemies hated, degraded, and 
 proscribed. A small bigoted oligarchy ruled the 
 island, wielding the powers of Government in the 
 spirit of a garrison in an enemy's country. Five- 
 sixths of the Irish people were excluded from every 
 privilege, office, emolument, corporate right, and 
 political franchise. The diabolical character of the 
 administration cannot be adequately understood in 
 our day, its cold-blooded atrocity can only be dimly 
 imagined, and yet this pernicious system continued 
 for three-quarters of a century without let or 
 hindrance. The infamous enactments of the Penal 
 Code grew by what they fed on ; we spare the 
 reader its odious and disgusting details. But it must 
 be distinctly borne in mind that the Irish Catholic 
 Penal Code was not constructed in a hurry, not in- 
 stituted to meet a sudden emergency like recent 
 Coercion Acts ; it Vas deliberately planned, slowly 
 perfected, calmly executed, and carefully spread out 
 over ninety years of the national existence. This 
 science of persecution — for it admits of no other name 
 
xvi Ireland in '98. 
 
 — was protracted and amended, not by an ignorant 
 fanatic or a brutal bij^ot, but by the pink and pattern 
 of gentlemanly decorum — Lord Castlereagh, whose 
 latest refinement was a law enacting that a marriage 
 celebrated between Protestant and Papist should be 
 annulled, and that the priest who solemnised such a 
 marriage should be hanged by the neck like a dog. 
 
 During all those ninety years the Irish Catholics 
 never once showed a disposition to rebel. In the 
 revolt of 1715, in that of 1745, they were quiet and 
 loyal. In 1759, when a French invasion was 
 expected in the South, the Catholics came forward 
 with a tender of theu' allegiance and an offer of 
 money to aid the Government. They were all along 
 patient and quiet from broken -spiritedness, submis- 
 sive under every fresh infliction, grateful for the 
 smallest relaxation in the execution of the Code of 
 Intolerance. Still the system went on ; every session 
 added some new act of pains and penalties. Burke, 
 in his letter to Sir Hercules Langrish, states with 
 truth, they were ' manifestly the effects of national 
 hatred and scorn towards a conquered people, 
 whom the victors delighted to trample upon, and 
 were not afraid to provoke.' The whole Code ex- 
 pressed the insolence of a tyrannical faction, fond of 
 monopoly, proud of its superiority of race, and 
 confident in the irresistible might of England to 
 back all its misdoings. As Arthur Young says : 
 ' The domineering aristocracy of 500,000 Protestants 
 feel the sweets of having two million slaves.' This 
 
Introduction. 
 
 xvii 
 
 domineering spirit we meet everywhere in tlie Ireland 
 of the eighteenth century. Legislators ignored the 
 existence of five-sixths of their own people ; land- 
 lords ground the poor with every imaginable in- 
 solence and oppression. Add to this the constant 
 grating and rasping nuisance of the Church, alien 
 and intrusive, with tithe-proctors for its apostles, 
 armed constabulary for its evangelists, and its divine 
 service of writs and bailiffs. What could come of 
 such a combination but insurrection, outrage, and 
 murder — the stern savage sense of justice, which will 
 take a wild revenge on its oppressors ? 
 
 In 1762 the Whiteboys sprang into force ; they 
 were the first of those combinations of misery against 
 oppression which continued through the Oakboys, 
 Rightboys, Defenders, Ribbonmen, Fenians, down to 
 the men who support the Plan of Campaign. The 
 first of these waged a savage war of outraged nature 
 against a yet more savage so ial state, which, in 
 practice as in theory, refused to recognise the exist- 
 ence of the people. And what had the Protestant 
 landlord Parliament to say to Whiteboyism ? Why, 
 it appointed a select committee ' to inquire into the 
 causes and progress of the Popish insurrection in the 
 province of Munster,' as if a man could not rise against 
 "unnatural oppression without believing in Transub- 
 stantiation and the Seven Sacraments. Irish White- 
 boyism was simply a barbarous insurgency of nature 
 against oppressive law — the Jacobinism of poverty 
 taking wild revenge on the Jacobinism of wealth. 
 
xviii Ireland in '98. 
 
 These indiscriminate riots and insurrections — 
 by whatever name they were called — were not the 
 offspring of the Popish persuasion, but of continuous 
 and malignant laws. Ko specific reference to these 
 abominations is needed. Witnesses drawn from the 
 stews and gallows, bribed with the people's money, 
 clothed and fed at the people's cost, drilled in Dublin 
 Castle and marshalled by the Castle officials into a 
 battalion of Testimony ; these still continue in a 
 modified form, and it is to their door the wretched- 
 ness, misery, and degradation of Ireland is to be laid. 
 Such was the social and political condition of Ireland 
 during the eighteenth century. 
 
 The rebellion of 1798 was not a Catholic but an 
 Irish rebellion, which began, not with the Catholics 
 of the South but with the Protestants of the North, 
 and its ultimate aim was not Catholic ascendency 
 but Irish independence. It had Protestants for its 
 directing head. Catholics for its executive members, 
 and Irish national mdependence for its object. The 
 rebellion of '98 was the confluence of two streams of 
 political discontent, meeting in the organisation of 
 the Society of United Irishmen. This united action 
 was not a movement of Catholics against Protestants, 
 nor of Protestants against Catholics, but of Irishmen 
 against Great Britain. The first Society of United 
 Irishmen grew out of the ashes of the Volunteers and 
 the disappointed hopes of the legislative revolution 
 of 1782 ; the Volunteers grew out of the parliamen- 
 tary and popular opposition to British government 
 
Introduction. 
 
 XIX 
 
 which had shown itself at intervals almost from the 
 beginning of the century, and had gone on steadily 
 widening and deepening from the accession of George 
 III. to the American war. 
 
 The grievances which arose during the eighteenth 
 century between Protestant Ireland and Protestant 
 England, and which gradually created the spirit of 
 Anglo- Irish nationality, effected a legal revolution in 
 1782, and attempted a military oue in 1798. 
 
 The revolution of 1688 placed the Protestant 
 Anglo- Irish colony in a condition of servitude and 
 vassalage to Great Britain. Ireland had then a 
 domestic Parliament, but it was a slave as well as 
 a tyrant, impotent for all purposes but those of 
 domestic corruption and oppression. This Parlia- 
 ment did not possess the power to legislate for the 
 country it nominally governed. It acted under the 
 influence of an Attorney- General whose office dated 
 back to the days of Henry VIL ; it could only frame 
 heads of bills, which heads had to be submitted to 
 the Lord- Lieutenant and his Privy Council, who 
 might, or might not, at their discretion, transmit 
 them to England for the approval of the English 
 Crown and Privy Council, whence they might, or 
 might not, return altered or unaltered at their dis- 
 cretion ; and it was only after this double process of 
 filtration that any residuum of legislation could be 
 realised. The Irish House of Commons had liberty 
 to debate and vote what had been debated and voted 
 twice over already in the Irish and English Councils. 
 
 a2 
 
XX Ireland in '98. 
 
 This tame-cat legislation had not even a veto on 
 Irish legislation. 
 
 The British Parliament claimed and exercised 
 the right of legislating at pleasure over the heads 
 of the despised and powerless assembly in College 
 Green — cramping Irish trade, governing the Irish 
 Church, ordering the sale of forfeited estates, and in 
 all matters directing; the affairs of Ireland accordino- 
 to their own liking, as if Ireland had no Parliament 
 of her own. 
 
 On this right being feebly contested by the Irish 
 peers in the days of George I., all doubts were 
 quickly cleared away by a Declaratory Act, extin- 
 guishing the appellate jurisdiction assumed by the 
 Irish House of Lords, and establishing the right 
 of the British legislature to make laws for and 
 levy taxes on Ireland, in the same manner as the 
 colonial dependencies of the British crown. It was 
 only a just and fair retribution, and it becomes a 
 positive pleasure to record that, as this Irish Par- 
 liament ignored the existence of the Irish people, 
 the English Government ignored the existence of 
 the Irish Parliament. 
 
 The usurped right of Great Britain to legislate for 
 Ireland was full of consequences. It systematically 
 aimed at the degradation and impoverishment of all 
 that part of the Irish people whose degradation was 
 not already effected by their own domestic legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1698 the English House of Lords besought 
 
Introduction. xxi 
 
 King William to crush the growing manufacture of 
 cloth in Ireland. The Dutchman promptly answered 
 that ' he would take care to do what their lordships 
 desired,' and he kept his word. 
 
 The Irish House of Commons complained bitterly 
 of this act, but in vain. The tyranny of the mother 
 country was not borne patiently. The men of the 
 Protestant ascendency had English blood in their 
 veins. More than half of them were Presbyterians, 
 descendants of Cromwell's soldiers, ' the spawn of 
 the old Covenant,' opposed to the prelacy, leavened 
 with Puritanism and Republicanism ; not even loyal 
 to either Church or King, and riotously opposed to 
 the notion of a union with Great Britain. 
 
 This republican temper of a large portion of the 
 Protestant population of Ireland was the germ, first, 
 of a growing parliamentary opposition to the measures 
 of the English Government, and ultimately of the 
 Volunteer Association and the revolution of 1782. 
 
 The new spark of Irish independent nationality 
 was not found among the debilitated, pauperised 
 Catholics of the South, but among the Protestants of 
 the North. 
 
 This feeling of Irish nationality gave early in- 
 dications of its existence. It was declared by 
 Molyneaux in his celebrated treatise in 1698, and 
 listened to by willing ears, both in Parliament and 
 out of it. His book was formally condemned by a 
 vote of the English Commons, and ordered to be 
 burned by the hangman. Yet not the less did this first 
 
xxii Ireland in '98. 
 
 assertion, by a Protestant of Irish nationality and in- 
 dependence, sink into the heart of his country. It 
 aided the great national struggle of 1782, when the 
 English interest in Ireland openly proclaimed itself 
 an Irish interest, and refused, sword in hand, to be 
 bound by Acts of Parliament in England. 
 
 The first political occurrence which developed an 
 anti-English feeling in Ireland was the business of 
 * Wood's halfpence.' About the middle of the reign 
 of George I., a man named Wood got a patent from 
 the English Government for coining copper halfpence 
 for Irish circulation, to the amount of 108,000/., which 
 coinage he made up of such base material that the 
 whole mass together was not worth the odd 8,000/. 
 All Ireland rose ag-ainst the insulting- cheat. Dean 
 Swift's Drapier's letters were cried about the streets 
 for a penny each, and pasted up all over the country ; 
 and the matter ended in rescinding the patent, calling 
 in the halfpence, and the triumph of the Irish people 
 over the British Government. Small as the affair 
 seemed to be, it was no trifle in the eyes of the 
 English Cabinet. This was seen in the letters of 
 Primate Boulter, the dexterous manager of the then 
 English interest in Ireland. Altogether, this affair 
 of Wood's halfpence, trivial as it appears at this dis- 
 tance of time, is not without its significance for us, 
 and is well worth notice in the history of the men of 
 'i)8. Never had Ireland strong-er cause to fling; off 
 the incubus of Eng-lish interest and rise from her 
 political torpor. The Anglo -Irish Government at this 
 
Lifroduction. xxiii 
 
 time was corrupt, anti-national, and utterly sordid 
 and contemptible. The country was nominally ruled 
 by a Viceroy, but in reality by Lords Justices. The 
 legislature was, like the executive, corrupt ; the Irish 
 Parliament represented nothing but monied and 
 aristocratic power ; but the specific character of its 
 rottenness lay in the fact that two or three grandees 
 held the whole country, its honours and emoluments, 
 in the palms of their hands. These entered into stipu- 
 lations with the Lord- Lieutenant to carry the King's 
 business through the House, and were known by the 
 doubtful title of ' undertakers,' of whom Lord Charle- 
 mont said, ' they were well fitted to preside over the 
 funeral of tliis commonwealth.' Eventually the 
 system was found unmanageable. 
 
 A public national spirit continued to grow and 
 work in the Protestant population, and every day it 
 besran to assume a more formidable dimension. The 
 
 o 
 
 merit of organising this opposition belonged to Lucas, 
 who for thirty years led the opposition to the English 
 interest. What was more remarkable, this same 
 Lucas was of obscure origin, badly educated and of 
 unsteady temper, but a patriot, honest and true to 
 the core. Lucas began his political career by a 
 well-merited attack on certain civil abuses in the 
 corporation of Dublin, and ultimately on the Bri- 
 tish Government. The Castle was frightened, and 
 determined to crush him ; he had to fly the country ; 
 but on the accession of George III., when he re- 
 turned to Dublin, he was sent to agitate in Parlia- 
 
xxiv Ireland in '98. 
 
 ment as a member for the city. No man did better 
 service. 
 
 From this time forth, Irish politics assumed a 
 higher tone and a greater importance. The appro- 
 priation question in the reign of George II. was more 
 than a dispute of parliamentary form and privilege. 
 It aided and quickened the growth of a spirit of 
 nationality and independence. It showed the rising 
 power of the Opposition, for in a short time it forced 
 the Government to overhaul the pension list. 
 
 The new Parliament summoned on the death of 
 George II. gave fresh strength to the Opposition. 
 Tlie first years of his reign were spent on the ques- 
 tion of limiting the duration of parliaments. Hitherto 
 the Irish House of Commons had continued undis- 
 turbed during the King's lifetime, unless dissolved 
 by prorogation. 
 
 The Parliament of George II. had sat through the 
 entire reign of that king — a period of thirty-three 
 years. The members outlived all recollection of their 
 constituents, and refused to acknowledge any re- 
 sponsibility to the country. The Irish member's 
 tenure of his seat was practically a life estate. The 
 jobbery, venality, rapacity, and corruption resulting 
 from such a state of things made this life tenancy 
 a glaring evil. For the first eight years of George 
 III.'s reign, the grand measure of the j3atriots was to 
 correct this, and procure a septennial parliament. A 
 measure for abridging their own tenure of power 
 could not be acceptable to the majority of the new 
 
Introduction. 
 
 XXV 
 
 House of Commons, yet the pressure from without, 
 and the pertmacity of the minority within, made it 
 not safe to reject the measure. A middle course 
 was devised. The embarrassed legislature had re- 
 course to this old, clumsy device of passing the heads 
 of this Septennial Bill and trusting to the Lord- 
 Lieutenant and his Council to stop further progress of 
 a measure which would curtail their power. Two 
 successive sessions were wasted by the delay. But 
 this game could not continue. Metropolitan and 
 county meetings and petitions disclosed a fast-grow- 
 ing popular determination to be no longer trifled with 
 by ' undertakers ' or ministerial obstruction. To the 
 great consternation of the Dublin ofiicials, the Bill 
 was returned, the Privy Council having altered the 
 proposed term of seven years to eight. 
 
 The people, however, profited very Httle by this 
 change, for the Octennial Bill only enhanced the 
 value of borough property by bringing it oftener into 
 the market. Distress, crime, and political corruption 
 continued as much as ever. 
 
 In the meantime the Government, by undertaking 
 to secure this progress of the King's business, or 
 rather to promote the convenience of the King's 
 friends, was found to be troublesome and expensive. 
 A new system was proposed by the English Cabinet, 
 and Lord Townshend, as Viceroy, was appointed to 
 conduct it. The new method was worse than the 
 former : a greater bungle could not be contrived ; it 
 was a system of casting out devils by Beelzebub, the 
 
xxvi Irelaiid in '98. 
 
 prince of the devils. The plan briefly consisted in 
 breaking down the political monopoly of aristocracy 
 by throwing open the trade in bribes, pensions, and 
 places to a more general competition. The inter- 
 vention of the undertaker between the dispensers 
 of patronage and the recipients was abolished ; the 
 resources of the Castle treasury were brought to bear 
 on every separate vote. 
 
 Townshend put all his faith in the efficacy of 
 well-directed bribery. His lordship's zeal for the 
 Protestant faith was exhibited by offering a bribe of 
 30/. to 40?. a year pension to priests who conformed 
 to the Protestant faith. The wits of the day called 
 them Townshend's golden drops. The new system 
 continued from 1767 to 1771, the whole period of 
 Townshend's viceroyalty. This measure of corrup- 
 tion thoroughly demoralised the country ; for the 
 stream of favours increased till the source of re- 
 muneration was w^ell-nigh exhausted. A new factor 
 was added which increased the difficulty : the re- 
 bellion of the American subjects broke out, and the 
 war which followed found Ireland with a bankrupt 
 exchequer, an imbecile Government, and an impo- 
 verished and disaffected people. The Irish manufa- 
 cturers were ruined by the stoppage of the American 
 trade, prevented from emigrating, and compelled to stay 
 crowded up at home ; the provision trade was crushed 
 by embargoes, plundering Ireland to enrich three or 
 four London contractors. Dublin Castle began to feel 
 the bottom of an exhausted treasury ; every branch 
 
'HT'l^'^NTJT 'TIIL, MASS, 
 Introduction. 
 
 xxvii 
 
 of the revenue was failing ; a militia force could not be 
 raised for want of funds ; everywhere reigned sullen 
 despondency, relieved by a malicious satisfaction at 
 seeing England in a difficulty, for Ireland sympathised 
 with America, knowing that her cause was theirs. 
 National insolvency at home and abroad paralysed 
 the right arm of ' English interest.' 
 
 The old system of Catholic vassalage to British 
 ascendency was worn out, the whole machinery out 
 of gear. It was in the year 1777, when driven like 
 a rat in a corner, that the British minister began 
 to make up his mind to grant a modicum of com- 
 mercial and Catholic emancipation as the only way 
 of savino; Ireland's alleo;iance. 
 
 The war went on; matters became critical. The 
 capture of the British army in October was the signal 
 for France, and afterwards Spain and Holland, to 
 recognise and aid the young American republic. 
 Privateers of the allies swept the seas. The people 
 of Belfast applied to the Castle for protection ; a 
 French invasion was menaced. Dublin Castle was 
 at its wits' end; all the available force they could send 
 was a troop or two of horse and a part of a company 
 of invalids. A bastard officialism, which did not recog- 
 nise the existence of five-sixths of its subjects, had 
 no protection to give the remaining one-sixth. The 
 whole system of government came down with a rush; 
 it was time, by all the laws of heaven and earth, that it 
 should be demolished. 
 
 In 1778 the old 7'egime of corruption and force 
 
xxviii Ireland in '98. 
 
 expended itself; it was a condition of total collapse. 
 Buckingham, the Irish Viceroy, solicited the English 
 Premier, much as a bankrupt prodigal petitions his 
 father for remittances. It was all to no purpose ; no 
 supplies were forthcoming, for Lord North was fully 
 employed in endeavouring to crush the rebellious 
 American subjects. Ireland was thrown back on 
 herself, and never did a country develop richer 
 resources on an emergency. The Volunteer epoch 
 was the brightest spot in the whole of the gloomy 
 annals of Ireland ; the metropolis, counties, towns, 
 and villages poured forth their hosts of armed citizens, 
 self paid and self commanded — even the poor outcast 
 Catholics remembered the country which had for- 
 gotten them, and were ready to shed their hearts' 
 blood for a constitution which had not deigned to 
 recognise their existence. 
 
 The Volunteer era was a blessed time for Ireland. 
 Despite her accumulated miseries and wrongs, she had 
 at the call of her country become hopeful and happy. 
 The object of the Volunteer institution was instantane- 
 ously accomplished, and the menaced French invasion 
 effectually prevented. The citizen soldiers soon found 
 other work to do — the redress of political wrongs and 
 the attainment of political rights. We have stated 
 that the distress in Ireland all this time was great ; the 
 complaints of the restricted, embargoed, and pauperised 
 manufacturers at length found their way to England, 
 and would have received attention at the hands of 
 
Introduction. xxix 
 
 well-meaning statesmen at the head of affairs, were 
 it not that the manufacturing towns of England and 
 Scotland took alarm at the first sign of an abatement 
 of the monopoly which law and embargoes gave them, 
 and sent up petition after petition, predicting the ruin 
 of the cotton trade and threatening rebellion if the 
 hands of Irish industry were untied. Ireland in conse- 
 quence was left to starve a little longer. The Volun- 
 teers, however, grew in numbers and in zeal, and 
 the people had at last recourse to the policy recom- 
 mended by Swift, retaliating exclusion with exclu- 
 sion, monopoly with monopoly. Non-imj)ortation 
 resolutions were adopted all over the country and 
 strmgently enforced. The Government tried to put 
 them down, and the Lord-Lieutenant met Parliament 
 with a speech made up of the usual flummery, com- 
 monplace, regal and viceregal eloquence; but he was 
 answered by Henry Grattan in a speech unrivalled 
 in cogent reasoning, setting forth the wants of the 
 people, and plainly intimating that nothing but a free 
 trade could save the nation from impending ruin. 
 This settled the question ; further resistance was 
 useless. On the result being known, the drums beat 
 to arms, the citizen army marched through the 
 streets, the sun shone down on their flashing arms as 
 they went in procession to the Castle, quickening the 
 viceregal deliberations with the pointed arguments of 
 fixed bayonets. The Dublin Artillery appeared on 
 parade with their cannon labelled — 
 
 ' Free Trade or This ! ' 
 
XXX Ireland in '98. 
 
 The powers of Great Britain were now fairly 
 committed. The struggle went on ; partial and 
 illusory concessions offered one after another, the 
 offer in every instance coming too late to be effectual 
 for even a momentary conciliation. The ministers had 
 come to the conclusion that something must he done. 
 Recent events had so far quickened legislation and 
 ministerial activity that bills brought forward re- 
 ceived the royal assent in a few weeks. A new 
 question now began to stir the minds of Irishmen : 
 they asked ' What is this British legislation ? Who 
 gave a set of people sitting in Westminster, whom 
 none of us ever saw, a power to open and shut our 
 ports and bind and loose our industry ? ' The doctrine 
 of Molyneaux sprang from the ashes of the hangman's 
 fire ; it became the faith of all Ireland. The case of 
 Ireland's being bound by Acts of an English Parlia- 
 ment was not only ' stated,' but solved. From this 
 time forth Irishmen resolved that they would obey no 
 other laws than those enacted by King, Lords, and 
 Commons of Ireland. But the time had not come 
 yet. In the meantime the people looked, not to their 
 representatives, but to themselves. The Volunteers 
 went on growing in numbers and in spirit ; the moral 
 and physical forces of Ireland were collecting and 
 concentrating themselves for a grand crowning effort. 
 New memories of French invasion stimulated their 
 exertions and warmed their zeal. Durmg the fogs 
 of November 1781 the news came that a second 
 British army had surrendered to the hardy raw 
 
Introduction. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 recruits of the Americans. Delegates from the Volun- 
 teers met in Armagh to consider the state of the 
 nation. They issued a manifesto which struck terror 
 into the hearts of the selfish hirelings of Dublin 
 Castle, who did everything they could to prevent the 
 meeting and sow dissension among the promoters, 
 but all in vain. These men were of the ' old solemn 
 League and Covenant,' difficult to cajole and impos- 
 sible to frighten. On February 15, 1782, 200 armed 
 and equipped delegates, men of the best brains and 
 rank of Ireland, filled with one spirit and united in 
 one will, marched two and two into the old church 
 of Dungannon, not with drums beating or colours 
 flying, but with firm looks and compressed lips — a 
 tremendous power of silence — and then and there, 
 after a calm and deliberate discussion, formulated 
 their celebrated and never-to-be-forgotten resolutions. 
 They also asserted a desire to relax the Catholic 
 Penal Code, and finished by appointing a committee 
 of their body to sit in Dublin and communicate with 
 the Volunteer Association of the other provinces of 
 Ireland. This was the famous Dungannon Conven- 
 tion. Its effect was electrical ; meetings were called 
 in every town and village in Ireland, and the Dun- 
 gannon resolutions were echoed in east, west, north, 
 and south of the island. 
 
 The ministers now found that it was time not 
 only that ' somtthing^ but that everything should be 
 done, if England did not mean to lose Ireland altoge- 
 ther. Six weeks afterwards the North ministry went 
 
xxxii Ireland in '98. 
 
 out, the Duke of Portland arrived in Dublin as the 
 King's minister of justice, and the Whigs came into 
 power. Those moderate, well-intentioned statesmen 
 knew very little about Ireland ; they wished to delay 
 matters and commenced shuffling, but the time for 
 vacillation and empty promises had passed. Instant 
 concession or instant revolution was Grattan's alter- 
 native. 
 
 April 16 arrived, and found all Ireland united as 
 one man, the Dublin streets lined with Volunteer 
 troops under arms, tranquil but resolute, who let 
 their very enemies pass through their ranks to vote 
 away their liberties without an angry word. What 
 the Government would do no living man knew, but 
 it was the one question on the lips and hearts of 
 the waitmg throng. Never had an orator such an 
 audience, and never was the old Parliament of 
 College Green so crammed with the rank, talent, 
 beauty, and valour of Ireland as assembled there at 
 four o'clock. What was wanting was to transfer the 
 Dung-annon resolutions to the Commons Journal. 
 The speech made by Henry Grattan was worthy of 
 Ireland, of himself, and this great occasion. He con- 
 cluded by moving an address to the House assuring 
 his Majesty ' that his subjects of Ireland are a free 
 people, and that there is no body of men competent 
 to make laws to bind this nation except the King, 
 Lords, and Commons of Ireland ; nor any Parliament 
 which hath any authority or power of any sort what- 
 soever in this country save only the Parliament of 
 Ireland.' 
 
Introduction. 
 
 XXXIU 
 
 Happily for Great Britain, the Lord-Lieutenant 
 was empowered to meet Parliament with a suitable 
 reply, granting all the rational and just propositions. 
 Then followed a glorious but short-lived epoch : down 
 went the Act of Philip and Mary ; down went the 
 obnoxious statute of George I. ; the Mutiny Bill was 
 limited ; restrictions on Irish trade vanished ; the 
 ports were opened ; the judges were made irremovable 
 and independent. The year 1783 was one of promise. 
 Ireland stood rich in all the raw material of national 
 power and greatness ; her industry liberated from 
 shackles, and her self-respect secured from the insult 
 of foreign legislation ; her Parliament patriotic and 
 her people united. Catholic and Protestant for a 
 while forgot, the one his servitude, the other his 
 ascendency, in the amity of common citizenship ; the 
 Volunteer army doing the work of military and police, 
 keeping the peace at home and averting war from 
 abroad — holding France in check and extorting con- 
 cessions from England, emancipated from the control 
 of the British legislature, while still sharing the pro- 
 tection of the British crown. Independent Ireland 
 seemed about to take her place in the great family of 
 European nations, under circumstances in every way 
 favourable to a vigorous and healthy national life. 
 
 All this promise, however, was only like one of 
 those bright summer days which dawn on Ireland, 
 followed by intermittent flashes of lightning, black 
 thunder-clouds, persistent fog, and unceasing rain. 
 The national rejoicings and thanksgivings of May 
 
 b 
 
xxxiv Ireland in '98. 
 
 1782 were not well over before it was discovered that 
 a final adjustment was not yet reached, that the so- 
 called finality was a fraud and a delusion with which 
 the craft of a foreign cabinet and the treachery of a 
 domestic legislature had conspired to abuse the con- 
 fidence of a simple, credulous people. Great Britain 
 repealed the Act of 6th George I. declaratory of her 
 right to make laws for Ireland. To repeal this law 
 was to withdraw the declaration, to bring matters 
 back to where they were when the declaration was 
 first made ; and it was found that it would always 
 remain competent to England to renew the declaration. 
 Great Britain had not disclaimed her assumed right 
 of legislating for Ireland ; she only, for convenience' 
 sake, scored out from her statute-book a particular 
 form of words asserting the right, leaving it open to 
 her to re-assert this right at such time and in such 
 form as she might think proper. So Ireland had 
 gained simply nothing by this repeal : it only put 
 the question back to where it stood in the fifth year 
 of the reign of George I. What England should 
 have done was to have renounced this alleged right 
 of leo-islating for Ireland from the beginning. 
 
 Lawj^ers' quibbles were the occasion of a party 
 schism which was the worst possible consequence to 
 the peace and freedom of Ireland. It marred the 
 victory of 1782, divided the power of the people, 
 separated the leaders of the country, strengthened the 
 hands of the oppressors, and finally exploded in dis- 
 content in '98. What was worse, it gave the old 
 
Introduction. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 discomfited Court party a breathing time for recovery. 
 The repeal and renunciation controversy which se- 
 parated Flood and Grattan was barren, and resulted 
 in nothing but disaster to the dearly-fought-for inde- 
 pendence. At this distance of time, when the smoke 
 and fume of party have melted into thin air, we can 
 see that the independence of Ireland rested, not on 
 any act of repeal or of renunciation, but on her own 
 union and strength, and whatever marred that union 
 and impaired that strength went to the undoing of 
 all that had been effected by the struggle of the pre- 
 ceding period. 
 
 Seven years had scarcely passed when two con- 
 stitutional questions of magnitude and importance 
 cropped up, interrupting the harmony of the two 
 countries and indicating an anomaly in their relations 
 only to be solved by separation or incorporation. So 
 long as Ireland could keep up the spirit and power 
 of the armed union which won her independence, so 
 long her independence was safe ; as soon as Ireland 
 ceased to do so, her independence was gone. From 
 the time that the two countries began to return to 
 their old and habitual relations of superiority and 
 inferiority, England gradually began to regain that 
 which she had lost. No declarations, repeals, red 
 tape, or lawyers' documents could ever make the 
 independence complete. England, the stronger of 
 the two, had been humbled by Ireland, the weaker ; 
 and England could not but be jealous and Ireland 
 suspicious. 
 
 b2 
 
xxxvi Ireland in '98. 
 
 The viceregal and parliamentary assurance, that 
 ' no constitutional question between the two countries 
 would any longer exist which could interrupt their 
 harmony,' was of precisely the same value as that of an 
 oath or a salutation, which looked plausible but might 
 mean absolutely nothing. On the whole, never was 
 a nation more mistaken than Ireland in thinking that 
 England, by repealing this or renouncing that, made 
 her independent. At that juncture, only a war of 
 separation, sharp and bloody as that which severed 
 the American colonies from the mother country, could 
 secure such independence. 
 
 Ireland made an immense effort and gained a 
 great victory, but it was one fall of peril, and could 
 only be retained by the continuous exertion of the 
 energies by which it had been won. The armed 
 Irish people had effected a peaceful revolution — 
 achieved the independence of their legislature. But 
 liberty, justice, good government, wise laws honestly 
 administered, were farther off than ever. The Irish 
 Parliament was now independent of the British ; 
 but unfortunately it was equally independent of 
 the Irish people, who had no voice in its return. 
 What could be expected but a new domestic tyranny 
 in face of the old foreign supremacy ? The seven 
 devils were ejected ; the house, swept and garnished, 
 only prepared for the occupancy of a new tenantry a 
 hundred times worse than the former. Parliamentary 
 independence without parliamentary reform was only 
 an exchange of one mode of oppression and misgovern- 
 
hitrod'uctlon. xxxvii 
 
 ment for another perhaps worse. It is plain that the 
 work was only half done. 
 
 The disgraceful war with America had one good 
 effect on England — it roused her to the necessity of par- 
 liamentary reform. Ireland took up the cry and set 
 about purifying and popularising the constitution of 
 her emancipated Parliament. A vigorous and active 
 correspondence sprang up between the reformers in 
 Ireland and Major Cartwright, Home Tooke, and the 
 leaders of the popular movement in England. The 
 first mistake was made by the Volunteer reformers at 
 Dungannon. It was a serious one, and brought with 
 it condign punishment. There is a grim irony in the 
 fact that a single mistake in youth will sometimes 
 mar the future of the man and dog his steps to the 
 grave. The same fate attends a nation, as we shall see 
 presently. The Volunteers were unanimous on most 
 points, but divided on one. And here let it be re- 
 membered that the assembly who met to strengthen 
 and purify their constitution consisted of the best 
 that Ireland could furnish in talent, rank, eloquence, 
 and patriotism. Determined to be free, they had not 
 made up their minds to be just ; their demand for 
 rights was not inconsistent with the continued inflic- 
 tion of the grossest wrongs on five-sixths of their 
 countrymen ; their notion of an extensive reform did 
 not extend to the reform of the worst grievance of 
 all — the political slavery of the Catholic millions. 
 Here the Protestant ascendency spirit spoke out 
 again : it was proposed that the elective franchise 
 
xxxviii Ireland in '98. 
 
 should be given to Catholics, and, through the influ- 
 ence of Lord Charlemont and his friends, this liberal 
 and just measure was rejected. Here was a taint of 
 bigotry, exclusiveness, and injustice which eventually 
 shipwrecked the party. 
 
 The grand national convention chosen by the 
 people for the purification and reform of the other 
 Parliament of aristocratic, ministerial, and corpora- 
 tion nominees, sat in the Rotunda, within view of 
 the Commons House of Parliament. The Volunteers 
 marched to it with cheers, cannon, musketry, music, 
 and general acclamation. Never was a greater mis- 
 take perpetrated. The existence of such an assem- 
 bly was an anomaly. Their first step downward 
 was characteristic : they elected as their president 
 Lord Charlemont, a virtuous, weak-minded, timorous 
 Whig nobleman, whose anti-Catholic prejudices had 
 already done some mischief, and he soon did more. 
 When the Castle authorities heard of his appoint- 
 ment they breathed more freely, and after that the 
 old game of plotting and deceit went on. 
 
 The convention sat for three weeks, debating and 
 discussing in regular parliamentary form the various 
 plans for popular representation ; the Lord- Lieu- 
 tenant and Privy Council meanwhile holding their 
 sittings midway between the two parliaments, and 
 receiving alternate reports of the proceedings of 
 each. At last a Reform Bill was ready, brought in 
 by Flood. The Liberal and eccentric Bishop of 
 Derry's notion of giving the franchise to Catholics 
 
Introduction. xxxix 
 
 was scouted by large majorities. The Government 
 opposed it, and now came the tug of war. . The 
 convention had no alternative except resistance or 
 dissolution. At the advice of Charlemont, they 
 chose the latter. This weak, backboneless represen- 
 tative of aristocracy thought more of the peace of his 
 country than of its freedom. He caused a loyal 
 address to be voted to the King and dissolved the 
 convention. The select committee who helped their 
 chairman in this shabby trick, left the Rotunda, and 
 when the great body of the delegates arrived they 
 found the doors closed, the chairman gone, and 
 learned with amazement that the Grand National 
 Convention was over. 
 
 This was the first and most fatal blow to the 
 Volunteers ; after that their influence on the destinies 
 of Ireland was practically nil. They measured their 
 strength with the Parliament, and the Parliament 
 had come off victorious. The Catholic question had 
 divided, and the prejudice which respected the le- 
 gality of a rotten legislature paralysed them. They 
 fell, and with them fell the last hope of peace, freedom, 
 and good government for Ireland. They did not 
 disband immediately. For some ten years the national 
 pride was indulged in uniforms, marching, exercisiog, 
 and vain display ; but the living body had become a 
 corpse. Never had a noble beginning a more impotent 
 conclusion than this business of the Volunteers. 
 
 The agitation for reform did not amount to much. 
 In 1784 another Protestant Reform Bill was brought 
 
xl Ireland in '98. 
 
 in, only to be rejected ; the result was a riot and a 
 Government attack on the freedom of the press, with 
 all sorts of violences and allegations on both sides, in 
 which it was hard to say which party behaved the 
 worst. Soon after, those disposed to sympathise with 
 the Catholics summoned a grand national congress 
 in Dublin. Fitzgibbon, the Attorney- General, without 
 being over-nice on the point of legality, sat upon the 
 congress, prosecuted magistrates, printers, and pub- 
 lishers. The spirit of the nation was weakened by 
 party division, its heart sick with disappointment, 
 for Irishmen had not yet learned the art of peaceful 
 constitutional agitation. 
 
 The country was now left in the hands of her old 
 corrupt Parliament, the irresponsible rulers of the 
 people. The independent Parliament was found to 
 transcend in shameless and sordid tyranny all that 
 had ever been previously imagined of misgovernment 
 in Ireland. The change for the worse was owing to 
 the new relations which the revolution of 1782 had 
 established between the two countries. Before, inde- 
 pendence had been desirable, but it was now abso- 
 lutely necessary to Great Britain to command a 
 majority in the Irish House of Commons. A 
 dependent legislature in Dublin might be safely 
 allowed so long as a supreme British Parliament 
 existed to overawe its petulance and check with a 
 strong hand its aberrations from the line of British 
 policy. A British majority in the Irish House of 
 Commons was now an essential condition of the 
 
Introduction. xli 
 
 integrity of the Empire ; that majority should be 
 attained, whatever might be the cost. The Empire 
 could not stand if the two Parliaments were not at 
 one in politics ; they must keep together somehow, or 
 there would come a war of separation. Hence arose 
 a system of parliamentary bribery unparalleled in 
 the history of Parliaments ; carried on on a scale of 
 wildest prodigality from the revolution of '82 down 
 to the year of the union. 
 
 The policy of England required that the British 
 ministers should be quite sure of an Irish majority to 
 work smoothly along with the British majority. It 
 was only too successful, for the British ministers 
 usually commanded the votes of two-thirds of the 
 Irish House of Commons. Two questions, however, 
 were decided according to the national spirit. The 
 Irish Parliament asserted its independence and 
 nationality, and on this the English Prime Minister 
 resolved that at the first favourable opportunity 
 the Irish Parliament should cease to exist, and that 
 the independent nationality should be absorbed in a 
 legislative union. 
 
 The first of these were the commercial proposi- 
 tions of Mr. Pitt in 1785. Their object was in its 
 way excellent : they meant to promote the com- 
 mercial equality of the two countries with reference 
 to foreign trade, only it was an attempt to get back 
 the power of Great Britain to legislate for Ireland. 
 It was a proposition for making the Irish legislature 
 a mere registration ofl[ice for British Acts of Parlia- 
 
xlii Ireland in '98. 
 
 ment, a union which would preserve the existence of 
 the Irish Parhament after it had lost its authority. 
 This was a thing not to be endured ; the whole 
 country turned against it. The commercial pro- 
 positions were received with scorn and indignation ; 
 after a debate of eighteen hours the ministerial 
 majority was so small that the plan was abandoned. 
 Pitt never forgot or forgave this defeat, and hence- 
 forth he turned his mind towards a legislative 
 union. 
 
 The next explosion of Irish parliamentary inde- 
 pendence was in 1789 on the Regency question. Pitt 
 carried through both Houses of the British legislature 
 a Bill extending the Regency of Great Britain to the 
 Prince of Wales, as long as the malady of his father, 
 George III., continued. The minister expected that 
 Ireland would follow the example of Great Britain. 
 Orders were sent to Dublin Castle to manage the 
 Irish Parliament by every method of bribery, and 
 not to call the Houses together till the Viceroy was 
 sure of a majority. Powers were lavishly used and 
 the orders obeyed, but all in vain. Dublin Castle 
 and the British Treasury could not carry this pomt. 
 
 The Irish Nationalists, thinking the King would 
 not recover, supposed that it would be a good stroke 
 of policy to secure the regards of the Prince and his 
 new Cabinet by giving him the power and prerogative 
 which Great Britain had refused. Both Houses voted 
 the Prince an address, soliciting his acceptance of an 
 unrestricted regency of the kingdom of Ireland. The 
 
Inti'oduction. xliii 
 
 two Houses waited on the Lord-Lieutenant with 
 this address, and requested him to transmit it. 
 The Viceroy refused ; whereupon the House of 
 Commons passed a vote of censure on his Excel- 
 lency, and sent a deputation of their own to hand it 
 to the Prince, by whom it was graciously received. 
 While the deputation, however, were in London, the 
 King recovered, and the refractory majority soon 
 experienced the effects of their late escapade in a 
 wholesale clearing out of the Government offices. 
 To Ireland and her independence the consequences 
 were more serious, for by this she incurred the deadly 
 hostility of two most formidable enemies — the King 
 and Mr. Pitt. The regency question, coming on 
 the back of the commercial question, decided the 
 minister and his royal master, that the only solution 
 of the difficulty was a legislative union of the two 
 countries. 
 
 The general character of Irish legislation and 
 government which subsequently took place may be 
 inferred from what has already been briefly described. 
 Independent Ireland was governed as a province. 
 From the year of independence until the commence- 
 ment of the French Revolution, the political 
 condition of Ireland grew steadily worse. With 
 the exception of a slight amount of commercial 
 activity, consequent on the liberation of her trade 
 from the shackles of British legislation, Ireland 
 gained very little from the revolution of 1782. 
 From the time of the overthrow of the Volunteers, 
 
xliv Ireland in '98. 
 
 every public abuse took deeper root ; acts of legisla- 
 ture and administrative oppression were multiplied 
 and aggravated. Every liberal and reasonable 
 motion calculated to benefit the country was un- 
 failingly crushed by placed and pensioned majorities. 
 Not a thing could a Liberal minority do or get done 
 during ten weary years of parliamentary effort. Every 
 popular grievance, civil, political, and ecclesiastical, 
 was industriously aggravated till popular discontent 
 reached rebellion point, and every tumult or disturb- 
 ance which could with any decency be designated 
 ' rebellion,' was industriously improved into a Police 
 Bill or Whiteboy Act, to give occasion for putting the 
 largest possible quantity of arbitrary power into the 
 worst possible hands. It was the sore disappoint- 
 ment which resulted from baffled attempts to brmg 
 about some beneficial change, which eventually led to 
 the rebeUion of '98. 
 
 Something may be said on the internal state of 
 the country. The Republicans and Reformers joined 
 under the common name of Volunteers without at 
 first perceiving that their designs and objects were 
 identical. The French Revolution filled the Whigs 
 with alarm ; they seceded from the Volunteers, some 
 opposed the projects of reform, and in this way broke 
 up the party. The Republican section in Ulster 
 sought a reconciliation with the Catholics of the 
 South, with the view of obtaining equal rights on 
 equal terms with the Catholics. Wolfe Tone, the 
 most active agent in effecting this apparent union. 
 
Litroduction. xlv 
 
 shows that at the time there was no agreement 
 between the Presbyterians of the North and the 
 Catholics of the South, and to effect a union was one 
 of his great aims. When the Parisian massacres 
 occurred in 1792, moderate Republicans in Ireland 
 feared to accept freedom accompanied with such 
 terms. The Catholic clergy in a body separated from 
 the Reformers, and denounced the atheism of France 
 from their altars ; if the Government had then 
 adopted measures of conciliation instead of coercion, 
 the tranquillity of Ireland would have been preserved. 
 Later on, when Earl Fitzwilliam was sent over em- 
 powered to conciliate the Catholic interest, he was 
 received with enthusiastic gratitude ; but unfortu- 
 nately the intrigues of party interfered, and the 
 causes of discord which had accumulated for centu- 
 ries were once more aroused. During this crisis the 
 whole body of the Irish priests were most awkardly 
 situated. The hatred of French infidelity and 
 atheistic republicanism converted them into zealous 
 Royalists, and yet they had the mortification of hear- 
 ing themselves denounced as apostles of sedition. 
 
 When the policy of conciliation was abandoned, 
 the mmistry urged forward the coercion laws with 
 railway speed ; the Volunteers were disarmed, the 
 garrisons removed from the towns, the sale of arms 
 prohibited, and all conventions of delegates subjected 
 to legal penalties. From this period the Society of 
 United Irishmen became a secret society ; its mem- 
 bers were removed from popidar control, their plans 
 
xlvi Ireland in '98. 
 
 for the regeneration of their country trammelled ; they 
 were precluded from gaining a knowledge of the state 
 of public opinion, and had no means of discovering 
 how far the nation was prepared to support their 
 schemes. Under these circumstances they looked for 
 aid to France, and the failure of Hoche's expedition 
 rendered their cause hopeless. 
 
 At the close of the eighteenth century France 
 pursued the same policy towards the Irish insurrec- 
 tion which the courts of Rome and Madrid had 
 pursued at the end of the sixteenth. Its rulers 
 encouraged civil war in Ireland, as a means of dis- 
 tracting the attention of the British Government, and 
 preventing its interference in the political changes 
 which French ambition meditated on the Continent. 
 Holland and the Netherlands were the real objects at 
 which the French Directory aimed when they pro- 
 mised to assist the Republicans of Ulster. Tone had 
 a suspicion of the French alliance ; he feared that 
 France might either take the opportunity of making 
 Ireland a province, tributary to France, or restore it 
 to England for some equivalent. Every delay in 
 sending the promised aid increased the fears and 
 suspicions of the United Irishmen ; besides, this well- 
 founded alarm afforded plausible excuses for treachery 
 and desertion. Hence, informers were busy among 
 them, revealing their plans to the Government. When 
 these were disclosed, their measures known, their 
 leaders seized, the United Irishmen allowed the rebel- 
 lion to begin. For a long time the society was Ian- 
 
Introduction. xlvii 
 
 guishing, unable to inspire the people with confidence 
 or enthusiasm ; the rebellion that followed was a dis- 
 astrous failure, inasmuch as it was ill-concerted and 
 badly directed ; there was division among its leaders, 
 dissension among its followers, and it had neither 
 guidance nor support. It would have died a natural 
 death were it not that the Government forced it into 
 a premature existence by scourging, free quarters, and 
 all kinds of military atrocities. The terrible con- 
 vulsion which took place was merely an explosion 
 of all the bottled-up passions of centuries of injustice. 
 We have gfiven the above resume with the view 
 of furnishing the reader with a bird's-eye view of the 
 legislative enactments in Ireland during the eighteenth 
 century. He may not have time to examine the 
 ponderous volumes written on the subject, and is 
 next invited to study the lives of the men who rashly 
 plunged into the rebellion. No attempt is made 
 to palliate their excesses, but a sincere desire is felt 
 to render justice to the motives which prompted them, 
 like Quintus Curtius, to leap into the gulf which 
 yawned before them. 
 
 J. BOWLES DALY. 
 
ROBERT EMMETT. 
 
IKELAND IN '98. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ROBERT EMMETT. 
 
 Parentage — Thomas Addis Emmett — Anecdote — Education of Robert 
 Emmett — Expelled from Trinity College — Leaves Ireland — Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte — Emmett arrives in Dublin — His leadership — Penal 
 laws — Peace of Amiens — Plan to seize depots and arsenals — 
 Treachery — Attack on Dublin Castle — Want of discipline — Lord 
 Kilwarden — Flight of Emmett — Sarah Curran — Arrest and im- 
 prisonment of Emmett— Anne Devlin — Anecdote — The trial — 
 Lord Norbury — Emmett's defence — Execution — Causes of failure 
 — Secret service money — Spies — Grief of Sarah Curran — Major 
 Sturgeon — Sarah Curran's fate — Moore's lines in memory of her. 
 
 Robert Emmett sprang from a family of patriots ; 
 his father was an eminent physician in DubHn, his 
 eldest brother distinguished himself at the University, 
 and died at the age of thirty, after making a brilliant 
 start in the legal profession. Thomas Addis, the 
 second brother, graduated in Edinburgh and at the 
 advice of Sir James Mackintosh, relinquished the 
 profession of medicine for that of the law. Being an 
 ardent character and enthusiastic Irishman, he im- 
 bibed deeply the resentment and antipathy of the 
 majority of his countrymen against the British rule 
 and connection : and, when the societies of United 
 
Ireland in '98. 
 
 Irishmen were revived in the year 1795, Emmett 
 joined the association and soon became a leader. The 
 object of this revolution was an independent govern- 
 ment for Ireland. Emmett was arrested with Oliver 
 Bond, Doctor Macneven, and other chiefs of the 
 disaffected party in 1798. The State prisoners were 
 permitted to go to America, after four years' confine- 
 ment in Fort George, a fortress in the county of 
 Nairn, in Scotland. When Emmett landed in New 
 York he was admitted to the bar at once by special 
 dispensation, and reached the first rank of the 
 profession in a short time by his industry and dis- 
 tinguished ability. Before his death he attained the 
 rank of attorney-general of the State of New York. 
 
 The following anecdote vividly exhibits the intre- 
 pidity of the man. A malcontent had been convicted 
 of takino; the United Irishman's oath. The words 
 were as follows : 'I, A. B., in the presence of God, 
 do pledge myself to my country, that I will use all 
 my abilities and influence in the attainment of an 
 adequate and impartial representation of the Irish 
 nation in Parliament, and, as a means of absolute and 
 immediate necessity in the attainment of this chief 
 good of Ireland, I will endeavour, as much as lies 
 in my power, to forward a brotherhood of affection, 
 an identity of interests, a communion of rights, and 
 a union of power among Irishmen of all religious 
 persuasions, without which every reform in Parlia- 
 ment must be partial, not rational, inadequate to the 
 wants, delusive to the wishes, and insufficient for the 
 
Robert Emmett. 
 
 freedom and happiness of this country.' Emmett, on 
 the motion for arrest of judgment, after exhausting 
 his learning and ingenuity, astonished his hearers 
 with this startling announcement : ' And now, my 
 lords, here in the presence of the legal court, this 
 crowded auditory — in the presence of the Being that 
 witnesses and directs this judicial tribunal — even 
 here, my lords, I, Thomas Addis Emmett, declare 
 — / take this oath ! ' And while the bar, bench, and 
 auditory ' held their breath ' he kissed the book. 
 This was an indictable offence for which he suffered 
 four years' imprisonment. It was on his release that 
 he went to America. 
 
 Dr. Emmett was an ardent politician, and, accord- 
 ing to Mr. Grattan, was ever ' mixing up his pills 
 with his plans,' sometimes much to the perplexity of 
 his patients. His three gifted sons were endued with 
 his principles. The youngest son, Robert, was born 
 in the city of Dublin during the year 1782, a memo- 
 rable year in the history of Ireland. The Emmetts 
 were Protestant, and Robert at an early age went to 
 school to Mr. Lewes, a clergyman of the Established 
 Church, who, in common with most of his cloth, had 
 no persecuting spirit towards his Catholic fellow- 
 subjects. From this excellent divine the young lad 
 derived the principles and impressions which guided 
 him through life. From the nursery and school he 
 was filled with a detestation of tyranny and of in- 
 justice. At sixteen years of age he entered Trinity 
 College. Here he made great progress in classical 
 
 B 2 
 
Ireland in '98. 
 
 and mathematical knowledge. He joined the His- 
 torical Society, a well-known debatmg club, on a 
 par with the Oxford Union, and there expressed 
 sentiments so freely on English influence in Ireland 
 that he came under the suspicions of Lord Chancellor 
 Clare, who afterwards expelled him from college for 
 denouncing the English form of government and 
 advocating that of a republic. 
 
 During the rebellion of 1798 Emmett had been 
 so unguarded in his conduct that he found it best to 
 leave Ireland while the Habeas Corpus Act was sus- 
 pended. He fled to the Continent, when an active 
 correspondence was set on foot by the French Go- 
 vernment. Emmett, together with the leaders of 
 the preceding Irish rebellion, held consultations for 
 the organisation of another revolution ; in this they 
 were aided by no less a person than Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, then emperor of France. Emmett was 
 made the director and mover of the new attempt to 
 liberate Ireland from British dominion. 
 
 On the expiration of the suspension of the Habeas 
 Corpus Act, Emmett returned to Dublin, took private 
 lodffinofs at Harold's Cross, assumed the name of 
 Hewett, and held meetings with his confederates. 
 The notion of recommencing another attempt to 
 subvert British power in Ireland was hailed with 
 delio'ht, and secret intellisfence of this fact soon 
 spread itself through the country. For four months 
 after his arrival, nothing of Emmett's plans transpired. 
 He invested the whole of his small fortune, not ex- 
 
Robert Emmett. 
 
 ceeding 2,500/., in this mad scheme. His eloquence, 
 enthusiasm, and single-minded character elevated the 
 fame of the society of which he was leader. Ireland 
 was then ripe for any revolt. The great majority of 
 the people were reduced to the condition of slaves by 
 the severity of the penal laws, for the British Govern- 
 ment embraced every severity that could waste the 
 vigour of the nation, provided the sacrifice would 
 promote the self-interest or gratify the rancour of the 
 favoured party in the ascendency. 
 
 There was a law which disabled a Catholic from 
 educating or being the guardian of his own child ; a 
 law which made disobedience or apostacy of the 
 Catholic child the means of disinheriting his father ; 
 a law for robbins; a Catholic of his horse on the 
 highway, if, when interrogated, he confessed his faith ; 
 a law to banish the Catholic clergy and hang them if 
 they returned ; to prevent Catholics from purchasing 
 or iiiheritino; landed estates : from havinsf arms for 
 their defence ; to debar them from the profession of 
 the law ; to prevent them from holding any office 
 of trust, honour, or emolument ; from voting at 
 elections or sitting in Parliament. 
 
 Under the above circumstances it was no wonder 
 the people were eager to lay hold of even the maddest 
 scheme which promised a release from this abject 
 condition of slavery in which the country was held. 
 The above statutes to rob, harass, and insult a de- 
 fenceless people were framed against Christians, under 
 pretence of securing the Protestant religion. 
 
6 Ireland in '98. 
 
 In 1802 the Peace of Amiens was signed between 
 Great Britain on the one hand and France, Spain, 
 and HoHand on the other. It was a hollow truce, 
 for there was no confidence on the part of either 
 Government in the sincerity of the intention of the 
 other to maintain it. 
 
 England was pressed by public opinion to sue for 
 peace. Bonaparte was consolidating his plans for his 
 own aggrandisement. The destruction of his fleet 
 made it necessary to provide and equip another. 
 Similar naval preparations were going on in England. 
 An Alien Act was passed to empower the British 
 Government to remove foreigners suspected of being 
 dangerous to it. 
 
 Emmett's design of liberating his country was 
 then based on the expectation of a rupture of this 
 treaty between Great Britain and France, and on the 
 knowledge that the latter country was making exten- 
 sive naval preparations ; besides, he had the assurance 
 of Talleyrand that those preparations were made with 
 the view of invading England. 
 
 Down to 1782, English Acts of Parliament were 
 suffered to bind Ireland. Misgovernment and j)Overty, 
 the neglect of agriculture, the prohibition of trade, 
 the abandonment of manufactures, were daring that 
 period the portion of Ireland. Towards the end of 
 the American war the volunteers emancipated their 
 country from this bondage, and gave it the means of 
 being independent. The demands of the volunteers 
 were prudentl}'' conceded, and the Revolution of 1782 
 
Robert Emmett. 
 
 was accomplished without bloodshed. The immediate 
 consequence was the liberation of the commerce of 
 Ireland from English restrictions, and her ensuing 
 prosperity. The volunteers, however, could not 
 continue in arms, and Ireland had no representative 
 assembly to foster her prosperity during peace. Her 
 Parliament was composed solely of the dominant fac- 
 tion representing but a small portion of the inhabi- 
 tants, and having few feelings or wishes in unison 
 with the mass of the people. The volunteers said that 
 no measure of relief could be effectual unaccompanied 
 with a reform in the Parliament. Their mistake, 
 however, was in excluding the Catholics from their 
 plans. This defeated the scheme, for it was impos- 
 sible to erect an edifice of freedom on a foundation 
 of monopoly. Warned by these errors, the United 
 Irishmen aimed at a fundamental system of reform. 
 
 In any country where there is not an impartial 
 administration of justice, insurrection and civil war 
 are the only resources of an exasperated people. But 
 the moment the Protestant reformers in Ireland recosr- 
 nised the principle, that no reform could be practic- 
 able and just which did not equally include Irishmen 
 of every denomination, the measure became feasible. 
 Thus defeated, and a legislative union accomplished, 
 this only provoked furtlier dissatisfaction. The piti- 
 able representation of Ireland in a foreign country 
 — a minority of six to one, the six giving the law to- 
 the one, and with that one they having nothing in 
 common — has proved a disastrous failure. 
 
8 Ireland in '98. 
 
 It was the opinion of Emmett, that the legislative 
 union was a measure more suited to facilitate the 
 despotism of the ministry than strengthen the do- 
 minion of England. He maintained that an Irish 
 Parliament would be a bond of liberal connection ; it 
 would settle every question of domestic policy at 
 home, prevent strife and recrimination between both 
 countries, secure to the affairs of Ireland a degree of 
 attention which, however necessary, they do not and 
 cannot obtain among the weighty concerns of a 
 different people in a foreign legislature. Among 
 those who endeavoured to overthrow misrule in 
 Ireland, exposing its cause and effect, Robert Emmett 
 stands most distinguished. Failing to accomplish a 
 peaceable solution of this difficulty, he was moved to 
 appeal to force as the only remedy. 
 
 Different depots were hired in Dublm at his sole 
 expense, furnished with pikes, ammunition, and 
 clothing. 
 
 In one of these depots gunpowder was manufac- 
 tured ; in another, wood was prepared for construct- 
 ing pikes ; and in others stores were deposited. For 
 some time perfect secrecy was observed ; it was only 
 on the 14th of July, the anniversary of the French 
 Revolution, that the Government opened its eyes to 
 the real danger of the situation, an accident in one 
 of the powder dep6ts having roused their attention. 
 Emmett personally superintended those preparations, 
 having a mattress to sleep on that he might be present 
 night and day to direct and animate the workmen. 
 
Robert Emmett. 
 
 Seven days after tlie explosion in Patrick Street, lie 
 commenced operations by concocting a plan to seize 
 the several depots and arsenals in Dublin as tlie best 
 means of influencing the public mind. When it came 
 to action, many of his partisans drew back, believing 
 that the right moment had not arrived. They did 
 not accompany their refusal by any discovery of 
 the plot. On the morning of the appointed day, 
 June 23, 1803, the Kildare men were seen directing 
 their steps towards the capital. They had collected 
 round one of the depots in Thomas Street in unusual 
 crowds, when about five o'clock they were persuaded 
 by their officers to return home. Here treachery 
 began. It is highly probable that its full extent was 
 never known to Emmett, who was of a trusting-, 
 sanguine nature, constitutionally opposed to suspect- 
 ing his fellow-men, and so single-minded that he 
 regarded others with whom he was acting as like 
 himself. The defection of the Wicklow and Wexford 
 followers would have deterred a less ardent s2oirit 
 than Emmett's from proceeding. He never quailed 
 under the disappointment, though he bitterly felt the 
 pain of their disloyalty. Towards dusk he directed 
 the distribution of pikes to the waiting crowds in 
 Thomas Street, and proceeded to make the necessary 
 arrangements for the contemplated attack. The dif- 
 ferent leaders received their instructions ; the forces 
 were assembled in their respective places. These 
 were to act on the signal of a rocket, which Emmett 
 was to send up when he considered the time had 
 
10 L' eland in '98. 
 
 arrived for the commencement of hostilities ; Emmett 
 and two of his followers were to head the attack on 
 the Castle. At eight o'clock they sallied out of the 
 depot in Thomas Street, and were met by ringing 
 cheers from the insurgents. The consternation ex- 
 cited by their presence was vivid : every avenue was 
 thronged, every window had its inquisitive heads ; 
 shopkeepers ran to their doors and beheld with 
 amazement a lawless band of armed insurgents in the 
 midst of a peaceable city, an hour at least before dark. 
 The scene at first might have appeared amusing to a 
 careless spectator, but when a rocket ascended and 
 burst over the heads of the people, the aspect of affairs 
 underwent a wonderful change. The imj)ulse of the 
 moment was self-preservation ; those who a few mo- 
 ments before seemed to look on with vacant wonder, 
 now assumed a face of horror and fled with precipita- 
 tion. The wish to escape was simultaneous, and the 
 eagerness with which the people retreated impeded 
 their own flight, as they crowded upon one another 
 down alleys, courtways and lanes, while the screams 
 of women and children were heartrending, ' To the 
 Castle ! ' shouted the enthusiastic leader, drawing his 
 sword, while his followers clustered at his heels. On 
 they went, but on reaching the Market-house his 
 adherents visibly diminished. On looking round 
 him, he found hardly fifty to sustain him in his 
 reckless attempt to storm the citadel. Among those 
 who were left, a thirst for outrage and revenge had 
 destroyed all discipline and supplanted patriotism. 
 
Robert Emmett. 11 
 
 He hastened from front to rear, from man to man, 
 in vain endeavours to quell disorder. Their worst 
 passions, inflamed by the whisky with which they 
 had plied themselves, had brutalised them. ' Our 
 cause is lost ! ' exclaimed Emmett, snatching a rocket 
 which a man was about to send up, and trampling it 
 under his foot ; ' let our friends at a distance escape ; 
 comrades, provide for your own safety.' 
 
 A skirmish now followed with a party of soldiers 
 who came up. During the progress of the insurgents 
 from the depot, the attention of the rear was diverted 
 by the arrival of an equipage ; a moment's inquiry 
 satisfied the mob that it was that of the Lord Chief 
 Justice of Ireland. A halt was called, disorder and 
 tumult prevailed, and the venerable and respected 
 Lord Kilwarden was butchered by some cold-blooded 
 ruffian among the throng. It was at this period 
 that Mr. Emmett and the other leaders, who had been 
 somewhat more than an hour eno:ao;ed in a task far 
 beyond their powers, retired in despair at finding all 
 command disregarded, all efforts to produce subordi- 
 nation inefl'ectual. When Emmett and his immediate 
 associates heard of the death of Lord Kilwarden, they 
 came to the resolution of abandoning their unprin- 
 cipled followers. The number of lives lost on both 
 sides did not exceed eighty. Emmett fled to the 
 mountains of Wicklow ; he arrived in time to prevent 
 a contemplated rising of the insurgents, which he 
 foresaw would have been utterly useless in accom- 
 plishing his purpose. In a glen in the mountains 
 
12 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Emraett and the other leaders of the conspiracy met 
 to consult on plans of future operation. Most of 
 them recommended vigorous measures, stating that 
 all the country was ripe for revolt. The time, how- 
 ever, was past for Emmett to credit a sweeping asser- 
 tion. ' We have been defeated in our first grand 
 attempt ; all further endeavours must be futile. Our 
 enemies are armed and disciplined ; our friends are 
 dispirited ; our only hope now is in patience. The 
 justice of our cause must one day triumph ; let us 
 not indiscreetly protract the period by any prema- 
 ture endeavours to accelerate it. Tn revolts the first 
 blow decides the contest. We have aimed one, and, 
 missing the mark, let us retire unobserved. Let me 
 therefore, my friends, advise you to act with prudence, 
 which becomes men engaged in the grandest of all 
 causes — the liberation of their country. But, above all, 
 never forget that you are United Irishmen, sworn to 
 promote the liberty of your country by all the means in 
 your power. Gentlemen, you will now look to your 
 safety, and, as for me, I shall do the best I can to quit 
 the country, in the hope of again meeting you under 
 more happy auspices.' 
 
 He spoke m a subdued and feeling tone, and as 
 he bade them all farewell he appeared deeply affected. 
 After some hesitation his advice was acquiesced in, 
 and the assembly began to separate, two and three 
 at a time. Emmett was now pressed to make his 
 escape before the Government obtained information 
 respecting his place of concealment ; an opportunity 
 
Robert Emmett. 13 
 
 then offered of his doing so, as several fishing-smacks 
 lay ofi* the coast, the owners of which were insur- 
 gents. There is no doubt he could have escaped 
 the vio-ilance of the officers of the law but for his 
 
 o 
 
 determination to have an interview with his sweet- 
 heart, Sarah Curran, the youngest daughter of the 
 great advocate. The young patriot could not leave 
 his native country without bidding a last adieu to 
 her he so dearly loved. 
 
 The chivalrous Emmett departed from the moun- 
 tains on his mission of love, and arrived once more in 
 Dublin without molestation. Locatino- himself in his 
 old lodgings at Harold's Cross, he wrote several 
 letters in order to bring about the desired interview 
 with Miss Curran. Here he remained a month in 
 concealment, without being able to accomplish his 
 desire, when one day the house was surrounded by 
 police, headed by the notorious Major Sirr. They 
 discovered poor Emmett in the act of sitting down 
 to dinner. After a brave personal resistance, he was 
 overcome by numbers. Upon searching his person 
 and the apartments occupied by him, a variety of 
 documents were discovered, subsequently produced 
 in evidence against him upon his trial. On the 
 evening of August 25, 1803, he was removed, still 
 guarded by a strong escort, to the city prison, and 
 there thrust into a dungeon. What his feelings were 
 during this period can be best gleaned from a paper 
 found on him. ' I have little time,' he wrote, ' to 
 look at the thousand difficulties which lie between 
 
14 Ireland in '98. 
 
 me and the completion of my wishes ; that those 
 difficulties will likewise disappear I have ardent, 
 and I trust rational, hopes ; but, if it is not the case, 
 I thank God for having gifted me with a sanguine 
 disposition ; to that disposition 1 run from reflection, 
 and if my hopes are without foundation — if a preci- 
 pice is opened under my feet, from wdiich duty will 
 not sufi'er me to run back — I am grateful for that 
 sanguine disposition which leads me to the brink and 
 throws me down, while my eyes are raised to the 
 vision of happiness that my fancy formed in the air.' 
 It is not known who gave the information which led 
 to Emmett's arrest, but the conduct of a peasant girl 
 who took part in the proceedings deserves record. 
 
 Anne Devlin, a young woman about twenty-five 
 years of age, was sent by her father to assist in 
 taking care of one of the depots, and to act as ser- 
 vant to Emmett. On the disastrous day of the 
 rising, when the leader and his companions returned 
 after the abortive attack, Anne saw them outside the 
 house in the yard ; she was at the moment sending 
 ofi* a man on horseback with ammunition in a sack, 
 and bottles filled with gunpowder. Anne called out, 
 ' Who is there ? ' Robert Emmett answered, ' It is 
 me, Anne ! ' She said, ' Oh, bad welcome to you ! 
 Is the world lost by you, you cowards, that you are 
 to lead the people to destruction, and then leave 
 them ? ' Robert Emmett said, ' The fault is not 
 mine.' When Emmett fled to the mountains, Anne 
 Devlin was the person who carried his letters there. 
 
Robert Emmett. 15 
 
 He afterwards sent her with some to Miss Curran. 
 When the soldiers and police ransacked Emmett's 
 lodgings, Anne was seized and questioned, but no 
 information could be extracted from this brave mrl. 
 She was threatened with death, and dragged into the 
 courtyard to be executed. There was a common car 
 there ; one of the yeomen tilted up the shafts, and 
 fixed a rope from the back band. While these pre- 
 parations were making for her execution, the soldiers 
 kept her standing against the wall, prodding her 
 with their bayonets in the arms and shoulders till 
 she was all covered with blood, and saying, with 
 each tlirust of the bayonet, ' Will you confess now ? ' 
 Her constant answer was, ' I will tell nothing.' The 
 rope was at length put about her neck ; she was 
 dragged to the place where the car was converted 
 into a gallows ; they placed her under it, and the end 
 of the rope was passed over the back band. The 
 question was put to her the last time, ' Will you con- 
 fess ? ' Her answer was, ' You may murder me, you 
 villains, but not a word about him will you get out of 
 me.' The rope was then pulled, and in an instant 
 she was suspended by the neck. After she had been 
 thus suspended for a few minutes, her feet touching 
 the ground, a savage yell of laughter recalled her to 
 her senses. The rope round her neck was loosened, 
 and her life spared ; she was let off with half-hanging. 
 After this she was flung in prison, where she remained 
 till after the execution of Emmett, The extraordinary 
 sufferings endured, and the courage and fidelity dis- 
 
16 Ireland in '98. 
 
 played by this young woman, have few parallels. 
 She was tortured, her body pricked with bayonets, 
 she was hung by the neck, and only spared to be 
 subjected to threats of further privations and solitary 
 confinement, till her health broke down and her mind 
 became shattered ; then she was turned adrift on the 
 world without a house to return to or a relation to 
 shelter her ; and yet this noble creature preserved 
 through all her suffering a devoted attachment to the 
 cause of her country, and to the raisguided youth 
 who flung himself into the cause, which the petty 
 tyrants of the Castle and the jail could not vanquish. 
 In the records of that period the name of Anne 
 Devlin must not be forgotten. 
 
 Emmett was cast into prison, loaded with iron 
 fetters which cut through the silk stockings he wore, 
 bathing his feet in blood. The inhuman conduct of 
 the jailor towards the State prisoners afterwards be- 
 came the subject of parliamentary investigation. 
 
 The Government, with bloodthirsty precipitance, 
 appointed a special commission to try Emmett and 
 nineteen other prisoners, sixteen days after the arrest. 
 The commission was presided over by Lord Norbury. 
 The jury, without leavmg the box, pronounced a 
 verdict of ' Guilty ! ' 
 
 The trial commenced at ten o'clock in the morn- 
 inof and terminated at ten at nio-ht. Emmett was 
 dressed in black ; he wore a black velvet stock and 
 Hessian boots ; his attitude was calm and self-pos- 
 sessed. In reply to the usual question why judg- 
 
Rohert Emmett. 17 
 
 ment and sentence of death should not be passed on 
 him, he made the following reply, amidst frequent 
 interruptions. It is but justice to say that Lord 
 Norbury's speech, while charging the jury, was free 
 from rancour : 
 
 ' My lords, as to why judgment of death and 
 execution should not be passed upon me according 
 to law, I have nothing to say ; but as to why my 
 character should not be relieved from the imputations 
 and calumnies thrown out against it, I have much to 
 say. I do not imagine that your lordships will give 
 credit to what I am going to utter. I have no hopes 
 that I can anchor my character in the breast of the 
 court. I only wish your lordships may suffer it to 
 float down your memories until it has found some 
 more hospitable harbour to shelter it from the storms 
 with which it is at present buffeted. Was I to 
 suffer only death, after being adjudged guilty, I 
 should bow in silence to the fate that awaits me ; 
 but the sentence of the law which delivers over my 
 body to the executioner consigns my character to 
 obloquy. A man in my situation has not only to 
 encounter the difficulties of fortune but also the 
 difficulties of prejudice. AVhilst the man dies, his 
 memory lives, and that mine may not forfeit all 
 claim to the respect of my countrymen, I seize this 
 opportunity to vindicate myself from some of the 
 charges alleged against me. I am charged with 
 being an emissary of France. It is false, I am no 
 
 c 
 
18 Ireland in '98. 
 
 emissary. I did not wish to deliver up my country 
 to a foreign power, and least of all to France. Nor 
 did I entertain the remotest idea of establishing 
 French power in Ireland. From the introductory 
 paragraph of the address of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment it is evident that every hazard attending an 
 independent effort was deemed preferable to the more 
 fatal risk of introducing a French army into this 
 country. Small, indeed, would be our claim to 
 patriotism and to sense, and palpable our affectation 
 of the love of liberty, if we were to sell our country 
 to a people who are not only slaves themselves, but 
 the unprincipled and abandoned instruments of im- 
 posing slavery on others. And, my lords, let me here 
 ol)serve that I am not the head and life-blood of this 
 rebellion. When I came to Ireland I found the busi- 
 ness ripe for execution. I was asked to join it. I 
 took time to consider ; and after mature deliberation 
 I became one of the Provisional Government ; and 
 there was then, my lords, an agent from the United 
 Irishmen and Provisional Government of Ireland in 
 Paris neo-otiatino; with the French Government to 
 obtain from them an aid sufficient to accomplish the 
 separation of Ireland from Great Britain, the pre- 
 liminary to which assistance has been a guarantee to 
 Ireland similar to that which Franklin obtained for 
 America ; but the intimation that I or the rest of the 
 Provisional Gov^ernment meditated to put our country 
 under the dominion of a power which has been the 
 enemy of freedom in every part of the globe, is 
 
Robert Emmett. 19 
 
 utterly false and unfounded. Did we entertain any 
 such ideas, how could we speak of giving freedom to 
 our countrymen ? How could we assume such an 
 exalted motive ? If such an inference is drawn from 
 any part of the proclamation of the Provisional 
 Government, it calumniates their views and is not 
 warranted by the fact. 
 
 ' Connection with France was, indeed, intended, 
 but only as far as mutual interest would sanction or 
 require. Were they to assume any authority incon- 
 sistent with the purest independence, it would be the 
 signal for their destruction. We sought aid, and we 
 sought it — as we had assurance we should obtain 
 it — as auxiliaries in war,, and allies in peace. 
 
 ' Were the French to come as mvaders or enemies, 
 uninvited by the wishes of the people, I should oppose 
 them to the utmost of my strength. Yes, my coun- 
 trymen ! I should advise you to meet them upon the 
 beach, with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other. 
 I would meet them with all the destructive fury of war. 
 I would animate my countrymen to immolate them in 
 their boats before they had contaminated the soil of 
 my country. If they succeeded in landing, and if 
 forced to retire before superior discipline, I would 
 dispute every inch of ground, burn every blade of 
 grass, and the last entrenchment of liberty should be 
 my grave. 
 
 ' What I could not do myself, if I should fall, I 
 should leave as a last charge to my countrymen to 
 accomplish, because I should feel conscious that life, 
 
 c 2 
 
20 Ireland in '98. 
 
 any more than death, is unprofitable when a foreign 
 nation holds my comitry in subjection. 
 
 ' Reviewing the conduct of France to other coun- 
 tries, could we expect better towards us ? No ; let 
 not then any man attaint my memory by believing 
 that I could have hoped to give freedom to my coun- 
 try by betraying the sacred cause of liberty, and 
 committing it to the power of her most determined 
 foe. Had I done so, I had not deserved to live ; and, 
 dying with such a weight upon my character, I had 
 merited the honest execration of that country which 
 gave me birth, and to which I would give freedom. 
 What has been the conduct of the French towards 
 other countries ? They promised them liberty, and 
 when they got them in their power they enslaved 
 them. What has been their conduct towards Switzer- 
 land, where it has been stated that I had been ? Had 
 the people there been desirous of French assistance, 
 I would have sided with the people, I would have 
 stood between them and the French, whose aid they 
 called in, and, to the utmost of my ability, I would 
 have protected them from every attempt at subjuga- 
 tion ; I would, in such case, have fought against the 
 French, and, in the dignity of freedom, I would have 
 expired on the threshold of that country, and they 
 should have entered it only passing over my lifeless 
 corse. Is it then to be supposed that I would be 
 slow in making the same sacrifices for my native 
 land ? Am I, who lived but to be of service to my 
 country, and who would subject myself to the bond- 
 
Robert Emm eft. 21 
 
 age of the grave to give her freedom and independence, 
 am I to be loaded with the foul and grievous calumny 
 of being an emissary of French tyranny and French 
 despotism ? My lords, it may be a part of the system 
 of angry justice to bow a man's mind by humiliation 
 to meet the ignominy of the scaffold, but worse to 
 me than the scaffold's shame, or the scaffold's terrors, 
 would be the imputation of having been an agent of 
 the despotism and ambition of France ; and whilst I 
 have breath, I will call upon my countrymen not to 
 believe me guilty of so foul a crime against their 
 liberties and against their happiness. I would do 
 with the people of Ireland as I would have done with 
 the people of Switzerland, could I be called upon at 
 any future period of time so to do. My object, and 
 that of the rest of the Provisional Government, was to 
 effect a total separation between Great Britain and 
 Ireland, to make Ireland totally independent of Great 
 Britain, but not to let her become a dependent of 
 France. 
 
 'When my spirit shall have joined those bands af 
 martyred heroes who have shed their blood on the 
 scaffold, and in the field, in defence of their country, 
 this is my hope, that my memory and name may 
 serve to animate those who survive me. 
 
 'While the destruction of that government which 
 upholds its dominion by impiety against the Most 
 High, which displays its power over man as over the 
 beasts of the field, which sets man upon his brother 
 and lifts his hands in religion's name against the 
 
22 Ireland in '98. 
 
 throat of his fellow, who believes a little more or less 
 than the government standard, which reigns amidst 
 the cries of the orphans and of the widows it has 
 made ' 
 
 Here Lord Norbury interrupted. 
 
 * What I have spoken was not intended for your 
 lordships, whose situation I commiserate rather than 
 envy ; my expressions were for my countrymen. If 
 there be a true Irishman present, let my last words 
 cheer him in the hour of affliction. 
 
 ' I have always understood it to be the duty of a 
 judge, when a prisoner has been convicted, to pro- 
 nounce the sentence of the law. I have also under- 
 stood that judges sometimes think it their duty to 
 hear with patience and to speak with humanity ; to 
 exhort the victims of the laws, and to offer with tender 
 benignity their opinions of the motives by which 
 the accused was actuated in the crime of which he 
 was adjudged guilty. That a judge has thought it 
 his duty so to have done I have no doubt ; but where 
 is the boasted freedom of your institutions — where 
 is the vaunted impartiality, clemency, and mildness 
 of your courts of justice, if an unfortunate prisoner, 
 whom your policy and not justice is about to deliver 
 into the hands of the executioner, is not suffered to 
 explain his motives, sincerely and truly, and to vin- 
 dicate the principles by which he was actuated ? 
 
 'My lords, it may be a part of the system of 
 angry justice to bow a man's mind by humiliation to 
 the purposed ignominy of the scaffold ; but worse to 
 
Robert Emmett. 23 
 
 me than the purposed shame or the scaffold's terrors 
 would be the tame endurance of such foul and un- 
 founded imputations as have been laid against me in 
 this court. You, my lord, are a judge. I am the 
 supposed culprit. I am a man — you are a man also. 
 By a revolution of power we might change places, 
 though we never could change characters. If I stand 
 at the bar of this court and dare not vindicate my 
 character, what a farce is your justice! If I stand 
 at this bar and dare not vindicate my character, how 
 dare you calumniate it? Does the sentence of death, 
 which your unhallowed policy inflicts on my body, 
 condemn my tongue to silence and my reputation to 
 reproach? Your executioner may abridge the period 
 of my existence, but while I exist I shall not forbear 
 to vindicate my character and motives from your 
 aspersions ; and, as a man to whom fame is dearer 
 than life, I will make the last use of that life in doing 
 justice to that reputation which is to live after me, 
 and which is the only legacy I can leave those I 
 honour and love, and for whom I am proud to perish. 
 As men, my lord, we must appear on the great day 
 at one common tribunal ; and it will then remain for 
 the Searcher of all hearts to show a collective universe 
 who was eno;a2:ed in the most virtuous actions, or 
 actuated by the purest motives — my country's op- 
 pressors or ' 
 
 Here he was told to listen to the law. 
 
 ' My lords, will a dying man be denied the legal 
 privilege of exculpating himself in the eyes of the 
 
24 Ireland in '98. 
 
 community from a reproach thrown upon him during 
 his trial, by charging him with ambition, and at- 
 tempting to cast away, for a paltry consideration, the 
 liberties of his country? Why, then, insult me, or rather 
 why insult justice, m demanding of me why sentence 
 of death should not be pronounced against me ? I 
 know, my lords, that the form prescribes that you 
 should put the question, the form also confers a right 
 of answering. This no doubt may be dispensed 
 with, and so might the whole ceremony of the trial, 
 since sentence was already pronounced at the Castle 
 before your jury were impanelled. Your lordships 
 are but the priests of the oracle, and I submit, but I 
 insist on the whole of the forms.' 
 
 Here Emmett paused, and the court desired him 
 to proceed. 
 
 ' I have been charged with that imj)ortance in the 
 efforts to emancipate my country, as to be considered 
 the keystone of the combination of Irishmen, or, as 
 it has been expressed, " the life and blood of this 
 conspiracy." 
 
 ' You do honour me overmuch ; j^^ou have given 
 to the subaltern all the credit of the superior. There 
 are men concerned in this conspiracy who are not 
 only superior to me, but even to your own concej)tion 
 of yourself, my lord ; men before the splendour of 
 whose genius and virtues I should bow with re- 
 spectful deference, and who would not deign to call 
 you friend — who would not disgrace themselves by 
 shaking your blood-stained hand.' 
 
Robert Emmett. 25 
 
 Lord Norbury interrupted. 
 
 ' What, my lord, shall you tell me — on my pas- 
 sage to the scaffold that that tyranny of which you 
 are only the intermediate minister has erected for my 
 death — that I am accountable for all the blood that 
 has and will be shed in this struggle of the oppressed 
 against the oppressor ? Shall you tell me this — and 
 must I be so very a slave as not to repel it ? 
 
 ' I do not fear to approach the Omnipotent Judge 
 to answer for the conduct of my short life ; and am I 
 to stand appalled here before a mere remnant of mor- 
 tality? Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge 
 me with dishonour — let no man attaint my memory 
 by believing that I could have engaged in any cause 
 but of my country's liberty and independence. The 
 proclamation of the Provisional Government speaks 
 my views — no inference can be tortured from it 
 to countenance barbarity or debasement ; I would 
 not have submitted to a foreign oppression, for the 
 same reason that I would have resisted tyranny at 
 home.' 
 
 Lord Norbury : ' Mr. Emmett, you have been 
 called upon to show cause, if any you have, why the 
 judgment of the land should not be enforced against 
 you. Instead of showing anythmg in point of law, 
 you have proceeded in a manner the most unbecom- 
 ing a person in your station ; you have avoided 
 and endeavoured to vindicate principles totally sub- 
 versive of the government, totally subversive of the 
 tranquillity, well-being, and happiness of that country 
 
26 Ireland in '98. 
 
 which gave you birth, and you have broached treason 
 the most abominable. 
 
 ' You, sir, had the honour to be a gentleman by 
 birth, and your father filled a respectable situation 
 under the Government. You had an eldest brother 
 whom death snatched away, and who when living 
 was one of the greatest ornaments of the bar. The 
 law of his country was the study of his youth ; and 
 the study of his mature life was to cultivate and 
 support them. He left you a proud example to 
 follow ; and, if he had lived, he would have given 
 your talents the same virtuous direction as his own, 
 and have taught you to admire and preserve that 
 constitution, for the destruction of which you have 
 conspired with the most profligate and abandoned, 
 and associated with hostlers, bakers, butchers, and 
 such persons whom you invited to council when you 
 erected your Provisional Government.' 
 
 ' If the spirits,' said Emmett, ' of the illustrious 
 dead participate in the concerns of those who were 
 dear to them in this transitory scene, dear shade of 
 my venerated father, look down on your sufl'ering 
 son, and see, has he for a moment deviated from those 
 moral and patriotic principles which you so early 
 instilled into his youthful mind, and for which he 
 has now to offer up his life ? 
 
 ' My lord, you are impatient for the sacrifice. 
 The blood which you seek is not congealed by the 
 artificial terrors which surround your victim — it cir- 
 culates warmly and unrufiled through its channels. 
 
Robert Emm eft. 27 
 
 and in a little time it will cry to heaven. Be ye 
 yet patient ! I have but a few more words to say : 
 I am going to my cold and silent grave — my lamp 
 of life is nearly extinguished — I have parted with 
 everything that is dear to me in this life, and for my 
 country's cause, with the idol of my soul, the object 
 of my affections. My race is run, the grave opens 
 to receive me, and I sink into its bosom. I have but 
 one request to ask at my departure from this world 
 — it is the charity of silence. Let no man write my 
 epitaph ; for as no man who knows my motives dare 
 now vindicate them, let no prejudice or ignorance 
 asperse them. Let them rest m obscurity and peace, 
 my memory be left in oblivion, and my tomb remain 
 uninscribed until other times and other men can do 
 justice to my character. When my country takes 
 her place among the nations of the earth, then, and 
 not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have 
 done.' 
 
 Emmett pronounced this speech in a clear ringing 
 voice that penetrated every corner of the court, and 
 with a grace of manner which profoundly impressed 
 those assembled. After the address Lord Norbury 
 pronounced the death sentence, ordering the prisoner 
 to be executed the following day. Emmett' s trial 
 commenced on the morning of September 18, 1803, 
 and terminated the same evening at ten o'clock ; a 
 few hours were all that were given to him to prepare 
 for eternity. Tuesday was the day fixed for execu- 
 tion ; he had prayed of the Attorney-General, through 
 
28 Ireland in '98. 
 
 his counsel, not to be brought up for judgment till 
 Wednesday. This application was refused ; the 
 ministers of justice were impatient for the sacrifice. 
 Emmett was removed at ten o'clock at night to New- 
 gate ; there he was loaded with irons, and thrown 
 into one of the condemned cells, heavily fettered. It 
 was here that he heard of the death of his mother, 
 which occurred the night before. Poor Mrs. Emmett 
 was crushed with the intelligence of her son's fate. 
 The news of his condemnation proved too much for 
 her ; like Sheare's mother, she was hurried to the 
 grave by the calamity which had befallen her youngest 
 son. Only one year before she had lost her husband ; 
 it w^as a mercy she was taken away from her great 
 misery. 
 
 The scaffold on which the young martyr suffered 
 was a mere temporary arrangement, consisting of a 
 few boards laid across a number of empty barrels, 
 that were placed for this purpose nearly in the 
 middle of the street. Through this platform rose 
 two posts, fifteen feet high, and a traverse beam was 
 placed across them. Underneath the beam, about 
 three feet from the platform, was a single narrow 
 plank supported on two ledges, on which the prisoner 
 was to stand at the moment of being launched into 
 eternity. The platform was about six feet from the 
 ground, and was ascended by a ladder. 
 
 When Emmett alighted from the carriage, and 
 was led to the foot of the scaff'old, his arms being 
 tied, he was assisted to ascend by the executioner, 
 
Robert Emmett. 29 
 
 but he mounted quickly and with apparent alacrity. 
 He addressed a few words to the crowd in a firm, 
 sonorous voice, avoiding any reference to political 
 matters, or to the events with which his fate was con- 
 nected. He merely said : ' My friends, I die in peace, 
 and with sentiments of universal love and kindness 
 towards all men.' He then shook hands with some 
 friends who were near, presented his watch to the 
 executioner, and removed his stock. The immediate 
 preparations for execution were then carried into 
 effect ; he assisted in adjustmg the rope round his 
 neck, and was then placed on the plank underneath 
 the beam, with the cap drawn over his face ; but he 
 contrived to raise his hand and partly remove the 
 cap, and spoke a few words in a low tone to the 
 executioner. The cap was replaced, and he stood 
 with a handkerchief in his hand, the fall of which 
 was to be the signal for the last act of the finisher 
 of the law. After standing on the plank for a few 
 seconds, the executioner asked, ' Are you ready, 
 sir ? ' One of his friends who stood close by dis- 
 tinctly heard Robert Emmett say in reply, ' Not 
 yet.' There was another momentary pause — no 
 signal was given ; again the executioner repeated 
 the question, and the reply ' Not yet,' was given. 
 The question was put a third time, and the same 
 gentleman who gave the report, heard Emmett pro- 
 nounce the word ' Not ' ; but before he had time 
 
 to utter another word, the executioner tilted one 
 end of the plank off the ledge, and a human being, 
 
30 Ireland in '98. 
 
 full of genius, patriotism, and truth, was dangling 
 like a dog, writhing in the agonies of the most re- 
 volting and degrading of all deaths. God's noblest 
 work was used as if His image was not in it, or as 
 if its disfig:urement was a matter of slight moment, 
 scarce worth a passing thought on the part of those 
 ' dressed in a little brief authority.' 
 
 After hanging for a moment motionless, life 
 terminated with one convulsive movement of the 
 body. At the expiration of the usual time the 
 remains were taken down, and extended on the scaf- 
 fold. The head was struck from the body, grasped 
 by the hair, and paraded along the front of the 
 gallows by the hangman, proclaiming to the multi- 
 tude, ' This is the head of a traitor ! ' Near the 
 scaifold, where the blood had fallen on the pavement 
 from between the planks of the platform, some dogs 
 collected, lapping up the blood ; more than one spec- 
 tator loitered about, and, when the soldiers drove 
 the dogs away, dipped their handkerchiefs in the 
 blood of one of the truest and noblest sons of 
 Ireland, who freely but rashly gave his life for his 
 country. His body was laid in Mitcham churchyard, 
 and soon after a very large stone, without any 
 writing on it, was placed over the grave. 
 
 Eobert Emmett died in the twenty- fifth year of his 
 age. In stature he was about five feet eight inches ; 
 slight in person, active, and capable of enduring 
 great fatigue. His features were regular ; his eyes 
 small, bright, and full of expression ; his nose sharp, 
 
Bohert Emmett. 31 
 
 thin, and straight ; his complexion sallow. There 
 was nothing remarkable in his appearance except 
 when excited in conversation ; and when he spoke 
 in public on any subject that deeply interested 
 him, his countenance beamed with animation, he no 
 longer seemed the same person, every feature became 
 expressive of his emotions — his gesture, his action, 
 everything about him seemed subservient to the 
 impulses of his feelings, and harmonised with the 
 emanations of his brilliant intellect. 
 
 The question of the legal guilt of engaging under 
 any circumstances or with any motive, however pure, 
 in such an enterprise as that of 1803 it is needless to 
 descant upon. The question of the moral guilt of 
 embarking on such an enterprise as an appeal to the 
 sword is one which the defenders of the Revolution of 
 1688 treat as a problem, the solution of which depends 
 on the consideration of the probability and ultimate 
 advantage of success, the sufficiency of the means, 
 the extent of the popular support, and the amount of 
 sufFermg occasioned by the struggle. Whenever re- 
 bellion has been unsuccessful a prima facie case of 
 moral guilt is established. Had Washington failed it 
 would never have been conceded that he was justified 
 in resisting oppression. The chance, however, of 
 success or failure does not determine the question of 
 moral guilt or justification. In Emmett's case it is 
 evident that he was the victim of deception, that he 
 was deluded, misled, and sacrificed by designing men, 
 with whose machinations his youth, inexperience, and 
 
32 Ireland in '98. 
 
 confiding nature were unfit to cope. Meshed in the 
 toils of villainy, what possibility of success was there 
 for his plans, had they been carried mto execution in 
 the capital? Had the representations made to him of 
 extensive co-operation been realised, were these plans 
 of his adequate to the accomplishment of his object? 
 Could that object be attained without the shedding of 
 much blood, had his plans been carried into success- 
 ful operation in the capital, the probability is that 
 Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford, Carlow, and Kilkenny 
 would have immediately risen, and that in one week 
 from the outbreak six counties at least would have 
 been in rebellion. His plans necessarily depended 
 for success on the realisation of the assurances he re- 
 ceived of co-operation in the provinces. They were 
 adequate to the proposed object, provided treachery 
 was not stalking behind each attempt to put them in 
 operation. The men of '98 were four years organis- 
 ing the country ; the more they organised the more 
 they were betrayed. Emmett traced the failure in 
 '98 to this system of widespread and long-pursued 
 organisation. He left the people alone, he counted 
 on them whenever they were wanted ; all his orga- 
 nisation was of his plans in the caj)ital, and all his 
 preparations consisted in providing weapons, ammu- 
 nition, and warlike contrivances for his adherents. 
 Four months were spent in the preparations of the 
 men of 1803 ; four years were spent in those of the 
 men of '98. The latter counted half a million of en- 
 rolled members, the former counted on the rising of 
 
Robert Emmett. 33 
 
 nineteen counties whenever they should be called on. 
 There was no swearing in of the members in 1803, 
 consequently no professed traitors. Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald expected 300,000 would take the field. 
 Kobert Emmett expected the great body of the 
 people would be with him if once his plans in Dublin 
 were successful ; they failed, and he found himself 
 at the head of eighty followers on the 23rd of July, 
 when he sallied forth to attack the Castle. Drunken- 
 ness, disorder, treacliery, and plunder destroyed his 
 chance of success. What would have been the result 
 if his attempt had been made under different circum- 
 stances ? A result attended with more real peril to 
 the Government than anything that had environed it 
 in the course of the former rebellion. 
 
 In European countries, where revolutions have 
 taken place without much effusion of blood, they 
 have invariably been commenced in the capital. 
 When attempts to revolt have been begun in the 
 provinces, the shedding of blood has generally been 
 in a ratio with the distance from the capital. One of 
 the chief reasons for Emmett's determination to strike 
 the first blow in the capital, and to paralyse the 
 action of the Government at its source, was to avoid 
 as much as possible the effusion of blood. His con- 
 duct after the failure of his plans in Dublin is a proof 
 that the disposition of his mind led to this determi- 
 nation. When Lord Kil warden's murder was made 
 known to him, he felt like Harvey at the sight of 
 the smouldering ashes of the barn of Scullabogue 
 
 D 
 
34 Ireland in '98. 
 
 when he said, ' Our hopes of liberty are now at an 
 end.' He was pressed to make the signal of the 
 second and third rocket for the advance of tlie men 
 in reserve. He refused to do so ; there was no hope 
 of success, and he would not be the means of un- 
 necessary blood-shedding. He was deceived from the 
 beginning and deserted at the end by many who 
 made large promises of support when there was a 
 mere possibility, but not a reasonable expectation, of 
 success, and who were found wanting when danger 
 and the doubtfulness of the issue presented them- 
 selves to their view. 
 
 There is another matter of consideration connected 
 with this enterprise, worthy of observation. The 
 authorities of the day were not ignorant of the pre- 
 parations that were making in Dublin for the insur- 
 rection of 1803. The full extent of them they 
 probably did not know at the commencement, but 
 the general objects and the principal parties engaged 
 in them were known to Lord Hardwicke. The Lord- 
 Lieutenant had an allowance of 60,000/. a year for 
 secret service money in order to enable him to procure 
 information of any conspiracy that might be carried 
 on. The parliamentary record of the despatches 
 between the Government and the general can leave 
 little doubt on that subject. In 1808 Mr. Windham 
 maintained the monstrous doctrine that rebellion was 
 to be fostered till it came to a head, that the cure 
 might be radical. 
 
 This might be good policy for a general against 
 
Robert Emmetf. 35 
 
 an open enemy, but it was infamous in a government 
 ao;ainst rebels. The habit then was to foment con- 
 spiracy, to give excuse for extreme severity when the 
 moment for suppression arrived. This was how poor 
 Emmett met his fate, ministered to by spies baiting 
 on to treason, till they brought their victim to the 
 dust. So the plot of great reason and small difficulty 
 came to a short end. 
 
 When Emmett was sent to prison he took aside 
 the jailor and gave him a letter for Miss Curran and 
 all the money he had about him, and begged that he 
 would deliver it safe. The man, in the discharge of 
 his duty, gave the letter to the Attorney-General. 
 Emmett found this out, and immediately sent to the 
 Government to say that he had imprudently written 
 such a letter ; that it had come to their hands ; he 
 had thus injured an innocent woman, and, knowing 
 how much the Government were afraid of his ad- 
 dressing the people at his execution, he begged of 
 them to have the letter delivered, and if they refused 
 he would not fail to address the people, and would 
 do so with greater determination ; but if they sent 
 the letter he would agree to appear in court, plead 
 guilty, and go to execution without saying a word. 
 This request was denied. 
 
 During the whole period of his last residence in 
 Dublin, after his return from the Continent, an active 
 correspondence was carried on between him and Miss 
 Curran. This correspondence fell into the hands of 
 Major Sirr at the time of Emmett's arrest. They re- 
 
36 Ireland in '98. 
 
 mained long in his possession, classed with rebellious 
 papers, and were afterwards burnt by Major Sirr some 
 years before his death. The truculent major in de- 
 stroying those papers has not destroyed the memory 
 of Robert Emmett, or diminished the mournful in- 
 terest that is felt in everything that relates to Sarah 
 Cur ran. 
 
 Anne Devlin was the bearer of several letters 
 between the lovers. Of Miss Curran she says : ' Her 
 face used to change so when she received one of those 
 notes, one would hardly know her. You could not 
 see Miss Curran without liking her ; and yet she 
 was not handsome.' She is described as not tall, 
 very slight, dark complexion, with eyes large and 
 black, and ' her look was the mildest, the softest, and 
 sweetest ever seen.' Her attachment to Emmett 
 nearly compromised her father. When it is remem- 
 bered how obnoxious Curran had rendered himself to 
 the Government, while a member of the House of 
 Commons, as well as by the part he took in defend- 
 inof the rebels in the various State trials from 1794 to 
 the end of 1798, his vexation can be imagined at an 
 occurrence which left him at the mercy of the Govern- 
 ment, rendering it necessary for him to appear at once 
 before the Privy Council in the character, no longer 
 of an intrepid advocate for others, but of a suspected 
 person, who had to enter into explanations of his 
 own conduct. This circumstance added to Miss Cur- 
 ran's unhappiness, and eventually led to her leaving 
 home. The lovers had no final interview. But the 
 
Robert Enimett. 37 
 
 morning of his execution there was a coach stationed 
 at a short distance from the jail, and in it a lady 
 with her face closely veiled. When the prisoner left 
 the jail, and the carriage in which he was placed 
 approached the spot where the other vehicle was 
 drawn up, Robert Emmett put his head out of the 
 window, gazed intently at the person who was in it, 
 and waved his hand several times till he was out of 
 sight. 
 
 At the moment Emmett passed, the lady referred 
 to removed her veil, stood up in the carriage, waved 
 her handkerchief, and sank back on the seat. The 
 lady was said to be Sarah Curran. At dusk of 
 evening she frequently visited the grave of her lover. 
 Soon after this she left her father's house ; her 
 wretchedness found no alleviation there, and the very 
 constraint imposed on her feelings was productive of 
 additional misery. She visited a Quaker gentleman 
 in Cork, who found it necessary to leave Ireland 
 during the troubles of '98. Here she was treated 
 with the utmost kindness and delicacy. It was while 
 on a visit with Mr. Penrose she became acquainted 
 with Major Sturgeon, her future husband. After 
 some time this poor, friendless, homeless girl, de- 
 pendent on the kindness of almost strangers, en- 
 dured the attention of this reiined gentleman, who 
 heard her story, was touched with her fidelity and 
 devotion towards her dead lover, and finally resolved 
 to make her his wife. She accepted frankly, confess- 
 ing that she had no heart to give. Major Sturgeon's 
 
38 Ireland in '1 
 
 proposal embraced the project of a residence in a 
 southern climate. Any project that afforded an 
 opportunity of leaving Ireland had a recommenda- 
 tion. Robert Emmett's memory was not forgotten ; 
 its claim on her heart was recognised and acknow- 
 ledged by the friend and protector who has assumed 
 a husband's title, to prove the generosity and benevo- 
 lence of his nature, in his care and protection of one 
 who was worthy of so much pity as well as admi- 
 ration. Her husband's regiment was ordered to 
 Malta, but her health became every day worse. Two 
 years after her marriage she died of a broken heart 
 in Sicily, where her husband had taken her for a 
 change. Her remains were afterwards brought to 
 Ireland, and buried at Newmarket, the burial-place 
 of her father's family. The circumstance of her 
 residence in a southern climate, and her melancholy 
 state of health and spirits, is made the subject of a 
 few lines of Moore's, which for their exquisite beauty 
 and tender pathos cannot be surpassed ; 
 
 MISS CURRAN. 
 
 She is far fi'om the land where her young hero sleeps, 
 
 And lovers around her are sighing ; 
 But coldly she turns from their gaze and weeps, 
 
 JFor her heart in his grave is lying. 
 
 She sings the wild song of her dear native land. 
 
 Every note which he loved awaking — 
 Ah ! little they think who delight in her strain 
 
 How the heart of the minstrel is breaking ! 
 
Robert Emmett. 39 
 
 He had lived for his love, for his country he died : 
 They were all that to life had entwined him — 
 
 Nor soon shall the tears of his country be dried, 
 Nor long will his love stay behind him. 
 
 Oh ! make her a grave where the sunbeams rest, 
 
 When they promise a glorious morrow ; 
 They'll shine o'er her sleep, like a smile from the West, 
 
 From her own lov'd island of sorrow. 
 
 The reader who takes an interest in the fate of 
 Sarah Curran may like to hear something of the 
 chivalrous gentleman who, touched with her story, 
 consented to provide for her wants by giving her his 
 name and the hospitality of his roof. He was a 
 gentleman of independent means and high culture. 
 His mother was a daughter of Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald. His military career was most distinguished. 
 He served in Egypt, and found a soldier's grave 
 before the heights of Badajoz. In the Duke of 
 Wellington's despatches, Major Sturgeon, of tlie 
 Royal Staff Corps, is particularly noticed for dis- 
 tinguished action on the field. 
 
41 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 SECRET SOCIETIES} 
 
 Whiteboys — Religious persecution — Nicholas Sheehy — Accusations 
 against him — His fate — Oakboys — Hearts-of steel-boys — Religious 
 war — Peep-of-day-boys — Orangemen — Their excesses — First 
 Orange lodge — Address of Lord Gosford — Orange toast — Con- 
 spiracies of Orangemen— Joseph Hume — Puritan resolutions — 
 Outrages committed by Orangemen — Lord Castlereagh — Contagion 
 of American and French revolutions — Use of torture — Mr. 
 Beresford's 'Mangling' establishment — 'Beresford's bloodhounds' 
 — His failure and ruin — Colonel Luttrell — Junius, on his degrada- 
 tion — Lady Elizabeth Luttrell — Her degradation and fate — Bar- 
 barities of Hepenstall — ' The Walking Gallows ' — Lord Norbury — 
 Anecdotes — Absentee bishops — Pension list — The Duke of Rutland 
 — Anecdote. 
 
 The various outbreaks of popular discontent which 
 took place between 1760 and 1790, and obtained the 
 name of insurrections and popish rebellions, can only 
 be regarded as agrarian outrages, the result of op- 
 pressive measures taken for the collection of exorbi- 
 tant rents, the exaction of tithes, and the conversion 
 of the small holdings of the peasantry into pastures. 
 The destitution attendant on those measures drove 
 the persons thus beggared and deprived of house and 
 
 ^ This 'chapter is an addition calculated to throw light on the 
 eriod not included in Dr. Madden's writing, but based on informa- 
 on derived from a variety of sources.— Ed. 
 
42 Irelarid in '98. 
 
 home to those acts of violence which usually follow 
 in the footsteps of distress. In the absence of manu- 
 facturing industry, the great majority of the people 
 were wholly dependent on the soil. In Ireland there 
 was no poor law ; the great landlords were absentees, 
 the practice of sub-letting the land had reduced the 
 immediate cultivators to such abject poverty that the 
 people were soon brought face to face with starvation. 
 The local magistracy consisted exclusively of Pro- 
 testant landlords, who were the omnipotent rulers of 
 the country. 
 
 It is not surprising that such a condition should 
 at length produce an insurrection of despair. It was 
 then that one broke out, extending over the counties 
 of Cork, Waterford, Limerick, and Tipperary, the 
 members of which were known as Whiteboys, a name 
 given them from the circumstance that in action they 
 wore white shirts over their dress. This body of 
 insurgents aimed at redressing the wrongs of then* 
 country by intimidating landlords and tithe proctors, 
 and the supineness of the local magistrates in the 
 discharge of their duties enabled the organisation to 
 spread and plant its roots deep in the country. The 
 movement was frequently checked in its operation, but 
 broke out more fiercely, and continued with partial in- 
 terruptions till 1785, when it spread through Munster. 
 Every season of distress intensified its character, it 
 went on assuming many names, and aiming at many 
 different objects, and it cannot be said to be extinct 
 at the present day. The Whiteboys boldly announced 
 
Secret Societies. 43 
 
 that tliey wished to do justice to the poor by restor- 
 ing the ancient commons filched from the people, 
 regulating the whole relation of landlord and tenant, 
 and enforcing a new system of law wholly diiferent 
 from the law of the land. They issued proclamations 
 forbidding any man under terrible penalties to pay 
 higher rates of tithes than they specified. They 
 seized arms, and compelled all whom they suspected 
 of connivance with the Government, to abandon their 
 farms, and avenged by fearful crimes every infringe- 
 ment of their code. For a time it almost paralysed 
 the law, while the panic which it inspired spread far 
 and wide. Every crime that took place was attri- 
 buted to the Whiteboy organisation, and though 
 the deeds they executed were many and grievous, 
 they were greatly and often systematically exagge- 
 rated with the view of rousing the Government to 
 institute repressive measures. There was no general 
 attack on the landlords or on the clergy of the Esta- 
 blished Church except particular off*enders ; most of 
 the outbreaks were agrarian ; in others they were 
 directed against tithes. A strong attempt was made 
 to attribute this outbreak to political and religious 
 causes ; it was stated that French money was found 
 in the pockets of arrested Whiteboys, and that the 
 whole movement was a popish insurrection directed 
 against Protestants, and as such fostered by the 
 French, with whom we were at war. Fear and religious 
 hatred combined to make men believe any story which 
 gave a colour to the theory that a massacre of the 
 
44 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Protestants was intended. This, however, was a 
 wilful perversion of facts, for the Whiteboy disturb- 
 ance did not take place till the year 1761, more than 
 a year after the expedition headed by Thurot. The 
 Government in Ireland, however, with praiseworthy 
 honesty discouraged the rumours which represented 
 the outrages as distinctly popish. Many of the 
 Catholic bishops used all their spiritual censures for 
 the purpose of repressing Whiteboyism, and some 
 received the thanks of the Lord-Lieutenant for their 
 strenuous support. Lord Chesterfield, never very 
 partial to Ireland, stated that the people were used 
 ' worse than the negroes by their lords and masters, 
 their deputies of deputies of deputies,' and ascribed 
 Whiteboyism to the sentiment in every human heart 
 ' that asserts man's natural right to liberty and good 
 usage, and that will and ought to rebel when op- 
 pressed and provoked.' Even Fitzgibbon, the most 
 degenerate Irishman of his day, frankly asserted : ' I 
 am well acquainted with the province of Munster, and 
 I know that it is impossible for human wretched- 
 ness to exceed that of the miserable peasantry of that 
 province. I know that the unhappy tenantry are 
 ground to powder by relentless landlords. It is im- 
 possible for them any longer to exist in the ex- 
 treme wretchedness under which they labour. A 
 poor man is obliged to pay 6/. for an acre of potatoes, 
 wiiicli 6/. he is oblio^ed to work out with his landlord 
 at bd. a day.' It was asserted that the Whiteboy 
 disturbance was a kind of religious war, and an 
 
LIMBEKLIP, THE PRIEST KILLER. 
 
 To face p. 44. 
 
Secret Societies. 45 
 
 attempt was made to make it another occasion for 
 religious prosecution. A charge of disaffection was 
 made against an Irish Roman Catholic priest, exciting 
 much interest at the time, and the memory of which 
 is not yet forgotten. Nicholas Sheehy, parish priest 
 of Cloheen, in the county of Tipperary, was a man of 
 respectable parentage, and related to several of the 
 Catholic gentry of the district. He was a bold and 
 fearless advocate of justice and humanity, gifted with 
 a generous disposition, and animated with a strong 
 hatred of oppression. The qualities which rendered 
 him obnoxious to the enemies of a poor persecuted 
 people left him naked and open to their enmity. He 
 was courageous and confiding, chivalrous in his 
 defence of the poor and the oppressed, but incau- 
 tiously prominent in vindicating their cause. The 
 first disturbance in his neighbourhood was connected 
 with their resistance of a new claim on the Roman 
 Catholic people in his district of five shillings for every 
 marriage celebrated by a priest. There can be no 
 doubt that Father Sheehy encouraged the people in 
 resisting this unjust charge ; he also took part in their 
 discussions ; collected money for the defence of the 
 rioters, who were his parishioners, and the acquittal 
 of any of them was attributed to his interference. 
 Sheehy had by this made himself in the highest 
 degree obnoxious to the Protestant gentry of the 
 neighbourhood, who had him arrested ; he was, how- 
 ever, released through want of evidence, and found 
 it necessary to leave his parish for some time. This 
 
46 Ireland in '98. 
 
 absence was construed as a ground of fresh offence, 
 and a reward of 300/. was offered by the Government 
 for his apprehension. 
 
 When Sheehy heard of the proclamation, he wrote 
 from his concealment, offering to surrender, if his trial 
 would not be conducted in Clonmel, where he feared 
 the malice of his enemies was stronger than their love 
 of justice. The offer was accepted. He was charged 
 with inciting to rebellion and riot ; the only witnesses 
 against him were some persons of abandoned character. 
 After fourteen days' trial the prisoner was acquitted. 
 He was not, however, allowed to leave the court, but 
 was detained on a fresh charge of inciting Whiteboys 
 to murder a man named Bridge, who through torture 
 was forced to give evidence against his Whiteboy 
 companions. The body of Bridge was never found. 
 In spite of the promise made to Sheehy, his trial took 
 place in Clonmel, and, as he suspected, his enemies were 
 too strong for him. The unhappy man was found 
 guilty, hanged and cjuartered. With his last breath 
 on the scaffold he protested his absolute innocence of 
 the charge for which he suffered. The priest may 
 not have been innocent of some of the charges brought 
 against him, particularly in stirring up the people to 
 resist their oppressors, but no one believed him guilty of 
 the murder of Bridge, while all felt that the trial was a 
 mockery of justice. The murder of this man left a deep 
 and lasting resentment in the popular mind, without 
 deterring any of the atrocities committed by the 
 Whiteboys. 
 
Secret Societies. 47 
 
 While the Whiteboy disturbances were spreading 
 in the south among the Catholic peasantry, another 
 revolt of a similar character broke out amongst the 
 Protestants of the north. The disturbers took the 
 name of ' Oakboys ' m consequence of their wearing 
 in their hats green boughs of oak. The Oakboys 
 rose to resist a recent Act which ordered that all the 
 highways should be repaired by the personal labour 
 of the householders. 
 
 Every man was bound to give six days' labour in 
 the year, and whoever had a horse was bound to give 
 six days' use of the horse as well. At this time the 
 landed proprietors, who constituted the grand juries, 
 had made roads which were of little use to the com- 
 munity at large, but only useful for the exclusive 
 benefit of their own estates ; they wished to throw the 
 burden of making and repairing these on the poorest 
 of the community. In addition to this, the question 
 of the tithes became a grievance in the north as well 
 as in the south. In 1763 a general refusal to work 
 was followed by a rising and a demand for a redress of 
 all grievances against tithe proctors and landlords. 
 A new and more equitable Road Act at last restored 
 peace and tranquillity to the north, which nothing but 
 threats could otherwise have procured. 
 
 Hardly had this disturbance been put down than 
 another outbreak took place in the north. The Mar- 
 quis of Donegal was one of the largest landed pro- 
 prietors in the north of Ireland. He was an absentee, 
 and when his leases fell in, instead of renewing them 
 
f 
 
 48 Ireland in '98. 
 
 at a moderate increase of rent, he determined to raise 
 a sum of 100,000/. in fines upon his tenantry, which 
 they were unable to pay. The consequences were 
 that their improvements were confiscated, their land 
 turned into pasture, the whole population driven from 
 their homes, and the land let to some rich merchants 
 in Belfast. Many of the smaller landlords m the 
 north followed the example of the Marquis of Done- 
 gal. The people complained that they were reduced 
 to poverty, and those who refused to pay the extrava- 
 gant rents demanded were replaced by Papists, who 
 were ready to promise anything in order to get a 
 footing on the land which was formerly torn from 
 them. The conduct of the gentry brought the misery 
 of the Ulster tenantry to a climax in a short time ; 
 thousands of ejected tenants banded together under 
 the name of ' Steelboys,' determined to fight for 
 their rights. They destroyed cattle, attacked houses, 
 administered illegal oaths, and undertook the part of 
 general reformers. Large bodies of soldiers were 
 sent down to the disturbed districts, and an Act 
 was passed authorising the removal of the trials from 
 the disturbed counties to Dublin, and accordingly 
 some of the rioters were tried there, but the feeling 
 against the new law was so strong that they were ac- 
 quitted. In December 1773 Parliament retraced its 
 steps and repealed the obnoxious Act, but thousands 
 of the sturdy farmers turned their backs on the 
 country and sought a refuge in the New England 
 colonies. The ejected tenants of tliose northern es- 
 
Secret Societies. 49 
 
 tates, with deep resentment in their hearts, formed a 
 large part of the revolutionary armies which severed 
 the colonies from England. 
 
 Royal commissions were appointed to inquire into 
 the causes of the disturbances both of the Whiteboys, 
 Oakboys, and Hearts-of-steel-boys. The legislation 
 which followed affords a striking illustration of the 
 way in which party feeling and class interests have 
 always ruled in Ireland. The complaints of the 
 Steelboys were against their landlords. For them 
 came no redress. The Oakboys were a Protestant 
 community, which entitled them to some hearing. 
 The Act relating to the byways was repealed, and a 
 provision was made for the future repair of the roads 
 by a rate levied on rich and poor alike in every 
 barony. The grievance of the Whiteboys was pre- 
 cisely similar, but they were Roman Catholics. No 
 step was taken to prevent excessive enclosures of 
 the commons, but a bill was passed which made it 
 felony for more than six persons to assemble at night. 
 The grievance of the southern peasantry was refused 
 a hearing, and the policy of coercion was carried out 
 until the system grew into disaffection and rebellion. 
 The preceding notices of the condition of the people, 
 the cruelty of their oppressors, and the various 
 ao;rarian disturbances resultiner from them durins: a 
 period of thirty years, from the beginning of the 
 reign of George III. to the origin of the society of 
 United Irishmen in 1791, though apparently uncon- 
 
 E 
 
50 Ireland in '98. 
 
 nected with the particular epoch, are by no means 
 irrelevant to the subject. 
 
 In 1784 a religious war broke out between the 
 Protestants and Catholics in the county of Armagh. 
 The quarrel originated between two Presbyterian 
 peasants, grew into a village brawl, and soon spread 
 into the adjacent counties. Both parties w^ere sprung 
 from the lowest and most ignorant of the peasantry. 
 They met, fought, and several lives were lost. By 
 law the Roman Catholics were not entitled to possess 
 arms. The Protestants took advantage of this by 
 forming bands who went round at daybreak to make 
 domiciliary visits to their houses to search for arms, 
 and hence obtained the name ' Peep-of-day-boys.' 
 The Roman Catholics associated themselves for self- 
 protection, and went by the name of ' Defenders.' 
 
 So serious were those riots that bodies of volunteers 
 were revived for the purpose of keeping order ; but 
 this did not improve matters, as the volunteers, being 
 Protestants, generally sided with their co-religionists. 
 The magistrates showed a similar partiality. It was 
 on this plea of disturbance that the Government 
 made their demands for Coercion Bills. This con- 
 dition of affairs was due to the fanatical antagonism 
 of the two sections of the community, and the cul- 
 pable negligence of the magistrates. Tlie object of 
 the Protestant faction, known as Peep-of-day-boys, 
 or Wreckers, was to expel from the country the 
 Catholics who were scattered among the Protestants, 
 and get possession of their holdings. The Defenders 
 
Secret Societies. 51 
 
 had become so formidable that they were becoming 
 a terror to the country. They retaliated fiercely 
 on their persecutors, extending their operations to 
 attacking houses for the purpose of obtaining arms. 
 Eoving bands patrolled the country, and constant 
 fights were recurring. In the south and west, 
 Whiteboys reappeared under the name of Defenders, 
 with the old system of swearing the people not to 
 pay tithes, and intimidating landlords. 
 
 In September 1795 a large body of Defenders came 
 across a number of Peep-of-day-boys at a village called 
 the Diamond, where a regular battle took place, in 
 which the Defenders were beaten. The Protestants 
 set up a new organisation, demanding oaths of secrecy 
 fi'om all who were enrolled, and calling themselves 
 Orange lodges, from William, Prince of Orange, who 
 was supposed to have established Protestantism in the 
 north. The Catholics, after this transaction, never 
 attempted to make a stand, but the Orangemen com- 
 menced a persecution of the blackest dye. They 
 would no longer permit a Catholic to exist in the 
 country. They posted up in the cabins of these un- 
 fortunate victims this pithy notice : ' To Hell or 
 Connaught,' and appointed a limited time in which 
 the necessary removal of persons and property was 
 to be made. If, after the expiration of that period, 
 the notice had not been complied with, the Orange- 
 men assembled, destroyed the furniture, burnt the 
 habitation, and forced the ruined families to fly else- 
 where for shelter. While these outrages were going 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Ireland in '98. 
 
 on, the resident magistrates were not found to resist 
 them, and in some instances were even more than in- 
 active spectators. Catholics were attacked indiscrimi- 
 nately ; masters were compelled to dismiss Catholic 
 servants, landlords to dismiss Catholic tenants. The 
 first Orange lodge was formed on September 21, 
 1795, at the house of a man named Sloan, in the 
 obscure village of Loughgall. "What gave birth to 
 Orangeism was an attempt to plant colonies of Pro- 
 testants on farms or tenements of Catholics who had 
 been forcibly ejected. Numbers of them were seen 
 wandering about the country, hungry, half-naked, 
 and infuriated. The disturbances commenced in the 
 neiofhbourhood of Church Hill, between Portadown 
 and Dungannon, and then extended over nearly all 
 the northern counties. After many of the Catholics 
 were driven from the country, some found a refuge 
 in Connaught, the original settlement assigned the 
 Catholics by Cromwell. Years after, when peace 
 and quietness was restored, some returned. The 
 property which they left was transferred in most in- 
 stances to Protestants by the landlords. At first 
 the association was entirely confined to the lower 
 orders, but it soon worked its way upwards, and as 
 early as November 1789 there appears a correct re- 
 port of the rules and regulations ofiicially drawn up 
 and submitted to the Grand Lodge under the pre- 
 sidency of Thomas Verner, grand master, and J. C. 
 Beresford, grand secretary. 
 
 The state of the country soon after the formation 
 
Secret Societies. 53 
 
 of these societies is faithfully described in an address 
 which Lord Gosford, governor of Armagh, submitted 
 to all the leading magistrates. His lordshij) stated 
 that he had called them together to submit a plan to 
 their consideration for checking the enormities which 
 disgraced the country. ' It is no secret,' he says, 
 ' that persecution, accompanied with all the circum- 
 stances of ferocious cruelty which have in all ages 
 distinguished that dreadful calamity, is now raging in 
 this country. Neither age nor even acknowledged 
 innocence is sufficient to excite mercy, much less 
 afford protection. The only crime which the wretched 
 objects of this merciless persecution are charged with 
 is the crime of easy proof — it is simply a profession of 
 the Catholic faith. A lawless banditti have constituted 
 themselves judges of this species of delinquency, and 
 the sentence they pronounce is equally concise and 
 terrible : it is nothing less than confiscation of all 
 property and immediate banishment. It would be 
 extremely painful and surely unnecessary to detail 
 the horrors that attend the execution of so wide and 
 tremendous a proscription, which certainly exceeds, 
 in. the comparative number of those it consigns to 
 ruin and misery, every example that ancient and 
 modern history can afford ; for when have we heard, 
 or in what history of human cruelties have we read, 
 of more than half the inhabitants of a populous 
 country deprived at one blow of the means as well 
 as the fruits of their industry, and driven in the 
 midst of an inclement winter to seek shelter for 
 
54 Ireland in '98. 
 
 themselves and their hapless families where chance 
 may guide them ? This is no exaggerated picture of 
 the horrid scenes now acting in this country ; yet 
 surely it is sufficient to awaken sentiments of indig- 
 nation and compassion in the coldest heart. Those 
 horrors are now acting, and acting with impunity. 
 The spirit of impartial justice has for a time disap- 
 peared from this country, and the sujjineness of the 
 magistracy is a topic of conversation in every corner 
 of the kingdom.' 
 
 When the Insurrection Act and the Convention 
 Bill were introduced, the excesses of the peasantry, 
 whom they had goaded into resistance, were de- 
 nounced by the ^'^iceroy and the legal officers of the 
 Government, but not the slightest allusion was 
 made to the outrages of the exterminators of 
 Armagh : nay, bills of mdemnity were passed to 
 protect their leaders and magisterial accomplices from 
 all legal proceedings on the part of their victims. 
 As to the effects of these societies in promoting the 
 views of the United Irishmen, it is clearly ad- 
 mitted by their executive that the persecution of the 
 people of Armagh, the protection of the extermina- 
 tors, and the enactment of sanguinary laws, had not 
 only filled the ranks of the society, but led the 
 executive to the conclusion that the Government 
 had forfeited all claims to obedience and was to be 
 resisted. 
 
 The meetings at the various Orange lodges were 
 chiefly for the indulgence of festivity. The grand 
 
Secret Societies. 55 
 
 festival was on July 1, the anniversary of the Battle 
 of the Boyne, on which occasion the charter toast was 
 drunk by every member on his bare knees. The 
 standing dish was sheep's trotters, in delicate allusion 
 to Kino; James's last use of his lower extremities in 
 Ireland ; and, the cloth being removed, the charter 
 toast, the antiquity of which was of so ancient a date 
 as the year 1689, was pronounced by the grand 
 master on his bare joints to the kneeling assemblage 
 in the followino- words : — ' Here is toward the 
 glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the great 
 and good King William, not forgetting Oliver 
 Cromwell, who assisted in redeeming us from popery, 
 slavery, arbitrary power, brass money, and wooden 
 shoes,' &c. &c. The concluding part of this loyal 
 toast is a tissue of vulgar indecencies and impious 
 imprecations on 'bishops, priests, and deacons,' or any 
 other fraternity of the clergy who refused this toast, 
 consignmg their members to the operation of red-hot 
 harrows, and their mangled carcasses to the lower 
 
 Much may be learned from the toast, about which 
 there is no concealment. Brass money refers to 
 James's finance, and wooden shoes to his French 
 allies. Orangemen are still fond of beating drums 
 and flaunting flags, and the allusion to ' no sur- 
 render' will be enough to set any meeting of the 
 society on fire with blatant, ignorant enthusiasm. 
 The writer has lived for some time in the counties of 
 Tyrone and Down, and can personally vouch for the 
 
56 Ireland in '98. 
 
 existence of the same intolerant spirit which marked 
 the period of '98. 
 
 Few of the Orangemen of the north were pro- 
 bably actuated by the motives to which their pro- 
 ceedings are commonly attributed. It is generally 
 supposed that they were animated by a blind indis- 
 criminate fury against the people, solely on account 
 of their religion. This is not a fair statement, and 
 whoever inquires into the history of these times will 
 find it is not true. These men were impelled, as 
 their descendants are, by a simple desire to get pos- 
 session of property or privileges belonging to the 
 people who had not the power to protect either, and 
 to give their rapacity the colour of a zeal for the 
 interests of their own religion. 
 
 Orangemen constantly boast of their loyalty, but 
 this loyalty was contingent on their being left alone, 
 and on the refusal of the most ordinary rights to their 
 Catholic brethren. As a matter of fact, those Orange 
 societies were treasonable in the highest degree. In 
 the famous Kentish conspiracy, the Orangemen of 
 Dublin attempted to murder Lord Wellesley, the 
 Viceroy. They entered into a conspiracy to seat 
 their grand master, the Duke of Cumberland, upon 
 the throne, and to set aside the succession of the 
 Princess Victoria ; and, to secure this end, they tried 
 to corrupt the army and the Church. They managed 
 to win over one bishop to their side, and one of tlie 
 ablest of the judges ; they might have been success- 
 ful in their treasonable conspiracy were it not for the 
 
Secret Societies. 57 
 
 energy and watchfulness of that admirable Liberal, 
 Joseph Hume, who exposed and upset their plans. 
 By a unanimous vote of the Commons, indictments 
 were prepared against the leaders, including the Duke 
 of Cumberland. This grand master, however, before 
 the matter came to an issue, dissolved the societies, 
 and so the matter ended. This conspiracy was of 
 a formidable character, for when Mr. Hume took up 
 the matter, there were over 300,000 Orangemen en- 
 rolled in England and Ireland. Sir William Moles- 
 worth, later on, proposed that the leaders of the 
 Orangemen should be prosecuted. In 1845 there 
 was a revival of the Orange institutions, after the 
 check given to their former activity. They grew to 
 such alarming dimensions in 1857, that the Lord 
 Chancellor ordered all gentlemen to withdraw from 
 the Orange association, on pain of losing their com- 
 missions as justices of the peace. The old fire of 
 bigotry lingered and spread as far as Canada. This 
 led to attempts at insulting the Prince of Wales in 
 1860 when he visited that country. That the spirit 
 of insubordination is still alive and smoulderins: like 
 a fallen fire, may be inferred from the bitter animus 
 displayed by Orangemen toward their Catholic 
 brethren in the recent riots, fanned by the in- 
 temperate speech of Lord Randolph Churchill. 
 
 Orangemen were opposed to every measure of 
 importance in Ireland — the emancipation of the 
 Catholics, the accession of Queen Victoria, municipal 
 reform, disestablishment — and now they assail and 
 
58 Ireland in '98. 
 
 vilify the promoters of Home Rule, and threaten civil 
 war ; ditches are to be lined with those pot-house 
 heroes bearing rifles and Bibles. The writer has had 
 abundant opportunity of judging the heroes in ques- 
 tion, and the use they make of their Bibles, and has 
 no hesitation in declaring that, if their knowledge and 
 use of firearms are on a par with their knowledge and 
 use of the divine record, they will prove a very harm- 
 less army, and may be allowed to remain in their 
 self-elected situation — the ditch. 
 
 It would be doing the ascendency party a great 
 injustice to suj)pose that their animosity to their 
 Roman Catholic countrymen arose from a mere spirit 
 of fanaticism or of mistaken enthusiasm in their re- 
 ligious sentiments. The plan of converting souls, 
 by converting the soil of the old inhabitants of the 
 country to the use of the new settler, is of ancient 
 date. With this party the matter is one of money, 
 patronage, preferment, and property in land. 
 
 When the Puritans sought a refuge in America, 
 they found the most fertile portion of Massachusetts 
 in the possession of the Indians ; they did not think 
 of dispossessing the rightful owners of the broad 
 lands they coveted, without giving the sanctimonious 
 air of a religious proceeding to the contemplated 
 spoliation. They convened a meeting, which was 
 opened with prayer and all due solemnity, and the 
 following resolutions are said to have been passed 
 unanimously : 
 
Secret Societies. 59 
 
 Resolved — 1. ' That the earth is the Lord's and 
 the Mness thereof.' 
 
 2. ' That the Lord has given the earth as an 
 inheritance unto His saints.' 
 
 3. ' That we are His saints.' 
 
 The zeal of Oran2:emen on behalf of relimon was 
 indicated by a similar spirit. The penal code was 
 framed for the protection of confiscated property, and 
 the assumed hostility to the religion of the people 
 who were dispossessed, was only a practice in accord- 
 ance with the purport of the iniquitous statutes 
 which had already legalised three general confisca- 
 tions within a period of two hundred years. This 
 legalised system of rapine and proscription has been 
 productive of evils which are still felt, and those who, 
 along with the lands of the proscribed people, obtained 
 all the political privileges that were thought essential 
 to their new possessions, would have been more just 
 than the generality of mankind if, having the power 
 to protect the spoils they had obtained, they had not 
 abused their privileges, and did not see in every ex- 
 tension of the people's liberties another encroachment 
 on the limits of their power, influence, and political 
 pre-eminence. 
 
 In all these confederacies of the people arising 
 from agricultural distress, no matter how grinding 
 the oppression of the authorities, how cruel the 
 exactions of their landlords, how gallmg and exorbi- 
 tant the demands of the tithe proctors, there was no 
 
60 Ireland in '98. 
 
 availing sympathy from either the aristocracy or 
 squirearchy of the land. 
 
 The atrocities committed by the Orangemen on the 
 people, not only in the north but generally through the 
 country previous to the rebellion, have never been fully 
 revealed. In fact, little more is known of them than 
 is to be gathered from general descriptions of house 
 wrecking, cabin burning, and wholesale extermina- 
 tion. At one fell swoop six hundred families were 
 swept off the country ; no historian or journalist of 
 that day dared publish the particulars. Besides that, 
 a spirit of theological animus sprang up which em- 
 bittered the relation between Protestant and Catholic, 
 of which the following story affords an example. In 
 one of the Orange clubs in Dublin, when drinking 
 to excess was the habitual practice, a gentleman, in a 
 spirit of bravado, flung from the window a vessel full 
 of filthy fluid, which, coming on the head of some un- 
 lucky pedestrian, was hailed by a shriek from below, 
 whereupon the offender exclaimed in a drunken jerky 
 voice : ' If you are a Protestant (hie), I humbly beg 
 your pardon ; but if you are a Papist (hie), take it 
 and bad luck to you.' 
 
 The establishment of the volunteer associations in 
 Ireland had naturally altered the face of the countiy ; 
 in many places Catholics had embodied themselves 
 in the ranks of those patriotic guards, and a friendly 
 intercourse with their Protestant brethren naturally 
 followed. The ministers became alarmed at what 
 might be the result if religious hatred were banished ; 
 
Secret Societies. 61 
 
 to avert such consequences they felt it their duty to 
 create divisions. Various means were employed to 
 effect this immoral object, among others they reverted 
 to the diabolical one of fomenting those religious 
 hatreds which had so often consumed the vitals and 
 palsied the native energy of the country. They taught 
 the weak and credulous Protestants and Presby- 
 terians to believe that if Catholics who had obtained 
 arms during the war were suffered to retain them, 
 they would seize on the first opportunity to overturn 
 the Government, and erect jDopery on the ruins of the 
 Protestant religion. This and other acts equally in- 
 sidious had the desired effect on the minds of many 
 persons, particularly in the northern counties ; it was 
 this which infused the angry spirit exhibited by the 
 Peep-of-day-boys, and continued to the bitter end by 
 the Orange associations. It was to combat this feeling 
 of hostility and quell sectarian bitterness, with the 
 view of creating a political harmony, that Tone and 
 the other leaders of the United Irishmen vainly con- 
 tended. The strong resistance offered by the corrupt 
 officials at the Castle, together with the alien govern- 
 ment indifferent to the real wants of the people, 
 proved too strong for them. Tone was sentenced 
 to be hanged, for attempting to carry into effect the 
 project of uniting men of all religious descriptions. 
 Colonel Robert Stuart (subsequently Lord Castle- 
 reagh), who sanctioned with his presence the sedition 
 of the sword-in-hand deliberations on reform, became 
 a foremost man in those councils which consigned 
 
62 Ireland in '98. 
 
 United Irishmen to the gallows. The aim and end 
 of the Government of Ireland in 1798 was to per- 
 petuate oppression, and break down the national 
 spirit and national independence that menaced its 
 existence ; to make the people servile and powerless, 
 and to keep them so by fomentmg religious dissen- 
 sions, and all tliis imder the veil of a holy zeal for 
 religious interests. Against this Government the 
 society of United Irishmen reared its head and raised 
 its hand, and failed in the darmg struggle with its 
 power. 
 
 God made the land : and all His works are good. 
 Man made the laws : and all they breathe is blood. 
 Unhallowed annals of six hundred years ! 
 A code of blood, a history of tears. 
 
 The contagion of the American revolt was produc- 
 tive in Ireland of that sturdy spirit of nationality and 
 love of independence which called into existence the 
 Volunteer Association. The contagion of the French 
 Revolution of 1789 communicated those influences 
 to Irish politics which eventuated in the formation of 
 the Society of United Irishmen. 
 
 Of all the barbarities that disgraced this calami- 
 tous conflict, the recurrence of the use of torture for 
 the purpose of inspiring terror, of detecting crime, 
 or revenging wrongs, was the most atrocious. The 
 Rio;ht Hon. J. C. Beresford, once a member of the 
 famous Back- stairs Cabinet, was connected with the 
 inhuman tortures inflicted on the rebels. He built 
 in Marlborough Street a riding house for his yeomanry 
 
Secret Societies. 63 
 
 troop, and this was afterwards used as a place for 
 whipping suspected persons, to make them discover 
 what in all probability they never knew. This was 
 a time when martial law authorised every species of 
 cruelty. In Mr. Beresford's riding house, this infernal 
 system was carried on to a greater extent than in any 
 other place of execution. An Irish wit wrote an 
 inscription on a signboard and fixed it over the 
 entrance, mforming the public that ' Mangling was 
 done here by J. Beresford and Co.' In conjunction 
 with Major Sirr, Mr. Beresford maintained a battalion 
 of spies, which were often referred to as ' Beresford's 
 Bloodhounds.' He largely helped to stimulate the 
 rebellion of '98 by a general coercive policy, which 
 was cruelly followed out by the administration of 
 torture. When Lord Castlereagh ignored the charge, 
 Mr. Beresford, in Parliament, not only admitted but 
 defended the vile practice. 
 
 Beresford was secretary to the Grand Lodge of 
 Orangemen, and infused their views into almost every 
 department of the Irish Government. The capricious- 
 ness of popular feeling on his account was as varied 
 as his own career. Elected to the office of Lord 
 Mayor of the city, his carriage was drawn through the 
 streets by the sajne mob who often before hounded 
 him down. Entering into partnership with a man 
 named Woodmason, he opened a bank in Dublin 
 which resulted in failure and bankruptcy. Beresford 
 in consequence became a ruined man, cut by the 
 friends who once cringed before him. Some persons 
 
64 Ireland in '98. 
 
 who had known hhn in his glory, pitied the broken- 
 down man in threadbare clothes, who drearily walked 
 the Dublin streets. This Beresford was the third son 
 of the Right Hon. John Beresford, the sanguine 
 terrorist of '98, the flaming anti-union patriot in 
 1800, banker and bankrupt. He commanded a corps 
 of yeomanry, who brutally massacred the people ; 
 the scourge and pitch cap in his hands did much to 
 make his memory dear to the Orangemen of Ireland. 
 The command of the army in Ireland was en- 
 trusted to Colonel Luttrell, afterwards created Lord 
 Carhampton ; the character of the man, his methods 
 of putting down insurrection, and restoring tran- 
 quillity to the country, throw considerable light on 
 the motives of the Government. Colonel Luttrell first 
 attained notoriety at the Middlesex election when he 
 was selected as the Government candidate to oppose 
 John Wilkes, the favourite of the people. He then 
 acted as unconstitutional a part as he afterwards did 
 in Ireland in his capacity of military governor ; Junius 
 in his biting satire said : ' There is in this young man's 
 conduct a stain of prostitution which for its singu- 
 larity I cannot but admire. He has discovered a new 
 line in the human character ; he has disgraced even 
 the name of Luttrell.' The fact was that Luttrell, 
 like many others, came to Ireland to mend a broken 
 fortune, and was utterly unscrupulous in his conduct ; 
 he joined the Beresford party in their system of coer- 
 cion, and proved himself a ready tool in their hands; 
 he instituted the picketing, free quarters, half hanging, 
 
Secret Societies. 65 
 
 flogging and pitch cappings, which fanned the flame 
 of disaffection into open rebellion. The army under 
 Lord Carhampton was permitted to indulge in the 
 greatest excesses : cottages were burned, peasants 
 shot, wives and daughters violated ; so demoralised 
 had the army become under his generalship, that 
 General Sir Ralph Abercrombie declared ' that it 
 became formidable to all but the enemy.' Mr. Fitz- 
 patrick, in his interesting work on Ireland before the 
 Union, gives some further particulars of this man's 
 family, which show into what a depth of degrada- 
 tion they had fallen. Luttrell was regarded with 
 such aw^e and hatred by the peasantry, that many 
 supposed he was possessed with a devil, and he was 
 known by the name of ' Satanides,' owing to the cold- 
 blooded atrocities which he committed. So deep 
 was the hatred he mspired that the place of his 
 residence was changed, vN^hen the property passed 
 out of his hands into that of a new owner. His 
 ancestor was the reputed betrayer of King James. 
 Extinction has overtaken Lord Carhampton's peerage 
 and race. One of the last of the family was Lady 
 Elizabeth Luttrell, who resided with her sister, the 
 Duchess of Cumberland. In those aristocratic times 
 gambling was not confined to men ; the Princess 
 Elizabeth, as she was called, played high, and did not 
 scruple to cheat. On the death of her sister she was 
 thrown into jail. There she gave a hairdresser 50/. 
 to marry her, and, her debts becoming his, she was 
 discharged. She went abroad, where she descended 
 
66 Ireland in '98. 
 
 lower iind lower, till, being convicted of picking 
 pockets at Augsburg, she was condemned to clean 
 the streets, chained to a wheelbarrow. In that miser- 
 able situation she terminated her existence by poison. 
 The vices of the commander-in-chief of the army 
 in Ireland were imitated and surpassed by some of the 
 officers under his command. Lieutenant Hepenstall 
 presents a remarkable instance of the brutality of the 
 day. This notorious man was brought up to the 
 business of an apothecary, but in 1795 renounced the 
 pestle for the sword and the halter. He was a Goliath 
 in stature and a Nero in feeling. If Hepenstall met 
 a peasant who could not satisfactorily account for 
 himself, he knocked him down with a blow from his 
 fist, which w^as quite as effective as a sledge-hammer ; 
 then, adjusting a noose round the prisoner's neck, drew 
 the rope over his own shoulders, and trotted about, 
 the victim's legs dangling in the air, until death at 
 last put an end to the torture. These details, almost 
 incredible at the present day, have been authenticated 
 by several w^itnesses, and even admitted by Hepenstall 
 himself, at the trial of Hyland, in September 1797, at 
 the Athy assizes, under the Whiteboy Act. Hepen- 
 stall, touching the mode of procuring evidence from 
 the witness against the prisoner, said on examination, 
 ' He had used some threats, and pricked him with a 
 bayonet, to induce him to confess ; ' and when cross- 
 examined by counsel said, ' This prisoner had also 
 been pricked by a bayonet, a rope had been put about 
 his neck, which was thrown over his (Hepenstall's) 
 
knecret Societies. Q7 
 
 shoulders ; he then pulled the rope, and drew the 
 prisoner up, and he was hung in this way for a short 
 time, but continued sulky, and confessed nothing.' 
 Whereupon the counsel said, ' Then you acted the 
 executioner, and pla3^ed the part of a gallows ? ' 
 ' Yes, please your honour,' was the reply of Lieut. 
 Hepenstall. The Solicitor-General, Mr. Toler, after- 
 wards created Lord Norbury, complimented him as 
 havino; done no act which was not natural to a 
 zealous, loyal, and efficient officer. He went by the 
 name of the ' Walking Gallows ' ever afterwards. 
 The memory of this infamous man has received its 
 deserts at the hands of a clerical gentleman of the 
 name of Barrett, in the form of an epitaph : 
 
 Here lie the bones of Hepenstall, 
 Judge, jury, gallows, rope, and all. 
 
 The administration of the law in Ireland has been 
 always a bitter subject of controversy. There is no 
 mistaking its gross partiality in the times to which 
 we are referring. Lord Norbury for thirty years per- 
 formed the triple role of bully, butcher, and buffoon. 
 His services in the first capacity proved useful to the 
 then Government, and helped him far more than his 
 law to judicial elevation. These were days when to 
 be a good pistol-shot was an indispensable adjunct of 
 a legal education ; barristers then literall}- fought their 
 way to the bench. Norbury's old passions and pre- 
 judices clung to hira as a judge ; he browbeat timid 
 counsel, and suggested mortal combat by remarking 
 
 F 2 
 
68 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ' that he would not seek shelter behind the bench, or 
 mer^e the gentleman in the chief justice.' His relish 
 for capital conviction was undisguised ; at a single 
 assize he passed sentence of death on 198 individuals, 
 of whom 197 were hanged. With the black cap on 
 his head he joked as freely as though it were a cap 
 and bells. ' Ah ! my lord, give me a long day ! ' 
 craved a wretched culprit on a certain June 20. 
 ' Your wish is granted,' replied the judge ; ' I will 
 give you until to-morrow, the longest day in the year.' 
 Lord Norbury's charges transcend description. He 
 resembled Jeffreys, the hanging judge, and his conduct 
 was not dissimilar. Flingmg his judicial robe aside 
 and casting off his wig, he would start from his seat 
 and throw off a wild harangue, in which neither law, 
 method, nor argument could be discovered. It gene- 
 rally consisted of narratives of his early life, which it 
 was impossible to associate with the subject ; of jests 
 from Joe Miller, mixed with jokes of his own manu- 
 facture, bearing an unmistakable odour of the stables 
 and other places more unsavoury. A sample of Lord 
 Norbury's wit may be gathered from the report of a 
 man who solicited his lordship for a shilling to bury 
 a poor solicitor. ' Here is a guinea,' said Norbury ; 
 ' bury one and twenty of them.' He resigned in 
 1827, and died three years after, universally execrated 
 for his inhuman conduct. When his body was lowered 
 with ropes into a deep grave, a voice in the crowd 
 cried, ' Give him rope galore, boys ; he never spared 
 it to others.' 
 
Secret Societies. 69 
 
 During the eighteenth century, many an eccle- 
 siastic was elevated to the mitre and imported to 
 Ireland, not to discharge episcopal functions solely, 
 but to act as politicians and govern the country as 
 despots. Most of them were absentees, living as 
 little as they could in the country saddled with 
 their expense. Hackett, bishop of Down and Connor, 
 habitually resided in a snug mansion in Hammer- 
 smith, and for the twenty years during which he 
 held his position he regularly put up his benefices for 
 sale. This exemplary bishop owed his promotion, 
 not to his theological acquirements or personal piety, 
 but to his skill in water-colour painting, which re- 
 commended him to ladies and gentlemen m power. 
 Pooley, bishop of Raf)hoe, lived but eighteen months 
 in Ireland, out of eleven years' episcopate. Ashe, 
 bishop of Clogher for eighteen years, and Fitzgerald, 
 bishop of Clonfert for thirty years, were non-resi- 
 dent. The latter lived to be an imbecile, and a 
 young woman managed the diocese. The bishop 
 gave most of the livings to hangers-on and relatives 
 of his young wife. This, however, is an occurrence 
 which is hardly worth chronicling, as the system 
 continued down to disestablishment, and flourishes 
 vigorously m the English Church. Purchase has 
 been abolished in tlie army of the nation, but the 
 established army of Christ is still maintained by sops 
 to Cerberus. Most of the Irish bishops dropped 
 their ecclesiastical character and were simply great 
 noblemen and powerful lords, the very opposite to 
 
70 Ireland in '98. 
 
 the usual representatives of Him whose ' kingdom 
 was not of this world.' Some of those men were 
 remarkable for their learning and mental capacity, if 
 wanting in their spiritual character. Berkley, the 
 famous bishop of Cloyne, sent down to his diocese 
 twenty-two cartloads of books and one hogshead of 
 wine, to cheer his solitude and resist the damp of his 
 episcopal residence — for it rains sometimes in Cork. 
 Another prelate, of a different turn of mind, sent 
 down to his diocese one load of books and twenty- 
 four hoofsheads of wine, illustratincf the hi2:h tone 
 of the episcopal character in those good old times, 
 when the blue ribbon was not reco2:nised as a 
 clerical decoration. The good bishop of Clogher 
 went a step further than his brethren ; he was de- 
 voted to recreations, his gospel was one of mirth : 
 he instituted horse-racing to amuse the people. The 
 bishop of Clogher was very popular in his day, but 
 the number of converts he made from the errors of 
 Rome to the enlightened freedom of Protestantism 
 is not reported. Beresford, bishop of Tuam, another 
 pronninent member of the inexhaustible influential 
 sept of the Beresfords, who, from the time of their 
 first landing to the present day monopolised the best 
 of all the good things Ireland had to offer, married 
 the sister of Lord Clare. This influential prelate 
 died in 1819, and his personalty was sworn to as 
 250,000/. Charles Ager, archbishop of Cashel, was 
 another prelate who was given more to making money 
 than converting the benighted Irish, pining for the 
 
Secret Societies. 71 
 
 ' bread of life.' He was translated to Dublin in 
 1806, and created Earl of Normanton. This prelate 
 left behind him a fortune of 400,000/. The greed 
 of both bishops and undertakers was so notorious 
 that Lord Townshend, when viceroy, had occasion 
 to remark of one, ' That if his Majesty gave Mr. 
 Hutchinson the whole kingdom of England and 
 Ireland, he would beg the Isle of Man for a cabbage 
 garden.' The primate of Armagh, tlie highest digni- 
 tary in Ireland, was Dr. George Stone, described as 
 the worst politician in the worst age of Europe. 
 Originally the son of a jailer of Winchester, he had 
 risen by his talents and audacity to the highest posi- 
 tion in the Church, and became the prime minister 
 of the reigning lord-lieutenant. In his exalted office 
 he clung to the vices of his youth. His house in 
 Leixlip was both a tavern and brothel, where crimes, 
 which must be nameless, were committed. His in- 
 famies provoked the toast of those drinking days : 
 ' May the importations of Ganymedes into Ireland be 
 discontinued.' These were days when free utterance 
 of opinions on the conduct of high officials was not 
 tolerated. The bishops, however, were not all bad, 
 neither were they all given to money-making. The 
 narrowest and most intolerant of their number was 
 Primate Boulter, whose letters show us his character, 
 and reveal to us his strono; desire to crush all feeling; 
 of nationality, and fill all the highest offices of the 
 Church and State with Englishmen. Yet he left the 
 bulk of his large fortune to the Church, which never 
 
72 Ireland in '98. 
 
 made its stamp on the people, owing to its venality 
 and the unworthiness of its representatives. While 
 the above set of vultures preyed on the vitals of 
 Ireland, her coffers were still further drained by a 
 pension list, increasing year by year. In 1784 it 
 amounted to 86,176/., and in ten years further it ran 
 up to 100,800/. ; nor did it stop here. It may be 
 worth while asking who were the recipients of this 
 corrupt despotism, which, besides adding to Ireland's 
 destitution, increased the turbulence of her sons. The 
 first pensioners were the Dukes of Gloucester and 
 Cumberland ; each drew^ a yearly allowance of 3,000/. 
 The Princess Ameha had 1,000/. a year, and the 
 Princess Augusta 5,000/. Ferdinand, Duke of Bruns- 
 wick, pocketed 5,200/. ; the representatives of the 
 Countess of Yarmouth, 4,000/. ; the executors of 
 Lords Grantham and Shannon 2,000/. respectively. 
 Lord Tery had secured 3,000/., and Lord Mayo 
 1,033/. The Countess of Belmont was given 1,500/. ; 
 ' Smgle-speech ' Hamilton, 2,500/. ; Mr. Orde, 1,700/. 
 Only Lord Rodney and the representatives of Lord 
 Hawke received 2,000/. as a reward of merit. The 
 character of the rulers, and the exactions demanded 
 from a prostrate and ill-used country, may furnish 
 some solid reasons why a few single-minded men, 
 in the face of opposing odds, should make a despe- 
 rate attempt to cleanse the Augean stables of those 
 monsters of depravity who battened on the country 
 like a flock of vultures. 
 
 The civil rulers of Ireland, appointed by the 
 
Secret Societies. 
 
 Crown, were in no respect better in morals than 
 those ecclesiastics already mentioned. The Duke of 
 Rutland was said to have been sent over to drink 
 the Irish into good humour ; his viceroyalty was the 
 scene of much stormy contention, he was himself 
 wholly devoted to his private pleasures ; his court 
 was the residence of riot and dissipation; his beautiful 
 duchess, like the late Empress of the French, led the 
 fashion in all feminine extravagance and frivolity. 
 The duke's immorality was open and barefaced. 
 There was in Dublin durins; his time a noted courte- 
 san named Peg Plunket. This creature occupied 
 more of the Viceroy's attention than did the Privy 
 Council ; she sometimes shared even the honours of 
 royalty. One night he visited her, accompanied by 
 a guard of honour, and morning dawned on a troop 
 of his Majesty's dragoons parading in solemn state 
 before the house of his Excellency's courtesan. Peg 
 lived in magnificent style in one of the most fashion- 
 able squares in Dubhn, and her carriage, livery, and 
 mode of life were the talk of the town. An absurd 
 mistake made by a lady of rank, the wife of an 
 eminent Protestant divine, added further to her 
 notoriety, by giving publicity to her wit. It hap- 
 pened one day that this lady called on Miss Plunket, 
 of whose reputation the visitor was ignorant, to in- 
 quire into the character of a dismissed servant. In 
 a short time she discovered her mistake, and wished 
 to get away as quickly as possible. Peg perceived 
 the motive for this haste, and, thoroughly enjoying 
 
74 Ireland in '98. 
 
 the opportunity presented her, said with perfect sang 
 froid, ' I beg your ladyship not to be in the least 
 alarmed. I shall let your ladyship away through 
 the back door, in the garden, which I specially con- 
 structed for the bishops.' 
 
l^AMELA, 
 
75 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. 
 
 Parentage — Education — Military profession — Arrives in America — 
 Anecdote — Returns to Ireland — Enters Parliament — ' The faithful 
 Tony' — Visits Gibraltar — Henry Charles Sirr — Cobbett — First 
 love — Member for Athy — Noble character — Voting with the Op- 
 position — Promotion — Quarrel with Duke of Richmond — Opinion 
 of Lord-Lieutenant of L-eland — Conduct in the House — Thomas 
 Paine — Cashiered — Madame de Genlis — Pamela — Romantic history 
 —Fatal beauty — Lord Edward in love — Marriage and departure 
 for England. 
 
 The labours of Moore have left very little to be done 
 or desired in the way of justice to the memory of 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a man singularly amiable, 
 estimable, and lovable, to an extent which it is diffi- 
 cult to find words to describe. But in regard to 
 Lord Edward's connection with the Society of United 
 Irishmen, his views of the circumstances which led 
 to that connection, the qualities of mind, professional 
 abilities, natural gifts, acquired knowledge, and re- 
 sources, much remains to be said. 
 
 The young patriot soldier of the house of Lein- 
 ster, fifth son of James, the twentieth earl of Kildare, 
 was born on October 15, 1763. 
 
 Lord Edward lost his father at the age of ten 
 years, and it would seem as if that loss had contri- 
 
76 Ireland in '98. 
 
 buted to concentrate all his love on his mother ; for 
 certainly, few instances in the biography of any 
 country are to be found of stronger attachment and 
 more filial fondness than he displayed from boy- 
 hood, and to the end of his career. The Duchess 
 of Lemster, soon after her marriage with Mr. Ogilvie, 
 went with her husband and several of her children 
 to France. 
 
 The young Lord Edward, when he accompanied 
 his mother to that country, was under sixteen years 
 of age. He was intended for the military profession, 
 and from the period of his arrival in France his edu- 
 cation, which Mr. Ogilvie took charge of, was chiefly 
 directed to the acquisition of knowledge that would 
 qualify him for his future pursuits. In 1779 the 
 family returned to England, and soon after Lord 
 Edward commenced his military career ui a militia 
 regiment, of which his uncle, the Duke of Richmond, 
 was colonel. In 1780 he was appointed to a lieu- 
 tenancy in the 26th regiment of foot, then stationed 
 in the south of Ireland. Soon after he had joined 
 his regiment at Youghal, an exchange was effected 
 for him mto the 19th, which was under orders for 
 America, and in the month of June 1781 he sailed 
 for Charleston, where Lord Rawdon was then in 
 command. From the time Lord Edward commenced 
 his military career in America, the love of his pro- 
 fession, and the necessity of making himself master 
 of it, are themes of frequent recurrence in his letters. 
 Not long after his arrival in America, in 1781, 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 77 
 
 when serving with his regiment (the 19th), he dis- 
 tinguished himself in an engagement with the forces 
 of one of the ablest American commanders, Colonel 
 Lee, not only by his bravery, but by his military skill, 
 in a manner to attract the special notice of Major 
 Doyle (subsequently General Sir John Doyle), and 
 to obtain for him the appointment of aide-de-camp 
 on Lord Rawdon's staff, in which position he soon 
 had an opportunity of displaying his chivalrous 
 valour, and of gaining the entire confidence of his 
 superior officers. A little later we find the acting 
 adjutant-general recording an act of undisciplined 
 valour of ' the brave young creature,' whom he had 
 to ' rate soundly ' at the moment, and to represent 
 to the general in command, in terms anything but 
 unfavourable to the gallant young officer : — 
 
 In approaching one of the English positions, the 
 enemy's light troops in advance became more nume- 
 rous, and rendered more frequent patrols necessary. 
 Major Doyle was setting out upon a patrol, and went 
 to apprise Lord Edward, who, however, was sought 
 for in vain, and the major proceeded without him, 
 and at the end of two miles, when emerging from the 
 forest, the latter found Lord Edward engaged with 
 two of the enemy's irregular horse. He had wounded 
 one of his opponents when his SAVord broke in the 
 middle, and he must have soon fallen in the unequal 
 struggle, had not his enemies fled on perceiving the 
 head of Sir John Doyle's column. 
 
 The higher Lord Edward advanced in his profes- 
 
78 Ireland in '98. 
 
 sion, the more he thought it incumbent upon him to 
 apply himself to its study. 
 
 In March 1783, he writes from St. Lucia : ' My 
 profession is that of a military man, and I would re- 
 proach myself hereafter if I thought I lost any oppor- 
 tunity of improving myself in it, did I not at all times 
 do as much as lay in my power to merit the promo- 
 tion I am entitled to expect,' &c. 
 
 In the beginning of 1783, he visited the islands 
 of Martinique and St. Lucia ; and, Lord Rawdon 
 having previously returned to England in conse- 
 quence of ill health. Lord Edward a few months later, 
 finding his only hope for promotion was in Europe, 
 and that if he were at home he might obtain a company 
 in the Guards, or a lieutenant -colonelcy by going to 
 the East Indies, determined on returning to Ireland, 
 which purpose he carried into execution in the sum- 
 mer of 1783. It was Lord Edward's destiny to visit 
 America during the War of Independence, to witness 
 some of the stormy scenes of the struggle, and to find 
 ample food for reflection in the successful resistance 
 of a people asserting their liberty which he had 
 witnessed during the short period of his sojourn in 
 America. 
 
 Soon after his arrival in Ireland, in the autumn 
 of 1783, he was brought into Parliament by his 
 brother, the Duke of Leinster, for the borough of 
 Athy. 
 
 When Lord Edward returned to Europe from 
 America, in 1783, he brought over a negro servant, 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 79 
 
 who is frequently mentioned in the letters of his kind 
 master as ' the faithful Tony.' This negro was, pro- 
 bably, first met with at St. Lucia by Lord Edward, 
 which island he had visited on service in the month 
 of February of that year. During the remaining 
 fifteen years of his hfe Tony continued in his service, 
 accompanying his master wherever he went, devotedly 
 attached to him, and Lord Edward's regard for ' the 
 faithful Tony ' appears to have been no less sincere. 
 We find one brief reference to him at the conclusion 
 of Moore's ' Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald ' : — ' Poor Tony, of whose fate the reader 
 must be desirous to know something, never held up 
 his head after his noble master's death, and very 
 soon after followed him.' 
 
 In the spring of 1786, Lord Edward (at that time 
 a member of the Irish House of Commons) determined 
 on entering himself at Woolwich, with the view of 
 making himself thoroughly acquainted with military 
 science by a regular course of study. This resolution 
 of a young nobleman in his position, surrounded by 
 all the allurements of fashionable society, courted by 
 political parties, reflects no small credit on his cha- 
 racter, and indicates plainly his strong attachment to 
 his profession. 
 
 In 1786 we find Lord Edward accompanying his 
 uncle, the Duke of Richmond, on a tour of inspection 
 of the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, and making a 
 good use of tlie opportunities for improvement afforded 
 him. 
 
80 Ireland in '98. 
 
 In 1787, Lord Edward visited Gibraltar, and, 
 under the pretext of a tour of pleasure, carried into 
 effect his real purpose of extending his military 
 knowledge. While at Gibraltar, by a strange co- 
 incidence, Henry Charles Sirr, the man by whose hand 
 he was destined eleven years later to lose his life, 
 was in that garrison, where he states he knew Lord 
 Edward. The fact is thus referred to by Sirr in a 
 letter dated December 29, 1829, to the son of 
 Captain Ryan, who met his death at the hands of 
 Lord Edward in 1798 : — 'I agree with you relative 
 to Lord Edward. He was considered a highly 
 honourable man at Gibraltar, where I knew him when 
 he was on a visit to the governor of that garrison.' 
 This fact, which had been so long kept in the back- 
 ground by the major, is a new feather in the cap of 
 his celebrity. That former acquaintance with a man 
 whom he knew to be so highly honourable, and sub- 
 sequently shot so coolly, and with* such deliberate aim, 
 enliances, of course, the merit of that act of stern duty 
 and stoic loyalty, the capture and death of Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald. 
 
 From Gibraltar Lord Edward proceeded to Lisbon, 
 where his popular manners and sterling merits gained 
 for him a warm reception and the friendship of the 
 principal people of that capital and its court during 
 his sojourn there. 
 
 From Portugal he proceeded to Spain, visited 
 Madrid, Cadiz, Granada, and other places of interest, 
 but hastened back to England, weary of inactivity. 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 81 
 
 and longing for the occupations of that military life 
 to which he was so strongly attached. Towards the 
 latter end of May 1788 he sailed for America, for 
 the purpose of joining his regiment, the 54th, which 
 was then in Nova Scotia, and from the latter end of 
 June to May 1789 he remained on service, stationed 
 at intervals in New Brunswick, Halifax, Quebec, and 
 Montreal. 
 
 In Auffust 1789 he writes from New Bruns- 
 wick : ' I grow fonder of my profession the more I 
 see of it, and like being major much better than being 
 lieutenant- colonel, for I only execute the commands 
 of others.' 
 
 A little later : ' I have got a garden for the 
 soldiers, which employs me a great deal. I flatter 
 myself next year that it will furnish the men with 
 great quantities of vegetables, which will be of great 
 service to them.' 
 
 In Cobbett's 'Advice to the Youno-' we find a 
 passage to the followinge ffect : ' I got my discharge 
 from the army by the great kindness of Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald, who was then major of my regiment.' 
 
 Cobbett was sergeant-major of the 54th at tlie 
 time of this occurrence, in October 1788. He states 
 elsewhere that in the year 1800 he told Mr. Pitt 
 what he thouo;ht of that meritorious officer : ' Lord 
 Edward was a most humane and excellent man, and 
 the only really honest officer he ever knew in the army.' 
 
 In April 1789 he set out on an arduous expedi- 
 tion with his servant Tony and a brother-officer from 
 
 G 
 
82 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Frederickton, in New Brunswick, to Quebec — an 
 expedition of considerable difficulty — through an 
 unexplored country, through forests and morasses, 
 but one calculated to be of o-reat advantag-e to the 
 colony. They accomplished the journey in twenty- 
 six days, lying out, of course, at night in the woods, 
 without any covering except their blanket-coats. 
 They steered by compass, and entered the river St. 
 Lawrence within a league of Quebec. The journey 
 was accomplished in 175 miles. 
 
 So much for the energy and entei'prise of the 
 young Irish officer in his twenty-sixth year. In 
 June, 1789, Lord Edward's intercourse with the 
 native Indians led to a singular adventure at Detroit, 
 and an unprecedented honour to an English officer 
 at the hands of an Indian chief, one of the Six 
 Nations, by whom he was made a chief of the Bear 
 Tribe. 
 
 Early in December he arrived at New Orleans, 
 and, finding it impracticable to pursue an intended 
 journey into Spanish America, he embarked for 
 Europe, and in due time reached England. 
 
 In the wilds of America and in the forests of 
 Canada, we find Lord Edward, after the fashion of 
 Jacques, descanting on the advantages of ' this life 
 more sweet than that of painted pomp,' — ' more fi*ee 
 from peril than the envious court,' which in the 
 woods 
 
 Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in everything. 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 
 
 He wanders in the woods of Canada, and exults in 
 their solitudes, and travels through great tracts of 
 country peopled only at wide intervals by Indian 
 tribes, the simplicity of whose mode of life fills him 
 with deUght, or settlers widely scattered, in whose 
 humble dwellings he finds peace and happiness, and 
 is thankfully reminded by everything around him, 
 ' There are no devilish politics here.^ 
 
 There are several references in Lord Edward's 
 letters to an attachment of a very ardent nature 
 formed in 1785 or 1786, to Lady Catherine Meade, 
 second daughter of the Earl of Clanwilliam, who, a 
 few years subsequently (m 1789), married Richard, 
 fourth Viscount Powerscourt. But long before that 
 occurrence we find Lord Edward's passion for this 
 lady had subsided, and another and a stronger one 
 had got possession of his heart. Its new idol was a 
 
 Miss G ; but the young lady's father decidedly 
 
 opposed the union, and eventually even forbade Lord 
 Edward his house, and in the month of April, 1789, 
 the young lady had become the wife of another. The 
 disappointment of Lord Edward's hopes appears to 
 have made a deep impression on his mind and heart, 
 and probably had no small influence over his future 
 career and the new direction griven to his thouofhts 
 and pursuits. 
 
 When Lord Edward received the intellio^ence of 
 the last-mentioned marriage, he was in Canada, on 
 his second visit to the New World. He returned to 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Ireland in '98. 
 
 England early in 1790. Moore states, on his arrival 
 in London he proceeded immediately to the house of 
 his mother, who was then residing there, and by the 
 merest accident was spared a meeting that could not 
 fail to be distressing. He arrived at the house at the 
 moment that a large party had seated themselves at 
 dinner, ' among whom were the young bride of the 
 preceding April, and lier lord,' and was only pre- 
 vented from entering the room by one of the guests, 
 who recognised Lord Edward's voice and hastened to 
 stop him. 
 
 When Lord Edward was brought into Parliament 
 by his brother, the Duke of Leinster, in 1783, for 
 the borough of Athy, he was then in his twenty-first 
 year, one of the purest minded of human beings, 
 incapable of harbouring a sentiment that was mean, 
 sordid, or selfish, or giving expression to a thought 
 that did not emanate from an unalterable conviction 
 of the justice of the opinion he asserted, or the prin- 
 ciple on which he acted. 
 
 We learn without surprise that Lord Edward felt 
 no pleasure in his parliamentary life. What atmo- 
 sphere in this world could be more uncongenial to the 
 nature of such a being than that tainted one of the 
 Irish House of Commons, that reeked with corruption, 
 and the vile purposes for which that Parliament was 
 constituted ? 
 
 By the Irish parliamentary debates I find that Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald made his debut in the Irish House 
 of Commons for the borough of Athy after the gen- 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 85 
 
 eral election in July 1783. The first time that he 
 spoke m the House, or at least that any observations 
 of his are reported in the ' Parliamentary Register,' 
 was in January 1785, on a motion of the Hon. 
 Thomas Pakenham to present an address of thanks to 
 the King for the appointment of the new Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant, when Lord Edward is reported to have said : 
 'He would not object to the address if it had proceeded 
 in the usual mode, as a mere complimentary matter 
 of form ; but when it declared an approbation of the 
 firm and moderate measures of his Grace's Govern- 
 ment — measures in which he could not coincide — he 
 felt himself under the necessity of opposing that part 
 of the address. He therefore moved that the words 
 " experienced virtue and firmness " should be ex- 
 punged, and the words " and whose private virtues 
 entitle him to the esteem and reo-ard of this House," 
 should be inserted in their room.' 
 
 In the latter part of 1786 and beginning of 1787, 
 Lord Edward's name is found in all divisions in the 
 House of Commons, invariably on the side of his 
 country, in favour of all measures that were tolerant, 
 just, and liberal ; that is to say, on the side that was 
 always worsted in the Irish Parliament in those times. 
 In 1788 the Duke of Leinster, having promised to 
 give his support to the new Viceroy, Lord Bucking- 
 hamshire, voted with the Government ; and as a 
 matter of course in the Irish Parliament, when the 
 patron of a borough changed sides, his member was 
 expected to walk over to whatever side he supported. 
 
86 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Lord Edward disapproved of his brother's change, 
 and resolved to remain in Opposition. 
 
 His uncle, the Duke of Richmond, however, pre- 
 vailed on him reluctantly to give up his intention 
 of voting with the Opposition, without reference to 
 the Duke of Leinster's wishes. Family considerations 
 in November 1788 were sufficient so far to influence 
 Lord Edward in the course taken by him ; but 
 interested motives had no share in the result of the 
 interference of the powerful Duke of Richmond. 
 Though hitherto desirous of promotion in his service, 
 he determined from that time forth to seek none at 
 the hands of the Duke of Richmond, and to abstain 
 from accepting a lieutenant- colonelcy or any other 
 step, lest his actions as a member of Parliament 
 might be biassed by any such motives as a desire 
 for promotion, ' I am contented with my rank and 
 station. I have no ambition ; and however I might 
 be flattered by getting on, it will never pay me for 
 a blush for my actions. The feeling of shame is 
 what I never could bear.' 
 
 He takes care to have a friend informed, who was 
 then taking steps to obtam a lieutenant-colonelcy for 
 him, that he will accept of no preferment. 
 
 ' Pray represent it strongly to him, and make him 
 remember how obstinate I am ivhen I once take a 
 resolution.^ But Lord Edward's embarrassment was 
 soon removed by the return of the Duke of Leinster 
 to the Op})osition, when the famous question of the 
 regency was soon mooted. 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 87 
 
 In the spring of 1790, when Lord Edward re- 
 turned from America to England, on his arrival in 
 London he visited his uncle, the Duke of Richmond, 
 who was then master-general of the ordnance, and 
 was invited by the Duke to meet Mr. Pitt and Dundas 
 at dinner. The result of that interview was so 
 favourable an impression on Pitt and his colleague 
 of Lord Edward's military talents that they offered 
 immediately to promote him by brevet, and give him 
 the command of the expedition that had been deter- 
 mined on ao-ainst Cadiz. The flatterino- offer was 
 promptly accepted. The Duke, on the following day, 
 was to report the proposed arrangement to the King, 
 and to be enabled to state that Lord Edward was 
 no longer in opposition to the ministry. The Lish 
 Parliament, which terminated on April 5, 1790, 
 had then either recently expired, or was about to ex- 
 pire. Lord Edward had declared his intention hence- 
 forward to devote himself solely to his profession. 
 The day following this arrangement, he found that 
 the Duke of Leinster had returned him for the county 
 of Kildare. His position being thus altered, the 
 difficulties of his recent engagement were communi- 
 cated to the Duke of Richmond, but not before the 
 latter had made known to the King the proposed 
 arrangement, and the condition which accompanied 
 it. The result of this contretemps was an altercation 
 between the Duke and his nephew, and a decided 
 refusal on the part of the latter to desert the Op- 
 position, and the relinquishment, as a matter of 
 
88 Ireland in '98. 
 
 course, of the command which had been offered to 
 him. 
 
 This proceeding of Lord Edward, which led to an 
 estrangement with the Duke of Richmond, enhanced 
 his merits in the estimation of Fox and the leaders of 
 the Whig party in England ; and it had the effect 
 also, unfortunately, of turning all his thoughts to 
 politics. In the seventh session of the Parliament 
 which met on January 21, and terminated on May 
 5, 1790, Lord Edward Fitzgerald having ceased to 
 be the representative of the borough of Athy, was 
 returned for the county of Kildare, and continued to 
 represent that county for six years. 
 
 In December 1792 a body of the old volunteers, 
 associated under the name of the First National Bat- 
 talion, publicly announced their intention of assem- 
 bling in Dublin, and parading publicly on an ap- 
 pointed day. The device of this corps was an Irish 
 liarp without a crown, surmounted by the Cap of 
 Liberty. The Government issued a proclamation 
 forbidding the assemblage the day preceding the ap- 
 pointed meeting. The Parliament was called on to 
 ratify this proclamation. On this occasion Mr. 
 Grattan supported the Government in issuing their 
 proclamation ; Lord Edward Fitzgerald, with more 
 consistency, but less discretion perhaps, indignantly 
 opposed that measure. He said with much vehe- 
 mence : ' I give my most hearty disapprobation to 
 this address, for I do think that the Lord-Lieutenant 
 and the majority of this House are the worst subjects 
 
Lord Edicard Fitzgerald. 89 
 
 the King- has.' A storm of no ordinary violence was 
 the result. 
 
 The virtuous ministerial party, the constitutional 
 Beresfords, Tolers, Trenches, and Tottenhams, indig- 
 nantly exclaimed : ' To the bar ! Take down his 
 words ! ' Everyone in the House shouted more or 
 less, and became vehement and agitated, with one 
 exception, and that was Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 
 Divers unsuccessful attempts were made to get a satis- 
 factory explanation from the contumelious lord ; but 
 all that could be effected was line excuse pire que le 
 delit. The ' Parliamentary Register ' does not report 
 it ; but the questionable apology is said to have 
 amounted simply to an admission that ' he had 
 spoken what had been taken down ; "'twas true, and 
 he was sorry for it.' 
 
 ' The House,' says the ' Parliamentary Register,' 
 'resolved nem. con. that the excuse offered by the 
 Right Hon. Edward Fitzgerald, commonly called 
 Lord Edward, for the words so spoken, is unsatis- 
 factory and insufficient. 
 
 ' Ordered — That Lord Edward do attend at the 
 bar to-morrow.' 
 
 The following day his lordship attended at the 
 bar of the House, made some kind of apology, which 
 evidently was no apology at all, for it is not reported 
 in the ' Parliamentary Register,' when, a division 
 taking place, 'the apology was accepted by 135 votes 
 in favour of it, 55 votes being only against its 
 acceptance.' 
 
90 Ireland in '98. 
 
 On February 6, 1793, the Arms and Gunpowder 
 Bill being gone into in committee, Lord Edward said, 
 ' that the clause imposing penalties on the removal of 
 arms from one place to another, was an infringement 
 on the liberty of the subject. He was informed by 
 gentlemen of administration that the Defenders were 
 now in arms. In case of an attack upon his house, 
 would he not be allowed arms without licence, for its 
 defence? Must volunteers apply for a licence to the 
 Lord-Lieutenant, his secretary, or the Commissioners 
 of the Revenue, as the bill requires, as often as they 
 wish to go through their evolutions ? He therefore 
 voted against this clause particularly, and considered 
 the entire bill a penal one.' 
 
 In the debate on the Insurrection Act, productive 
 of such calamitous results, in reference to the resolu- 
 tion of the House connected with that measure. Lord 
 Edward said : ' I shall oppose this resolution, because 
 I think that this resolution will not prevent the 
 crimes of which the right honourable gentleman 
 complains. The disturbances of the country, sir, 
 are not to be remedied by any coercive measures, 
 however strong ; such measures will tend rather to 
 exasperate than to remove the evil. Nothing, sir, 
 can effect this, and restore tranquillity to the country, 
 but a serious, a candid endeavour of Government and 
 of this House to redress the grievances of the people. 
 Redress these, and the people will return to their 
 allegiance and their duty ; suffer them to continue, 
 and neither your resolutions nor your bills will have 
 
Loi'd Edward Fitzgerald. 91 
 
 any effect. I shall therefore, sir, oppose not only 
 this resolution, but all the resolutions which the 
 right honourable gentleman has read to you.' 
 
 Lord Edward was not at the time of this debate, 
 nor for a long time after, a United Irishman. The 
 latter end of October 1792 he visited Paris. His 
 first letter to his mother from that city is dated 
 October 20, and therein he gives an account of an 
 intimate acquaintance with a man of unenviable no- 
 toriety, Thomas Paine. 
 
 This acquaintance of Lord Edward with Paine 
 was a most disastrous one, there is reason to believe ; 
 for in the course of less than three weeks from the 
 date of the above intimation, the London papers 
 copied from the French journals, dated November 10, 
 an announcement which led to Lord Edward's being 
 cashiered : 
 
 ' Paris, November 19. 
 
 ' Yesterday the English arrived in Paris, assem- 
 bled at White's hotel, to celebrate the triumph of 
 victories gained over their late invaders by the armies 
 of France. Though the festival was intended to be 
 purely British, the meeting was attended by citizens 
 of various countries, by deputies of the Convention, 
 by generals, and other officers of the armies then 
 stationed or visiting Paris. J. H. Stone in the 
 chair. 
 
 'Among the toasts were " The armies of France : 
 may the example of its citizen soldiers be followed 
 
92 Ireland in '98. 
 
 by all enslaved countries, till tyrants and tyranny be 
 extinct." 
 
 ' An address was proposed to the National Con- 
 vention. Among several toasts proposed by the citi- 
 zens Sir R. Smith and Lord E. Fitzgerald was the 
 following : " May the patriotic airs of the German 
 Legion ((7a Ira, the Carmagnole, the Marseillaise, 
 &c.) soon become the favourite music of every army, 
 and may the soldier and citizen join in the chorus." 
 General Dillon proposed " The People of Ireland ; 
 and may Government profit by the example of France, 
 and reform prevent revolution." Sir Robert Smith 
 and Lord E. Fitzgerald renounced their titles ; and 
 a toast proposed by the former was drunk: "The 
 speedy abolition of hereditary titles and feudal dis- 
 tinctions."' 
 
 The dismissal of Lord Edward from the army pre- 
 ceded his marriage on December 21, 1792. Mr. Fox 
 called attention, in the House of Commons, 'to cer- 
 tain dismissals which had taken place in the army — 
 those of Lord Semple, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and 
 also Captain Gawler.' Of his near relative, Lord 
 Edward, Fox observed: 'He would say, from his 
 personal knowledge, that the service did not possess 
 a more zealous, meritorious, or promising member. 
 He had served his country in actual service, and had 
 bled for it.' 
 
 The first intimation of. an acquaintance being 
 made with Madauie de Genlis on the part of Lord 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 
 
 Edward is in a letter from Paris, wherein he states 
 that he is to dine that day with Madame Sillery. 
 
 The Comtesse de Genlis, in her work, ' Precis de 
 conduite de Madame de GenHs depuis la Revolution,' 
 refers to the marriage of Pamela with Lord Edward 
 in the following terms : — 
 
 'We arrived at Tournay in the beginning of 
 December, 1792. Three weeks after, I had the 
 happiness to marry my adopted daughter, the angelic 
 Pamela, to Lord Edward Fitzgerald.' This event she 
 designates as a recompense of ' the best action of her 
 life,' namely, the adoption of an ' incomparable child, 
 which Providence had cast into her arms,' and the 
 development of that child's reason and intelligence, 
 and those virtues of hers which then rendered her 
 ' the model of the wives and mothers of her age.' 
 
 HiSTOKY OF Pamela. 
 
 Tlie question of the relation in which Madame de 
 Genlis stood to Lady Edward Fitzgerald is a mystery 
 which time has not wholly solved, but which it is 
 possible to form a tolerably clear idea of, after a close 
 acquaintance with the vague and conflicting state- 
 ments of Madame de Genlis in regard to it, and with 
 the views of those who were the impugners of those 
 statements, and of some who had an intimate know- 
 ledge of the person whom Madame de Genlis thought 
 proper to represent as her eleve. But before the ques- 
 
94 Ireland in '98. 
 
 tion of that relation is considered, it is necessary to 
 glance at the early history of Madame de Genlis, and 
 her subsequent career in the household of the Due 
 d' Orleans ; for these data cannot be ignored by anyone 
 who desires to be enabled to form a just or reasonable 
 opinion on the subject of that relation. Madame de 
 Genlis's character and position in the household of the 
 Duke of Orleans, Louis- Philippe- Joseph, who adopted 
 the name of Philippe Egalite in 1792, may be best 
 learned from her own writings, ' Memoires pour servir 
 a I'Histoire des 18"=^ et ]9™<^ sikles.' 
 
 Madame de Genlis tells us she was born in 1746, 
 in Burgundy, near Autun, of parents in a respectable 
 position, possessing landed property and a chateau, 
 and, by purchase, a title to nobility. She was con- 
 ducted to Lyons when she was about the age of six 
 years, and placed in the convent of ladies of noble 
 origin. 
 
 At the age of fourteen or fifteen she accompanied 
 her mother to Paris, and after a short residence there, 
 mother and daughter took up a fixed abode at Passy, 
 where they lived en grand train, and in a round of 
 gaieties, while the father of the happy family at 
 Passy was trying to retrieve his embarrassed affairs 
 in Burgundy, and at length was obliged to go to St. 
 Domingo to seek to repair his fortune. 
 
 After a few years' sojourn in that island he re- 
 turned to Europe. The vessel he embarked in was 
 taken by the English ; he was conveyed to Launceston 
 as a prisoner of war, and with him the lieutenant of the 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 95 
 
 vessel in wliicli he was captured, Monsieur de Genlis, 
 subsequently Comte de Genlis and Marquess de 
 Sillery, an officer of distinguished bravery. M. de 
 Genlis had frequent opportunities of seeing his fellow- 
 prisoner's letters from his daughter, and likewise a 
 portrait of her, which he admired exceedingly. 
 
 Having obtained his liberty before his companion 
 and fellow-prisoner, he returned to France, and soon 
 having an opportunity of seeing the original of that 
 portrait, there was nothing left for him but to fall 
 desperately in love with the young lady, and to marry 
 her in due time, her family being then in the most 
 straitened circumstances. Her father (on his liberation 
 from an English prison and return to his own 
 country) had become an inmate of a prison in Paris 
 for debt, from which he only came out to die with 
 his family. It was after his death in 1764 that the 
 Comte de Genlis paid his addresses to his daughter 
 and was accepted by her, the Count being then under 
 an engagement of marriage contracted for him by a 
 minister of the Crown with his full consent. 
 
 The marriage was a secret one, and was per- 
 formed at midnight. The friends of the Count were 
 so much displeased at this alliance, they refused for 
 a long time to visit him or to recognise his lady. 
 The issue of that marriage was a daughter, Caroline, 
 born in 1765. A second daughter, Pulcherie, born 
 in 1766, married General Dalence about 1784 ; and, 
 lastly, a son, who died in childhood about 1775. 
 
 Madame de Genlis was presented at the court of 
 
96 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Louis XV., and was graciously received by the King 
 and several members of the royal family ; and with 
 this presentation commenced the relations with the 
 Orleans family which had so great an influence on 
 her future life. From the time of her marriagfe to 
 the period of her presentation at court, we read in 
 the memoirs of nothing but balls and festivities, and 
 preparations for private theatricals, and performances 
 of comedies and operas, in which the Countess always 
 took a leading part. She performed frequently before 
 the royal family. 
 
 In 1770 the Countess, after many solicitations on 
 the part of the Duke to accept a situation in the 
 household of the Duke of Chartres, then recently 
 married and established in the Palais Royal, at length 
 consented. When Madame de Grenlis entered the 
 Palais Royal as dame d^honneur to the Duchesse de 
 Chartres, she was in her twenty-fourth year. Her 
 position was anomalous in the extreme. She was 
 suspected by the whole court of the Palais Royal to 
 be the mistress of the Duke. She was placed near 
 the person of the Duchess, she was the secretary of 
 the Duchess, wrote all her letters, and eventually 
 obtained the oflice of gouvernante of the male children 
 of the Duke and Duchess of Orleans, and of the young 
 Princess Adelaide, which offices she filled for nearly 
 fifteen years. 
 
 Referring to this period of her career, the name 
 of Pamela is thus first introduced in the ' Memoires ' 
 of Madame de Genlis : — 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 97 
 
 ' It is true that, to perfect my Sieves in the habit of 
 speaking foreign languages, I conceived the idea of 
 placing along with them a little English girl nearly 
 their own age. A little girl who was then residing 
 in Paris was first brought to me ; but I found her 
 so disagreeable that I did not wish to keep her. 
 Then Monsieur le Due de Chartres wrote to London, 
 and charged a person he was acquainted with, Mons. 
 Forth, to send him a pretty little English girl of 
 five or six years of age, after having her inoculated. 
 This commission was a little long in executing, as Mr. 
 Forth had at first selected one, but on examination 
 by doctors it was found that she had a tendency to 
 scrofula. A month afterwards he found another, 
 whom he had inoculated, whom he confided to a 
 horse dealer named St. Denis, who had been charged 
 by the Due de Chartres to purchase for him a fine 
 English horse.' 
 
 He announced to Monsieur le Due the execution 
 of the commission in these terms : ' I have the 
 honour to send to your most Serene Highness the 
 handsomest mare and the prettiest girl in England.' 
 The next reference to Pamela in the memoirs is in 
 connection with occurrences which took place in 
 December 1792. 
 
 Pamela was the daughter of a gentleman of good 
 family named Seymour, who had married, against the 
 consent of his family, a person of the lowest condition 
 named Mary Syms, and took her to Newfoundland, 
 
 H 
 
98 Ireland in '98. 
 
 to a place called Fogo, There Pamela was born, 
 and was named Nancy. 
 
 ' Her father died, and the mother returned to 
 England with her child, then eighteen months old. 
 As her husband was disinherited, she was reduced 
 to great misery, and forced to work for her bread. 
 She had settled at Christchurch, which place Mr. 
 Forth passed through four years after, and, being 
 commissioned by the Duke of Orleans to send us a 
 young English girl, he saw this girl, and obtained 
 her from her mother. When I began to be really 
 attached to Pamela I was very uneasy lest her mother 
 might be desirous of claiming her by legal process ; 
 that is, lest she might threaten me with doing so, to 
 obtain grants of money it would have been out of my 
 power to give. I consulted several English lawyers 
 on the subject, and they told me that the only means 
 of protecting myself from this species of persecution 
 was to get the mother to give me her daughter as an 
 apprentice, for the sum of twenty-five guineas. She 
 agreed, and, according to the usual forms, appeared 
 in the Court of King's Bench, before Lord Chief 
 Justice Mansfield. She there signed an agreement 
 by which she gave me her daughter as an apprentice 
 till she came of age, and could not claim her from 
 me till she paid all the expenses I had been at for her 
 maintenance and education ; and to this paper Lord 
 Mansfield put his name and seal, as Lord Chief 
 Justice of the Court of King's Bench.' 
 
 In 1788, Madame de Genlis determined to make 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 99 
 
 un petit voyage en Angleterre, for which petit voyage no 
 reasons are assigned in the memoirs, except that ' she 
 had always a passionate desire for a little journey to 
 England.' And this was the only occasion, she 
 states, in which she had ever separated herself from 
 her eleves during their education, and it was only for 
 six weeks. 
 
 She received the most flattering attentions, she 
 states, from the most celebrated persons of Eng- 
 land ; among others, from Messrs. Fox, Sheridan, 
 Burke, Lord Mansfield, &c. ; with all of whom she 
 had never any previous acquaintance. But not one 
 word is said in this account of the journey, and her 
 intimacy with the chief justice, of the legal proceeding 
 before Lord Mansfield, in virtue of which Pamela 
 became an apprentice of Madame de Genlis. All the 
 details given by j\Iadame de Genlis of the origin of 
 Pamela, I believe to be mere fictions, and such they 
 were considered by Pamela and those most intimately 
 acquainted with her. 
 
 Pamela was not the only ' child by adoption ' of 
 Madame de Genlis. 
 
 In April 1776 we are told by madam.e that she 
 was ordered by her physician, after a serious illness, 
 to try the mineral waters of Spa ; and, as her husband 
 could not accompany her, she proceeded to Spa at- 
 tended by an elderly officer, a friend of her husband, 
 ' un homme en qui il avait toute confiance.' 
 
 There, after a sojourn of nearly four months, she 
 applied for a renewal of her leave of absence, to make 
 
 H 2 
 
100 Ireland in '98. 
 
 a tour in Switzerland. She returned to Paris in the 
 autumn of 1776, after an absence of five months and 
 a half. 
 
 If a statement of Pamela to a friend of hers, 
 Madame la Baronne d'E., be correct, that she was 
 four years younger than Madame de Genlis made 
 her out, she must have been born in 1777. The in- 
 ference, then, about Madame de Genlis's motive for 
 the journey to Spa would fall to the ground : if she 
 had stated three years instead of four, we should then 
 have the date of her birth and that of the journey of 
 Madame de Genlis to Spa the same year, namely, 
 1776, and consequently Pamela would have been 
 sixteen years of age, and not nineteen, when she was 
 married. 
 
 The time of Madame de Genlis's journey to Spa 
 in 1776, and the date of the birth of Pamela, if 
 separated at all, I beheve can only be so by an in- 
 terval of some months. 
 
 Pamela was born, according to Madame de 
 Genlis's account, in 1773, being about nineteen in 
 October 1792, as she is described in the marriage 
 contract. 
 
 But on authority which is entitled to the fullest 
 reliance, that of the intimate and confidential friend 
 of Pamela for many years, and who continued to be 
 so up to the period of her death — Madame la Baronne 
 d'E. — I am enabled to state that Pamela on many 
 occasions referred to Madame de Genlis's account of 
 her age as a misstatement. Pamela's account, most 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 101 
 
 probably, approached nearest to the truth. It is 
 necessary, however, to reduce the four years, of 
 which she sj)eaks, to three years, to make her ac- 
 count consistent with many concurrent circumstances 
 which suffice to fix the date of her birth at 1776, 
 instead of 1773, as Madame de Genlis would have 
 it, and to establish the fact that, at the period of her 
 marriage, in the latter part of 1792, she was only 
 sixteen years of age, and not nineteen, as Madame de 
 Genlis made her out. 
 
 The kind of education given to Pamela by 
 Madame de Genlis was better calculated to qualify 
 her for the stage than for the position in society that 
 miofht be desired for her. 
 
 Madame de Genlis makes mention of a perform- 
 ance of her eleve, Pamela; then, about the year 1785, 
 Madame de Genlis gives a portrait of the young 
 Pamela, who, she says, ' was extremely handsome ; 
 candour and sensibility were the chief traits in her 
 character ; she never told a falsehood, or employed 
 the slightest deceit, during the whole course of her 
 education ; she was spiritual from sentiment ; her con- 
 versation was most agreeable, and always emanated 
 from the heart. I was passionately fond of her, and 
 that fondness has in some respects proved unfortunate. 
 This charming child was the most idle I ever knew ; 
 she had no memory — she was very wild, which even 
 added to the grace of her figure, as it gave her an air 
 of vivacity, which, joined to her natural indolence 
 and to a great deal of wit, made her very engaging. 
 
102 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ' Her figure was fine and light ; she flew like 
 Atalante ; and her mind was idle to the greatest 
 degree ; thus was she in after life a person the least 
 capable of reflection. Her lot brought her afterwards 
 into the most extraordinary situations ; she was 
 without a guide or a counsellor on a thousand dan- 
 gerous occasions, but, nevertheless, conducted herself 
 extremely well as long as her husband was living, 
 and even, in many diflicult circumstances, in a manner 
 truly heroic' 
 
 In July 1789 the French Revolution broke out, 
 and an occurrence took place a little later, we are 
 told in the memoirs, which caused Madame de Genlis 
 to desire to make a second petit voyage en A7igleterre ; 
 but this was not gratified until October 11, 1791, 
 when the Duchesse d' Orleans had insisted on Madame 
 de Genlis's expulsion from Belle-Chasse. 
 
 The occurrence to which Madame de Genlis refers 
 is remarkable. At the age of little more than fourteen 
 years, we find Pamela already made practically ac- 
 quainted with the terrors of a revolution, menaced 
 with death and imprisoned during a whole night by 
 a furious rabble. 
 
 The following is the account given in Madame de 
 Genhs's memoirs of this early experience of the horrors 
 of a revolution, in 1790 : 
 
 ' The Comte de Beaujolais, my niece, Henriette 
 de Sercey, Pamela, and I, went to visit a cormtry 
 house, six leagues from Paris. 
 
 ' We passed by the Colombe. 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 103 
 
 ' Unfortunately it was a market-day. There were 
 assembled in the village a multitude of people from 
 the neighbouring parts. As we traversed the village, 
 the people crowded round our carriage, imagining 
 that I was the queen, accompanied by Madame (her 
 daughter) and the Dauphin, who had fled from Paris. 
 They arrested us, obliged us to descend from the 
 carriage, on which they seized, as well as on the 
 coachman and our attendants. In this state of 
 tumult, the commandant of the National Guard, a 
 young man of very good family. Monsieur Baudry, 
 came to our succour, harangued the people, whom he 
 could not dissuade, however ; but he managed to 
 gain their permission to conduct us into his house, 
 which was quite close, undertaking to keep us pri- 
 soners till full satisfaction was given by us. 
 
 ' Through an immense multitude we were led into 
 his house, and during this short passage we heard a 
 great number of voices and of furious cries that we 
 must be brought to the lamp-posts — a la lanterne. 
 Finally we were taken into the house ; but a quarter 
 of an hour had not elapsed before a multitude of four 
 thousand people besieged the doors, burst them open, 
 and rushed into the house with a terrible tumult. 
 M. Baudry acted with much courage and humanity, 
 and made all the efforts in his power to calm the 
 populace.' 
 
 The conclusion may be told in fewer words than 
 Madame de Genlis has employed to relate it. After 
 a long debate the proposition was accepted. A man 
 
104 L^ eland in '98. 
 
 was despatched to Paris to make tlie necessary in- 
 quiries of the authorities. A guard was set over 
 the house, the populace contmued to besiege it, 
 and during that frightful night until five o'clock 
 the following morning the tumult continued, and 
 drunkenness lent additional horrors to it. At that 
 hour of the morning the messenger returned with 
 an order from the municipality to allow the party 
 to proceed without molestation, and that order was 
 obeyed. But, however calm and composed Madame 
 de Genlis may have been, we may easily conceive 
 what the terror must have been of her young Sieves, 
 of M. le Comte de Beaujolais, Mademoiselle d'Orleans, 
 Henriette de Sercey, the niece of Madame de Genlis, 
 and the young Pamela. 
 
 This incident in the French Reign of Terror was 
 an introduction for her to another reign of terror, 
 the events of which it was her unfortunate destiny to 
 be familiarised with in Ireland. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1791 that the poor 
 Duchesse d'Orleans made the desperate effort, pre- 
 viously referred to, to separate her children from 
 Madame de Genlis, and to induce the latter to resign 
 her office of governess. The conduct of Madame de 
 Genlis on this occasion was infamous : she refused 
 to resign her office or to restore the children of the 
 Duchess. She wrote letters of complaint to the hus- 
 band against the wife ; she had the audacity even 
 to demand of the husband his interference with the 
 wife, and to call for an apology from the injured 
 
Lord Ediuard Fitzgerald. 105 
 
 lady. But the Duchess, at length assuming the 
 authority of her position, demanded of Madame de 
 Genlis her immediate departure and resignation of 
 her office, on pain of a public exposure of her con- 
 duct ; and then only, and not till then, Madame de 
 Genlis reluctantly abandoned her office of governess, 
 and removed from Paris. But the triumph of the 
 virtuous and excellent woman, the Duchess of Or- 
 leans, was of short duration. The artfal, intriguing, 
 ever-plotting, never-tiring concocter of schemes and 
 stratagems, was recalled to Paris by the Duke not 
 long before his arrest, brought back to Belle-Chasse, 
 reinstated in her office, and sent to England in charge 
 of the eldest daughter of the Duke of Orleans, her 
 former eleve, Madame Adelaide. 
 
 During the sojourn of Madame de Genlis in Eng- 
 land in 1792, with her Sieve the Princesse Adelaide 
 d' Orleans and her reputed daughter Pamela, she 
 formed an acquaintance that became of a very inti- 
 mate nature with the celebrated Richard Brinsley 
 Sheridan. 
 
 When the importunities of the Due d'Orleans 
 could no longer be resisted for his daughter's return 
 to France, in order to avoid the penalty of the im- 
 pending project of a law against all French subjects 
 residing in foreign countries without the sanction of 
 the Government, Madame de Genlis very reluctantly 
 prepared for her departure, and at length tore herself 
 and her young eleves away from the charming society 
 of Mr. Sheridan, which, it appears, they had enjoyed 
 
106 Ireland in '98. 
 
 a good deal of in the autumn of 1792. They set out 
 for Dover, but they had to pass, we learn from 
 Madame de Genlis, through a town called Dartford, 
 and the thought of the dreadful dangers three unpro- 
 tected ladies in a foreign land would be exposed to, 
 at the moment of starting even, filled the soul of 
 Madame la Gouvernante with terrors, and long sub- 
 sequently filled many pages of her memoirs with a 
 most romantic account of the perfidy of a postillion 
 and the perils resulting therefrom, having been pur- 
 posely taken by a wrong road to a considerable dis- 
 tance from the proper route, evidently with some 
 mysterious and sinister design on the part of the 
 postillion. At length, however, owing to a great 
 display of courage on the part of madame, and the 
 happy interference of some country people whom she 
 had appealed to, the perfidious postillion was induced 
 by divers menaces of prosecution to return to London, 
 the place from which they had fruitlessly set out 
 several hours previously for Dover. They no sooner 
 reached London than madame drove directly to the 
 place of abode of Mr. Sheridan, and there the lady 
 and her eleves fouDd a hospitable asylum, and con- 
 tinued in the enjoyment of it for about one month. 
 
 A couple of days before Madame la Gouvernante 
 took her departure with her eleves, from the 'hos- 
 pitable house of Mr. Sheridan,' madame tells us it 
 became manifest that Sheridan, ' cet homme si celebre 
 par son esprit et ses talents, I'un des plus aimables 
 que j'ai connus,' was 'passionately in love with 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 107 
 
 Pamela.' ... 'Two days,' adds Madame de Genlis, 
 * before we set out, Mr. Sheridan made in my presence 
 his declaration of love to Pamela, who was affected 
 by his agreeable manner and high character, and ac- 
 cepted the offer of his hand with pleasure. In con- 
 sequence of this, it was settled that he was to marry 
 her on our return from France, which was ex|)ected 
 to take place in a fortnight.' 
 
 It is hardly necessary to make any comment on 
 the effect that Madame de Genlis's statement cannot 
 fail to make on the minds of all right-thinking per- 
 sons, respecting her assent to the acceptance of Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald for Pamela, certainly within the 
 period of a week from the time of sanctioning 
 Sheridan's proposal for her, her conduct in regard to 
 the marriage of the betrothed girl to the young Irish 
 nobleman, whom she had casually met at a theatre in 
 Paris for the first time, and by whom she must have 
 been proposed for the same night, for on the following 
 day they set out for Tournay, and were joined at the 
 first post by the accepted lover, Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald. 
 
 The first mention of the name of Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald in connection with that of Pamela, in the 
 memoirs of the Comtesse de Genlis, is in these terms, 
 under date October 1792, referring to her sojourn at 
 the house of Mr. Sheridan, at Isleworth: ' Mr. Sheridan 
 was naturally amiable, was particularly kind to us ; 
 having fallen desperately in love with Pamela, and 
 being a widower, he was most anxious to marry her. 
 
108 Ireland in '98. 
 
 His wife, who had died young, was one of the hand- 
 somest and most charming women in England, and 
 Pamela was strikingly like her. Mrs. Sheridan 
 had lived very happily with her husband, till she 
 became acquainted with Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 
 who fell violently in love with her, which sentiment 
 she fully reciprocated. The remorse which she felt 
 brought her to the grave.' 
 
 Madame de Genlis's foul slander on the character 
 of Sheridan's first wife is quite m keeping with the 
 habitual malevolence of that unprincipled woman. 
 
 There is no truth in the statement of the separa- 
 tion of Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan. Mrs. Sheridan was 
 assiduously attended during her last illness by her 
 husband. She had had much cause of complaint at 
 various times, of neglect and estranged affections on 
 the part of her husband, and Sheridan played the 
 part of a jealous lover and an injured husband on 
 such occasions when he found his beautiful wife the 
 object of admiration in society, and probably affecting 
 to court it. During the sojourn of Madame de Genlis 
 in England, while on a visit to Sheridan's house at 
 Isleworth, Lord Edward Fitzgerald was afforded more 
 than once an opportunity of seeing Madame de Genlis, 
 but he did not avail himself of it, having a horror of 
 learned ladies : but Lord Edward had no horror of 
 pretty women ; and it appears he had heard a great 
 deal of the beauty and accomplishments of Pamela, 
 the young eVeve of the formidable learned lady. 
 Madame de Genlis and her two eVeves set out for Paris 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 109 
 
 on October 20, accompanied as far as Dover by Mr, 
 Sheridan. But the young nobleman, Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald, who, if the preceding statements are to be 
 relied on, had an unhappy influence on Sheridan's 
 domestic happiness, was destined to become the hus- 
 band, in a few days, of the young lady whom he 
 considered engaged to him. Lord Edward was then 
 residing in the French metropolis. Madame de Genlis 
 had evidently been making inquiries into Sheridan's 
 circumstances, for she states that he was a good deal 
 embarrassed; and when we find the young Irish 
 lord, a little later, had made Pamela's acquaintance 
 in Paris, and that such extraordinary despatch had 
 marked each successive step of the acquaintance — 
 the courtship, the legalising of actes, and the wedding 
 — we are in a better position to estimate Madame de 
 Genlis's conduct in this business. Poor Sheridan, at 
 parting with the ladies at Dover, shed tears, and 
 Madame de Genlis 'separated from him avec atten- 
 drisseme7it.' 
 
 Immediately after Madame de Genlis's return to 
 Paris from England, the Revolution being then at its 
 height, the Countess was ordered by the Duke of 
 Orleans to conduct his daughter to Flanders. ' That 
 same evening,' says the Countess, ' M. de SiUery, to 
 dissipate our wearied sj^irits, took us to the theatre to 
 a private box of his own. They performed Lodoiska. 
 An Englishman, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was at 
 this play ; he of whom I have already spoken, and 
 who was so enamoured of Mrs. Sheridan. The 
 
110 Ireland in '98. 
 
 resemblance of Pamela to the person whose death he 
 so bitterly regretted struck him so forcibly, that he 
 became passionately in love with Pamela ; he caused 
 himself to be introduced to our box by an English- 
 man of our acquaintance, Mr. Stone. The next 
 morning we went to Raincy ; it was decided that 
 we should take our departure the following day for 
 Tournay.' 
 
 The following day they set out for Flanders. ' We 
 found,' says Madame de Genlis, ' Lord Edward, 
 whose love for Pamela had been the cause of his 
 following us to Tournay. No sooner had we arrived 
 at Tournay, than he demanded of me Pamela in 
 marriage. I showed him the papers which furnished 
 proof of her birth and parentage — qui constataient sa 
 naissance. When I showed these papers to Lord 
 Edward, I told him that, having given in my resig- 
 naton as governess to mademoiselle, I had a right 
 on retiring from the situation to a pension of six 
 thousand francs which was attached to this place, and 
 that I intended writing to the Duke of Orleans, to 
 beg that I might be permitted to renounce the pension 
 for myself, and to J3ray that it might be given over to 
 Pamela, who had on her own account a right to this 
 favour, as having been the companion of the infancy 
 and youthful days of mademoiselle, as well as in con- 
 sideration of Pamela's proficiency in the English 
 language, which had been useful to the princess's 
 education. Moreover, I felt a great satisfaction, 
 after all the annoyances I had been subject to, in 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Ill 
 
 ridding myself of the pension, and in the recollection 
 that I had educated gratuitously mademoiselle's three 
 brothers. I also told Lord Edward that nothing 
 could make me give him the hand of Pamela in oppo- 
 sition to the wishes of his family, without the written 
 consent of his mother, the Duchess of Leinster ; upon 
 which he assured me he would obtain it. He set out 
 immediately for England, and returned in a few days, 
 bringing me a most charming letter from his mother 
 the Duchess, who gave her consent willingly to the 
 marriage, 
 
 ' The day after his return the contract was signed, 
 the marriage was solemnised on the spot, and the 
 newly-married couple took their departure the follow- 
 ing day for England. This separation made me weep 
 bitterly, although I felt inexpressible joy in insuring 
 in so honourable a manner the future welfare of a 
 child who was so dear to me.' 
 
113 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD^ (continued). 
 
 Arthur O'Connor — Adventure — Negotiations with France — Connection 
 with United Irishmen— Arrests at Bond's — Concealment — The 
 traitor Reynolds — Narrow escape ^ Capture of Lord Edward — 
 Imprisonment in Newgate — Death — Bill of Attainder — Efforts to 
 reverse it — The Prince Regent. 
 
 O'Connor's close intimacy with Lord Edward Fitz- 
 gerald led to the introduction of the latter into the 
 Society of the United Irishmen. We find Lord 
 Edward accompanying O'Connor to the North, and 
 residing for some weeks in the vicinity of Belfast, on 
 the occasion of the latter offering himself to the 
 electors of Antrim as a candidate for that county. In 
 1796, O'Connor was in daily intercourse with Lord 
 Edward at Frescati. 
 
 The Parliament which met on October 16, 1796, 
 and ended on July 27, 1797, was the last in which 
 Lord Edward sat. He had been a member of the 
 House of Commons fourteen years, when, despairing 
 of effecting any beneficial object for his country in 
 it, he determined to retire from parliamentary life. 
 
 ^ The desire to keep as close as possible to Dr. Madden's report 
 has in many cases been abandoned, in consequence of endless iteration 
 and iiTelevant matter. This is notably so in the lives of Rowan and 
 Lord Edward. The silk purse from the well-known bristly material is 
 mild in comparison. — Ed. 
 
 I 
 
114 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Grattan, O'Connor, and Lord Edward, in 1797, ap- 
 pear to have been actuated by the same motives which 
 led Fox, m the previous year, the leader of the Oppo- 
 sition in England, to secede from Parliament, wearied 
 and dispirited, and worn out with fruitless efforts to 
 stem the torrent of rampant desj)otism and antagonism 
 of every kind. 
 
 Grattan, Duquerry, Ponsonby, and Sir Lawrence 
 Parsons eschewed all overt acts of sedition and high 
 treason. They considered it was unparliamentary 
 for members to ' unthread the rude eye of rebellion.' 
 It was only permissible for them to rouse the slumber- 
 ing people, and stimulate their leaders by their elo- 
 quent invectives against Government ; to speak of 
 swords and daggers, and of the headsman's axe for 
 bad rulers, but in a parliamentary, metaphorical 
 sense only ; to make the people believe they were 
 really in earnest with regard to the use of the for- 
 midable weajDons of which the}^ spoke, and were 
 ready to do and die in defence of their country, when 
 the fitting occasion came. 
 
 The Government people denounced the Opposition 
 in 1797 as covert traitors ; and the Opposition, dealing 
 with the Government party's outrages upon them, 
 retaliated in equally violent language on the Tories. 
 If either faction could have possibly so decried and 
 discredited the other party as to make it safe and 
 facile to hang their opponents, they would apparently 
 have done so with the greatest alacrity. 
 
 But there was more of downright earnestness in 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 115 
 
 the violent, vindictive language of the Clares, Beres- 
 fords, and Castlereaghs, than in the flowers of 
 patriotic eloquence and flights of indignant oratory 
 in support of the cause of reform, and in the denun- 
 ciations of the borough -mongers. However, the lan- 
 guage of the Whig leaders was sufficiently explicit. 
 
 In 1797, an occurrence took place on the Curragh 
 of Kildare, which placed a party of military gentle- 
 men — some ten or twelve dragoon officers — in a ridi- 
 culous position, and displayed the character of Lord 
 Edward, and that peculiar quality of high courage, 
 self-command, and consciousness of power which dis- 
 tinguished him in all emergencies of danger, or diffi- 
 culties of any kind. 
 
 Lord Edward and his friend Arthur O'Connor 
 were riding home at the conclusion of the Curragh 
 races, and had not proceeded very far from the stand 
 when the party above mentioned of dragoon officers 
 galloped atter them, whirled round, and intercepted 
 them. 
 
 One of the party, desperately ambitious of signal- 
 ising his valour and his loyalty, commanded Lord 
 Edward to take ofii" his neckerchief, which, being 
 of a green colour, was evidently a seditious neck- 
 tie. 
 
 The poor would-be hero little knew the stuff of 
 which the man was made whom lie had unfortunately 
 singled out for his experimental exploit. Lord 
 Edward looked at the gentleman fully in the face 
 calmly and coolly, and said to him in a deliberate 
 
116 Ireland in '98. 
 
 manner, and in that peculiarly quiet tone in which he 
 was wont to speak whenever his mind was made up 
 that a thing of moment was to be done : ' Your 
 cloth would bespeak you to be a gentleman, but this 
 conduct conveys a very different impression. As to 
 this neckcloth that so offends you, all I can say is, 
 here 1 stand ; let any man among you, who dares, 
 come forward and take it off.' 
 
 ' To make a hazard of new fortunes here,' was 
 clearly too desperate a venture for Lord Edward's 
 military assailants. ' Big Mars seems bankrupt in 
 the braggart host.' The bold dragoons, sadly discon- 
 certed, puzzled, looked at each other, doubtful how to 
 proceed, or, to express it more poetically : 
 
 The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks, 
 
 With torch staves in their hands ; and their poor jades 
 
 Lob down their heads, drooping their hides and hips. 
 
 In this unpleasant state of things, Mr. O'Connor 
 kindly interposed, and with that remarkable amenity 
 of manner which he could assume better than most 
 men when he had ' somethino^ dano-erous ' in his 
 thoughts, in the most bland and gentlemanly way 
 observed, if the officer chose to ajDpoint two of their 
 number, his friend Lord Edward and himself would 
 be found in Kildare in readiness to receive any com- 
 munication from them. 
 
 This polite intimation had the cooling-down effect 
 that might be expected. The ten or twelve Draw- 
 cansir dragoons began to reflect on their folly. The 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 117 
 
 parties separated. The expected challenge was awaited 
 two days, but it did not come. 
 
 Thus, on many similar occasions was a noble pro- 
 fession disgraced, and its service hurt, by the relaxa- 
 tion of all discipline in that reign of terror, which 
 the gallant Abercrombie denounced and refused to 
 sanction with his sword. 
 
 The military organisation of the United Irishmen, 
 which originated in Ulster, was adopted in Leinster 
 towards the end of 1796. By the new organisation, 
 the civil officers received military titles ; the secretary 
 of each society of twelve was called the petty officer ; 
 each delegate of five societies a captain, having sixty 
 men under his command ; and the delegate of ten 
 lower baronial societies was usually the colonel, each 
 battalion being composed of six hundred men. The 
 colonels of each county sent in the names of three per- 
 sons to the Directory, one of whom was appointed by 
 it adjutant-general of the county, who communicated 
 directly with the executive. In May 1796, Lord 
 Edward proceeded on his first treasonable mission 
 to the Continent, to be joined there or in London by 
 Arthur O'Connor, 
 
 Lord Edward, with the view of keeping up appear- 
 ances of private objects for his continental journey, 
 was accompanied by Lady Edward Fitzgerald. From 
 London he went to Hamburg, and was soon in treaty 
 with Reinhart, the French minister at that place, 
 having been joined there by Arthur O'Connor. The 
 negotiations were broken off,, no one appeared to 
 
118 Ireland in '98. 
 
 know why or wherefore. Reinhart was suspected of 
 being a traitor to his Government, and not without 
 good reason, as that gentleman's letters to his Govern- 
 ment, addressed to Charles de Lacroix, of which copies 
 were duly furnished to the English Government 
 through their consular agent at Hamburg, would 
 seem to prove. O'Connor and Fitzgerald discon- 
 tinued their negotiations with that minister, quitted 
 Hamburg, and proceeded to Basle. In opening these 
 negotiations with the French Directory through the 
 medium of M. Barthelemi, and in tumbling into the 
 hands of this slippery ecclesiastic, of whose integrity 
 they had no suspicion, they at once placed the 
 secret of their mission in the sympathising bosom of 
 Mr. William Pitt, and revealed their negotiations 
 with the French Directory. An arrangement was 
 entered into at Basle for effecting a communication 
 with General Hoche (duly sanctioned by the Direc- 
 tory), who was then preparing for the command of 
 the expedition to Ireland, which Tone's exertions 
 had been the means of setting on foot. It ivas repre- 
 sented to Lord Edjcard at Basle that Hoche would 
 only communicate with one negotiator, and that 
 O'Connor alone would be permitted to see the 
 general ; eventually, however, that objection was 
 overruled. Accordingly, O'Connor and Lord Edward 
 entered the French territory, and after a conference 
 with Hoche, Lord Edward returned to Hamburg. 
 On his journey from Basle to Hamburg, he had for 
 a compagnon de voyage a spy of the British Govern- 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 119 
 
 ment, a foreign lady, a former mistress of a colleague 
 of Mr. Pitt, but still in the habit of corresponding; 
 with her old entreteneur, an intimate friend of the 
 prime minister. In the spring of 1797, Mr. Edward 
 J. Lewines was sent to France by the Leinster Direc- 
 tory, and he proceeded to Paris, and took up his 
 abode there as the resident representative of the Irish 
 nation, duly accredited to the French Republic. In 
 the month of May 1797, Lord Edward Fitzgerald 
 was sent by the Directory to London, to meet an 
 emissary of the French Government, who had been 
 sent over to procure information as to the exact state 
 of preparation throughout the country for a general 
 rising ; and only a month later, the Leinster Direc- 
 tory were so importuned with urgent demands for 
 the sanction of the executive for taking the field, 
 that Dr. McNeven was despatched on a special 
 mission, for the purpose of urging on the French 
 Government the necessity of immediate co-operation. 
 
 A military committee was appointed in February 
 1798 ; its duty was to prepare a plan of co-operation 
 with the French when they should land, or of insur- 
 rection, in case they should be forced to it before the 
 arrival of the French, a step whicii the Directory was 
 determined if possible to avoid. 
 
 In reply to my inquiries concerning the negotia- 
 tions between the leaders of the Society of United 
 Irishmen and the French Government, O'Connor 
 said : — ' Before General O'Connor negotiated, in 1796, 
 the treaty for the United Irish with the agent of the 
 
120 Ireland in '98. 
 
 French Directory, of which General Hoche's expedi- 
 tion was the result, there never had been any other 
 treaty before that with France. In 1796 he and 
 Lord Edward had an mterview with Hoche on the 
 French frontier, and subsequently negotiations were 
 entered into with Buonaparte. Buonaparte had a 
 true intention to invade England, and had an army 
 of 20,000 men in readiness for it, when the intel- 
 lio-ence of the new desio;ns of Austria and Russia 
 caused that intention to be given up.' 
 
 The above statement of O'Connor is calculated to 
 make an impression utterly at variance with facts re- 
 specting the earnestness of the meditated design of 
 the French Government of invading England in 
 1798 — an impression, however, which O'Connor had 
 no idea of making. He speaks, be it observed, of an 
 army of 20,000 men in readiness for the invasion, 
 under the command of Buonaparte. But Buonaparte 
 was only one of eleven generals who were to have 
 commanded corps d^armee in that expedition — the 
 first on the list and chief in command. 
 
 The enormous aruaament ordered for that expedi- 
 tion far exceeded 200,000 men. Though a national 
 committee was a part of the plan of the original or- 
 ganisation, the election of national delegates did not 
 take place till the beginning of December 1797, and 
 then only partially. With respect to the total 
 number of armed men in the union throughout the 
 country, as estimated by Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 121 
 
 when a rising was eventually determined on in the 
 month of March 1798, the particulars are specified 
 in a document presented by Lord Edward to Mr, 
 Thomas Reynolds, the informer. 
 
 By this document it would appear that the total 
 number of armed men throughout the country was 
 estimated by Lord Edward at 279,896. It will be 
 found, however, that there is an error of 12,600 in 
 the total of the returns of the armed men of the 
 several counties ; it should be 267,296, instead of 
 279,896. But from another source, and one whose 
 authenticity is unquestionable, the writer has reason 
 to know that Lord Edward imagined that, when once 
 he had raised the standard of revolt, 100,000 effec- 
 tive men might be immediately expected to rally 
 round it. 
 
 I have elsewhere referred to a very remarkable 
 meeting which took place at the Shakespeare Gallery, 
 Exchequer Street, about a month before the arrests in 
 March, when Lord Edward specially requested his 
 confidential friend, W. M., my informant, to attend a 
 conference with the delegates from the different coun- 
 ties respecting the projected rising. The account of 
 the discussion which ensued on that occasion was 
 taken down by me in writing, I may say from the 
 lips of W. M., the same night on which it was related 
 to me. To that portion of his statement which has 
 reference to Lord Edward's views and his own on 
 the subject of the contemplated rising in April 1798, 
 
122 Ireland in '98. 
 
 I shall only recur in this memoir of Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald. 
 
 Lord Edward having expressed his opinion that 
 in the existing circumstances of the country the 
 time for action had come, that no foreign aid was 
 then to be expected, and that even without it the 
 chances of success were greatly in favour of the at- 
 tempt, and having produced returns of the force to 
 be relied on, he said : ' Here are returns that show 
 that 100,000 armed men may be counted on to take 
 the field.' 
 
 ' My Lord,' replied his friend, ' it is one thing to 
 have 100,000 men on paper, and another in the field. 
 A hundred thousand men on paper will not furnish 
 50,000 in array. I, for one, am enrolled amongst the 
 number ; but I candidly tell you, you will not find 
 me in your ranks. You know for what objects we 
 joined this Union, and what means we reckoned 
 on for carrymg them into eff'ect. Fifteen thousand 
 Frenchmen were considered essential to our under- 
 taking. If they were so at that time, still more so 
 are they now, when our warlike aspect has caused 
 the Government to pour troops into the country.' 
 
 ' What ! ' said Lord Edward, ' would you attempt 
 nothing without these 15,000 men — would you not 
 be satisfied with 10,000 ? ' 
 
 ' I would, my Lord,' replied his friend, ' if the aid 
 of the fifteen thousand could not be procured.' 
 
 ' But,' continued Lord Edward, ' even if the ten 
 could not be procured, what would you do then? ' 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 123 
 
 ' I would then accept of five, my Lord,' was the 
 reply. 
 
 ' But,' said Lord Edward, fixing his eyes with 
 great earnestness on him, ' we cannot get 5,000, and, 
 with respect to the larger force we originally wished 
 for, had we succeeded with so large a body of French 
 troops, we might have found it difficult enough to 
 get rid of our alHes.' 
 
 To this it was replied, ' My Lord, if we found it 
 possible to get rid of our enemies, who are more than 
 ten times as numerous as our allies, we could have 
 little difficulty in getting rid of the latter w^hen neces- 
 sity required it.' 
 
 ' But I tell you we cannot,' said Lord Edward, 
 ' get even the 5,000 you speak of, and w^hen you 
 know that we cannot, will you desert our cause ? ' 
 
 'My Lord,' said W. M., 'if 5,000 men could not 
 be obtained, I would seek the assistance of a sufficient 
 number of French officers to lead our people ; and 
 with three hundred of these, perhaps we might be 
 justified in making an effi^rt for independence, but 
 not without them. What military men have we of 
 our own to lead our unfortunate people against a 
 disciplined army ? ' 
 
 Lord Edward ridiculed the idea of there being 
 anything like discipline in the English army. ' Be- 
 sides, the numbers,' he said, 'of the United Irishmen 
 w^ould more than counterbalance any superiority in 
 the discipline of their enemies.' 
 
 ' My Lord,' said his friend, ' we must not be de- 
 
124 Ireland in '! 
 
 ceived. They are disciplined, and our people are 
 not. If the latter are repulsed and broken, who is to 
 reform their lines ? Once thrown into disorder, the 
 greater their numbers, the greater will be the havoc 
 made amongst them.' 
 
 Lord Edward said, ' without risking a general 
 engagement, he Avould be able to get possession of 
 Dublin.' 
 
 ' Suppose you did, my Lord,' was the reply, the 
 possession of the capital would not insure success. . . . 
 You, my Lord, are the only military man amongst 
 us ; but you cannot be everywhere you are required ; 
 and the misfortune is, you delegate your authority 
 to those whom you think are like yourself. But they 
 are not like you ; we have no such persons amongst 
 us.' 
 
 The delegates assented to the justice of these 
 remarks, declaring that the proposal for the aid of 
 the French officers was a reasonable one, when Lord 
 Edward impatiently reminded them that they had no 
 assistance to expect from France, and that conse- 
 quently the determination had been come to to pre- 
 pare the country for an immediate rising. The con- 
 ference terminated in divided opinions. 
 
 Lord Edward and his friend, nevertheless, parted 
 with the same cordiality and confidence in each other 
 that had always subsisted between them. 
 
 A very short time subsequently to the arrests 
 at Bond's, it was known in England to one of the 
 Leinster family, who appears to have bad access to 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 125 
 
 the Duke of Portland and a confidential knowledge 
 of Ills views, that Lord Edward's escape would pro- 
 bably be connived at ; and even previous to the 
 arrests of March 12, when Mr. Ogilvie had an inter- 
 view with Lord Clare, in reference to the reported 
 connection of Lord Edward with the Society of 
 United Irishmen, of which Government was then in- 
 formed, Lord Clare, with manifest earnestness and 
 warmth of feeling, said : ' For God's sake, get this 
 young man out of the country ; the ports shall be 
 thrown open to you, and no hindrance whatever 
 offered.' 
 
 All Mr. Ogilvie' s subsequent efforts to move Lord 
 Edward to avail himself of this generous and indul- 
 gent disposition of the Government were in vain. 
 Lord Edward's last reply to his friend's pressing 
 sohcitation to abandon his connection with the cause 
 he had embarked in, and to retire from the country 
 for some time, was conclusive. ' It is now out of the 
 question ; I am too deeply pledged to these men to be 
 able to withdraw with honour.' 
 
 Immediately previous to the arrests at Bond's, 
 Lord Edward and his wife were sojourning at 
 Leinster House, in Kildare Street. Search was made 
 for him there in vain. Timely notice had been given 
 to Lady Edward if she had desired to destroy any 
 papers of Lord Edward's of a dangerous nature ; but 
 either her presence of mind forsook her, or she had no 
 knowledge of any documents of a seditious character, 
 which were sufficient to place his life in jeopardy. 
 
126 Ireland in '98. 
 
 From the time of the arrests in Bond's — namely, 
 March 12, 1798 — Lord Edward was 'on his keep- 
 ing,' as the term is, avoiding arrest by frequent 
 changes of domicile. The earliest place of his con- 
 cealment was in a small house at Harold's Cross, 
 near John Keogh's residence at Mount Jerome. 
 
 Lord Edward next appears to have taken up his 
 abode at Dr. Kennedy's, in Aungier Street, and while 
 there he was constantly visited by Mr. William 
 Lawless, professor of anatomy and physiology in the 
 College of Surgeons. 
 
 He was visited there also by Mr. Thomas Reynolds, 
 who had been known to Lord Edward and trusted by 
 him ; and there appears no reason to doubt that the 
 same confidence was still placed in him during the 
 whole term of the concealment of Lord Edward. 
 
 There was a sort of casuistry in all the reasoning 
 of Reynolds in regard to his conduct as an informer, 
 which was had recourse to, no doubt, originally to 
 impose on others, but which merged into a systematic 
 cajolery that eventually deluded himself. 
 
 I do not believe that Reynolds gave the informa- 
 tion to the Government which procured for the 
 informer 1,000/. for the discovery of Lord Edward. 
 
 Rejmolds had a kind of regard and respect for 
 Lord Edward ; for we find even the greatest villains 
 frequently manifest an involuntary appreciation of very 
 exalted heroism or virtue. They feel as if they were 
 compelled, in spite of themselves, to reverence great 
 and generous qualities like those which Lord Edward 
 
Lord Edward Fitz<jercdd. 127 
 
 possessed. But though Reynolds, probably, would 
 not denounce hmi himself, nor think it decent to sell 
 a man's blood, from whom it ivas known he had 
 received great and substantial acts of kindness, Rey- 
 nolds could have reconciled it to his very peculiarly 
 constituted mind and perverted moral sense to put an 
 acquaintance in the way of doing a stroke of business, 
 and to enable his j^f'otege to pocket 1,000/. for a little 
 bit of information concerning Lord Edward's liiding- 
 place. Lord Edward was removed, disguised, from 
 Harold's Cross on the Thursday after the arrests 
 at Bond's, to the house of a widow lady of the name 
 of Dillon, an acquaintance of Surgeon Lawless, re- 
 siding close to the canal at Portobello Bridge, but 
 a little to the westward of the hotel. The prin- 
 cipal entrance to the house, which still exists, is by 
 a street at the rear of the Portobello Hotel. Lord 
 Edward, while he resided at this place of con- 
 cealment, visited Lady Fitzgerald, who was then re- 
 siding' in Denzille Street with her children, attended 
 by a female servant of hers, and her husband's valet, 
 the 'faithful Tony.' 
 
 We hear nothing of Tony seeing his master during 
 this night's visit to Denzille Street ; but we may 
 take it for o;ranted the faithful servant and the kind 
 and loving master, whose knowledge of one another 
 was now nearly of fifteen years' standmg, met on that 
 occasion, and that well-known black face, which his 
 master, in one of his letters from Canada, said was 
 the only one he cared to look on, was once more 
 
128 Ireland in '98. 
 
 beheld by him. Poor Tony was unable to visit his 
 master at any of his subsequent places of conceal- 
 ment. When Mrs. Dillon called one day at Denzille 
 Street to report Lord Edward's safety and well-being, 
 Tony lamented to Mrs. Dillon, ' that his unfortunate 
 face prevented him from going to see his dear master.' 
 
 Lord Edward returned the same night to Mrs. 
 Dillon's. He remained about three weeks in that 
 asylum. One of his amusements while there was 
 concocting a juvenile conspiracy with a child he had 
 taken a fancy to, laying out plans to take advantage 
 of the first favourable opportunity of Mrs. Dillon's 
 absence to root up and extirpate a large bed of orange 
 lilies at the bottom of the garden. It was one of the 
 peculiarities of Lord Edward, that in all the trying 
 circumstances of this part of his career, to all those 
 around him, or who came in contact with him, he 
 appeared in his usual spirits, apparently light-hearted 
 and easily amused. 
 
 Lord Edward was next removed to the house of 
 Murphy, the feather merchant, in Thomas Street. 
 His conductor on this occasion was the same Mr. 
 Lawless by whom he had been brought to Mrs. 
 Dillon's at Portobello. He was disguised on the last 
 occasion as a countryman in a long frieze coat, rather 
 incongruously associated, for the purpose of disguise, 
 with a pigtailed wig. He was kindly received on 
 this his first visit to Murphy's, and remained there 
 on that occasion about a fortnight, during which time 
 he held several consultations on the subject of the 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 129 
 
 intended ensuing insurrection with Lawless, a Mr. 
 Plunkett, styled Major Plunkett, and a Colonel 
 Lumm. 
 
 During Lord Edward's first sojourn at Murphy's, 
 he again visited Denzille Street, disguised as a woman. 
 That visit was unexpected by Lady Edward, and a 
 few days subsequently to it, the excitement and 
 anxiety it occasioned led to her premature confine- 
 ment. Her youngest and second daughter, Emily, 
 was born in Denzille Street in the latter part of April. 
 
 The beginning of May, the long looked-for aid 
 from France being at length despaired of, a general 
 rising was determined on, and the time fixed for it 
 was May 23, when Lord Edward was to put himself 
 at the head of the forces of the United Irishmen of 
 Leinster. The vigilance of the authorities from that 
 time necessitated frequent changes of Lord Edward's 
 place of concealment. From Murphy's he was taken 
 to the house of Mr. John Cormick, a feather merchant 
 in the same street. No, 22. There he was visited by 
 the well-known John Hughes. About the middle of 
 May, Lord Edward proceeded with Neilson on horse- 
 back to examine the country in the vicinity of Dublin 
 on the borders of Kildare, and on his return he was 
 arrested by a patrol at Palmerstown, and closely ex- 
 amined by them. His companion, Neilson, pretended 
 to be drunk and unconscious of the questions put to 
 him. Lord Edward described himself as a doctor, 
 and his account of himself and the business he was 
 on satisfied the party. They lost an opportunity of 
 
 K 
 
130 Ireland in '98. 
 
 making 1,000/. ; Lord Edward and Neilson were set 
 at liberty. 
 
 On May 17, six days only before the period fixed 
 for the general rising, in an unlucky hour for Lord 
 Edward, he was conducted for the second time to 
 Murphy's house, where it was intended he should 
 remain till the outbreak. The night of his arrival 
 there he proceeded from Murphy's house in the 
 direction of Usher's Island. 
 
 The persons who occasionally formed his guard, 
 who visited him, or who accompanied him when he 
 went abroad, were the following : — Surgeon Lawless, 
 Major Plunkett, Colonel Lumm, Samuel Neilson, 
 John Hughes, James Davock, William Cole, Eichard 
 Keane, C. Gallagher, Palmer, Rattigan, William P. 
 M'Cabe, and Walter Cox. The night of his ren- 
 contre with Major Sirr, on May 17, he was attended 
 by W. P. M'Cabe, Patrick Gallagher, Palmer, and 
 Rattigan. 
 
 Sirr had received information that Lord Edward's 
 bodyguard, a party selected from their known courage 
 and trustworthiness, for attendance on him when he 
 went abroad, would be on their way from Thomas 
 Street to Usher's Island at a certain hour that night. 
 Accompanied by several of his men, O'Brien, and 
 Mr. Emerson, an attorney, Sirr proceeded to the place 
 where he expected to meet Lord Edward, and divided 
 his party, directing some of them to approach Usher's 
 Island by Watling Street, and others by Dirty 
 Lane. 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 131 
 
 Lord Edward's party had adopted the same 
 course, and the result was a conflict in both streets 
 between Sirr's people and Lord Edward's party. 
 
 In one of these rencontres the major was knocked 
 down, and was very nearly losing his life. He de- 
 fended himself bravely and successfully. The major, 
 however, was only too happy to save himself on 
 this occasion, and to allow his assailants to escape. 
 He has given a brief account of this reneontre. 
 One of Lord Edward's band has given another, and 
 from the latter account the following particulars are 
 taken. 
 
 When Lord Edward went abroad during the time 
 of his concealment, he was usually preceded by one 
 of his guard, thirty or forty yards in advance, and 
 two men on the opposite side of the way, at some 
 distance from one another. On the present occasion 
 when he was recognised by Sirr, the persons attending 
 him were not seen, and Lord Edward was on the 
 point of being seized, when Sirr found himself in the 
 grasp of two powerful young men. One of them 
 snapped a pistol at Sirr, and the other, Gallagher, 
 struck at his neck with a dagger, and pierced his 
 stock without inflicting any wound. M'Cabe was 
 not present when this scuffle took place. He was at 
 the bottom of Bridgefoot Street, close to Usher's 
 Island, at that moment, watching the movements of 
 the other party, by whom he was at length arrested. 
 Sirr's strus^ffle with Gallao^her was one of life and 
 death. Lord Edward, during this struggle, having 
 
 K 2 
 
132 Ireland in '98. 
 
 got clear of Sirr and liis myrmidons, Palmer and 
 Gallagher thought it prudent to decamp, leaving the 
 major little inclined to pursue them. On the follow- 
 ing day it was determined by Lord Edward and his 
 friends that he should remove on the next evenino^ 
 fi-om Murphy's to the house of a Mrs. Risk, at 
 Sandymount. The appearance of the soldiers in the 
 mornmg at Thomas Street caused him to give up the 
 idea of then removino;. His arrest the same evening-, 
 however, put an end to all his plans ; but his faithful 
 friends even at this trying moment did not desert 
 him. The sedan chair in which he was placed, no 
 sooner moved from Murphy's door, than Major Sirr 
 and his party were assailed by a number of persons, 
 and a desperate but unsuccessful attempt was made 
 to rescue their prisoner. This effort was directed by 
 Edward Rattigan, assisted by Gallagher. Rattigan 
 was a director of the watch-house of St. Catherine's ; 
 and the moment he received an intimation of Lord 
 Edward's danger, he called on the first people he met 
 to accompany him to the watch-house. He seized on 
 all the arms that were deposited there, and proceeded 
 with all despatch to Murphy's. Major Sirr acknow- 
 ledged they must have succeeded, had not the Rains- 
 ford Street guard and the picket-guard of the Castle, 
 chiefly cavalry, for the assistance of which he had 
 previously sent from Murphy's, opportunely arrived. 
 There can be little doubt but that the person who 
 disclosed the secret of Lord Edward's place of con- 
 cealment was one then in his confidence, or in that of 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 133 
 
 the persons about him, who were in the habit of 
 visiting him at Moore's, Cormick's, or Murphy's, or 
 forming what was called his ' body-guard ' when he 
 went abroad. From some persons in the confidence 
 of Lord Edward or his friends, Sirr's information 
 was certainly derived, which led to the knowledge of 
 Lord Edward's intended visit to Moira House on 
 Usher's Island, and the fact with regard to Murphy's 
 house, that there was a valley between the two sloping 
 sides of the roof of the adjoining store of that house 
 which required to be particularly looked after. The 
 very moment of Sirr's arrival there, on the evening 
 of May 19, the identical valley where Lord Edward 
 had been concealed only some hours before by his 
 host. Murphy, was pointed out by the major to his 
 assistants, as a place by which escape was likely to be 
 effected. 
 
 ' In the course of the day (Saturday, May 19),' 
 says Marphy, in his account of the arrest of Lord 
 Edward, ' there was a guard of soldiers, and, I 
 believe, Major Swan, Major Sirr, a Mr. Medlicot^ 
 and another, makmg a search at Mr. Moore's house, 
 the " Yellow Lion," in Thomas Street.^ A friend 
 came and mentioned the circumstance to me. I im- 
 mediately mentioned it to Lord Edward, and had 
 him conveyed out of the house and concealed in a 
 valley on the roof of one of the warehouses. While 
 I was doing this, Sam Neilson came and inquired of 
 
 * Moore had two houses in Thomas Street. The one in which. 
 Lord Edward was concealed was No. 119 ; the other was No. 124. 
 
134 Ireland in '98. 
 
 the girl if I was at home. I believe she said, not. 
 " Bid him be cautious," I think was what she told me 
 he said. 
 
 ' I considered that conduct of his very ill-timed ; 
 however, I am led to believe it was well-intended. 
 
 ' After placing Lord Edward in the valley on the 
 roof of the warehouse, I came down in a little time 
 and stood at the gate, the soldiers still at Mr. Moore's. 
 I perceived four persons walking in the middle of the 
 street, some of them in uniform ; I believe yeomen. 
 I think Major Swan and Captain Medlicot were of the 
 party. 
 
 ' Towards four o'clock Lord Edward came down 
 to dinner ; everything was supposed to be still. Now, 
 at this time Sam Neilson came in to see us. Dinner 
 was nearly ready ; I asked him to stay and dine, 
 which he accepted. Nothing particular occurred, 
 except speaking on a variety of subjects, when Mr. 
 Neil son, as if something struck him, immediately 
 went away, leaving us together. There was very 
 little wine taken ; Lord Edward was very ab- 
 stemious. In a short time I went out ; and now 
 the tragedy commenced. I wished to leave Lord 
 Edward to himself. I was absent, I suppose, about 
 an hour. I came into the room where we dined, 
 being the back drawing-room ; he was not there ; I 
 went to the sleeping-room ; he was in bed.^ It was 
 at this time about seven o'clock. I asked him to 
 come down to tea. I was not in the room three 
 
 ^ Lord Edward was suffering from a severe cold at this time. 
 
Lord Edimrd Fitzgerald. 135 
 
 minutes, when in came Major Swan and a person 
 following him, in a soldier's jacket, and a sword in 
 his hand ; he wore a round hat. When I saw Mnjor 
 Swan I was thunderstruck. I put myself before him 
 and asked his business. He looked over me and saw 
 Lord Edward in the bed. He pushed by me quickly, 
 and Lord Edward, seeing him, sprung up instantly 
 like a tiger, and drew a dagger which he carried about 
 him, and wounded Major Swan slightly, I believe. 
 Major Swan had a pistol in his waistcoat pocket, 
 which he fired without effect ; he immediately turned 
 to me and gave me a severe thrust of the pistol under 
 the eye, at the same time desiring the person that 
 came in with him to take me into custody. 
 
 ' I was immediately taken away to the yard ; there 
 I saw Major Sirr and about six soldiers of the Dum- 
 barton Fencibles. 
 
 ' Major Swan had thought proper to run as fast 
 as he could to the street, and I think he never looked 
 behind him till he got out of danger, and he was then 
 parading up and down the flags, exhibiting his linen, 
 which was stained with blood. Mr. Ryan supplied 
 Major Swan's place ; he came in contact with Lord 
 Edward and was wounded seriously. Major Sirr at 
 that time came upstairs, and, keeping at a respect- 
 ful distance, fired a pistol at Lord Edward in a 
 very deliberate manner, and wounded him in the 
 upper part of the shoulder. Reinforcements coming 
 in. Lord Edward surrendered after a very hard 
 struo^orle.' 
 
136 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald was captured, and 
 wounded severely in the right arm near the shoulder, 
 on the evening of May 19, 1798. The pistol-ball 
 wound was the result of the deliberate aim taken by 
 Major Sirr from his secure position on the landing at 
 the top of the stairs in Murphy's house, at his 
 victim, already engaged in a deadly struggle with the 
 two subordinate rebel-hunters, whom Sirr had pru- 
 dently sent before him to make the perilous capture 
 of a man of known valour — Major Swan and Mr. 
 Ryan (in yeomanry parlance Captain Ryan). At 
 the call of the major, the soldiers had then rushed up 
 the stairs, overpowered Lord Edward, and secured 
 their prey. But the struggles of the wounded man, 
 weltering in his blood, were still so formidable in the 
 opmion of the gallant major, that he was not satisfied 
 with seeing the firelocks of the soldiers flung down 
 across the body of the prostrate captive ; he had the 
 wounded prisoner bound. 
 
 Lord Camden, whose lamentable weakness of pur- 
 pose in all emergencies of importance to the public or 
 the State, want of moral courage, of resolution, and 
 manliness of spirit, approached the character of actual 
 imbecility of mind, and who never did actf of great 
 wrong, of signal injustice of an extremely flagitious 
 kind, except, so we are told in his defence, upon 
 compulsion, or in comiDliance with the wishes, or in ac- 
 cordance with the counsel of my Lords Clare, Castle- 
 reagh, or the Beresfords, felt some emotion when 
 the wounded prisoner of the House of Leinster was 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 137 
 
 brought to the Castle. He sent his private secretary, 
 Mr. Watson, to Lord Edward, after he had been 
 taken from Murphy's to the office of the Secretary of 
 War, to assure the latter that orders had been given 
 that every possible attention that was compatible with 
 the security of his person would be shown to him, 
 and to acquaint him likewise that the secretary was 
 commissioned to acquaint Lady Edward, with all 
 due care and consideration, with the intelligence of 
 the painful occurrences of that evening. That secre- 
 tary discharged his duties in a way that might be ex- 
 pected from an English gentleman, not long enough 
 in an Irish office closely connected with Government 
 to have his feelmgs perverted and turned from their 
 natural direction towards tenderness and kindliness. 
 He bent over Lord Edward, who was leaning back 
 on two chairs with his arm extended, supported by 
 the surgeon- general, Stewart, then in the act of dress- 
 ing his wound, and took an opportunity of whisper- 
 ing in Lord Edward's ear (unheard by those in the 
 chamber) his readiness to execute any wish of his 
 faithfully and secretly, or communicate any confi- 
 dential message of his to Lady Edward. The answer 
 given to that kind offer was spoken calmly — 'No, 
 no, thank you ; nothing, nothing ; only break it to 
 her tenderly.' 
 
 Lady Edward, while the deadly struggle in 
 Murphy's house was going on on the evening of the 
 19th, was at a party at Lord Moira's, on Usher's 
 Island ; but Mr. Watson, who had proceeded there 
 
138 Ireland in '98. 
 
 after he left Lord Edward, was not suffered by Lady 
 Moira to communicate the intelligence to Lady 
 Edward ; and it was only the following day she was 
 made acquainted "v\dth it. She was then in delicate 
 health, and only a few weeks had elapsed since her 
 premature confinement had taken place in Denzille 
 Street, the result of surprise and anxiety, occasioned 
 by the unexpected visit of her husband at her then 
 place of residence in that street. 
 
 Four days after Lord Edward's arrest, Neilson 
 was arrested by Gregg, the jailor, in front of New- 
 gate, where he had been reconnoitring the prison, 
 with a view to the liberation of Lord Edward and 
 the other State prisoners ; a large number of men 
 being in readmess to attack the jail, and waiting 
 for Neilson's return, at a place called the Barley 
 Fields. 
 
 It was Lord Camden's wish, it is stated in Moore's 
 work, that Lord Edward should not be removed from 
 the Castle, but should be allowed to remain there in 
 safe custody. But the civic authorities, as represented 
 by Sirr, would not consent to give up their prisoner, 
 by whom two of their officers had been wounded ; 
 and the civil authorities, represented by Castlereagh 
 and Clare, concurring with the former, poor Lord 
 Camden, of course, submitted to the will of his 
 masters, havino; no will of his own ; so Lord Edward 
 was conveyed to Newgate, and placed in a cell which 
 had been occupied by Lord Aldborough. From the 
 commencement of his imprisonment to within a few 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 139 
 
 hours of his death, all access to him, except on two 
 occasions, on the part of his relatives and friends, was 
 savagely denied and peremptorily refused by Lord 
 Camden. 
 
 Not even the old confidential servant of the 
 Leinster family, Shiel, nor the trusty negro servant, 
 ' the faithful Tony,' were allowed to attend on 
 Lord Edward during his sufferings. His favourite 
 brother, Henry, worried the Lord-I^ieutenant and 
 Lord Chancellor ^ and the Chief Secretary with en- 
 treaties to be permitted to see his dying brother. 
 But it was only when in the agonies of death, and 
 within a few hours of his end, that Lords Camden 
 and Castlereagh could be got to relax in the harshness 
 of their barbarous rigour. Lady Louisa Connolly and 
 Lord Henry Fitzgerald were permitted to visit their 
 dying relative on Sunday evening, June 3, 1798 ; 
 and the following Monday morning, at two o'clock, 
 the corpse of the gallant, pure-minded, brave-hearted 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald lay stiff and cold in a cell of 
 Newgate. 
 
 On the 26th he made his will ; but even in the 
 execution of that instrument no person m any way 
 connected with his lordship's family was suffered 
 to go near him. Even Mr. Leeson, a professional 
 gentleman, who was brought to Newgate to see that 
 
 ' To the first application of Lord Henry Fitzgerald, begging to be 
 permitted to see his brother, Lord Clare replied that he was sorry 
 that it was impossible to comply with his wishes, and he adds : ' If I 
 could explain to you the grounds of this restriction, even you would 
 hardly be induced to condemn it as unnecessarily harsh.' 
 
140 Ireland in '98.. 
 
 will executed, and to advise the dying man as to the 
 manner of carrying his last wishes into effect, was 
 not suffered to enter the prison ; he remained seated 
 in a carriage at the door, while the surgeon- general 
 went backwards and forwards from the cell of the 
 prisoner to the carriage outside the jail, communicat- 
 ing: between Lord Edward and his le":al adviser on 
 matters of such importance to the interests of the 
 wife and children of the testator. 
 
 That instrument, by which he left all he died 
 possessed of to his wife, Lady Fitzgerald, during her 
 life, and at her death to descend, share and share 
 alike, to his children, ' she maintainmg and educating 
 those children according to her discretion,' was signed 
 by two of his medical attendants, Alexander Lindsay, 
 a surgeon, and George Stewart, surgeon-general, and 
 also by Samuel Stone, a lieutenant of the Derby 
 militia. 
 
 At the commencement of Lord Edward's im- 
 prisonment in Newgate, Lieutenant Stone had been 
 appointed by the authorities to remain with Lord 
 Edward, and see that he was duly attended to. 
 
 This gentleman executed the duties assigned to 
 him with humanity and kindness ; and Lord Edward's 
 sufferings were in some degree soothed by the affec- 
 tionate interest which he seemed to feel in him ; and 
 Lord Edward, we are told, was pleased with him ; 
 but, without any assignable cause or motive that 
 could be imagined, except that by his humanity he 
 had rendered himself pleasing to the dying prisoner. 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 141 
 
 lie was removed from his charge upon June 2 ; but 
 at the request of Lady Louisa Connolly, he was per- 
 mitted to accompany the remains of Lord Edward to 
 their final resting-place in Werburgh's Church, on 
 Wednesday, June 6. 
 
 The remains of the son of the Duke of Leinster, 
 the most honoured and beloved of all his race, were 
 stealthily conveyed in the dead of night from the jail 
 where he died, with all the privacy and paucity of 
 care and consideration for the dead that one might 
 expect to encounter at the interment of a malefactor. 
 Two persons escorted the remains to their destina- 
 tion — one of the name of Shiel, and Lieutenant Stone. 
 
 The solitary coach which constituted the funeral 
 cortege on that occasion was stopped no less than 
 four times by the military yeomanry rabble or armed 
 Orangemen who then guarded, or rather governed, 
 the city of Dublin, and eventually the whole cortege 
 was captured and detained by the gallant captors, 
 till a message was despatched to the Castle, and Mr. 
 Edward Cooke sent back the orders that he neglected 
 to have previously issued, for the interment of the 
 remains of Lord Edward without molestation at the 
 hands of the military. 
 
 A bill of attainder of Lord Edward Fitzgerald was 
 introduced into the House of Commons on July 27, 
 1798, by Mr. Toler, then Attorney- General, a man in 
 every way worthy of the part assigned him by the 
 Irish Government in that iniquitous proceeding. 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, though alleged to have 
 
142 Ireland in '98. 
 
 committed various acts of high treason since Novem- 
 ber 1, 1797, had not been tried for any crime, was 
 unconvicted and uncondemned. 
 
 The bill of attainder was carried triumphantly 
 through both Houses of Parliament. The farce was 
 performed, and the formality gone through of ex- 
 amining credible witnesses, and among the latter the 
 friend of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Mr. Thomas Rey- 
 nolds, was duly examined, and on his evidence chiefly 
 the widow and children of Lord Edward were de- 
 prived of the httle property left by him, which at 
 any period never exceeded six hundred a year. But 
 however small the amount, it was their sole depen- 
 dence, and it was taken from them. The bill re- 
 ceived the royal assent in the month of October 1798. 
 Lord Clare, however, to his honour, eventually al- 
 lowed the estate to be sold in Chancery, with the 
 sanction of the Attorney-General, to Mr. Ogilvie, for 
 the sum of 10,500/., and subsequently it was settled 
 by Mr. Ogilvie on Lord Edward's son and his heirs 
 for ever. From the date of the attainder to the year 
 1819, various applications were made by members of 
 Lord Edward's family for the reversal of that measure. 
 To the various memorials and letters pra3dng for the 
 reversal of the attainder, addressed to the King, the 
 Prince Regent, and the Duke of York, we find the 
 names attached of the Duke of Richmond, Lord 
 Holland, Charles James Fox, General Fox, Lord 
 Henry Fitzgerald, Mr. Ogilvie, the Duchess of 
 Leinster, and Lady Louisa Connolly. 
 
Lord Edicard Fitzgerald. 143 
 
 For the period of twenty-one years these efforts 
 were persevered in. and notwithstanding the Prince 
 Eegent and the Duke of York had generously ex- 
 pressed their desire on several occasions that the 
 attainder should be reversed, notwithstanding the 
 powerful influence exerted by the Duke of Richmond 
 in favour of that object, such was the power of the 
 Orange ascendency faction in the Irish Government, 
 that all those eftorts proved of no avail for the 
 lengthened period above referred to. It remained for 
 the Earl of Liverpool, in 1819, to perform a great act 
 of tardy justice, and to gain for the Prince Regent 
 the highest eulogy that a prince could receive, on a 
 reversal of that attainder. The conduct of the Prince 
 Regent in this instance certainly deserved the noble 
 tribute paid to it by one of the first of English 
 poets. 
 
 The conduct of every member of the noble family 
 of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, from the time of his 
 capture to that of the interment of his remains, and 
 down to the period of the reversal of the attainder 
 and the restoration of his property to his children, 
 was an exemplification of that ardent attachment and 
 strong; affection which bound all the members of the 
 Fitzgerald family to their beloved and illustrious 
 relative. Nothing was left undone that could be 
 thought of or attempted in his behalf while living, or 
 for his memory when dead. 
 
 The character and capabilities of the military 
 chief of the Society of United Irishmen suffer, per- 
 
144 Ireland in '98. 
 
 haps, from the abundance of details illustrative of 
 the amiability of his disposition. In their admiration 
 of the latter, people lose sight of the great qualities 
 of the efficient, well-instructed officer, of the resolute, 
 clear-sighted, energetic, self-possessed man, the prac- 
 tical soldier and commander, with remarkable quick- 
 ness of perception ; capable of glancing over a 
 country, and duly estimating the advantages and 
 disadvantages of each locality of importance as a 
 military position to be defended or assailed. The 
 study of his profession, and the practical knowledge 
 he had gained of it in America, enabled him to form 
 opinions on military subjects, several of which were 
 greatly in advance of those which prevailed in the 
 service a century ago. 
 
 The loss of Lord Edward to the cause of the 
 United Irishmen was irretrievable. It might be pos- 
 sible to replace all the other members of the Direc- 
 tory, after the arrests in March ; but there was no 
 substitute to be found in Ireland for Lord Edward. 
 He was the only military man in connection with 
 the Union, capable of taking command of any con- 
 siderable number of men, competent for the important 
 office assigned him, and qualified for it by a know- 
 ledge of his profession, practical as well as theoretical. 
 When he was lost to the cause, it was madness to 
 think there was any hope left of a successful issue 
 for resistance. 
 
 In one of the vaults of Werburgh's Church the 
 remains of Lord Edward Fitzgerald are deposited, 
 
Lord Edwitrd Fitzgerald. 145 
 
 immediately under the chancel. The entrance to the 
 vault is within a few paces of the grave of Henry 
 Charles Sirr, by whose hand the former perished. 
 The desperate struggle that took place between them 
 the one survived fifteen days, the other, forty-three 
 years. Few who visit the place where they are 
 interred will recall the history of both without 
 lamentino^ the fate of Lord Edward Fitzg-erald, and 
 deploring the evils of the calamitous times which 
 called the services of such a man as Sirr into action. 
 The coffin in which Lady Guy Campbell had the 
 remains of her noble father placed bears the follow- 
 ing inscription on a brass plate : 
 
 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD, 
 
 FIFTH SON OF THE DUKE OF LEINSTER. 
 
 BORN OCTOBER 15, 1763. 
 
 DIED JUNE 4, 1798. 
 
 BURIED JUNE 6, 1798. 
 
 To present the leaden eoffn containing Mk remains, it was enelosed 
 in this additional jJrotection by his children, February 8, 1844. 
 
 ' What a noble fellow,' said Lord Byron, ' was 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and what a romantic and 
 singular history his was ! If it were not too near 
 our times, it would make the finest subject in the 
 world for an historical novel.' 
 
 As soon as Lady Fitzgerald heard of her hus- 
 band's arrest and imprisonment she used every effort 
 in her power to get permission to visit him. This 
 was denied ; she even sold all her jewellery to realise 
 
 L 
 
146 Ireland in '98. 
 
 a sufficient sum to tempt the jailer of the prison. The 
 bribe was accepted, but the man deceived her. Lord 
 Camden, the Viceroy, issued an order that Lady 
 Fitzgerald should quit the kingdom, and refused to 
 listen to any remonstrances on her behalf. On her 
 expulsion from Ireland, Lady Fitzgerald proceeded to 
 England and was kindly received by the Duke of 
 Richmond at Goodwood, where the mother of Lord 
 Edward was staying. Neither the Duchess of Lein- 
 ster nor any of her husband's family showed her much 
 consideration. On the death of her husband his pro- 
 perty was confiscated, and the unfortunate woman 
 was left almost penniless. For economy she left 
 England and went to live in Hamburg, where, many 
 years after, she married Mr. Pitcairn, the American 
 Consul. This was an unfortunate alliance, which 
 brought no happiness to either party. Divorced from 
 Mr. Pitcairn, she went to live in France, and fixed 
 her abode near Madame de Genlis. Various stories 
 are told of her beauty, her vivacity, and the number 
 of proposals she received before her ill-starred second 
 marriage. The Duke of Richmond was one of 
 her admirers ; she refused his proj30sal, and it 
 would seem that the marriage lottery contained for 
 her nothing but misery. The Orleans family saved 
 her from destitution by allowing her 500/. a year. 
 Pamela lost all her beauty and grew to an enormous 
 size. After her death her body swelled considerably. 
 They found it impossible to get the remains into the 
 coffin which had been prepared for her, and, as another 
 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 147 
 
 could not be found sufficiently large, the undertaker's 
 servants had to force down into the coffin that body 
 once so beautiful, so much praised and admired. 
 That was the last act in the drama of a life which 
 probably contained more light and shade than falls to 
 the lot of most Court beauties. Her death took place 
 in November, 1881, and her remains were interred in 
 the cemetery of Montmartre. Such was the sad fate 
 of the most beautiful woman of her day. 
 
 1 a 
 
A. HAMILTON ROWAX. 
 
149 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN. 
 
 Parentage — Education — Tour in Holland — Visit to America — Lasting 
 impressions — Travels on the Continent — Marriage and return to 
 Ireland — The Whig Club — Joins United Irishmen — Tone's account 
 of the Society — Duel — Arrest — Trial — Imprisonment — A packed 
 jury — Romantic escape — Reward of 1,000?. — Peasant loyalty — 
 Arrival in France — Fresh adventures — The Reign of Terror — A 
 letter from Castlereagh — Pardon— Retirement — A good citizen. 
 
 A. H. Rowan was descended of a Scotch family, 
 whose earliest representative of any note was Hans 
 Hamilton, vicar of Dunlop, in Cunningham. From 
 this person the Hamiltons of Killyleagh have their 
 descent. This first settler of the family in Ireland, in 
 Lord Bacon's poetical phraseology, had his ' honours 
 most plentifully watered ' with extensive grants of 
 territory in Ireland, which had been forfeited to the 
 Crown in former reigns, a great part of which was in 
 the county Down, and amongst these, the castle and 
 lands of Killyleagh, which had formerly belonged to 
 the Irish sept of the O'Niel. Strange to say, the old 
 Anglican colonists in Ireland, whose honours were 
 watered most plentifully with grants of forfeited 
 estates, furnished descendants amongst whom are to 
 
150 Ireland in '98. 
 
 be traced at least two-thirds of the principal leaders 
 of the United Irishmen. 
 
 The father of Archibald Hamilton Rowan was 
 Gawn Hamilton, of Killyleagh. His mother was 
 the only daughter of William Rowan, and widow of 
 Tichborne Aston, Esq., of Beaiilieii, near Drogheda, 
 in the county of Louth — a lady also of Scotch 
 descent, whose family had settled in Ireland in the 
 reign of James I. Ga^^n Hamilton and his lady 
 having removed to London, their eldest child, A. H. 
 Rowan, was born there on May 12, 1757. He spent 
 some time at a preparatory school in London, and 
 was then sent to Westminster School, and in due 
 time to Cambridge, where he became intimately ac- 
 quainted with the Rev. John Jebb, a fellow of Peter- 
 house College, whose rehgious and political sentiments 
 interfering with his profession in the Church and 
 position in the university, he resigned his living and 
 abandoned his college, rather than ' act a lie weekly in 
 the presence of the God of truth. ^ 
 
 In the winter succeeding his matriculation in 
 Cambridge, during vacation, accompanied by his 
 fellow- students. Sir John Borlase Warren and Mr. 
 Newcombe, Rowan made a tour in Holland ; and on 
 his return he accompanied Lord Charles Montague, 
 Governor of South Carolina, then on leave of absence 
 in England, to America, and in the nominal office of 
 private secretary of his lordship, was taken on board 
 the vessel of war appointed to convey the Governor 
 to his destination. He arrived there during the 
 
Archibald Hamilton Roican. 151 
 
 bickerings that were going on between England and 
 her colonies. 
 
 The commencements of revolutions are stirring 
 subjects of meditation for a young man of any tem- 
 perament ; but for one of Rowan's ardent feelings, 
 chivalrous sentiments, and enthusiastic nature, the 
 spectacle of those vast interests and opinions of 
 opposed classes, coming into collision in the Old 
 and the Xew World, in France and America, could 
 not fail to leave very deep and lasting impressions. 
 However, after having spent nearly three months at 
 Charleston, he returned to England, and was soon 
 figuring in a martial character, ' quartered at Gos- 
 port, as captain of grenadiers in the Huntingdon 
 militia.' After some months of campaigning in 
 country towns, ball-rooms, public promenades, race- 
 courses, &c., he again visited France, and made a 
 lengthened sojourn in Paris, and, subsequently, made 
 a tour in Portugal and some parts of Spain and 
 Italy. 
 
 In 1781, Rowan, then residing with his mother in 
 France, married a young Irish lady of the name of 
 Dawson, daughter of Walter Dawson, of Lisanisk, 
 near Carrickmacross. The marriage was celebrated 
 in the Dutch ambassador's chapel in Paris. 
 
 In 17S4, Rowan left France for Ireland, and 
 henceforward made that country his settled j)lace of 
 abode. 
 
 He first established himself in a small cottage 
 near Naas, in the county Kildare, but after a short 
 
152 Ireland in '98. 
 
 residence there, purchased Rathcoffy, in the same 
 county. 
 
 Mr. Rowan is truly described by Topham as an 
 able man, of strong convictions, resolute in upholding 
 his views of what he conceived to be the right, and 
 needing only to have his noble energies properly di- 
 rected to become a great public character, an ornament 
 to his country, and a man most useful to the State. 
 
 This promising young man returned to his native 
 land at a critical period of its history. Ireland was a 
 bad field for the energies and principles of a man like 
 Rowan. To manifest any feelings hostile to oppres- 
 sion of any kind was to become a marked man, 
 dangerous to the faction that ruled the Irish State — 
 a man to be closely watched, to be ensnared if pos- 
 sible, and inveigled into some course of action which 
 the law could reach, and to be made away with in 
 due time. 
 
 Rowan set out on his political career in Ireland 
 as a reformer, a Catholic emancipationist, and a Whig, 
 though of democratic principles. In 1790 we find 
 his name, and that of the Hon. Robert Stewart (the 
 future Lord Castlereagh), in the list of the members 
 of the Whig Club. They were fellow -members, like- 
 wise, of the Volunteer Association. But Castlereagh 
 abandoned his early principles, and became prime 
 minister of England. Rowan retained his, and very 
 narrowly escaped being hanged for the maintenance 
 of them. 
 
 In 1792 we find Mr. Rowan a member of the 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 153 
 
 Club of United Irishmen — a society wliicli tlien sought 
 only a reform of Parliament. 
 
 ' I must do the society,' says the unfortunate 
 Theobald Wolfe Tone, 'the justice to say, that I 
 believe there never existed a political body which 
 included among its members a greater portion of 
 sincere uncorrupted patriotism, as well as a very 
 respectable portion of talent. Their publications, 
 most of them written by Dr. Dreunan, and many of 
 them admirably well done, began to draw the public 
 attention, especially as they were evidently the pro- 
 duction of a society utterly disclaiming all party 
 views or motives, and acting on a broad original scale, 
 not sparing those who called themselves patriots, 
 more than those who were the habitual slaves of the 
 Government, a system in which I heartily concurred, 
 having long entertained a more sincere contempt for 
 what is called the Opposition, than for the common 
 prostitutes of the Treasury bench, who want at least 
 the vice of hypocrisy. 
 
 ' At length the Solicitor-General, in speaking of the 
 society, having made use of expressions in the House 
 of Commons extremely offensive, an explanation was 
 demanded of him by Simon Butler, chairman, and 
 Tandy, secretary. 
 
 ' Butler was satisfied ; Tandy was not ; and after 
 several messages, which it is not my affair to detail, the 
 Solicitor- General at length complained to the House 
 of a breach of privilege, and Tandy was ordered in 
 the first instance into custody. He was, in conse- 
 
154 Ireland in 'I 
 
 quence, arrested by a messenger, from whom he 
 found means to escape, and immediately a proclama- 
 tion was issued, oiFering a reward for retaking him. 
 The society now was in a difficult situation, and I 
 thought myself called upon to make an effort, at all 
 hazards to myself, to prevent its falling, by improper 
 timidity, in the public opinion. We were, in fact, 
 committed with the House of Commons on the ques- 
 tion of privilege ; and, having fairly engaged in the 
 contest, it was impossible to recede without a total 
 forfeiture of character. Under these circumstances, 
 I cast my eyes on Archibald Hamilton Rowan, a dis- 
 tinguished member of the society, whose manly vir- 
 tues, public and private, had set his name above the 
 reach of even the malevolence of party ; whose situa- 
 tion in life was of the most respectable rank (if rank 
 be indeed respectable) ; and, above all, whose personal 
 courao:e was not to be shaken — a circumstance, in the 
 actual situation of affairs, of the last importance. To 
 Rowan, therefore, I applied. I showed him that the 
 current of public opinion was rather setting against us 
 in the business, and that it was necessary that some 
 of us should step forward and expose ourselves at all 
 risks, to show the House of Commons, and the nation 
 at large, that we were not to be intimidated or put 
 down so easily ; and I offered, if he would take the 
 chair, that I would, with the society's permission, act 
 as secretary, and that we would give our signatures 
 to such publications as circumstances might render 
 necessary. Rowan instantly agreed ; and, accordingly, 
 
Archibald Hamilton Row an. 155 
 
 on the next night of meeting, he was chosen chair- 
 man, and I secretary, in the absence of Tandy ; and 
 the society having agreed to the resohitions proposed, 
 Avhich were worded in a manner very offensive to the 
 House of Commons, and, in fact, amounted to a chal- 
 lenge of their authority, we inserted them all in the 
 newspapers, and printed 5,000 copies with our names 
 affixed. The least that Rowan and I expected in 
 consequence of this step (which under the circum- 
 stances was, I must say, rather a bold one), was to 
 be committed to Newgate for a breach of privilege, 
 and, perhaps, exposed to personal discussion with 
 some of the members of the House of Commons ; for 
 he proposed, and I agreed, that if any disrespectful 
 language was applied to either of us in any debate 
 which might arise on the business, we would attack 
 the person, whoever he might be, immediately, and 
 oblige him either to recall his words or give battle. 
 
 ' All our determinations, however, came to nothing. 
 The House of Commons, either content with their 
 victory over Tandy, who was obliged to conceal him- 
 self for some time, or not thinking Rowan or myself 
 objects sufficiently important to attract their notice ; 
 or, perhaps (which I rather believe), not wishing just 
 then to embroil themselves with a man of Rowan's 
 firmness and courage, not to speak of his great and 
 justly merited popularity, took no notice whatsoever 
 of our resolutions ; and in this manner he and I 
 had the good fortune, or, if I may say, the merit, to 
 rescue the society from a situation of considerable 
 
156 Ireland in '98. 
 
 difficulty, without any actual suffering, though cer- 
 tainly with some personal hazard on our parts. We 
 had, likewise, the satisfaction to see the society, 
 instead of losing ground, rise rapidly in the public 
 opinion by their firmness on the occasion. Shortly 
 after, on the last day of the session, Tandy appeared 
 in public, and was taken into custody, the whole so- 
 ciety attending him in a body to the House of Com- 
 mons. He was ordered by the Speaker to be committed 
 to Newgate, whither he was conveyed, the society 
 attending him as before ; and the Parliament being 
 prorogued in half-an-hour after, he was liberated im- 
 mediately, and escorted in triumph to his own house. 
 ' On this occasion Eowan and I attended of course, 
 and were in the gallery of the House of Commons. 
 As we were not sure but we might be attacked our- 
 selves, we took pains to place ourselves in a con- 
 spicuous situation, and to wear our Whig Club uni- 
 forms, which were rather gaudy, in order to signify 
 to all whom it might concern that there we were. A 
 good many of the members, we observed, remarked 
 us, but no further notice was taken ; our names were 
 never mentioned ; the whole business passed over 
 quietly, and I resigned my pro- secretaryship, being 
 the only office I ever held in the society, into the 
 hands of Tandy, who resumed his functions.' 
 
 Rowan was engaged in a duelling affair in the 
 early part of 1792, between Peter Burrows and Mr. 
 Matthew Dowling, on which occasion he acted as 
 second to Dowling;. 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 157 
 
 This duel of Peter Burrows and Dowling was 
 followed, in the month of October 1792, by an inter- 
 view wliich Mr. Rowan had with the Earl of Clare, 
 then Lord Fitzgibbon, on behalf of the Hon. 
 Simon Butler, of which the memoir of Rowan con- 
 tains the following account : ' He and Oliver Bond, 
 an eminent merchant, as chairman and secretary to 
 the United Irish Society, had signed a paper, for 
 which they were called before the House of Lords, 
 were voted to have been guilty of a breach of privi- 
 lege of that House, and were ordered to pay a fine of 
 500/., and to be imprisoned six months in Newgate. 
 
 ' In delivering the sentence of the Lords, Lord 
 Fitzgibbon, addressing Mr. Butler, said, " That he 
 could not plead ignorance ; that his noble birth and 
 professional rank at the bar, to both of which he 
 was a disgrace, had aggravated his crime." Mr. 
 Butler was not of a temper to bear insult ; he deter- 
 mined to call on Lord Fitzgibbon for an apology as 
 soon as he should be liberated. Mr. Sheares was to 
 be his friend on the occasion ; but he was in the 
 country at that time. The business was such as 
 could not be delayed, and Mr. Butler applied to me 
 to act in Mr. Sheares' place. In consequence I 
 wrote to his lordship, requesting an appointment to 
 wait on him on behalf of my friend Mr. Butler, and 
 his lordship appointed the next day. When I waited 
 on him, I called to his recollection the expressions he 
 had made use of in passing the sentence of the House 
 of Lords on my friends Messrs. Butler and Bond 
 
158 Ireland in '98. 
 
 and those which he had particularly addressed to 
 Mr. Butler, which I hoped to be permitted to say it 
 was not his lordship's intention should be taken 
 personally, and had been made use of unreflectingly. 
 Lord Fitzgibbon said that he thought the circum- 
 stances of the case called for the expressions he had 
 used, that he never spoke unreflectingly in that situa- 
 tion, and under similar circumstances he would again 
 use similar words. I then said that in mine and Mr. 
 Butler's opinion the sentence of the Lords did not 
 authorise the words he had made use of, and that if 
 it had occurred between two private gentlemen, my 
 conduct would be plain and easy, but his lordship's 
 situation of Chancellor embarrassed me. Here I 
 paused. After some further conversation his lord- 
 ship said I knew his situation, and he wished me to 
 recollect it. I then took my leave, saying that his 
 lordship's situation prevented my acting as I must 
 have done with a private gentleman. Lnmediately 
 I wrote a note of this conversation, which I gave to 
 Mr. Butler, who thought it necessary for his character 
 to publish it. I requested him to delay the publica- 
 tion until 1 should have submitted to Lord Fitzgibbon 
 a copy of the report of the conversation with him, 
 and had given him to understand it was Mr. Butler's 
 intention to publish it in the newspapers. Lord 
 Fitzgibbon returned the copy to me the same day, 
 thanking me for the communication, adding that " it 
 was not for him to advise Mr. Butler." 
 
 ' The next morning I received a visit from a very 
 
Archibald llamiltim Rowan. 159 
 
 old friend, Colonel Murray, who accosted me with, 
 " So a pretty piece of work you have made, Hamilton, 
 taking a challenge to the Chancellor." " How the 
 deuce do you know that ? " " Why, to cut the 
 matter short, I breakfasted this morning with Fitz- 
 gibbon, and he told me the whole affair." To this 
 old friend I had said that I regretted my having 
 come to Ireland when I found party ran so high, and 
 I intended, as soon as the present prosecution was 
 over, to return to England. My friend told me that 
 he had repeated this to Lord Fitzgibbon, who, he 
 said, had commissioned him to tell me that if I would 
 promise to go to England and remain there for a few 
 years, he would issue a nol. pros, on the present pro- 
 secution. To this I readily assented, on condition 
 that it should be issued immediately. My reason for 
 making this stipulation was, that it had been reported 
 some short time previous (when on my mother's 
 death I had been obliged to go to England to arrange 
 her property in that country), that I, as well as 
 Napper Tandy, had fled from the prosecution com- 
 menced against us. This compromise was, however, 
 finally put an end to by its being required that I 
 should strike my name out of the United Irishmen's 
 Society — a measure to which I could not consent.' 
 
 'In 1792 (says Rowan in his autobiographical 
 memoir), I was arrested by a warrant from Judge 
 Downes, on a charge of distributing a seditious paper ; 
 and crediting his lordship's assurance that the ex- 
 aminations upon which the warrant was granted 
 
160 Ireland in '98. 
 
 should be returned to the Clerk of the Crown, to be 
 laid by him before the next term grand jury, I 
 followed the advice of my law friends, and instead of 
 going to jail, in pursuance of my own opinion, I gave 
 bail for my appearance in the King's Bench, to answer 
 such charges as should be there made against me. T 
 had at first declared my wish to employ no other 
 counsel to defend me than those who belonged to the 
 society of United Irishmen ; but Messrs. Emmett and 
 Butler both declined the task, as they said it might 
 look like arrogance in junior counsellors to conduct 
 so great a cause as that which would probably ensue. 
 The known unbending patriotism of Mr. Fletcher, 
 who (though afterwards raised to the bench) always 
 declared the necessity of parliamentary reform, pointed 
 him out to me as one under whose guidance I should 
 wish to place myself ; but this suggestion was again 
 overruled by the entreaty of Mrs. Hamilton Rowan, 
 and of almost all my friends, that I should employ 
 Mr. Curran. His high character, which never de- 
 serted him as a friend to the people, occasioned my 
 asking him whether he would emplo37- his talent rather 
 in defence of the paper for the distribution of which I 
 was prosecuted, than on any minor object. Having 
 answered in the affirmative, he became my leading- 
 counsel. 
 
 ' During the succeeding Hilary term I daily at- 
 tended in the King's Bench. On the last day of that 
 term, finding that no examination had been laid 
 before the grand jury against me, counsel on my 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 161 
 
 behalf moved that the examinations should be re- 
 turned forthwith, particularly as Mr. Attorney- 
 General had in the course of the term filed two infor- 
 mations ex officio against me, the one for the same 
 alleged offence of distributing a seditious paper, and 
 the other for a seditious conspiracy. 
 
 ' Mr. Justice Downes, who was then on the bench, 
 asserted that he had on the first day of term returned 
 the examinations to the Clerk of the Crown, who said, 
 that from the multiplicity of the examinations re- 
 turned to him on the first day of term, he had not 
 time to look at them, and requested the court would 
 make no order. My hopes of a speedy trial were 
 therefore at an end. 
 
 ' My mother shortly afterwards died, and I was 
 obliged to go to England on private business, which 
 required me to stay there some time. During my 
 absence from Ireland, every runner in office, sup- 
 ported by the newspapers in the pay of Government, 
 connected the name of Hamilton Rowan with that of 
 Napper Tandy, and proclaimed both as dishonoured 
 fugitives from justice. 
 
 ' A few days before the Easter term I returned to 
 Ireland, and daily attended the King's Bench, until 
 the term was nearly spent ; and finding that no bills 
 were sent up by the grand jury against me, counsel 
 on my behalf moved the court that the recognisance 
 entered into by me, and by my bail, should be va- 
 cated ; at the same time publicly declaring that if the 
 motion was not agreed to, I was then in court for 
 
 M 
 
162 Ireland in '98. 
 
 the purpose of surrendering myself in discharge of 
 my bail. The recognisance was vacated accordingly. 
 The above-mentioned examinations having also 
 charged Mr. Tandy with a similar offence, his recog- 
 nisance was estreated, and a green wax process 
 ordered against his bail. Had I been absent, my re- 
 cognisance also would have been estreated ; but on 
 my having appeared and declared my readiness to 
 meet the charge, the Government filed fresh infor- 
 mations, ex officio, and refused to proceed upon the 
 former examinations, and denied to me all knowledge 
 of the person by whom they were sworn. A motion 
 on my behalf was then made to fix certain days for 
 the trial of the information ex officio against me ; the 
 Attorney -General agreed to the appointment of two 
 days in the ensuing Trinity term — viz. the 3rd and 
 7th days of May. In the Easter vacation the At- 
 torney-General served on me a notice that he would 
 not proceed to trial on the days appointed, and would 
 apply to the court to appoint other days, grounded 
 on an affidavit to be filed, of which notice would be 
 given. Nothing further was done upon this notice, 
 no affidavit was filed, or motion made thereon ; and 
 the process necessary for the empanelling of juries 
 on the days appointed having been (after being 
 issued) kept by Mr. Kemmis, the Crown solicitor, in- 
 stead of being delivered to the sheriff, a notice was 
 made on my behalf that the necessary process should 
 be forthwith delivered to the proper officer, in order 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 163 
 
 that the trials might be had on the days appointed. 
 My motion was opposed by a phalanx of Crown 
 lawyers, headed by the Attorney- General, who de- 
 clared that there was an error in the information 
 for distributing a seditious paper. I now offered 
 to agree to an immediate amendment of the in- 
 formation, or that a fresh one should be filed and 
 pleaded to instanter, or that I would release all 
 errors. 
 
 ' All these offers were severally refused, as the 
 object of Government seemed to be to gain time ; 
 and my friends strongly suspected that the motive 
 for postponing the trial was the expectation of packed 
 juries, through the means of the sheriffs for the 
 ensuing year, Jenkins and Giffard, both notoriously 
 under the influence and even in the pay of the 
 Government. 
 
 ' I must farther take notice of some underhand 
 transactions ao-ainst me. When the idea of renewingf 
 the volunteer system was embraced by several of its 
 zealous friends, certain persons, calling themselves 
 soldiers, came to my house with offers of their 
 assistance ; but appearing to be sent as spies upon 
 my conduct and expressions, I declined to see them, 
 or have any concern with them. 
 
 ' One of the name of Corbally came to my house, 
 and proposed to teach my men-servants how to make 
 up artillery ammunition. This offer having been 
 declined, there was some attempt made to bribe this 
 
 11 2 
 
164 Ireland in '98. 
 
 man to lodge examinations of some sort against me ; 
 and he having resisted, it was thought that something 
 might be forced from him by fear. Accordingly he 
 was apprehended on a warrant of high treason, and 
 was told by the person who took him that he had but 
 one way to save his life, which was to swear against 
 me. He was kept in jail for five months under this 
 charge, and while in confinement they attempted to 
 cajole him into the King's service. When by law he 
 became entitled to be discharged, or have proceedings 
 preferred against him, the charge of high treason was 
 withdrawn, and an indictment found against him for 
 a misdemeanour, to which he gave bail, and thereon 
 obtained his liberty. One Maguire, a Defender, was 
 confined with Corbally, to whom I understood similar 
 proposals were made, and the following circumstance 
 warrants the belief. Corbally lodged examinations 
 against Mr. Justice Graham, who immediately went 
 to the jail, saw Maguire, and accepted his bail, which 
 he refused the day but one before, and neither he nor 
 his bail has since been heard of. Graham stood his 
 trial, and was acquitted, and prosecuted Corbally, 
 who was tried and sentenced to two years' imprison- 
 ment. At the time the attempt was made to bribe 
 Corbally, the Speaker of the House of Commons 
 asserted in company that Mr. Hamilton Rowan did 
 not know the risk he ran, for they had evidence 
 against him which would touch his life. And a noted 
 partisan of the administration said in the Four Courts 
 that a discovery was made that a gentleman, and a 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 165 
 
 man of some property, had distributed money among 
 the Defenders. This was also the charge against 
 Napper Tandy. 
 
 ' At length,' continues the memoir, ' I was brought 
 to trial (January 1794), Mr. Giffard being the acting 
 sheriff for the current six months. On striking the 
 jury, I objected to two of them, and offered to bring 
 proof that they had declared " Ireland would never he 
 quiet until Hamilton Rowan and Na'p'per Tandy were 
 hangedr But this challenge was not allowed by the 
 bench.' 
 
 On this trial Mr. Curran pronounced a speech 
 which will for ever associate his name with that of 
 Rowan. So splendid an exhibition of eloquence had 
 never been witnessed in an Irish, nor perhaps in any 
 other, court of law. 
 
 Giffard's skill in the packing of the jury was, 
 however, more potent in its influences and results 
 than any power of eloquence of the Irish Demos- 
 thenes could possibly be over the minds of such men 
 as Giffard had put in the jury-box. 
 
 The jury, in the course of ten minutes, brought 
 in a verdict of guilty. Lord Clonmel, after conferring 
 with the other judges, said, 'We will not pronounce 
 judgment till four days.' Mr. Rowan was then 
 ordered into custody of the sheriff, ' and was con- 
 veyed to the New Prison, attended by both the 
 sheriffs and a formidable array of horse and foot 
 guards.' 
 
 The packing of the j ury was only one feature in 
 
166 Ireland in '98. 
 
 the judicial arrangements made for the conviction of 
 Rowan. The princijDal witness produced against him, 
 George W. T. Lyster, alias Captain, alias Ensign 
 Lyster, was a person whose evidence was unrehable 
 in any case ; but in this particular one it was utterly 
 at variance with truth. The address to the volun- 
 teers, which he swore had been distributed by Rowan, 
 had been presented to the people at the meeting, and 
 to Lyster, by a person of the name of Willis, a 
 skinner, formerly a member of the Volunteer Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 In December 1794, Mr. Lyster had an action 
 taken against him in the King's Bench, by his father- 
 in-law, Mr. H. Hatchell, for the recovery of moneys 
 expended for the support of his wife, whom he had 
 deserted, and there was a verdict found for the plain- 
 tiff. And a little later we read of an Ensign Lyster, 
 for conduct unbecoming a gentleman and an officer, 
 being disgraced and dismissed the army. 
 
 It would be now useless to refer to the foul means 
 resorted to in Rowan's case to obtain a conviction, 
 but it shows the influence which the recourse to 
 packed juries, and the employment of perjured wit- 
 nesses, had on the minds of the people, and especially 
 of their leaders, at that period. So long as the foun- 
 tains of justice were believed to be even moderately 
 pure — so long as it was unknown that they were 
 poisoned at their very source — there were some 
 bounds to the popular discontent. The language of 
 the Liberals of that day might be bold, violent, and 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 167 
 
 intemperate — not more so, nay, not so much so, as 
 the language used with impunit}'' at pohtical societies 
 in the present day — but they still had privileges and 
 advantages to lose by sedition, and the most valuable 
 of all was the trial by jury, which, from the time of 
 Rowan's trial, in public opinion, had ceased to be a 
 safeguard or a security to the people. 
 
 At the expiration of four days the prisoner was 
 brought up for judgment. Before sentence was pro- 
 nounced, Rowan, at his own request, was permitted 
 to speak ; and accordingly he addressed the court 
 in language at once courteous and dignified. 
 
 He observed that in some parts of the evidence, 
 the court and the prosecutor seemed to be mistaken, 
 and that, had some of his friends, volunteers, who 
 were present at the meeting, been summoned to give 
 their testimony, the charge exhibited against him by 
 Lyster would have fallen to the ground. As to the 
 jury, he admitted that some of them were very honour- 
 able men, yet much prejudiced, and his avowed 
 enemies. He acknowledged his wish and his at- 
 tempt to revive the volunteers, for they had done 
 honour to the nation. As to the sheriff, in the 
 capacity of editor to a newspaper he had been his 
 constant calumniator ; and now in the office of sheriff, 
 he had empanelled a jury, by some of whom he 
 (Rowan) had been prejudged. He avowed himself 
 to be a United Irishman, and gloried in the name. 
 He justified the terms Univeksal Emancipation 
 and Representative Legislation, in opposition to 
 
168 Ireland in '98. 
 
 a meaning imputed to them by the counsel for the 
 prosecution.^ 
 
 ' I did imagine,' says he, ' that the British consti- 
 tution was a representative legislature ; that the 
 people were represented by the House of Commons ; 
 that the Lords represented the territory, the pro- 
 perty ; and that the King represented the power of 
 the estate, the united force, the power of the whole 
 placed in his hands for the benefit of the whole. As 
 a person, as a man, I know nothing of the King ; I 
 can know nothing of him except wielding the force 
 of the nation ; and if that force should be misapplied 
 and abused, it then remains for the people to decide 
 in what hands it ought to be placed.' 
 
 In conclusion he says : ' I really feel myself in 
 an awkward situation, thus declaring my sentiments, 
 seeing intentions different from those both of the 
 author and myself are fixed upon that paper, for the 
 distribution of which I am persecuted. 
 
 * From my situation, however, having an in- 
 dependent fortune, easy in my circumstances, and 
 with a large family, insurrection of any sort would 
 surely be the last thing I could wish for. I ask 
 no favour, but I submit myself to the clemency and 
 justice of the court, and trust that, whatever may 
 be their sentence, I shall bear it with becoming 
 fortitude.' 
 
 The Society of United Irishmen, on February 7, 
 
 ' The employment of these terms in the condemned paper formed 
 part of the indictment against him. — Ed. 
 
Archibald Hamilton Roioan. 169 
 
 1794, presented an address to Mr. Rowan, then un- 
 dergoing the sentence of imprisonment in Newgate, 
 expressing the obUgations the country was under to 
 him for his bold assertion of its rights, and its sym- 
 pathy with his sufferings in its cause. 
 
 Rowan had been nearly two months in Newgate 
 when an emissary of the French Government, the 
 Rev. William Jackson, arrived in Ireland, accom- 
 panied by his friend Cockayne, a London solicitor, in 
 the beginning of April, 1794. Mr. Leonard M'Nally, 
 the barrister, the ' friend ' of Cockayne, through 
 another friend, Mr. Lewines, had got the French 
 emissary and his companion, the spy and informer of 
 Mr. Pitt, introduced to Rowan, Tone, and Dr. Rey- 
 nolds. Rowan fell at once and without any appa- 
 rent miso-ivins: into the snare. Evidence was ob- 
 tained against him of complicity with Jackson 
 ' sufficient to hang him.' Jackson, all unconscious 
 as he was of the part he was performing, having 
 been allowed to do the work of Cockayne and his 
 employer, Mr. Pitt, was arrested the latter end of 
 April, 1794. 
 
 In the meantime Dr. Reynolds, being duly ap- 
 prised of his danger, fled the country and escaped to 
 America. Rowan also, being duly apprised of the 
 evidences of treason that existed in the hands of the 
 Government against him, was afforded an opportunity 
 of escape from prison and from Ireland. It is stated, 
 and I believe with truth, that more than one member 
 of the Privy Council was in the habit of communicat- 
 
170 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ing secrets of great importance to the members of 
 the Directory of the United Irishmen. 
 
 The fact of the secrets of Government, on many 
 important occasions, having been communicated to 
 the Directory, has been distinctly stated to me by 
 Arthur O'Connor and Dr. M'Neven. On May 1, 
 Rowan prevailed on two subordinate officials of the 
 jailer of Newgate to allow him to go to his house 
 in Dominick Street for the avowed purpose of sign- 
 ing certain legal documents, accompanied by one of 
 the above-mentioned prison officials, the younger 
 M'Dowell, undertaking to return when this legal 
 business had been transacted. An offer of 100/. for 
 this service was made by Rowan. 
 
 The jailer had no knowledge at this time of 
 Rowan being impUcated in the charges of high 
 treason that had been brought against Jackson, but 
 conceived, as Mr. Rowan's confinement was only on 
 a charge for libel, that there was no danger of his 
 meditating an escape. 
 
 On reaching his house, Rowan, while apparently 
 waiting the arrival of his man of business, proffered 
 the 100/. he had promised ; and, to use his own 
 words : ' Young M'Dowell at first refused the money ; 
 he thrust back the purse, saying he did not do it for 
 gain ; but on his (Rowan) remonstrating, he relented, 
 and consented to put the money in his pocket.' Then, 
 on pretence of having a few words to say in private 
 to Mrs. Rowan, he obtained permission to retire into 
 the back drawing-room. At the jailer's request the 
 
Archibald Hamilton Botcan. 171 
 
 foldmg-door was left open, and Mr. Rowan lost no 
 time in availing himself of the advantage so oppor- 
 tunely afforded. His excellent lady had contrived 
 the means of escape ; by a rope he descended from 
 the window into the back yard, and in the stable 
 found a horse already saddled. 
 
 Disguising himself in a peasant's great coat, he 
 proceeded to the residence of his attorney, Mr. Dow- 
 ling, who was in the secret of his design. 
 
 Unfortunately that gentleman's house was filled 
 with guests, and by his advice Mr. Rowan proceeded 
 to the top of Sackville Street, opposite the Rotundo, 
 where he continued to walk up and down, in the 
 most anxious state of suspense, for an hour and a 
 half. At length his friend appeared, and after a 
 short conference, Mr. Rowan proceeded to the house 
 of Mr. Sweetman, near Baldoyle, where he continued 
 for a few days. 
 
 The two M'Dowells, father and son, subordinates 
 of Mr. Gregg, the head jailer of Newgate, who had 
 been privy to the escape of Rowan on the evening of 
 May 1, 1794, were arraigned on July 10 following, on 
 this serious charge. 
 
 Gregg, the head jailer, deposed that it was only 
 at eight o'clock on the morning of May 2, when he 
 went round the prison, that he discovered Mr. Rowan 
 had escaped. That he questioned the M'Dowells, 
 the turnkeys of that part of the prison, and was 
 informed that Mr. Rowan had accompanied Mrs. 
 Rowan to the door of the prison, who had been there 
 
172 Ireland in '98. 
 
 to visit him, ' and in handing Mrs. Rowan to her 
 carriage^ rushed through the crowd and made his 
 escape.' 
 
 Sheriff Jenkin deposed, that the ekler M 'Do well 
 had admitted to him that his wife had let out Mr. 
 Rowan, and that on passing the door he rushed down 
 the steps and made his escape. The jury brought in 
 a verdict of guilty against both traversers. 
 
 Immediately after Mr. Rowan's escape, a proclama- 
 tion, offering a thousand pounds for his re-capture, was 
 issued by Government. 
 
 A very important document in manuscript, having 
 the autograph signature of the widow of Mr. Sweet- 
 man, by whose co-operation the escape of Rowan to 
 France was effected, has been placed in my hands 
 by Mr. Jackson ; and to that authentic narrative of 
 Mrs. Sweetman I refer for all the particulars of that 
 occurrence. 
 
 ' On May 1, 1794, my late husband, Robert 
 Sweetman, retired to rest at an early hour. About 
 one o'clock the maidservant was awoke by a loud 
 rapping at the hall door ; she inquired who was 
 there, and was answered by a person who said he 
 wanted to see Mr. Sweetman. She said he was in 
 bed, and could not be disturbed ; after several appli- 
 cations, she was prevailed upon to tell her master 
 that a person wished to see him. He was much dis- 
 pleased at being annoyed at such an hour, and told 
 her to tell the person that he would not see anyone 
 at such an hour, and to call in the morning. 
 
Archibald Hamilton Roican. 173 
 
 ' The maid was prevailed upon a third time to 
 tell her master that the business of the applicant was 
 of great importance, and that he had a letter that 
 should be delivered to Mr. Sweetman in person. He 
 consented, and put on a part of his clothes. Opening 
 the hall door, he was greatly surprised at the appear- 
 ance of his visitor ; he was disguised in a fisherman's 
 dress, and Mr. Sweetman often told me that he looked 
 like a robber. Mr. Rowan told him who he was, as 
 also his escape from prison, and that he threw him- 
 self on his mercy. Mr. Sweetman brought him up- 
 stairs. Mr. Rowan was greatly excited ; after a 
 while, he told Mr. Sweetman of his desire to quit the 
 country, and that he would give the half of what he 
 was possessed of for a boat. 
 
 ' Mr. Sweetman, the following mornmg, set off for 
 Rush, Skerries, and Balbriggan, to procure, if possible, 
 a boat ; he offered 500?. for anyone to convey a gen- 
 tleman who was embarrassed to any part of France. 
 No one could be found to run the risk for double the 
 amount. 
 
 ' When Mr. Sweetman returned unsuccessful, Mr. 
 Rowan was much dejected, not knowing what to do ; 
 he occupied a small room called the end room, with a 
 case of pistols and razors on the dressing-table, fully 
 determined, in case he was discovered, to destroy 
 himself Mr. Sweetman told him he had a pleasure 
 boat, if he would risk his life in so small a boat. 
 
 '"Put me in a cockle-shell," he said, "if it would 
 be the means of my escape." 
 
174 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ' There was a difficulty in procuring trusty men ; 
 after a deal of anxiety, he procured three staunch 
 fellows — two Sheridans, brothers, and a third of the 
 name of Murray. The men were promised great 
 remuneration for their arduous undertaking. Mr. 
 Sweetman went to Dublin to purchase maps, sea store, 
 &c. At the time he was purchasing the maps at 
 M'Auley and Hughes's, on George's Quay, the captain 
 of one of his Majesty's revenue cruisers came to the 
 same shop to renew his maps, and told Mr. Sweetman 
 he had orders from Government to have a look-out 
 for Hamilton Rowan, not at all suspecting that 
 Mr. Sweetman was providing for the escape of the 
 fugitive. 
 
 ' It took four days to provide everything requisite 
 for the voyage. From this period Mr. Sweetman was 
 a marked man. He was taken prisoner, and accused 
 of keeping fire-arms. 
 
 ' When Mr. Rowan was leaving Sutton, he gave 
 Mr. Sweetman a letter for Mrs. Rowan, begging her 
 to provide for the families of the men employed to 
 navigate the boat. She never complied with his request. 
 All matters being ready, Mr. Rowan left Sutton on 
 May 4, 1794, at four o'clock in the morning. Pre- 
 vious to his departure, he went on his knees in the 
 drawing-room to beg that Almighty God would pre- 
 serve his deliverer from all harm, and that a blessing 
 might descend upon him and his posterity ; and that, 
 if he ever returned to his native land, he should have 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 175 
 
 the half of what he was worth. This scene, Mr. 
 Sweetman told me, was very affecting. 
 
 ' The boat got under weigli with a fair wind, until 
 off the Saltees it came on to blow hard, when she 
 was obliged to bear up from whence she started. 
 The following morning under weigh again, and cross- 
 ing the Bay of Dublin, a revenue cutter ran along- 
 side, throwing handbills into the boat, offering a re- 
 ward of 1,000^. for Hamilton Rowan. The wind con- 
 tinued fair, and when off Wexford, the men found a 
 leisure moment to read the handbills. Mr. Rowan, 
 perceiving with what attention they read them, evi- 
 dently saw that he was discovered. He left the cabin, 
 and told the men that he was the person described 
 in the handbills, and that he depended on their gene- 
 rosity as Irishmen not to molest him. They threw 
 the handbills overboard, and told him to make himself 
 perfectly easy, as they would not deceive him.^ 
 
 ' The next memorable event was their havinar 
 passed through the British fleet in a fog, in the Bay 
 
 ' The late Mr. Sheil, referring to this occurrence, observes : — 
 ' They had reached the mid-channel, when a situation occurred, 
 equalling in dramatic interest the celebrated Csesarem vehis of anti- 
 quity. It would certainly make a fine subject for a picture.' Rowan 
 states, in his Autobiogrctphy, the affair took place on shore, not at sea, 
 as many imagined. While staying at Sweetman's, he met his host 
 one day returning from Dublin, and shortly after they were joined by 
 the two Sheridans, one of whom, taking out of his pocket one of the 
 proclamations, showed it to Mr. Sweetinan, and said : ' Is it Mr. 
 Hamilton Rowan we are to take to France?' 'Yes,' replied Mr. 
 Sweetman, 'and here he is.' Immediately the elder brother said: 
 ' Never mind it ; by , we will land him safe. ' 
 
176 Ireland m '98. 
 
 of Biscay. Mr. Rowan was safely landed in the night. 
 The crew, having escaped unnoticed, were half way 
 home, when captured by a French privateer, and 
 the boat burnt. The men were put into prison, 
 where they remained for twelve months ; they made 
 their escape to America, and arrived once more in 
 their native land. During their absence, Mr. Sweet- 
 man had to support their families, for which he never 
 received compensation. 
 
 ' The men made application to Mrs. Rowan, but 
 she declined all intercourse with them. Mr. Rowan 
 received his pardon, and returned to Ireland one year 
 after the death of Mr. Sweetman. I called on him, 
 and he received me very kindly ; he said he was sorry 
 that he could not at the present time do anything for 
 my family. I mentioned that my visit was not for 
 anything gratuitous, but for compensation for the loss 
 of the boat. He seemed much astonished at my appli- 
 cation, and said that it was an act of kindness on the 
 part of Mr. Sweetman, and that he had no idea of pay- 
 ing the demand (although previous to his departure 
 he promised that Mr. Sweetman should have the half 
 of what he was worth). At last he desired me to fur- 
 nish a bill, which I did, for 100/. only ; the boat was 
 worth three hundred. He said 501. was quite sufficient. 
 I consulted several eminent men of the day, who 
 advised me not to take less than 100/. He still re- 
 fused, and did not pay until I had very reluctantly 
 proceeded against him. 
 
 ' Many years after, Mr. Rowan paid me a visit at 
 
An-lilhidd [Liinilton Eoiran. 177 
 
 Sutton, on his way to Mr. Evans of Portrane. He 
 remained several minutes at the hall door, ofFerino- 
 up pious ejaculations for the preserver of his life. 
 
 ' I was at first determined to be cool to him ; after 
 a little I changed my mind, and asked him to walk 
 in. He ate somethino; and took a o^lass of frroor. I 
 
 never saw him afterwards. . * o , 
 
 'Anne Sweetman. 
 
 The biographer of Mr. Rowan, in reference to the 
 remuneration of the boatmen, observes : — 
 
 ' Mr. Rowan's generosity, even to those men who 
 were instrumental in effecting his escajoe to France, 
 could not, with justice to his family, and a thousand 
 demands besides, be without a limit, not possessing 
 the purse of Fortunatus. It appears from a pre- 
 ceding part of this memoir, that he felt a deep interest 
 in the welfare of his little crew ; that while in France 
 he exerted all his influence in their behalf, and suc- 
 ceeded in procuring for them a profitable employment 
 in Brest. On their return to Ireland, they received 
 sums of money repeatedly, to what amount is not 
 divulged ; but it would be inconsistent with the 
 whole of Rowan's character and conduct to suppose 
 that it was not considerable. Notwithstanding, it 
 was affirmed by some who knew nothing of the 
 matter, but who could not forego the pleasure of 
 inventing and propagating an evil report, that they 
 had received no requital.' 
 
 With respect to the preceding statements, I am 
 sorry to have to say, that the brave and faithful poor 
 
 N 
 
178 Ireland in '98. 
 
 men who saved the hfe of Mr. Rowan were, for a 
 considerable time after their return to Ireland, left very 
 inadequately recompensed for their services to Mr. 
 Rowan and their sufferings on his account ; and it 
 was only after Mr. Rowan's return that any adequate 
 sense of the magnitude of the services they had ren- 
 dered to that gentleman was manifested. 
 
 Rowan no sooner landed in France, at the mouth 
 of a small bay called Roscoff, under the port of St. Paul 
 de Leon, than he was seized and placed in durance 
 vile, having escaped a prison in his own country 
 to become a prisoner of state of the Comite de Salut 
 Publique at Roscoff. The next day he was ordered 
 to be sent to Brest, in the safe-keeping of a garde 
 dlionneur. At Brest he was imprisoned in the mili- 
 tary hospital, where he was looked on as an English 
 spy; but after a short detention he was liberated, and 
 directed to proceed to Paris and report himself to the 
 Comite de Salut Publique of the capital. On his arrival 
 he proceeded to the committee, and was mtroduced 
 to Robespierre, who received him with civility, and 
 ordered him to be furnished with everything he re- 
 quired, at the expense of the nation. Rowan had 
 ample opportunities of witnessing the horrors of the 
 Reign of Terror. These, however, ceased to a great 
 extent with the downfall and death of Robespierre, 
 ' though in two days after the execution of Robes- 
 pierre,' says Rowan, 'the whole commune of Paris, 
 consisting of about sixty persons, were guillotined in 
 less than one hour and a half in the Place de la Revo- 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 179 
 
 lution ; and though I was standing a hundred paces 
 from the place of execution, the blood of the victims 
 streamed under my feet. 
 
 ' Being much discontented,' he says, ' with the dis- 
 tracted state of Paris, after spending almost a year 
 there, I solicited, and with some difficulty obtained, 
 through the assistance of an Irish Roman Catholic 
 of the name of Madgett, passports to Havre, in 
 order to embark for the United States of North 
 America, under the assumed name of Thompson.' 
 
 Rowan accordingly determined to proceed to 
 Rouen, embarked in a small boat on April 17, 1795, 
 and got down the river as far as the Port Royal 
 Bridge, when a sans-culotte gentleman noticed him, and 
 denounced him to the people as ' a deputy who was 
 escaping with the money of the nation.' This man 
 procured a musket, and repeatedly threatened to 
 shoot the supposed deputy whenever the boat came 
 within range of him on that side of the quay alono- 
 which he followed the fugitive. 
 
 ' At length,' says Rowan, ' I came to the landing- 
 place at the gate of Chaillot, when this man, who was 
 evidently intoxicated, in his haste to seize me, stepped 
 upon the gunwale of the little boat, and at the same 
 time swamped it and threw himself into the water. I 
 leaped out, and desired to be conducted to the guard 
 at the barrier of Passy. By this time some hundred 
 persons were collected, and the back ranks, not 
 knowing exactly what was going on in the front, 
 began the usual cry of " A la lanterne ! " The officer 
 
 i\ 2 
 
180 Ireland in '98. 
 
 of the guard came up from the gate ; I showed him 
 my passports, and particularly my certificates of 
 having mounted all my guards in my section. He 
 said my papers were all en regie, and that I might 
 proceed ; but the mob still insisted that I was carry- 
 ing off ror de la nation, and I requested the officer, 
 who w^as drawing off his guard, to allow me to take 
 my small baggage to the guard-room, and open it 
 there for the satisfaction of the people ; but he 
 peremptorily refused, and marched off, saying " Ce 
 n'etait pas son affaire." At length one from among 
 them proposed to take me before the mayor of 
 Passy, whither I proceeded, conducted by my first 
 friend, who still held me, and followed by the 
 crowd. 
 
 ' We found the mayor at home. My conductor 
 pushed me into his room. I was somewhat assured as 
 to his character by his saying to this fellow, " Ote ton 
 bonnet ; ne vois-tu pas que je suis decouvert ? " The 
 man obeyed, and then stated his suspicions of my story, 
 one of which was the improbability of mtending to 
 row to Havre, and yet wearing gloves at setting out 
 for so long a distance. I again produced my papers 
 to the mayor ; they were re-examined, and it was 
 declared that everything was en regie, and that they 
 should permit me to continue my voyage. At the 
 same time the mayor complimented my conductors 
 for their zeal and attention to the safety of the Re- 
 public. My persecutors, in some httle dudgeon, now 
 left me, while the crowd returned with me to the 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 181 
 
 waterside. Here, to my inexpressible surprise, I 
 found everything in my boat exactly as I had left it 
 — some bottles of wine, a little silver cup, my neces- 
 saire^ and a gold-headed cane — all safe, though at the 
 mercy of hundreds, who, while they would without 
 ceremony have tucked me up to the lamp-post, would 
 not touch an article of my property.' ^ 
 
 Rowan arrived in safety at Rouen, where he 
 had previously passed nearly two years, 1772 and 
 1773, and, after spending a few days, proceeded by 
 land to Havre, where he embarked for America the 
 beginning of June 1795. On July 16 Rowan wrs 
 established at a boarding-house in Philadelphia, where 
 several members of Congress boarded and lodged, 
 among them the elder Adams and Jackson, subse- 
 quently President of the United States. Having 
 determined on retiring into some country situation, 
 he fixed on Wilmington, in the State of Delaware, 
 about thirty miles from Philadelphia. 
 
 From the latter city he addressed his wife, 
 August 1, 1795, and refers to his old friend Tone as 
 then residing at Princetown : 
 
 ' Mr. Tone has bought an hundred acres of ground. 
 The situation is pleasant, and within two or three 
 miles of Princetown, where there is a college and 
 some good society. 
 
 ' Tandy arrived here about a fortnight or three 
 weeks since ; he has got a lodging in the same house 
 with me, and of course we mess together ; but I 
 
 ' Autobiography of A. H. Rowan, p. 243. 
 
182 Ireland in '98. 
 
 need not tell you that his society does not make up 
 for what I have lost, perhaps never to regain.' 
 
 ^September 11. — Tone seems determined to re- 
 turn, and Reynolds wishes it sincerely, but amuses 
 himself with the politics of America, and is as busy, 
 as sincere, and as zealous as he was in Kilmainham.' 
 
 Rowan was obliged, in deference to his friends in 
 Ireland, who were interfering for him, and in com- 
 pliment to Mrs. Rowan's opinions, to write home 
 letters which could be shown to persons in authority. 
 Thus we find him, in February 1796, apologismg in 
 a letter to Mrs. Rowan for his political sentiments. 
 * As to my sentiments,' says he, ' they have been 
 always nearly the same, as far as I can remember. 
 The fact is, that from education and principle, I was 
 led to assert and attempt to support a reform of 
 Parliament, and equal liberty to all religious sects. 
 Association may have, and certainly did lead me 
 more into an active life than I wished, was fit for, or 
 will ever, in any case on this side of eternity, fall 
 into again.' 
 
 In one of his letters Rowan refers to the generous 
 conduct of two celebrated lords, for the protection 
 which his family experienced after his escape : ' As 
 to the ex-officio prosecution under which I had been 
 previously sentenced to two years' imprisonment in 
 Newgate, the being in custody eventually saved my 
 life, and my wife's prudent conduct not only enabled 
 her to pay the fine of 500/. which had been laid on 
 me, but also facilitated my return to Ireland, I am 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 183 
 
 convinced that no modification in the circumstances 
 of my civil existence would have taken place if Lord 
 Castlereagh had opposed it. But I am bound in 
 gratitude to the memory of Lord Clare to say that 
 I am equally certain that my family retained my pro- 
 perty after my outlawry, and that I owe my pardon 
 after his decease to his previous interference in my 
 behalf However, although he did not afford me any 
 previous assistance, Lord Castlereagh was very atten- 
 tive to my different applications to him during two 
 years nearly that I remained in London, while the 
 scruples of the Lord Chancellor delayed the ratifica- 
 tion of my pardon. In this interval he offered to 
 place one of my sons in the College of Marlow, and 
 gave him a commission in the Company's service, 
 which, though not accepted, ought not to be for- 
 gotten.' 
 
 ' The year after my arrival in America,' says 
 Rowan, ' but before I had made any essay towards 
 independence, I received a letter from a most valued 
 and sincere friend in Ireland, Richard Griffith, Esq., 
 though of very different political sentiments, advising 
 me to petition Government for a pardon ; and he sent 
 me a sketch of such a petition as he thought would 
 restore me with honour to my friends and country, 
 but which I could not subscribe.' 
 
 Mrs. Rowan, findiug that the hope of a free 
 pardon at that time must be abandoned, used all the 
 interest in her power to procure permission for her 
 husband to quit America, and to go to any country 
 
184 Ireland in '98. 
 
 not at war with Great Britain. Mr. Griffiths warmly 
 seconded her efforts, by writing to the Lord Chan- 
 cellor, and calling him repeatedly to urge her suit. 
 To the Chancellor's honour be it recorded, that he 
 always evinced a cordial sympathy in the suffermgs 
 of Mrs. Rowan and her family. At length, in Sep- 
 tember 1799, she received the following letter from 
 Lord Castlereagh, with whom Mr. Rowan's father 
 was well acquainted : 
 
 ' Dublin Castle, September 9, 1799. 
 
 ' Madam, — My Lord-Lieutenant having, by desire 
 of the Lord Chancellor, stated to his Grace the Duke 
 of Portland that Mr. Hamilton Rowan was anxious 
 to proceed to Denmark from America, but that he 
 was afraid he might be apprehended in his passage 
 by one of his Majesty's cruisers, I am directed to 
 acquaint you that, in consequence of the favourable 
 report made by the Lord Chancellor of Mr. Rowan's 
 conduct since he resided in America, he will be 
 secured (as far as his Majesty's Government is con- 
 cerned) in the refuge which may be granted to him 
 in Denmark or elsewhere, as long as he contmues to 
 demean himself in such a manner as not to give 
 offence. 
 
 ' I have the honour to be. Madam, 
 
 ' Your most obedient servant, 
 
 ' Castlereagh.' 
 
 At last it was determined that Rowan should go 
 to Hamburg ; and accordingly he lost no time in 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 185 
 
 making preparation for his departure ; and sailed for 
 Europe in July, 1800. After a short stay in Ham- 
 burg, where he found himself incommoded a good 
 deal with ' fools and knaves,' he proceeded to Altona, 
 where there were many English and Irish residents 
 and French emigrants of high rank. There he 
 rented and furnished a handsome house. Having 
 letters of introduction to many opulent merchants, 
 both German and English, he soon found himself 
 with his family in the midst of a pleasant society. 
 From Sir G. Rombald, who succeeded Sir James 
 Crawfurd at Hamburg, he received every mark of 
 kind and polite attention. Here he remained till the 
 year 1803 ; and in the interval various exertions 
 were made by his friends to procure his pardon. In 
 the latter part of April 1803 he received a com- 
 munication from Lord Castlereagh, informing him of 
 the intention of the Cabinet to recommend to the 
 King to grant him a pardon, but prohibiting his going 
 to Ireland without his Majesty's permission, and 
 entering into recognisance, which it was usual to 
 require in similar cases. 
 
 ' Having arrived in London on June 16,' says 
 Rowan, ' I went the next day to the Secretary of State's 
 office. He introduced me to Mr. Pollock, who showed 
 me the King's warrant for pardon, which contained all 
 the beneficial clauses of re-grant, &c., and was as full 
 in every respect as it could be, excepting the condition 
 of requiring two sureties for 10,000/. not to go to 
 Ireland. Mr. Pollock said one week would be suffi- 
 
186 Ireland in '98. 
 
 cient to pass the different offices, and Mr. Steele re- 
 quested him to attend to it, and as soon as the 
 document was returned to his office, to inform him, 
 and he, with my friend Mr. Griffith, offered to become 
 my sureties. 
 
 ' My agent arrived from Ireland, bringing with 
 him the opinions of eminent counsel, which all agreed 
 that a pardon under the Great Seal of Britain alone 
 would avail me no otherwise than as to my personal 
 liberty in England.' 
 
 While these efforts were being made in England, 
 the opinion of counsel was taken as to the mode of 
 accomplishing the desired object. Two of the most 
 eminent men at the Irish bar gave an opinion that a 
 pardon under the Great Seal of England alone would 
 only avail Rowan for his personal liberty in England. 
 The Under- Secretary of the Lord-Lieutenant furnished 
 Mr. Rowan's friends with a copy of the opinion of the 
 Crown lawyers : 
 
 ' Dublin Castle, October 27, 1803. 
 
 ' We are of opinion that the pardon to Mr. 
 Hamilton Rowan ought to be passed under the Great 
 Seal of Ireland ; and we apprehend it is irregular in 
 Mr. Rowan to solicit such pardon and the restitution 
 of his lands in Ireland in the first mstance, and that 
 such apphcation ought to be made to his Excellency 
 the Lord- Lieutenant. 
 
 (Signed) ' Standish O'Grady. 
 ' W. C. Flunkett.' 
 
Archibald Ilamiltoti Rowari. 187 
 
 Acting on this opinion, when Hamilton Rowan was 
 eventually pardoned in 1806, and obtained permission 
 to reside in Ireland, he attended at the Court of 
 King's Bench, and publicly pleaded the King's 
 pardon. 
 
 Among the numerous persons who congratulated 
 hun on his pardon, were many of his political oj^po- 
 nents, who expressed their satisfaction publicly and 
 privately at seeing him restored to his family and his 
 country. ' Lords Carysfort, Castlereagh, and Car- 
 hampton were foremost in expressions of kindness.' 
 Lord Clare was not then living, or his congratulations, 
 in Rowan's opinion, would have been joined with 
 those of the noblemen just named. 
 
 He returned to Ireland in 1806, on the death of 
 his father, and fixed his residence in the old castle of 
 Killyleagh, on his own estate in the county Down. 
 Rowan now figured in the character of a good 
 citizen, a good landlord, a good father of a family. 
 The great business of his life was to be useful to 
 those who were connected with him as tenants, 
 labourers, and servants ; to promote the internal 
 peace and concord of the country. He became the 
 poor man's friend of the locality — the generous en- 
 courager of the manufacturers of Dublin, especially 
 of the poor weavers of the liberties of the city. 
 
 Rowan, from various passages in his correspon- 
 dence in 1799, would seem to have been a strenuous 
 supporter of the Union. 
 
 The inconsistency of his conduct in this matter 
 
188 Ireland in '98. 
 
 was more apparent tlian real. In 1794 we find him 
 acting in concert, in Ireland, with an emissary of 
 the French Government, whose treasonable mission 
 was directed towards the separation of Ireland from 
 England. In 1795 we find him in America fur- 
 nishino; Tone with means of access to the French 
 Government, with the same views as in the preceding 
 year. But in 1799 all chance of reasonable expecta- 
 tion of a revolution in Ireland was gone. In these 
 altered circumstances of the country he saw nothing 
 for Ireland but a union, and believed a real hond-Jide 
 union, beneficial to both countries, was intended. In 
 1799 he writes to a member of his family on this 
 subject : 
 
 ' I congratulate you upon the report which spreads 
 here that a union is intended. In that measure I see 
 the downfall of one of the most corrupt assemblies, 
 I believe, that ever existed, and instead of an empty 
 title, a source of industrious enterprise for the people, 
 and the wreck of feudal aristocracy.' 
 
 March 15, 1799, he writes to Mrs. Rowan : 
 • I begin to think that the only question a poor 
 man should ask himself is, " Under what Government 
 shall I work least, get most, and keep what I get ? " 
 In this view, to use an American term, I would 
 advocate an union in Ireland, which will throw work 
 into the cabin, and take triple taxes and tenth of 
 income, &c., &c., out of the rich man's house. In 
 future times, however, I have no doubt but a mode 
 will be adopted better than any now known, and I 
 
Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 189 
 
 am fortified in this opinion from the great probability 
 of a convulsion in this country, which has certainly, 
 theoretically, the most free Government existing. . . .' 
 
 Of the cause of ' Catholic Emancipation ' he was 
 always a strenuous advocate. He thought the success 
 of that great question absolutely necessary to the 
 tranquillity of Ireland ; and in 1824, when he sent 
 his subscription to the ' Rent,' he accompanied it 
 with a letter expressive of his hopes and wishes. A 
 resolution that both should be entered on the minutes 
 was ' adopted with a zeal and enthusiasm that had 
 never been exceeded in that body.' 
 
 Domestic trials and afflictions fell heavily on this 
 venerable man in 1834. 
 
 Mrs. Rowan died, after a protracted illness, on Feb- 
 ruary 26 in that year. In less than six months from 
 the time of this excellent lady's decease. Rowan had 
 to deplore the loss of his only surviving and eldest 
 son, the gallant Captain Hamilton. From the time 
 of the death of his only son, his health rapidly de- 
 clined. The constant care and attention of his two 
 daughters. Miss Rowan and Mrs. Fletcher, sustained 
 him for a short time ; but the loneliness of his life, 
 the death of that great hope which was centred 
 in his eldest-born, and the dreariness of the house, 
 seemed to weigh more heavily on his enfeebled 
 strength. He died on November 1, 1834, at the age 
 of eighty -four years, having survived his beloved wife 
 nine months, his gallant son only as many weeks, and 
 a daughter, Mrs. Beresford, rather more than a year. 
 
190 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Rowan died in communion with the Unitarian 
 Church, by whose members, in common indeed with 
 the members of all churches in his native city, he 
 was held in the highest honour. His remains were 
 interred in a vault in St. Mary's Church. 
 
WILLIAM THKOBALU Wul.FK T<»NK 
 
191 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THEOBALD WOLFE TONE. 
 
 Parentage — Education — Marriage — Contributor to magazines — Called 
 to the bar — Founds the Society of United Irishmen — Republican 
 principles — Catholic convention — Rejection of petition — Thomas 
 Russell — French proposals — Jackson's mission — Tone arrives in 
 Philadelphia — Mission to France — Interview with Carnot — General 
 Hoche — Narrow escape. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was the son of Peter 
 Tone, a coaclimaker, who carried on an extensive 
 business in that hne for some years at No. 44, Stafford 
 Street, Dublin. His grandfather was a farmer in the 
 county Kildare. The land, which he held on freehold 
 leases, was part of the estate of Mr. Wolfe, of Black - 
 hall, and lies between Sallins and Clane, within a 
 few minutes' walk of the remains of the ruined church 
 and the ancient burying-ground of Bodenstown. A 
 part of the old dwelling-house of the Tones is yet 
 standing, in sight of the mansion of the Wolfes of 
 Blackball. Peter Tone's father was killed in 1766, 
 by a fall from a corn-stack ; his eldest son, Peter, 
 who had established himself in his business in Dublin, 
 the same year came into possession of the farm, said 
 to be worth about 300^. a year, which he rented to a 
 
192 Ireland in '98. 
 
 younger brother of his, Jonathan, a retired lieutenant 
 of the 22nd regiment of foot. 
 
 Anotlier brother, Matthew, was brought up to 
 the same business as Peter, and in 1784 had a coach- 
 making establishment at No. 126, Great Britain 
 Street. 
 
 Peter Tone married, about 1761, a Miss Lamport, 
 or Lambert, of Drogheda, the daughter of a captain 
 of a merchant vessel in the West India trade. The 
 farm near Clane, whicli he rented to his younger 
 brother, became a source of contention and litigation 
 between the brothers, which ended in a Chancery 
 suit, and, as a matter of course, in the ruin of the 
 litigants. Peter Tone became insolvent, quitted 
 Dublin, and in 1786 was living near Clane on the 
 property that was about to pass away from him and 
 his family. Of sixteen children of Peter Tone, five 
 were then living : — Theobald Wolfe, called after Mr. 
 Theobald Wolfe, the lord of the manor (a near rela- 
 tion of Lord Kil warden), born in Dublin, June 20, 
 176-3; William, born in 1764; Matthew, in 1771; 
 Mary, probably three or four years later ; and Arthur, 
 in 1782. 
 
 Theobald, William, and Matthew were sent to an 
 excellent English school in Dublin, kept by Sisson 
 Darling. Theobald, after continuing at this school 
 for three years, was removed to another, kept in 
 Henry Street, by the Rev. William Craig. In 1781 
 he entered Trinity College, under the Rev. Matthew 
 Young. A rage for the military profession, nurtured 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 193 
 
 and fomented by attendance at reviews, parades, and 
 field exercises, had taken possession of Tone pre- 
 viously even to his having entered college. Before 
 he was nineteen he had gone out as second with a 
 college lad of the name of Foster, who shot a fellow- 
 pupil of the name of Anderson through the head. 
 
 There is a passage in Tone's diary, which has 
 been omitted in the ' Memoirs of his Life ' by his 
 son (and properly so by him), which, however, before 
 the publication of Tone's memoirs in America, had 
 found its way into a portion of the autobiography 
 of Tone, that had been transmitted from America, 
 and was published in the 'New Monthly Magazine,' 
 1824. I refer to the passage which relates to 
 Tone's early passion for theatricals, as throwing 
 much light on the style of his journals, and the 
 extraordinary exuberance of memory and liveliness 
 of imagination exhibited in the ready application of 
 apposite citations from the popular dramatic writers 
 of the day to passing occurrences. It appears that 
 in 1783 and 1781 T. W. Tone had formed an ac- 
 quaintance with a lady of rank and great personal 
 attractions, Lady B., and, in his opinion, ' of extra- 
 ordinary talents for the stage,' which she displayed 
 in a private theatre fitted up in her own house. Tone 
 being, in his own words, ' somewhat of an actor,' 
 took a part in the representations, became a constant 
 visitor at the house, and at length, unfortunately, 
 an enamoured guest. 
 
 The private theatricals were brought to a close, 
 
 
 
194 Ireland in '98. 
 
 which had nearly proved of a tragic character, and 
 Tone never beheld the lady more. But ' no human 
 passion,' he said, ' is proof against time and absence,' 
 and so it proved to be in his case. In 1785 he 
 married a young creature, not sixteen years of age, 
 ' as beautiful as an angel,' Matilda Witherington, 
 whose sister, at a later period, wed the Thomas 
 Beynolds of secret service money celebrity. Tone, 
 having taken out his degree of bachelor of arts, 
 resigned his scholarship in the university, and began 
 the study of law. He had obtained three premiums 
 at college, and as many medals from the Historical 
 Society, of which he was an auditor, and one of its 
 most distinguished ornaments. His intimacy with 
 his wife's family having been interrupted, he quitted 
 Dublin with his wife and went to reside with his 
 father in Kildare. 
 
 In 1787 he proceeded to London, to enter his 
 name as a student of law in the Temple. He took 
 chambers in the Temple, at No. 4 Hare Court, and 
 contrived to maintain himself partly by contributing 
 to the magazines. Several reviews of new publica- 
 tions in the ' European Magazine ' of 1787-78 were 
 written by him. He likewise wrote a satirical novel 
 called ' Belmont Castle,' burlesquing the style of 
 writers of romance, in conjunction with two of his 
 friends, Jebb and Ratcliffe. 
 
 At the Temple he made the acquaintance of the 
 Honourable George Knox, son of Lord Northland, 
 one of his future most attached friends. Instead of 
 
Theobald Wulfe Tune. 193 
 
 studying Coke and Blackstone, poor Tone's head was 
 still running on military matters. The scheme oc- 
 curred to him of establishing, on a military plan, a 
 colony in one of the South Sea Islands, newly dis- 
 covered. He drew up a memorial recommending the 
 adoption of his proposal, and addressed it to Mr. 
 Pitt, with the intention, if adopted, of embarking in 
 this project. Mr. Pitt took no notice of the project 
 or the projector. 
 
 Tone's circumstances became so embarrassed in 
 London, and his wife's friends had so deceived him 
 with regard to her promised fortune, that he embraced 
 the desperate resolution of enlisting as a common 
 soldier in the East India Company's service. He 
 proceeded to the India House with that resolution, 
 and was informed that the season for sending: out 
 troops was past, and no more ships would be de- 
 spatched until the beginning of the year following. 
 He had now been two years at the Temple, and had 
 kept eight terms, but as to law, ' knowing exactly as 
 much about it as he did of necromancy.' An ar- 
 rangement with his wife's family enabled him to 
 return to Dublin. He purchased a law library, and 
 took lodgings in Clarendon Street in January 1789, 
 and in the Trinity Term of that year was called to 
 the bar. 
 
 In the same year a decree in Chancery, instituted 
 by his uncle Jonathan, gave the ' coup de grace to 
 his father's affairs ' ; all his property was sold, in- 
 cluding two houses in Stafford Street and one on 
 
 2 
 
196 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Summer Hill. Soon after the event, Peter Tone 
 obtained a situation in tlie Paving Board, which he 
 retained to the period of his death. Theobald no 
 sooner entered on his profession than he embarked 
 in politics. His first pamphlet, in defence of the 
 Opposition and the Whig Club, ' A Review of the 
 Last Sessions of Parliament,' had some success. 
 
 Overtures were now made to him by the friends 
 of Mr. Ponsonby, and by some leading members of 
 the Whig party, to attach himself to them, and to 
 promote the interest of the latter. 
 
 But no cordial union took place between Tone 
 and the Whigs ; indeed, it was impossible there could 
 be any identity of operations, for there was no iden- 
 tity of principles, of views, or feelings between them. 
 Tone set out in politics with the axiom of Swift and 
 Molyneux, that ' the influence of England was the 
 radical vice of Irish government.' The Whigs acted 
 on the principle that the influence was salutary, but 
 the mode of exerting it was pernicious to a certain 
 extent, which could be remedied by diminishing pen- 
 sions, abolishing some places, limiting the prerogative, 
 rescinding penal statutes, and demolishing the out- 
 works of corruption in the representative system. 
 Tone ' looked on the little politics of the Whig Club 
 with great contempt.' His next pamphlet, on the 
 appearance of a war with Spain, was intended to prove 
 that Ireland was not bound by the declaration of war 
 made by England, but might and ought to stipulate 
 for a neutrality. The publisher, Byrne, suppressed 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 197 
 
 the pamplalet as one of a dangerous tendency, 'for 
 which his own gods damn him/ says the writer 
 of it. 
 
 In the summer of 1790, Tone took a little cottage, 
 in consequence of his wife's delicate state of health, at 
 Irishtown, where, in a small circle of friends, the opi- 
 nions were discussed, extended, and fortified, which 
 had so important an influence on the state of Ireland 
 a few years later. 
 
 The parties to those discussions were his Mend 
 Thomas Russell, whose acquaintance he had made a 
 short time previously in the gallery of the House of 
 Commons ; the venerable father of the latter. Captain 
 Russell; occasionally his own brother William, from the 
 county Kildare, who resided with his father at Clane ; 
 and Matthew, who had lately set up a cotton manu- 
 factory at Prosperous. In this year, with Russell's 
 assistance. Tone drew up, and addressed to Lord Gran- 
 ville, an enlarged plan of his former scheme for the 
 establishment of a military settlement in one of the 
 Sandwich Islands, which ' he still thought might be 
 attended with the most beneficial consequences to 
 England.' Louis- Philippe, half a century later^ 
 showed he entertained a similar opinion of the utility 
 of such a settlement to France. 
 
 In the winter of 1790 Tone instituted a political 
 club, composed of some remarkable men, including 
 Messrs. Drennan, Stack, Pollock, Burrowes, John 
 Whitley Stokes, and T. A. Emmett, ' the first of his 
 (Tone's) friends.' The club did not go on prosper-- 
 
108 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ously ; it died a natural death in a few months. In 
 1791, August 1, Tone published a pamphlet, called 
 ' An Argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, 
 by a Northern Whig.' Ten thousand copies were 
 struck off in Belfast, and another edition in Dublin. 
 This was one of the ablest productions in favour of 
 the claims of Catholics that had yet appeared, and it 
 has not been equalled by any subsequent vindication 
 of them. 
 
 This pamphlet made Tone known advantageously 
 in the north ; and in October of that year he was 
 invited to Belfast by the volunteers of that town, 
 whither he proceeded, in company with Russell, and, 
 in conjunction with Neilson and others, founded the 
 first club which took the name of the Society of 
 United Irishmen. He then returned to Dublin, and, 
 in conjunction with James Napper Tandy and the 
 Honourable Simon Butler, formed a similar society in 
 the capital. In the spring of 1792, the Catholic Com- 
 mittee appointed Tone to the office of agent to their 
 body, with the title of assistant- secretary, then vacant 
 by the resignation of Richard Burke, with a salary of 
 200/. per annum. Tone's exertions in his new office 
 were incessant and invaluable to the Catholics. His 
 pen was never idle in writing addresses, manifes- 
 toes, and resolutions in favour of their cause. On 
 July 14, 1799, Tone assisted at Belfast, in his vo- 
 lunteer uniform, in the celebration of the success of 
 the French Revolution, and commemoration of the 
 anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, when about 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 199 
 
 six thousand volunteers and inhabitants voted an 
 address of congratulation to the French people. In 
 December 1782, the Catholic convention, under the 
 name of the General Committee, assembled in Dublin. 
 The scheme of this convention, which produced such 
 extraordinary results, had been devised by Myles 
 Keon, of Keon Brook, in the county of Leitrim ; but 
 the energy, activity, talent, and intrepidity which 
 carried it into practical effect, through innumerable 
 difficulties, party opposition, paltry fears, and base 
 acts of perfidy on the part of sol-dlsant friends and 
 advocates of the cause, were exhibited by T. W. Tone. 
 AVith respect to his political views, when he formed 
 the Northern and Leinster Societies of United Irish- 
 men, he says ' he thinks it right to mention that at 
 this time the establishment of a republic was not the 
 immediate object of his speculations ; his object was 
 to secure the independence of his country under any 
 form of government,' &c. 
 
 But in the course of eighteen months he gave 
 practical proof of his opinions being in favour of 
 republicanism, and indeed, from the commencement 
 of his career, they seem to have been in that direc- 
 tion. 
 
 The first important movement of the Catholic 
 leaders, the most important ever made by them, 
 was the carrying into execution the plan of taking 
 the sense of all the Catholics of Ireland through the 
 means of a convention. The project of appointing 
 delegates for this purpose had been adopted at a 
 
200 Ireland in '98. 
 
 meeting of the general committee on March 17, 1792. 
 The plan devised by Keon, and proposed by Theobald 
 Wolfe Tone, according to Mr. Wyse, was in some 
 respects analogous to one devised by his father in 
 1760. Wyse's Catholic convention was to be a 
 secret convocation of delegates ; they were to hold 
 their hole-and-corner meetings wherever it was 
 possible to escape detection. Tone's Catholic con- 
 vention was to hold its sittings in face of day, in the 
 metropolis, with all possible publicity ; and when the 
 delegates were appointed to carry over the petition to 
 the King, Tone's influence, and his sense of the im- 
 portant part he had played in bringing this project 
 into execution, had the effect of parading the delegates 
 through the North of Ireland, on their way to London 
 from Dublin. 
 
 At Belfast, the five delegates, Messrs. Keogh, 
 Byrne, Devereux, Belle w, and French, were received 
 with public honours ; the horses were taken from 
 their carriage, and entertainments given them by 
 the leading members of the United Irish Society. 
 
 The earliest meetino; of the deleo-ates was in 
 Taylor's Hall, Back Lane, Dublin, on December 2, 
 1792, on which occasion Dr. M'Neven first distin- 
 guished himself as an advocate of the claims of the 
 great majority of his countrymen. 
 
 The Catholic convention of December 1792 was 
 then virtually the work of Theobald Wolfe Tone. The 
 power on which its leaders relied for resisting the 
 opposition of the ascendency party, and daring to 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 201 
 
 take so formidable a step, was the spreading influence 
 of the northern societies, based on the principle of 
 uniting Irishmen of all religions opinions. 
 
 On the presentation of the petition of the Roman 
 Catholics of Ireland to the House, which was rejected 
 by an overwhelming majority of 208 to 23, the 
 Solicitor-General, Mr. Toler, plainly expressed his 
 opinion, that ' the petition, though under a very 
 modest guise, considering where it came from, he was 
 inclined to suspect as a piece of the same principles ' 
 as those, he went on to state, ' which were taught by 
 political quacks who tell us that radical reformation 
 was necessary in Parliament. He had seen papers 
 signed by Theobald M'Kenna, with Simon Butler in 
 the chair, and Napper Tandy lending his counte- 
 nance.' ' Such fellows ' (to use the language of 
 Lord Headfort) ' were too despicable to notice, 
 and therefore he should not drag them from their 
 obscurity.' 
 
 In a subsequent part of the debate, in disclaiming 
 supposed personal allusions to an honourable member, 
 he said ' he did not allude to him, but to that blasted 
 society called United Irishmen.' Tone, at the time 
 the establishment of a political society in Belfast had 
 been determined on, had never been in that town ; he 
 was only known there as a writer whose pen had been 
 employed in the service of the Whig Club and in 
 behalf of the Catholics. In the spring of 1791, his 
 friend Russell having been appointed to an ensigncy 
 on full pay in the 64th regiment of foot, then 
 
202 Ireland in '98. 
 
 quartered in Belfast, visited that town, and became 
 acquainted with many of the popular members of the 
 Volunteer Association. At their instance he wrote to 
 Tone to draw up a declaration, in which the Catholic 
 question was to be noticed in favourable terms. Tone 
 complied with this request, but when the declaration 
 came to be read by the Belfast volunteers, the passage 
 alluding to the settlement of the Catholic claims, 
 'for the sake of unanimity, was withdrawn for the 
 present.' 
 
 This was the first connection of Tone with the 
 politics of Belfast, and it probably recommended him 
 to Neilson, and those who thought with him on the 
 subject of Catholic emancipation. In the beginning 
 of October 1791, Tone states that ' he was invited 
 to spend a few days in Belfast, in order to assist in 
 framino; rules and declarations of the first club of 
 United Irishmen, and to cultivate a personal ac- 
 quaintance with those men whom, though he highly 
 esteemed, he knew as yet but by reputation.' 
 
 In consequence of this invitation, he went down 
 with his friend Russell (who at this time, having 
 quitted the army, had returned to Dublin), and on 
 arrival at Belfast, the persons whom he names as 
 ' having some reasons to esteem himself particularly 
 fortunate in forming connections with,' were Samuel 
 Neilson, Robert and William Sims, William Sinclair, 
 and Thomas M'Cabe, 'the men most distinguished 
 for their virtue, talent, and patriotism.' 
 
 He proceeds to say : ' We formed our club, of 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 203 
 
 which I wrote the declaration, and certainly the 
 formation of that club commenced a new epoch in 
 the politics of Ireland.' 
 
 After remaining about three weeks in Belfast, 
 Tone and Russell returned with instructions to culti- 
 vate the leaders in the popular interest, being Protes- 
 tants, and, if possible, to form in the capital a club 
 of United Irishmen. It is evident that the idea of 
 forming the Society of United Irishmen originated 
 with Samuel Neilson, met with the concurrence of 
 Henry Joy M'Cracken and Thomas Russell, and was 
 adopted by the Simses, M'Tier, M'Cabe, Hazlitt, and 
 Sinclair ; that Tone reduced that plan into form, and 
 acted at the outset, in the organisation of it, in 
 accordance with the views previously taken up of 
 those already named, and in connection, a little later, 
 with other members of considerable influence from 
 their wealth and station in the town. 
 
 In fact, strictly speaking, Samuel Neilson was the 
 originator, and Tone the organiser, of the society, the 
 framer of its declaration, and the pensman to whom 
 the details of its formation were entrusted. 
 
 The object of Tone in assisting in the formation 
 of the Belfast and Dublin societies is not to be mis- 
 taken ; he clearly announces it in his diary. In 
 concluding the account of the part he took in the 
 formation of the former, he plainly states, ' to break 
 the connection with England, the never-failing source 
 of all our political evils, and to assist the independence 
 of my country — these are my objects.' That Russell 
 
204 Ireland in '98. 
 
 was acquainted with his views, we have a proof in 
 the letter addressed to him by Tone in the early part 
 of 1791, which fell into the hands of the Government. 
 Whatever the republican tendencies of Neilson and 
 his associates may have been, the probability is, that 
 although, if they had the power of choosing a form 
 of government, they would have given the preference 
 to a republic over any other, they had at the begin- 
 ning no definite object beyond parliamentary indepen- 
 dence, reform, and emancipation. Tone's influence in 
 the Belfast societies suffered no diminution during 
 his stay in Ireland, but in Dublin his republican 
 opinions had a very different effect. With few excep- 
 tions, the principal leaders of the society which Tone 
 had just formed were apprehensive of being committed 
 by his opinions. He says : ' The club was scarcely 
 formed before I lost all pretensions to anything like 
 influence in their measures.' 
 
 A committee of correspondence was formed, the 
 latter part of 1791, which consisted of Neilson, 
 M'Tier, Hazlitt, and Sims. The chief business done 
 was entering into communication with the Catholic 
 committee, and soliciting the co-operation of the 
 Dublin popular leaders. An erroneous impression 
 generally prevails with respect to the direction of the 
 affairs of the United Irish societies throughout the 
 country. The Directory of the Leinster societies, the 
 principal members of which, subsequently to 1796, 
 were O'Connor, M'Neven, Emmett, Bond, and others of 
 the Dublin leaders at different periods, it is commonly 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 205 
 
 supposed was the only one in existence ; sucti, how- 
 ever, is not the fact. 
 
 Ultimately there were four nominal directories, 
 one for each of the provinces, but two only were 
 regularly organised. The Ulster Directory was the 
 first established. The principal members of the 
 Ulster Directory were Samuel Neilson, two merchants 
 of the name of Sims, and Dr. White. The Munster 
 Dhectory was only in existence a short time before 
 the suppression of the rebellion. The Connaught 
 Directory was likewise of short duration, and its ac- 
 tion was more limited than any of the others. The 
 Ulster Directory was formed the beginning of 1795. 
 In 1796, Oliver Bond was associated with its other 
 members, and at a later period, Arthur O'Connor and 
 Lord E. Fitzgerald. 
 
 The circumstances of the early existence of the 
 Ulster Directory, and the emanation from it of the 
 most important measures, subsequently taken up 
 and attempted to be carried into eifect by the Leinster 
 Directory, is worthy of notice. These measures, it is 
 generally imagined, originated with the latter. 
 
 Arthur O'Connor became a member of the Lein- 
 ster Directory in November, 1796; Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald and Lord Cloncurry (I state on the 
 authority of the latter) , were nominated at the same 
 time ; T. A. Emmett was not appointed till January, 
 1797 ; and Dr. W. J. M'Neven about the same period. 
 ' None of them were members of the united systems 
 previously to September or October, 1796.' 
 
206 Ireland in '98. 
 
 In November 1796, Arthur O'Connor, accom- 
 panied by Lord Edward Fitzgerald, visited Belfast, 
 on the occasion of the former offering himself as a 
 candidate for the representation of the county of 
 Antrim. They took a house in the immediate vici- 
 nity of Belfast, and resided there for some months. 
 During their stay, their intercourse with the Belfast 
 leaders prepared the way for the combined action of 
 the Dublin and northern societies. But long pre- 
 viously to their arrival, foreign aid for the accom- 
 plishment of their designs was contemplated by both 
 societies. 
 
 It had long been the custom to attribute every 
 popular movement in Ireland to the influence of 
 French politics. There can be no doubt that it was 
 the object of France to keep alive the fear of invasion 
 both in England and in Ireland, to exhaust by all 
 possible means the resources of the country, and to 
 waste its energies in preparations for resisting inva- 
 sions, which, with the exception of Conflam's medi- 
 tated descent, for nearly two hundred years prior to 
 1796, had no existence but in the minds of the 
 enemies of the King's peace, and of his people in 
 Ireland. M'Skimmin asserts that an early treason- 
 able intercourse was kept up between Ireland and 
 France, and that the Defenders had sought French 
 aid. 
 
 In the autobiography of A. H. Rowan, it is cer- 
 tainly stated that about December 1792 an offer 
 was sent from the French Convention, directed ' to 
 
Theobald ^Yolfe Tone. 207 
 
 the popular leaders in Ireland,' stating that they 
 would deposit in any bank in Europe the pay of 
 40,000 men for six months, on the condition that 
 the Irish would declare an absolute independence of 
 England ; but the agent appears to have met with 
 no encouragement. In M'Neven's ' Pieces of Irish 
 History,' the same circumstance is also repeated, and 
 its occurrence is dated 'the summer of 1793.' In 
 the report of the Commons' Secret Committee it is 
 stated 'that, previous to the summer of 1796, no 
 formal and authorised communication appears to 
 have taken place between the Irish executive and the 
 French Government, though Jackson had been sent 
 by the latter to Ireland in 1794.' 
 
 In the summer of 1796, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 
 accompanied by O'Connor, proceeded by Hamburg 
 to Switzerland, and O'Connor, who entered France 
 without his companion, had an interview with 
 General Hoche, the object of his mission being to 
 apply for assistance m men and arms from the French 
 Directory. In March 1797, Lewins was sent to 
 France as the accredited agent of the Irish Union. 
 In June 1797, a second agent. Dr. M'Neven, was 
 despatched with the necessary credentials to the 
 French minister at Hamburg, with increased ear- 
 nestness, urging their application on the French Go- 
 vernment, and instructed to negotiate, if possible, 
 a loan of 500,000^., or at least 300,000/. The force 
 solicited was one not exceeding 10,000, nor less than 
 5,000, with 40,000 stand of arms, and the assistance 
 
208 Ireland in '98. 
 
 of such Irish officers as were then in the French 
 service. 
 
 In April 1794 the Rev. William Jackson, an 
 emissary of the French, arrived in Dublin, accom- 
 panied by Mr. John Cockayne, a London solicitor of 
 Lyons' Inn, on a treasonable mission. He had re- 
 ceived his instructions from an Irishman, named 
 Madgett, long settled in France, and employed in the 
 office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Jackson had been residing in Paris — a man verg- 
 ing on fifty-six or fifty-eight years of age, of ruined 
 fortune, unfitted for his profession, and without hopes 
 of any preferment in it. His treasonable mission 
 extended to England, and commenced in that country. 
 
 He was furnished in Paris with letters of intro- 
 duction to John Home Tooke and a Dr. Crawford; 
 these, however, for some unexplained reason, had 
 not been delivered by him. His mission, as far as 
 England was concerned, was unfavourable to the 
 objects he had in view, and he wrote to that effect 
 letters, addressed to Mr. John Stone and Mr. Ben- 
 jamm Beresford, both engaged in commercial affairs 
 in Paris, cognizant of his mission, and m communi- 
 cation, it would appear, with the French Government. 
 Mr. Beresford was married to a sister of Archibald 
 Hamilton Rowan. 
 
 Cockayne had been an old friend and legal adviser 
 of Jackson, and possessed the entire confidence of 
 the latter, and thus had the secret of Jackson's 
 treasonable mission communicated to him. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 209 
 
 Cockayne, from motives of loyalty, as he alleged, 
 lost no time in turning his old friend and client to 
 some account, communicated Jackson's secret mission 
 to Mr. Pitt, and stipulated to be guaranteed against 
 losses he might incur, to the extent of 300/. 
 Cockayne was a prudent as well as a loyal attorney. 
 Jackson owed him, as he subsequently stated, from 
 250/. to 300/. ; and as he must lose the amount of 
 this debt if his old friend and client the debtor was 
 hanged, he discreetly secured himself, and had Mr. 
 Pitt pledged to the indemnity. 
 
 By Mr. Pitt's instructions, Cockayne accompanied 
 Jackson to Ireland on his mission of treason, with a 
 free pardon in his pocket, as far as he (Cockayne) 
 was concerned, for all acts of treason that might be 
 done by him while engaged on that mission — attend- 
 ing Jackson, watching all his movements, and allow- 
 ing him full scope for communication with all parties 
 in Ireland he chose to communicate with. Jackson 
 brought with him a letter of introduction to Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, of which fact the Government 
 appear to have had no knowledge, and Tone in his 
 journals makes no allusion to it. 
 
 That Jackson was wholly unexpected by the 
 popular leaders in Dublin may be inferred from the 
 circumstance that Tone and others of his party at 
 first were disposed to believe that Jackson was an 
 agent of the British Government. In a copy of 
 Emmett's and M'Neven's ' Pieces of Irish History,' 
 purchased at the sale of Hamilton Rowan's library, 
 
210 Ireland in '98. 
 
 the following manuscript note, in the handwriting of 
 Rowan, occurs at the bottom of the page where men- 
 tion is made of Jackson's mission : ' Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald declined to have any conversation with 
 Jackson.' Arthur O'Connor stated to me that he 
 had no communication with him. 
 
 But Cockayne and his dupe were not dependent 
 on Lord Edward Fitzo-erald or O'Connor for access 
 to the leaders of the United L'ishmen. Cockayne had 
 the advantage of acquaintance and relation, in the way 
 of business too, with a very popular, pleasant, patriotic 
 barrister of the name of Leonard M'Nally. 
 
 ' The counsellor ' hung loosely on the skirts of 
 the Society of L^nited Irishmen and the Catholic 
 Committee. He was a social gentleman, greatly given 
 to punning and saying smart things of equivocal 
 meaning, an excellent companion, a good fellow, in 
 Ireland ; in France, diseur de bans mots, mauvais homme. 
 
 M'Nally dallied gaily with sedition, yet always 
 with discretion and impunity. But it was otherwise 
 with his associates — few pleasant gentlemen had ever 
 to lament the untimely fate and premature loss of a 
 greater number of hanged friends than Counsellor 
 Leonard M'Xally. 
 
 M'Nally and Cockayne had been old acquaint- 
 ances ; their intimacy had commenced at the Inns of 
 Court in England, when the former was keeping his 
 terms there. M'Nally had been employed as an 
 electioneering agent in Lord Hood's celebrated con- 
 test for Westminster, and in that capacity Cockayne 
 
Theobald Wolf a Tone. 211 
 
 and he bad come in contact on several occasions ; and 
 it is well deserving of notice that Cockayne, in his 
 evidence on Jackson's trial, admitted incautiously 
 that Jackson, as well as himself, had formerly known 
 Mr. M'Nally in London. 
 
 The Attorney- General, in his opening speech on 
 the trial of Jackson, said : ' Mr. Cockayne, at the 
 desire of Mr. Pitt, consented to accompany Jackson, 
 in order to render abortive his wicked purposes. 
 Towards the end of March, Mr. Jackson set out for 
 Dublin, accompanied by Mr. Cockayne ; they anived 
 on April 1, 1794; they lodged at a house called 
 Hyde's Coffee- House, at the corner of Palace Row 
 {Palace Street^ Dame Street), and it appears that 
 Jackson in a day or two after his arrival made an ac- 
 quaintance, or renewed an old one, with a gentleman 
 of the name of Leonard M'Nally. Mr. M'Nally, 
 merely, no doubt, from the hospitality in which 
 Irishmen are never deficient, invited the two strangfers 
 to dine with him, and, as a man of manners always 
 does, he selected an agreeable company to meet them. 
 Mr. Simon Butler and a Mr. Lewins were amons: 
 others present at this entertainment.' 
 
 Thus, within a few days of their arrival in Dublin, 
 we find Jackson, Cockayne, the Hon. Simon Butler, 
 and Mr. Lewins, an incipient attorney, nephew of 
 one of the most eminent of the Catholic leaders, 
 and most obnoxious to Government, Thomas Brang- 
 haU (that Lewins the future accredited agent of- 
 the United Irishmen at Paris), dining with 'the 
 
 p J 
 
212 Ireland in '98. 
 
 counsellor' at his abode, No. 57 Dominick Street. 
 Cockayne, in his evidence on the trial of Jackson, 
 in reference to this dinner at M'Nally's, deposed : 
 ' The conversation turned on the general politics of 
 the day, and also the politics relative to the Irish 
 nation. I cannot swear what Mr. M'Nally said, or 
 what Mr. Lewins said, or what Mr. Butler said ; they 
 were all in conversation.' 
 
 Lewin ; subsequently introduced Jackson to 
 Rowan. After that meeting Jackson and Cockayne 
 went to breakfast with Rowan ; Jackson said Tone 
 was to be there. At the meeting none were present 
 but Tone, Rowan, Jackson, and Cockayne. The con- 
 versation was of a plan to send somebo'^y to France. 
 Mr. Tone was asked to go. ' At one time Tone said 
 he would go, at another he receded. He gave his 
 reasons for agreeing to go and for receding.' 
 
 At another meeting at Rowan's saw Dr. Reynolds ; 
 thinks he saw Tone twice. At one meeting it was 
 proposed that Reynolds should go to France to carry 
 some instruction to the French. 
 
 This was when Tone left Dublin abruptly, without 
 saying whether he would or would not go. Jackson 
 said to him (Cockayne) he did not so much approve 
 of Reynolds as Mr. Tone. Reynolds's proposed errand 
 to France was the same as Tone's — ' to carry a paper 
 there to the French Convention. The paper was 
 drawn up in Newgate.^ The paper was in the hands 
 of Tone, and it was read by him and Rowan.' 
 
 ' At this time Rowan was in Newgate for publishing a seditious libel. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 213 
 
 The treasonable paper referred to by Cockayne 
 was delivered by Tone to Jackson, but no sooner 
 delivered than it was demanded by Tone, when he 
 reflected on the imprudence of his act. He, however, 
 gave it on the spot to Rowan, and authorised him to 
 take a copy of it. At his next interview he says 
 he discovered that Rowan had taken two or three 
 copies of the paper and given them to Jackson, and 
 was informed by Rowan that he had burned the 
 original. Rowan, however, states he gave back the 
 original to Tone. 
 
 On April 2-1, 1794, Jackson wrote a letter, signed 
 Thomas Popkins, to Mr. Beresford, and procured 
 Cockayne to copy it, wherein he says : 
 
 ' You are requested to see Madgett directly, and 
 inform him that this evening the opinion of two 
 eminent counsel are sent to hiui.' The opinion re- 
 ferred to was Tone's ' Memoir of Ireland,' ^ revised by 
 Rowan. 
 
 Four days later, on April 28, 1794, Jackson 
 was arrested on a charge of treason, and in due 
 course was tried and convicted ; he anticipated his 
 doom in twelve months from the date of his arrest, 
 on April 30, 1795. 
 
 The first intimation which Tone received of the 
 discovery of his connection with Jackson was com- 
 municated by a friend opposed to his political prin- 
 ciples, but strongly attached to him ; for no man 
 
 ^ The Memoir of Ireland was a representation of the state of the 
 country, drawn up by Tone for the use of the French Government, 
 
214 Ireland in '98. 
 
 appears ever to have had personal qualities more cal- 
 culated to attach people to him. Tone was spending 
 the evening at the house of the father of a young friend 
 of his in Merrion Square ; he and his companion 
 were playmg duets. Tone was passionately fond 
 of music, though a very indifferent performer on his 
 favourite instrument, the flute. A servant brought a 
 letter for Tone, with orders to deliver it into his own 
 hand. Tone read the letter, and said to his compa- 
 nion ' Phil, we must finish this duet ; I must go 
 when it is done.' He went away, and the following 
 day the Hon. George Knox, the son of Lord North- 
 land, called on their mutual friend at Merrion Square. 
 Knox inquired if Tone had received a note he had for- 
 warded to him, and which the servant, not finding 
 him at home, had taken to his (C.'s) house. On hear- 
 ing it had reached Tone, Knox said : ' Well, I suppose 
 you will blame me ; I have had a struggle between 
 friendship to that man and the duty I owed to those 
 I am connected with. (Knox then held some official 
 situation.) I learned at the Castle that he was 
 implicated in Jackson's treason, and that his life was 
 in jeopardy, and I determined on apprising him of 
 his danger, and giving him timely notice to escape. 
 I felt,' said Knox, 'that politics were things of a 
 day, but friendship was a matter that was for 
 ever.' 
 
 Powerful influence was exercised by Tone's 
 friends with the Government on his behalf, and with 
 such success that no criminal proceedings against 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 215 
 
 liim were instituted. He was required, however, to 
 quit the country, but ample time was allowed him to 
 make the necessar37- arrangements for his departure. 
 During Lord Fitzwilliam's administration of the 
 Government in Ireland, Tone was not troubled by 
 Government ; Mr. Grattan, indeed, remonstrated with 
 the Catholic Committee on their ' retaininof in the 
 service a man so obnoxious and so deeply compro- 
 mised.' Tone, it is to be remembered, had mortally 
 offended the Whig leaders by refusing his services as 
 a pamphleteer to them. 
 
 The Government of Lord Fitzwilliam's successor, 
 however, lost no time in notifying to Tone the urgent 
 necessity of his fulfilment of the engagement he had 
 entered into to quit the kingdom. He accordingly 
 prepared for expatriation, and set out for Belfast 
 with his family, but not before engagements were 
 entered into by him with Thomas Addis Emmett, 
 Richard M'Cormick, and John Keogh, which afforded 
 a prospect of his speedy return to Ireland. His 
 last interview with Thomas Addis Emmett was soon 
 after the conviction and death of the unfortunate 
 Jackson. Russell and he walked out together to 
 Rathfarnham to see Emmett, who had a charming 
 villa there. Tone on this occasion states he said to 
 his friends Emmett and Russell, as they walked to- 
 gether into town, that, ' I consider my compromise 
 with Government to extend no further than the banks 
 of the Delaware, and the moment I landed I was free 
 to follow any plan which might suggest itself to me 
 
216 Ireland in '98. 
 
 for the emancipation of my country. . . . They both 
 agreed with me on those principles, and I then pro- 
 ceeded to tell them that my intention was, immedi- 
 ately on my arrival in Philadelphia, to wait on the 
 French minister, to detail to him fully the situation 
 of affairs in Ireland, to endeavour to obtain a recom- 
 mendation to the French Government, and if I suc- 
 ceeded so far, to leave my family in America and set 
 off instantly for Paris, and apply, in the name of my 
 country, for the assistance of France to enable us to 
 assert our independence. It is unnecessary, I believe, 
 to say that this plan met the warmest approbation 
 and support from both Russell and Emmett. We 
 shook hands, and, having repeated our professions of 
 unaltered regard and esteem for each other, we 
 parted, and this was the last interview which I was 
 so happy as to have with those two invaluable friends 
 together,' 
 
 Tone set off from Dublin to Belfast on May 20, 
 1795, with his wife, sister, and three children. His 
 worldly goods and property consisted of a well- 
 selected library of 600 volumes, and about 700/. in 
 money and bills on Philadelphia. He met with a 
 reception from the principal people of Belfast that 
 had more in it of an ovation than a simple mani- 
 festation of private affection and regard for an ac- 
 quaintance or an associate about to depart — an exile 
 about to leave home and friends for a distant land. 
 On one occasion a party was made for him on the 
 Cave Hill, near the town of Belfast, when, as he 
 
Theuhdlil Wolfe Tone. 217 
 
 informs us in his diary, ' Russell, Neilson (Robert), 
 Sims, M'Cracken, and one or two more of us, on 
 the summit of M 'Arts' Fort, took a solemn obli- 
 gation, which I think I may say I have on my part 
 endeavoured to fulfil, never to desist in our efforts 
 until we had subverted the authority of England over 
 our country, and asserted her independence.' 
 
 On August 7 or 8, 1795, Tone arrived at Wil- 
 mington, on the Delaware, and tlience proceeded to 
 Philadelphia, where he found his old friends and 
 associates in Jackson's affair, Hamilton Rowan and 
 Dr. Reynolds. His designs w^ere then opened to 
 them. He stated to them ' his intention of waiting 
 the next day on the French minister with such cre- 
 dentials as he had brought with him, which were the 
 two votes of thanks of the Catholics, and his certi- 
 ficate of admission into the Belfast volunteers, en- 
 grossed on vellum, and signed by the chairman and 
 secretaries ; and he added that he would refer to them 
 both for his credibility, in case the minister had any 
 doubts.' 
 
 With a letter of introduction from Rowan for 
 Citizen Adet, the French minister resident at Phila- 
 delphia, Tone waited on his Excellency in the high 
 official character he had taken on him of represen- 
 tative of the Irish nation, and was received ' very 
 politely.' The result of this first interview with the 
 French minister was an intimation that a memorial, 
 embodying all that was to be communicated on the 
 subject of Ireland, should be prepared and sent in by 
 
218 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Tone, which was accordingly done in a few days. 
 Several weeks, however, passed over, and nothing 
 was heard of the memorial, except that it had been 
 duly forwarded to the French Government, and Tone 
 at last began to think ' there was an end of all his 
 hopes.' His first intention was to purchase a farm, 
 and with that view he proceeded to Westchester, 
 about thirty miles from Philadelphia, and thence to 
 Princeton in New Jersey, where he was in treaty for 
 the purchase of a farm, hired a small house for the 
 winter, and settled his family comfortably, ' beginning 
 to think his lot was cast to be an American farmer.' 
 But he was soon recalled from his agricultural specu- 
 lations by letters of unmistakable import from Ireland, 
 calling on him to redeem the pledge he had given in 
 Emmett's garden at Rathfarnham, and on the summit 
 of the Cave Hill, near Belfiist. 
 
 Tone did not remain long in the United States. 
 After communicating with Hamilton Rowan, and ob- 
 taining letters from him, and others, through his in- 
 fluence, to persons of importance in Paris, some of 
 them in high official situations, the object of which 
 introduction was to accredit him as a recognised 
 a^ent of the leaders of the United Irishmen, he took 
 his departure from New York, arrived at Havre 
 on February 1, 1796, and proceeded immediately to 
 Paris. 
 
 The particulars of Tone's mission are given in his 
 own journal, with all the life and spirit for which even 
 his most careless writings are remarkable. They are 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 219 
 
 mixed ujd, however, with a mass of irrelevant matter, 
 that renders it difficult to keep important subjects re- 
 ferred to therein before the mind, in a clear and con- 
 nected manner. I therefore extract the particular 
 passages in the diary bearing on the important sub- 
 ject of his mission, from the date of his arrival in 
 Paris — the beginning of February 1796 — to that of 
 the failure of the expedition which he accompanied 
 to Bantry Bay — the latter end of December, the same 
 year. 
 
 ''February 15. — Went to Monroe's, the ambas- 
 sador, and delivered in my passport and letters. Re- 
 ceived very politely by Monroe, who inquired a great 
 deal into the state of the public mind in America, 
 which I answered as well as I could, and in a manner 
 to satisfy him pretty well as to my own sentiments. I 
 inquired of him where I was to deliver my despatches. 
 He informed me at the Minister for Foreio;n Affairs, 
 and gave me his address. I then rose and told him 
 
 that when he had read B 's letter (which was in 
 
 cypher), he would, I hoped, find me excused in tak- 
 ing the liberty to call again. He answered, he would 
 be happy at all times to see me, and, after lie had en- 
 quired about Hamilton Rowan, how he liked America, 
 &c., I took my leave, and returned to his office for 
 my passport. The secretary smoked me for an 
 Irishman directly. A la bonne heure. Went at three 
 o'clock to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rue du 
 Bacq, 471. Delivered my passport, and inquired for 
 someone who spoke English. Introduced imme- 
 
220 Ireland in '98. 
 
 diately to the Chef de Bureau, Lamare, a man of an 
 exceedingly plam appearance. 
 
 ' I showed him my letter, and told him I wished 
 for an opportunity to deliver it into the minister's 
 hands. He asked me, " would it not do if he took 
 charge of it ? " I answered, he undoubtedly knew 
 the official form best, but, if it was not irregular, 
 I should consider myself much obliged by being 
 allowed to deliver it in person. He then brought 
 me into a magnificent antechamber, where a general 
 officer and another person were writing, and, after a 
 few minutes' delay, I was introduced to the minister, 
 Charles de la Croix, and delivered my letter, which 
 he opened, and, seeing it in cypher, he told me, in 
 French, he was much obliged to me for the trouble I 
 had taken, and that the secretary would give me a 
 receipt, acknowledging the delivery. I then made 
 my bow and retu'ed with the secretary, the minister 
 seeing us to the door. 
 
 '•February 16, 1796. — Set off for Madgett's and 
 delivered my letter. Madgett delighted to see me ; 
 tells me he has the greatest expectation our business 
 will be taken up in the most serious manner ; that 
 the attention of the French Government is now 
 turned to Ireland, and that the stability and form it 
 had assumed, gave him the strongest hopes of suc- 
 cess ; that he had written to Hamilton Rowan about 
 a month since, to request I might come over in- 
 stantly, in order to confer with the French Govern- 
 ment and determine on the necessary arrangements. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 221 
 
 and that lie had done this by order of the French Ex- 
 ecutive. He then asked me had I brought any papers 
 or credentials? I answered that I had only brought 
 the letter of Adet to the Executive, and one to the 
 American ambassador ; that I had destroyed a few 
 others on the passage, including one from Mr. Rowan 
 to himself, as we were chased by a Bermudian ; that, 
 as to credentials, the only ones I had, or that the 
 nature of the case would permit, I had shown to Adet 
 on my first arrival in Philadelphia in August last. . . 
 Madgett then said that was enough, especially as he 
 had the newspapers containing the resolutions I 
 mentioned, and the French Executive were fully ap- 
 prised who I was. 
 
 ' He then added that we should have ten sail of 
 the line, any quantity of arms that were wanted, and 
 such money as was indispensable, but that this last 
 was to be used discreetly, as the demands for it on all 
 quarters were so numerous and urgent ; and that he 
 thouo-ht a beo-innino; miojlit be made throuo-h America, 
 so as to serve both Ireland and France. That is to 
 say, that military stores might be sent through this 
 channel from France to Ireland, purchased there by 
 proper persons, and provisions, leather, &c., returned 
 in neutral bottoms. I answered, this last measure 
 was impracticable on account of the vigilance of the 
 Irish Government, and the operation of the Gun- 
 powder Act, which I explained to him. I then gave 
 him a very short sketch of what I considered the 
 state of Ireland, laying it down as a positum that 
 
222 Irehuid in '98. 
 
 nothinu^ effectual could be done there unless by a 
 landing ; that a French army was indispensably ne- 
 cessary as a point de ralliement ; and T explained to 
 him the grounds of my opinion. 
 
 ^February 22. — Finished ray memorial and de- 
 livered a fair copy, signed, to Madgett for the Minister 
 of Foreign Relations. Madgett in the horrors. He 
 tells me he has had a discourse yesterday for two 
 hours with the minister, and that the succours he 
 expected will fall very short of what he thought ; 
 that the marine of France is in such a state 
 that Government will not hazard a large fleet, and, 
 consequently, that we must be content to steal a 
 march ; that they will give us 2,000 of their best 
 troops, and arms for 20,000 ; that they cannot spare 
 Pichegru nor Jourdan ; that they will give any 
 quantity of artillery, and, I think he added, what 
 money might be necessary. He also said they would 
 send proper persons among the Irish prisoners of 
 war, to sound them, and exchange them on the 
 first opportunity. 
 
 ' To all this, at which I am not disappointed, I 
 ans peered, that, as to 2,000 men, they might as well 
 send twenty. That with regard to myself, I would 
 go if they would send but a corporal's guard ; but 
 that my opinion was, that 5,000 was as little as could 
 be landed with any prospect of success, and that that 
 number would leave the matter doubtful ; that if 
 there could be an imposing force sent in the first 
 instance, it would overbear all opposition, the nation 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 223 
 
 would be unanimous, and an immense effusion of 
 blood and treasure would be spared. . . . 
 
 ^February 23. — Quit Madgett, whom I believe 
 honesty and whom I feel weak ; go to Monroe ; re- 
 ceived very favourably. He has had my letter decy- 
 phered, and dropped all reserve. I told him I felt 
 his situation was one of considerable delicacy, and 
 therefore I did not wish to press upon him any in- 
 formation, relative either to myself or to my busi- 
 ness, farther than he might desire. He answered 
 that the letters had satisfied him, particularly that 
 from H. R,, of whom he spoke in terms of great 
 respect, and that, as not responsible for what he 
 might hear, but for what he might do, I might speak 
 freely. I then opened myself to him without the 
 least reserve, and gave him such details as I was able 
 of the actual state of things, and of the grounds of 
 my knowledge from my situation. I also informed 
 him of what I had done thus far. 
 
 ' He then addressed me in substance thus : " You 
 must change your plan ; I have no doubt whatever 
 of the integrity and sincerity of the minister De la 
 Croix, nor even of Madgett, whom I believe to be 
 honest. But, in the first place, it is a subaltern way 
 of doing business, and, in the next, the vanity of 
 Madgett will be very likely to lead him, in order to 
 raise his importance in the eyes of some of his country- 
 men, who are here as patriots, and of whom I have 
 by no means the same good opinion as to integrity 
 that I have of him, to drop some hint of what is 
 
224 Ireland in '98. 
 
 going forward. Go at once to the Directoire Executif 
 and demand an audience ; explain yourself to them ; 
 and, as to me, you may go so far as to refer to me 
 for the authenticity of what you advance, and you 
 may add that you have reason to think that I am in a 
 degree apprised of the outline of your business." I 
 mentioned Carnot, of whose reputation we had been 
 long apprised, and who, I understood, spoke English. 
 He said : " Nobody fitter, and that La Reveilliere 
 Lepaux also spoke English ; that either would do." I 
 then expressed a doubt whether, as I was already in 
 the hands of Charles de la Croix, there might not be 
 some indelicacy in my going directly to the Directoire 
 Executif, and, if so, whether it might not be of 
 disservice. He answered. By no means ; that in his 
 own functions the proper person for him to com- 
 municate with was De la Croix ; but that, neverthe- 
 less, when he had any business of consequence, he 
 went at once to the fountain head. 
 
 ^February 24. — Went at 12 o'clock in a fright 
 to the Luxembourg, conning speeches in execrable 
 French all the way. . . . Arriving at the palace, 
 mounted the stairs like a lion, went into the first 
 bureau I found open, and demanded at once to see 
 Carnot. The clerks stared a little, but I repeated my 
 demand with a courage truly heroic ; on which they 
 instantly submitted, and sent a person to conduct me. 
 This happened to be his day for giving audience, 
 which each member of the Executive Directory gave 
 in his turn. Introduced by my guide into the ante- 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tune. 225 
 
 chamber, which was filled with people — the officers 
 of state in all their new costume. Wrote a line in 
 English and delivered it to one of the hiiissiers, 
 stating that a stranger, just arrived from America, 
 wished to speak to Citizen Carnot on an affair of con- 
 sequence. He brought me an answer in two minutes 
 that I should have an audience. The folding doors 
 were now thrown open, a bell being previously rung 
 to give notice to the people that all who had business 
 might present themselves, and Citizen Carnot appeared 
 in the petit costume of white satin with crimson robe 
 richly embroidered. He went round the room, re- 
 ceiving papers and answering those who addressed 
 him. I told my friend the huissier, in marvellous 
 French, that my business was too important to be 
 transacted there, and that I would return on another 
 day, when it would not be Carnot's turn to give 
 audience, and when I should hope to find him at 
 leisure. He mentioned this to Carnot, who ordered 
 me mstantly to be shown into an inner apartment, 
 and that he would see me as soon as the audience was 
 over. . . . 
 
 ' I began my discourse by saying, in horrible 
 French, that I had been informed he spoke English. 
 " A little, sir ; but I perceive you speak French, and, 
 if you please, we will converse in that language." I 
 answered, still in my jargon, that if he could have the 
 patience to endure me, I would endeavour, and only 
 prayed him to stop me, whenever I did not make my- 
 self understood. I then told him I was an Irishman ; 
 
226 Ireland in '98. 
 
 that I had been secretary and agent to the Catholics 
 of that country, who were about 3,000,000 of people ; 
 that I was also in perfect possession of the sentiments 
 of the Dissenters, who were at least 900,000 ; and 
 that I wished to communicate with him on the actual 
 state of Ireland. He stopped me here to express a 
 doubt as to the numbers being so great as I represen- 
 ted. I answered, a calculation had been made within 
 these few years, grounded on the number of houses, 
 which was ascertained for purposes of revenue ; that, 
 by that calculation, the people of Ireland amounted 
 to 4,100,000, and it was acknowledged to be con- 
 siderably under the truth. He seemed a little 
 surprised at this, and I proceeded to state that the 
 sentiments of all those people were unanimous in 
 favour of France, and eager to throw off the yoke of 
 England. He asked me then what they wanted. I 
 said : " An armed force in the commencement, for a 
 point cVappui, until they could organise themselves, 
 and undoubtedly a supply of arms and some money." 
 I added that I had already delivered in a memorial 
 on the subject to the Minister of Foreign Relations, 
 and that I was preparing another, which would ex- 
 plain to him in detail all that I knew on the subject, 
 better than I could in conversation. 
 
 ' He then said, " We shall see those memorials." 
 The organiser of victory proceeded to ask me were 
 there not some strong places in Ireland. I answered, 
 I knew of none but some works to defend the harbour 
 of Cork. He stopped me here, saying : " Ay, Cork ; 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 227 
 
 but may it not be necessary to land there ? " By 
 which I perceived he had been organising a little 
 already in his own mind. I answered, I thought 
 not ; that if a landing in force were attempted, it 
 would be better near the capital, for obvious reasons : 
 if with a small army, it should be in the north, rather 
 than in the south of Ireland, for reasons which he 
 would find in my memorials. He then asked me : 
 " Might there not be some danger or delay in a longer 
 navigation ? " I answered, it would make a difference 
 of two days, which was nothing in comparison of the 
 advantages. 
 
 ' I then told him that I came to France by the 
 direction and concurrence of the men who (and here 
 I was at a loss for a French word, with which, seeing 
 my embarrassment, he supplied me) guided the two 
 great parties I had mentioned; that I should not 
 think I had discharged my duty either to France or 
 Ireland if I left any measure unattempted which 
 might draw the attention of the Directory to the 
 situation of the latter country; and that, in conse- 
 quence, I had presumed to present myself to him, and 
 to implore his attention to the facts contained in the 
 two memorials. 
 
 ' I then rose, and, after the usual apologies, took 
 my leave, but I had not cleared the antechamber, 
 when I recollected a very material circumstance, 
 which was, that I had not told him, in fact, who^ but 
 merely what I was ; I was, therefore, returning on 
 my steps, when I was stopped by the sentry, de- 
 ft 2 
 
228 Ireland in '98. 
 
 manding my card; but from this dilemma I was 
 extricated by my lover, the huissier, and again ad- 
 mitted. I then told Carnot that, as to my situation, 
 credit, and the station I had filled in Ireland, I 
 besfofed leave to refer him to James Monroe, the 
 American ambassador. He seemed struck with this, 
 and then, for the first time, asked my name. I told 
 him, in fact, I had two names, my real one, and that 
 under which I travelled and was described in my 
 passport. I then took a slip of paper, and wrote the 
 name '■^ James Smith, citoyen americain^^^ and under 
 it, " Theobald Wolfe Tone," which I handed him, 
 adding that my real name was the undermost. He 
 took the paper, and, looking over it, said, " Ha ! 
 Theobald Wolfe Tone," with the expression of one 
 who has just recollected a circumstance, from which 
 little movement I augur good things. I then told 
 him I would finish my memorial as soon as possible, 
 and hoped he would permit me in the course of a 
 few days after to present myself again to him ; to 
 which he answered, " By all means ; " and so I again 
 took my leave. 
 
 ' March 14. — Went this day to the Luxembourg. 
 I have the luck of going on the days that Carnot 
 gives audience, and of course is most occupied ; 
 waited, however, to the last, when only one person 
 remained beside myself. Carnot then called me over, 
 and said, ''You are an Irishman." I answered I was. 
 " Then," said he, " here is almost a countryman of 
 yours, who speaks English perfectly. He has the 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 229 
 
 confidence of Government ; go with him, and explain 
 yourself without reserve." I did not much like this 
 referring me over: however, there was no remedy; 
 so I made my bow, and followed my new lover to 
 his hotel. He told me on the way that he was 
 General Clarke ; that his father was an Irishman ; 
 that he had himself been in Ireland, and had many 
 relations in that country; he added (God forgive 
 him if he exaggerated) that all the military arrange- 
 ments of the Republic passed through his hands, and, 
 in short, gave me to understand that he was at the 
 head of the war department. By this time we ar- 
 rived at the hotel where he kept his bureau, and I 
 observed in passing through the office to his cabinet 
 an immense number of boxes labelled, 'Armee du 
 Nord, Armee des Pyrenees, Armee du Rhin,' &c., 
 so that I was pretty well satisfied that I was in the 
 right track. When we entered the cabinet, I told 
 him in three words who and what I was, and then 
 proceeded to detail at considerable length all I knew 
 on the state of Ireland. This took up a considerable 
 time ; I suppose an hour and a half. He then began 
 to interrogate me on some of the heads, in a manner 
 which showed me that he was utterly unacquainted 
 with the present state of affairs in Ireland, and par- 
 ticularly with the great internal changes which had 
 taken place there within the last three or four years, 
 which, however, is no impeachment of his judgment 
 or talents. 
 
 ^ March 21, 179G. — In the course of conversation, 
 
230 Ireland in '98. 
 
 when I desired Clarke to count upon all the opposi- 
 tion which the Irish aristocracy, whether Protestant 
 or Catholic, could give, he said he believed I was in 
 the right ; for that, since he saw me last, he had read 
 over a variety of memorials on the subject of Irish 
 affairs, which had been given in to the French Govern- 
 ment forty years back, and they all supported my 
 opinion as to that point. I answered, I was glad of 
 it, but begged him not to build much on any papers 
 above a very recent date ; that the changes, even in 
 France, were not much greater than in Ireland since 
 1789 ; that what was true of her ten or seven years 
 ago, was not true now ; of which there could not be 
 a stronofer instance than this, that if the French had 
 landed during the last war, the Dissenters, to a man, 
 and even the Catholics, would have opposed them ; 
 but then France was under the yoke, which she had 
 since broken ; that all the changes in the sentiments 
 of the Irish people flowed from the Revolution in 
 France, which they had watched very diligently ; 
 and that being the case, he would, I hope, find 
 reason soon to believe that my opinion on the 
 influence of the nobles and clergy was founded in 
 fact. I then went on to observe that, about one 
 hundred years ago, Louis XV. had an opportunity 
 of separating Ireland from England, during the war 
 between James II. and William III. ; that, partly by 
 his own miserable policy, and partly by the inter- 
 ested views of his minister, Louvois, he contented 
 himself with feeding the war by little and little, 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 231 
 
 until the opportunity was lost, and that France had 
 reason to regret it ever since; for, if Ireland had 
 been made independent then, the navy of England 
 would never have grown to what it is at this day. 
 He said that was very true ; and added, " that even 
 in the last war, when the volunteers were in force, 
 and a rupture between England and Ireland seemed 
 likely, it was proposed in the French Council to offer 
 assistance to Ireland, and overruled by the interest 
 of Count de Vergennes, then prime minister, who 
 received for that service a considerable bribe from 
 England, and that he was informed of this by a prin- 
 cipal agent in paying the money." So it seems we 
 had a narrow escape of obtaining our independence 
 fifteen years ago. . . . But, to return ; Clarke asked 
 me had I thought of subsisting the French troops 
 after the landing, in case the executive decided in 
 favour of the measure. I answered, I had not thousfht 
 in detail on the subject, but there was one infallible 
 mode which presented itself, which was requisition m 
 all kinds of things necessary, adding, that he might 
 be sure, whoever wanted, the army should not want, 
 and especially our allies, if we were so fortunate as 
 to obtain their assistance. He asked me, " Might not 
 that disgust the people of property in Ireland ? " I 
 answered, the revolution was not to be made for the 
 people of property, &c. . . . 
 
 ''July 9. — If I have not passed almost six tedious 
 months in France, I wonder at it. I am sure my 
 country is much my debtor, if not for what I have 
 
232 Ireland in '98. 
 
 done, at least for what I have suffered on account of 
 her liberty. 
 
 ' Well, I do not grudge it to her, and if ever she is 
 able she will reward me, and I think by that time I 
 will have deserved it at her hands. To morrow I 
 will go and see Clarke, and hear what he has to say 
 for himself. He assures me, for I asked him a second 
 time for greater certainty, that my friends in Ireland 
 know I am here. I am heartily eflad of it. I was 
 dreaming all last night of Phmkett and Peter 
 Burrows and George Knox, and I believe it is that 
 which has thrown me into the blue devils all this 
 day. . . . 
 
 ''July 12. — Battle of Aiighrim. As I was sitting 
 in my cabinet, studying my tactics, a person knocked 
 at the door, who, on opening it, proved to be a dragoon 
 of the third regiment. He brought me a note from 
 Clarke, informing me that the person he mentioned 
 was arrived, and desired to see me at one o'clock. I 
 ran off directly to the Luxembourg, and was shown 
 into Fleury's cabinet, where I remained till three, 
 when the door opened, and a very handsome well- 
 made young fellow, in a brown coat and nankeen 
 pantaloons, entered, and said, " Vous etes le Citoyen 
 Smith ? " I thought he was a chef cle hireau, and 
 replied, "Oui, citoyen, je m'appelle Smith." He said, 
 "Vous vous appelez aussi, je crois, Wolfe Tone?" 
 I replied, " Oui, citoyen, c'est mon veritable nom." 
 "Eh bien," replied he, "je suis le General Hoche." 
 At these words I mentioned that I had for a long 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 233 
 
 time been desirous of tlie honour I then enjoyed, to 
 find myself in his company. He then said he pre- 
 sumed I was the author of the memorandums which 
 had been transmitted to him. I said I was. " Well," 
 said he, " there are one or two points I want to con- 
 sult you on." He then proceeded to ask me, in case 
 of the landing being eiFectuated, might he rely on 
 finding provisions, and particularly bread. I said it 
 would be impossible to make any arrangements in 
 Ireland previous to the landing, because of the sur- 
 veillance of the Government, but if that were once ac- 
 complished, there would be no want of provisions ; 
 that Ireland abounded in cattle, and, as for bread, I 
 saw by the ' Gazette ' that there was not only no defi- 
 ciency of corn, but that she was able to supply Eng- 
 land, in a great degree, during the late alarming 
 scarcity in that country ; and I assured him that if 
 the French were once in Ireland, he might rely that, 
 whoever wanted bread, they should not want it, He 
 seemed satisfied with this, and proceeded to ask me, 
 might we count uj)on being able to form a Provisional 
 Government, either of the Catholic Committee, men- 
 tioned in my memorials, or of the chiefs of the De- 
 fenders. I thought I saw an opening here to come 
 at the number of troops intended for us, and replied 
 that that would depend on the force which might be 
 landed ; if that force were but trifling, I could not 
 pretend to say how they might act, but if it was 
 considerable, I had no doubt of their co-operation. 
 ' "Undoubtedly," replied he, "men will not sacri- 
 
234 Ireland in '98. 
 
 fice themselves when they do not see a reasonable 
 prospect of support ; but, if I go, you may be sure I 
 will go in sufficient force." He then asked, did I 
 think 10,000 men would decide them ? I answered, 
 undoubtedly, but early in the business the minister 
 had spoken to me of 2,000, and that I had replied that 
 such a number could effect nothing. " No," replied 
 he, " they would be overwhelmed before any could 
 join them." I replied I was glad to hear him give 
 that opinion, as it was precisely what I had stated to 
 the minister, and I repeated that, with the force he 
 mentioned, I could have no doubt of support and 
 co-operation sufficient to form a Provisional Govern- 
 ment. He then asked me what I thought of the 
 priests, or was it likely they would give us any 
 trouble. I replied I certainly did not calculate on 
 their assistance, but neither did I think they would 
 be able to give us any effectual opposition; that 
 their influence over the minds of the common people 
 was exceedingly diminished of late. I explained all 
 this at some length to him, and concluded by saying, 
 that, in prudence, we should avoid as much as pos- 
 sible shocking their prejudices unnecessarily, and 
 that, with common discretion, I thought we might 
 secure their neutrality at least, if not their support. 
 I mentioned this merely as my opinion, but added 
 that, in the contrary event, I was satisfied it would 
 be absolutely impossible for them to take the people 
 out of our hands. We then came to the army. He 
 asked me how I thought they would act. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 235 
 
 ' I replied, for the regulars I could not pretend to 
 say, but that they were wretched bad troops ] for 
 the militia, I hoped and believed that when we were 
 once organised they would not only not oppose us, 
 but come over to the cause of their country en masse ; 
 nevertheless, I desired hira to calculate on their op- 
 position, and make his arrangements accordingly ; 
 that it was the safe policy, and if it became unneces- 
 sary it was so much gained. He said he would 
 undoubtedly make his arrangements so as to leave 
 nothing to chance that could be guarded against ; 
 that he would come in force, and bring great quantities 
 of arms, ammunition, stores, and artillery, and, for 
 his own reputation, see that all the arrangements were 
 made on a proper scale. I was very glad to hear 
 him speak thus ; it sets my mind at ease on divers 
 points. He then said there was one important point 
 remaining on which he desired to be satisfied, and 
 that was what form of government we would adopt 
 on the event of our success. I was going to answer 
 him with great earnestness, when General Clarke 
 entered to request we would come to dinner with 
 Citizen Carnot. We accordingly adjourned the con- 
 versation to the apartment of the President, where 
 we found Carnot and one or two more. Hoche, after 
 some time, took me aside and repeated his question. 
 I replied, " Most undoubtedly a republic." He asked 
 again, " Was I sure ? " I said as sure as I could be 
 of anything ; that I knew nobody in Ireland who 
 thought of any other system, nor did I believe there 
 
236 Ireland in '98. 
 
 was anybody who dreamt of monarcliy. He asked 
 me was there no danger of the Catholics setting up 
 one of their chiefs for king. I replied, " Not the 
 smallest," and that there were no chiefs among them 
 of that kind of eminence. . . . 
 
 ''July 23. — I asked Hoche was he apprised of 
 the Directory having honoured me with the rank of 
 chef de brigade. He replied he was, and made me his 
 compliments. I then observed to him, I presumed I 
 should be of most service m some situation near his 
 person ; that I spoke French, as he might observe, 
 very imperfectly ; nevertheless I could make myself 
 understood, and, as he did not speak English, I might 
 be useful in his communications with the people of 
 Ireland. He replied, " Leave all that to me ; as soon 
 as you join, and that your regiment (brigade ?) is 
 formed, I will apply for the rank of adjutant-general 
 for you ; that will place you at once in the etat-major ; 
 and besides, you must be in a situation where you 
 may have a command if necessary." I returned him 
 a thousand thanks ; and he proceeded to ask me, 
 " Did I think it was likely that the men of property, 
 or any of them, wished for a revolution in Ireland." 
 I replied, '' Most certainly not," and that he should 
 reckon on all the opposition that class could give 
 him ; that, however, it was possible that when the 
 business was once commenced, some of them might 
 join us on speculation, but that it would be sorely 
 against their real sentiments. He then asked me, 
 " Did I know Arthur O'Connor ? " I replied, I did ; 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 237 
 
 and that I entertained the highest opinion of his 
 talents, principles, and patriotism. He asked me, 
 "Did he not some time ago make an explosion in the 
 Irish Parliament ? " I replied, he made the ablest 
 and honestest speech, to my mind, that ever was 
 made in that House. " Well," said he, " will he join 
 us ? " I answered I hoped, as he was fonder ement 
 Irlandais^ that he undoubtedly would. So it seems 
 O'Connor's speech is well known here. 
 
 ' If ever I meet him, as I hope I may, I will tell 
 him what Hoche said, and the character that he bears 
 in France. It must be highly gratifying to his 
 feelings. Hoche then went on to say, " There is a 
 lord in your country" (I was a little surprised at this 
 beginning, knowing as I do what stuff our Irish 
 peers are made of); " he is son to a duke ; is he not a 
 patriot ? " I immediately smoked my lover, Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, and gave Hoche a very good 
 account of him. He then asked me about the Duke. 
 I replied that I hoped for his assistance, or at least 
 neutrality, if the business were once commenced. 
 He then mentioned Fitzgibbon. Of all men in the 
 world, I endeavoured to do him justice, as I had to 
 the others he spoke of ; and I believe I satisfied Hoche 
 that he will not meet with prodigious assistance 
 from his Majesty's Lord High Chancellor of Ireland. 
 He then asked me " what quantity of arms would be 
 necessary." I replied, the more the better, as we 
 would find soldiers for as manv firelocks as France 
 would send us. He then told me he had demanded 
 
238 Ireland in '98. 
 
 80,000, but was sure of 50,000. That is a piece of 
 good news. . . . 
 
 ^ July 27. — I am surprised myself at the sang 
 froid with which I regard the progress of my business 
 here, so infinitely beyond my expectations. I had 
 very little expectation of success the day I left Sandy 
 Hook, and in fact I came merely to discharge a duty. 
 Things have turned out miraculously, to be sure. 
 Think of my being at a council of war with Carnot, 
 and Hoche, and Clarke, of my rank of chef de bri- 
 gade^ of my travelling now with Hoche, besides what 
 yet may follow! It is absolutely hke a romance. 
 There is one thing I can say for myself. On review- 
 ing my conduct in France, I do not see an indiscre- 
 tion with which I have to charge myself. I think 
 in my conscience I have conducted myself very 
 well. 
 
 ^September 16, 1796. — At three o'clock in the 
 afternoon left Paris. . . I have now done with Paris, 
 at least for some time, and God knows whether I 
 shall ever revisit it; but, at all events, I shall ever 
 look back on the time I spent there with the greatest 
 satisfaction. I believe there is no part of my conduct 
 that I need wish to recall, at least with regard to 
 business. As to pleasure or amusement, I had very 
 little. I formed, and endeavoured to form, no con- 
 nections. I visited and was visited by nobody, 
 French or foreigner, and left Paris, after seven months' 
 residence, without being acquainted with a single 
 family. I daresay Mr. Pitt knew I was there, as 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone, 239 
 
 close as I kept ; if he did, it was by no fault or in- 
 discretion of mine. 
 
 ' September 26. — The general (Hoche) set off this 
 morning for Brest. I hope in God he may hurry 
 those fellows. I dread the equinoctial gales passing 
 over and finding us unprepared. By Shee's discourse 
 I fancy it is intended that we shall make a race for 
 it. Happy-go-lucky in that case. I was in hopes 
 the Spanish fleet would have joined us at Brest ; but 
 he tells me they are returned to Cadiz, after escorting 
 Richery to some unknown latitude. Damn their 
 foolish souls, they will be beaten, and the French also 
 in detail ; whereas, if they were instantly to join their 
 united fleets in the Channel, they would be stronger 
 than anything England could for some time oppose 
 to them, and a week would be suflicient for our busi- 
 ness. If they let this occasion escape them, as I fear 
 they will, they need never expect to meet such 
 another. 
 
 ' October 6-7. — A letter from Hoche. He says 
 that he is moving heaven and earth to get things in 
 readiness at Brest, and that he hopes in three weeks 
 we may be getting aboard. The marine agents are 
 scoundrels, and there is a scarcity of seamen, but 
 orders have been this day expedited to all the mili- 
 tary commanders along the coast, to make diligent 
 search, secure, and send on to Brest all seafaring 
 persons, and there is a reward of six livres a head to 
 the soldiers for all they can find, which will sharpen 
 them up to the business. It will be November before 
 
240 Ireland in '98. 
 
 we arrive, if we are so fortunate as to arrive at all ; 
 of course we shall have, in that case, a winter cam- 
 paign of it. No matter, we are better able to stand 
 it than those who will be opposed to us. The 
 country gentlemen of Ireland, with their warm 
 feather beds, their beef and claret, will make, I think, 
 no great figure before our grenadiers, who have been 
 seasoned these four years to all manner of hardships 
 and privations in this execrable war of La Vendee, 
 which Hoche has had the glory of terminating. 
 
 ' October 17 (at Brest). — Our expedition, as well 
 as the life of the general, has had a most providential 
 escape. Last night, between nine and ten, as he was 
 returning from the comedie, with General Debelle 
 and Hedouville, a ruffian, who was posted at a corner, 
 fired a pistol at him, within five or six yards, which 
 fortunately missed, and the villain instantly ran off, 
 but was stopped by two of the aides-de-ca7np, who 
 happened to come that way, before he had run one 
 hundred yards. The pistol was likewise found where 
 he had dropped it. On his being seized and ex- 
 amined, he confessed that he was hired by a person, 
 whom he described, to assassinate General Hoche, 
 and was to have fifty louis for his reward. He threw 
 himself on his knees before Hoche, who behaved in- 
 comparably well, and desired him to rise, as no man 
 should kneel to him, and tell the whole truth, assur- 
 ing him that he had not himself the least resentment 
 against him. The fellow then repeated his story ex- 
 actly, and the two aides-de-camp set out with a guard 
 
Theobald Wolfe To7ie. 241 
 
 in quest of the other villain, whom they found in bed, 
 and brought to head-quarters. 
 
 ' A magistrate being sent for, the two were con- 
 fronted, and, the latter denying everything, they were 
 both, after a long examination, committed to prison. 
 It seems the fellow who fired the shot is a workman 
 employed in the arsenal; the other is lately from 
 Paris, and says he is a horse-dealer. In order to 
 induce the former to commit the murder, he told him 
 that he was a royalist, and that it was for the King's 
 service to assassinate Hoche, which, together with 
 the promise of the fifty louis, determined him. The 
 name of the former is Moreau, and of the latter 
 Teyssierd. Nothing could be better than the general's 
 behaviour through all this afi'air. For my part, I do 
 not see what the royalists could promise themselves 
 from his death; at the same time, it is beyond all 
 doubt that this villain, Teyssierd, has come down 
 from Paris expressly to have him assassinated. I do 
 not at all suspect the English of assassination, but 
 certainly, at this moment, they are much more in- 
 terested in Hoche's death than that miserable Louis 
 XVIII. 
 
 '■November 4, Bead- Quarters. — Found Hoche 
 pressing Joyeuse extremely to be ready for the ex- 
 pedition, and Joyeuse starting every possible difficulty, 
 particularly on the score of the transports. Hoche 
 then said he would go with the men-of-war only, 
 crowding as many men aboard as they could carry. 
 Joyeuse then came down to five sail of the line and 
 
 R 
 
242 Ireland in '98. 
 
 five frigates, the best sailers, who might, by dint of 
 seamanship and quick sailing, escape from the 
 English, who were, he said, in waiting for them oif 
 Cape Clear, and who had also edaireurs off Ushant, 
 as every morning the report was that two large ships 
 and three frio^ates were seen there. Colonel Shee 
 asked him how many men, for a short passage, could 
 he stow on the ships he mentioned ; he said 600 on 
 each of the line-of-battle ships, and 300 on each of the 
 frigates. That makes in all but 4,500 men. The 
 general then said that his word was pledged to the 
 Government and to his friends in Ireland ; that the 
 time was even elapsed for which he had engaged him- 
 self: that he would ffo in a sino-le friij;ate, if the 
 admiral could give him no more, and he pressed him 
 again and again in the strongest manner. Joyeuse 
 still hung back, and I beheve he was sorry, to judge 
 by his manner, that he had spoken of even five ships 
 of the line ; at length he proposed, merely, as I think, 
 to gam time, to send out a vessel to recomioitre, and 
 bring positive intelligence of the state of the country, 
 and another to learn the actual position of the English 
 fleet ; and, upon this proposal, the meeting broke up. 
 I augur the worst possible event from any business m 
 which the marine of France is concerned. . . } 
 
 ^ In 1792, when Villaret Joyeuse ■was promoted to the rank of 
 captain, he was known to be inimical to the new order of things, but 
 continued to serve under the Republican Government. He commanded 
 under the Admiral Morard de Galles, who was superseded the year 
 following, and Joyeuse then made vice-admiral, on which occasion St. 
 Andre, a member of the Committee of Public Safety, said, ' I know that 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 243 
 
 ' December 1-2. — Received my order to embark on 
 board the ' Indomptable,' of 80 guns, Captain Bedout. 
 Packed up directly, and wrote a long letter of direc- 
 tions to my wife, in which I detailed everything I 
 thought necessary, and advised her, in case of anything 
 happening to me, to return to America, and settle in 
 Georgia or Carolina. 
 
 ' Derember 3-4. — As it is now pretty certain that 
 the English are m force oiF Ushant to the number of 
 sixteen ships of the line and ten frigates, it seems 
 hardly possible that we can make our way to Ireland 
 without falling in with them ; and, as even the most 
 successful action must be attended with damao-es in 
 our masts and rigging, so that, even if victorious, 
 which I do not expect, we may yet be prevented from 
 
 Villaret is nothing but an aristocrat, but he is brave, and will do his 
 duty.' The miserable policy of conciliating public enemies by confer- 
 ring official favours on them, was amply demonstrated in France. 
 Villaret did not do his duty ; he sacrificed it to his own political pre- 
 dilections. After Hoche's serious complaints against him, Villaret 
 tendered his resignation, he being charged with the marine prepara- 
 tions for the expedition. In his communication to his Government, 
 he predicted the failure of the expedition ; he appears to have been 
 one of Sir Jonah Barrington's order of prophets, who leave no means 
 unattempted to fulfil their own predictions. In September 1797 his 
 name was placed by the Directory on the list of banished persons, but 
 he was allowed to go into voluntary exile. In 1801 he was recalled by 
 Buonaparte, and placed in command of a new expedition destined 
 against St. Domingo. He was subsequently appointed Governor- 
 General of Martinique, and in 1809, when that island was attacked by 
 an English force, he capitulated on easy terms. His bravery was not 
 called in question, but his conduct was blamed by a court of inquiry. 
 He remained unemployed till 1811, when he was named Governor- 
 General of Venice, and died there the year following. — Biographie 
 Contem., torn. 4, p. 1521.— R. R. M. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 Ireland in '98. 
 
 proceeding on the expedition, considering the stormy 
 season of the year, I have been devising a scheme, 
 which, I think, in the present state of things in 
 Ireland, can hardly fail of success. It is this : — That 
 three, or, at most, fonr sail of the fastest going ships 
 should take advantage of the first favourable moment, 
 as a dark night and a strong gale from the north-east, 
 and slip out with as many troops as they can carry, 
 including at least a company of the artiller'e h'gere, and 
 steerino- such a course as, thoup;h somewhat lon«:er, 
 should be most out of the way of the English fleet ; 
 that they should proceed round the coast of Ireland, 
 keeping a good offing for fear of accidents, and land 
 the men in the north, as near Belfast as possible, 
 &c. . . . 
 
 ' December 12. — The etat-major came aboard last 
 night : we are seven in number, mcluding a lady in 
 boy's clothes, the wife of a commissaire — one Rago- 
 neau. By what I see, we have a little army of com- 
 missaires, who are going to Ireland to make their 
 fortunes. If we arrive safe, I think I will keep my 
 eye a little upon those gentlemen. 
 
 ' In consequence of the arrival of Richery, our 
 squadron will be augmented with two if not three 
 ships, and the array with 1,700 men, which, with 
 13,400 already on board, will make 15,100 — a force 
 more than sufficient for our purpose — if, as I am 
 always obliged to add, we have the good fortune to 
 reach our destination in safety. 
 
 ' Shee tells me the general thinks the marine are 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 245 
 
 trifling with him, on purpose to gain time until the 
 bad weather sets in ; when, if it holds any time, as is 
 highly probable, our stores of all sorts will be ex- 
 hausted, and the business must be given up from 
 sheer necessity. This I apprehend myself. He 
 also says that Bruix, a rear-admiral, who is charged 
 with the execution of the naval department, and in 
 whose zeal the general had great confidence, has 
 cooled exceedingly within these few days, so much 
 that to-day, when the general called on him and was 
 pressing him on our affair, Bruix, instead of answer- 
 ing him, was dandling one of his little children. The 
 excuse now is, that we are waiting for some charts or 
 plans, which must be washed in water-colours, and 
 will take two days ; a worthy subject for delay in the 
 present stage of the business ! 
 
 ' December 15. — At eleven o'clock this morning 
 the signal was made to heave short, and I believe we 
 are now about to sail in downright earnest. . . . 
 The signal is now flying to get under way ; so, one 
 way or other, the affair will at last be brought to a 
 decision, and God knows how sincerely I rejoice at it. 
 The wind is right aft. Huzza ! At one we got 
 under way, and stood out of the Goulet until three, 
 when we cast anchor by signal in the Bay de Cama- 
 ret, having made about three leagues. 
 
 ' December 17. — Thie morning, to my infinite mor- 
 tification and anxiety, we are but eighteen sail in 
 company, instead of forty-three, which is our number. 
 We conjecture, however, that the remaining twenty- 
 
216 Irela?id in '98. 
 
 five have made their way through the Troise, and 
 that we shall see them to-morrow morning ; at the 
 same time, we much fear that some of our companions 
 have perished in that infernal Raz. We have nothing 
 for it now but to wait till to-morrow. (^At night.) 
 This day has passed without any event ; the weather 
 moderate, the wind favourable, and our eighteen sail 
 pretty well together. 
 
 ^December 19 — This morning, at eight, signal of 
 a fleet in the offing. I see about a dozen sail, but 
 whether they are friends or enemies God knows. It 
 is a stark calm, so that we do not move an inch, even 
 with our studding sails, but here we lie rolling like 
 so many logs on the water. It is most inconceivably 
 provoking ; two frigates that were ordered to recon- 
 noitre, have not advanced one hundred yards in an 
 hour with all their canvas out. If this fleet prove to 
 be our comrades, it will be famous news ; if we had a 
 fair wind, we should be in Bantry Bay to-morrow 
 mornino;. 
 
 ' December 20. — Last night, in moderate weather, 
 we contrived to separate again, and this morning, at 
 eight o'clock, we are but fifteen sail in company, with 
 a foul wind and hazy. I am in horrible ill- humour, 
 and no wonder. We shall lie beating about here, 
 within thirty leagues of Cape Clear, until the English 
 come and catch us, which will be truly agreeable. 
 
 ^December 21. — Stark calm all the forepart of the 
 night ; at length a breeze sprung up, and this morn- 
 ing, at daybreak, we are under Cape Clear, distant 
 
rheohald Wolfe Tone. 247 
 
 about four leagues ; so I have, at all events, once 
 more seen my country; but tlie pleasure I should 
 otherwise feel at this is totally destroyed by the 
 absence of the general, who has not joined us, and of 
 whom we know nothing. At the moment I write 
 this, we are under easy sail, within three leagues at 
 most of the coast, so that 1 can discover here and 
 there patches of snow on the mountams. What if 
 the general should not join us ? If we cruise here 
 live days, according to our instructions, the English 
 will be upon us, and then all is over. We are thirty 
 sail in company, and seven or eight absent. Is that 
 such a separation of our force, as, under all the cir- 
 cumstances, will warrant our following the letter of 
 our orders, to the certain failure of the expedition ? 
 
 ' If Grouchy and Bouvet be men of spirit and de- 
 cision, they will land immediately, and trust to their 
 success for justification. If they be not, and if this 
 day passes without our seeing the general, I much 
 fear the game is up. 
 
 '■December 22. — This morning, at eight, we have 
 neared Bantry Bay considerably, but the fleet is ter- 
 ribly scattered; no news of the " Fraternite." I believe 
 it is the first instance of an admiral in a clean frigate, 
 with moderate weather and moonlight nights, parting 
 company with his fleet. Captain Grammont, our 
 first lieutenant, told me his opinion is that she is 
 either taken or lost, and, in either event, it is a ter- 
 rible blow to us. All rests now upon Grouchy, and 
 I hope he may turn out well ; he has a glorious 
 
248 Ireland in '98. 
 
 game in his hands, if he has spirit and talent to play 
 it. I have been looking over the schedule of our 
 arms, artillery, and ammunition ; we are well pro- 
 vided ; we have 41,160 stand of arms, twenty pieces 
 of field artillery, and nine of siege, including mortars 
 and howitzers ; 61,200 barrels of powder, 7,000,000 
 musket cartridges, and 700,000 flints, besides an in- 
 finite variety of articles belonging to the train, but 
 we have neither sabres nor pistols for the cavalry ; 
 however, we have nearly three regiments of hussars 
 embarked, so that we can dispense with them. 
 
 ' The day has passed without the appearance of 
 one vessel, friend or enemy, the wind rather more 
 moderate, but still ahead. . . . 
 
 ' It was agreed in full council that General Cherin, 
 Colonel Wandre, chef cfetat major of the artillery, and 
 myself should go aboard the " Immortalite," and press 
 General Grouchy in the strongest manner to proceed 
 on the expedition with the ruins of our scattered 
 army. Accordingly we made a signal with the 
 admiral, and in about an hour we were aboard. I 
 must do Grouchy the justice to say that the moment 
 we gave our opinion in favour of proceeding, he took 
 his part decidedly, and, like a man of spirit, he in- 
 stantly set about preparing the ordre de bataille, and 
 we finished it without delay. We are not more than 
 6,500 strong, but they are tried soldiers, who have 
 seen fire, and I have the strongest hopes that, after 
 all, we shall bring our enterprise to a glorious ter- 
 mination. It is a bold attempt, and truly original. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 249 
 
 All the time we were preparing the ordre de bataille, 
 we were laughing most immoderately at the poverty 
 of our means, and I believe, under the circumstances, 
 it was the merriest council of war that was ever 
 held ; but " Des chevaliers francjais tel est le caractere," 
 ... It is altogether an enterprise truly unique ; we 
 have not one guinea ; we have not a tent ; we have 
 not a horse to draw our four pieces of artillery ; the 
 general-in- chief marches on foot ; we leave all our 
 baggage behind us ; we have nothing but the arms 
 in our hands, the clothes on our backs, and a good 
 courage, but that is sufficient. With all these original 
 circumstances, such as I believe never were found 
 united in an expedition of such magnitude as that we 
 are about to attempt, we are all gay as larks. I never 
 saw the French character better exemplified than in 
 this morning's busmess. Well, at last I believe we 
 are about to disembark ; God knows how I long for 
 it. . . . The enemy has now had four days to recover 
 from his panic and prepare to receive us ; so much 
 the worse, but I do not mind it. We purpose to 
 make a race for Cork as if the devil were in our 
 bodies, and when we are fairly there, we will stop 
 for a day or two to take breath and look about us. 
 From Bantry to Cork is about forty-five miles, which, 
 with all our efforts, will take us three days, and I 
 suppose we may have a brush by the way, but I 
 think we are able to deal with any force that can at 
 a week's notice be brought against us. 
 
 ' December 25. — Last nio-ht I had the stron2;est ex- 
 
250 Ireland in '98. 
 
 pectations that to-day we should debark, but at two 
 this mornmg I was awakened by the wind. I rose 
 immediately, and, wrapping myself in my great coat, 
 walked for an hour in the gallery, devoured by the 
 most gloomy reflections. . . . This day, at twelve, 
 the wind blows a gale still from the east, and our 
 situation is now as critical as possible, for it is 
 morally certain that this diHj, or to-morrow in the 
 mornincT, the Enoiish fleet will be in the harbour's 
 mouth, and then adieu to everything. In this des- 
 perate state of affairs, I proposed to Cherin to sally 
 out with all our forces, mount the Shannon, and, 
 disembarking the troops, make a forced march to 
 Limerick, which is probably unguarded, the garrison 
 being, I am pretty certain, on its march to oppose us 
 here ; to pass the river at Limerick, and, by forced 
 marches, push to the north. I detailed all this on a 
 paper, which I will keep, and showed it to Captain 
 Bedout and all the generals on board, Cherin, Simon, 
 and Chasseloup. They all agreed as to the advan- 
 tages of the plan, but after settling it, we find it im- 
 possible to communicate with the general and admiral, 
 who are in the " Immortalite," nearly two leagues 
 ahead, and the wind is now so high and foul, and the 
 sea so rough, that no boat can live, so all communica- 
 tion is impracticable, and to-morrow morning it will, 
 most probably, be too late ; and on this circumstance, 
 perhaps, the fate of the expedition and the liberty of 
 Ireland depend. I cannot conceive for what reason 
 the two commanders-in-chief are shut up together in 
 
Thohald Wulfe Tone. 2.51 
 
 a frigate. Surely they should be on board the flag- 
 ship. My prospects at this hour are as gloomy as 
 possible. I see nothing before, unless a miracle be 
 wrought in our favour, but the ruin of the expedition, 
 the slavery of my country, and my own destruction. 
 Well, if I am to fall, at least I will sell my life as 
 dear as individual resistance can make it. So now I 
 have made up my mind. I have a merry Christmas 
 of it to-day. 
 
 ' December 26. — Last night, at half after six 
 o'clock, in a heavy gale of wind, still from the east, 
 we were surprised by the admiral's frigate running 
 under our quarter, and haihng the " Indomptable," 
 with orders to cut our cable and put to sea instantly ; 
 the frigate then pursued her course, leaving us all in 
 the utmost astonishment. Our first idea was that it 
 might be an English frigate, lurking in the bottom of 
 the bay, which took advantage of the storm and 
 darkness of the night to make her escape, and wished 
 to separate our squadron by this stratagem ; for it 
 seems utterly incredible that an admiral should cut 
 and run in this manner, without any previous signal 
 of any kind to warn the fleet, and that the first notice 
 we should have of his intention should be his hailing 
 us in this extraordinary manner with such unex- 
 pected and peremptory orders. After a short con- 
 sultation with his oflicers (considering the storm^ 
 the darkness of the night, that we have two anchors, 
 out, and only one spare one in the hold), Captain 
 Bedout resolved to wait, at all events, till to-morrow 
 
252 L' eland in '98. 
 
 morning, in order to ascertain whether it was really 
 the admiral who hailed us. The mornino; is now 
 come, the gale continues, and the fog is so thick that 
 we cannot see a ship's length ahead ; so here we lie 
 in the utmost uncertainty and anxiety. In all proba- 
 bility, we are now left without admiral or general ; 
 if so, Cherin will command the troops, and Bedout 
 the fleet ; but, at all events, there is an end of the 
 expedition. Certainly, we have been persecuted by a 
 strange fatality from the very night of our departure 
 to this hour. 
 
 ' We have lost two commanders-in-chief ; of four 
 admirals not one remains ; we have lost one ship of 
 the line that we know of, and probably many others 
 of which we know nothing ; we have now been six 
 days in Bantry Bay, within five hundred yards of 
 the shore, without being able to effectuate a landing ; 
 we have been dispersed four times in four days ; and 
 at this moment, of forty-three sail, of which the ex- 
 pedition consisted, we can muster of all sizes but 
 fourteen. . . . Well, England has not had such an 
 escaj)e since the Spanish Armada, and that expedition, 
 like ours, was defeated by the weather ; the elements 
 
 fiorht asfainst us, and courao;e is here of no avail. 
 
 ^December 27. — Yesterday several vessels, includ- 
 ing the " Indomptable," dragged their anchors several 
 times, and it was with difficulty they rode out the 
 gale. At two o'clock, the " Revolution," a 74, made 
 signal that she could hold no longer, and, in conse- 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 253 
 
 quence of the commodore's permission, who now 
 commands our little squadron, cut her only cable 
 and put to sea. In the night, the " Patriote " and 
 " Pluton " were forced to put to sea, with the " Nico- 
 mede," fltite (store ship), so that this morning we are 
 reduced to seven sail of the line and one frigate. 
 
 ^December 28. — Last night it blew a dreadful 
 hurricane. At one this morning, a dreadful sea took 
 the ship in the quarter, stove in the quarter gallery, 
 and one of the dead -lights in the great cabin, which 
 was instantly filled with water to the depth of three 
 feet. The cots of our officers were almost all torn 
 down, and themselves and theu' trunks floated about 
 the cabin. For my part, I had just fallen asleep 
 when wakened by the shock, of which I at first did 
 not comprehend the meaning ; but hearing the water 
 distinctly rolling in the cabin beneath me, and two 
 or three of the officers mounting in their shirts, as 
 wet as if they had risen from the bottom of the sea, 
 I concluded instantly that the ship had struck and 
 was filling with water, and that she would smk 
 directly. . . . The frigate "Coquille" joined us in 
 the course of the day, which we spent standmg off 
 and on the shore, without being joined by any of 
 our missing companions. 
 
 '■December 29. — At four this morning, the com- 
 modore made the signal to sail for France ; so there 
 is an end of the expedition for the present — perhaps 
 for ever. At ten we made prize of an unfortunate 
 
254 Ireland in '98. 
 
 brig, bound from Lisbon to Cork, laden with salt, 
 which we sunk. 
 
 ^December 30-31. — On our way to Brest. It will 
 be supposed I am in no great humour to make 
 memorandums. This is the last day of the year 
 1796, which has been a very remarkable one in my 
 history.' ^ 
 
 On January 2, 1797, arrived at Brest the rem- 
 nant of the expedition from Bantry Bay. In the pre- 
 cedmg month of May, Tone had written to his 
 wife, desiring her to remove with all the family to 
 France by the first opportunity. It was not, how- 
 ever, till the end of December 1796 he had the hap- 
 piness of hearing of their arrival at Hamburg, and 
 being then settled there, ' his wife, sister, and children, 
 his brother having decided to settle in America.' The 
 brother unnamed in the journal was Matthew. 
 
 The following letters of Tone to his wife will 
 show how he was occupied from the time of the 
 Bantry Bay failure to that of the preparation for the 
 second expedition, that was intended to have pro- 
 ceeded to Ireland from Holland : 
 
 ' Paris, January 13, 1797. 
 
 ' Thank God, you are safe thus far, with our dar- 
 ling babies ! I will not hear, I will not believe, that 
 your health is not in the best possible state ; at the 
 same time, I entreat you, as you value my life, that 
 
 » The Life of T. W. Tone, by his Son. Washington, 8vo., 1826, 
 ii. 15 et seq. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 255 
 
 you may take all possible care of yourselves. I am 
 only this morning arrived at Paris from Brest, 
 whence I was despatched by the general commanding 
 the army intended for Ireland, in the absence of 
 General Hoche, in order to communicate with the 
 Executive Directory. I am at present adjutant- 
 general, and I can live on my appointments ; and 
 when the peace comes, we will rent a cabin and a 
 garden, and be as happy as emperors on my half-pay ; 
 at the same time, I am not without hopes that the 
 Government here may be doing something better for 
 me ; but for all this, it is indispensable that you be in 
 rude health. Who will milk the cows or make the 
 butter if you are not stout ? . . . The sixteenth of 
 last month, we sailed from Brest, with seventeen sail 
 of the line, besides frigates, &c., to the number in all 
 of forty-three sail, having on board 15,000 troops 
 and 45,000 stand of arms, with artillery, &c. We 
 were intended for Ireland, but no unfortunate fleet 
 was ever so tossed by storm and tempest ; at length 
 the division in which I embarked was forced to return 
 to Brest, the second of this month, after lying eight 
 days in Bantry Bay, near Cork, without being able 
 to put a man ashore. We brought back about 5,000 
 men, and as the general has not yet returned, we are 
 in great hopes that he has effected a landing with the 
 other 10,000, in which case we shall retrieve every- 
 thing. In the meantime I am here waiting the 
 orders of the Government. If the expedition be re- 
 newed, I shall, of course, return to Brest ; if not, I 
 
256 Ireland in '98. 
 
 will await your arrival at Paris. This is a hasty 
 sketch of my affairs, but I have a " Journal " for you in 
 eleven little volumes. I have only to add that I am 
 in the highest health, and should be in good spirits, 
 if it were not for those two cruel lines where you 
 speak of yourself. . . . 
 
 ' I shall soon know now whether our affair will be 
 prosecuted or not ; if it is, I am of course compelled 
 to take my share, and must return to my post ; if it 
 is not, I will go for you myself to Hamburg. 
 
 ' I return to my own affairs. Yoa desire me to write 
 something comfortable, and, in consequence, I tell 
 you, in the first place, that I dote upon you and the 
 babies ; and, in the next jDlace, that my j)ay and ap- 
 pointments amount to near eight thousand livres a 
 year, of which one-fourth is paid in cash, and the 
 remainder in paper ; so that I receive now about 
 eighty-four pounds sterling a year, and when we 
 come to be paid all in cash, as we shall be some time 
 or other, my pay will be aboat three hundred and 
 fifty pounds sterling a year. I will rent a cottage 
 and a few acres of land within a few miles of Paris, in 
 order to be on the spot, and with our eighty-four 
 pounds a year, a couple of cows, a hog, and some 
 poultry, you will see whether we will not be happy. 
 That is the worst that can happen us ; but if our ex- 
 pedition succeeds, of which as yet I know nothing, 
 but which a very few days must now decide, only 
 think what a change that will make in our affairs ; 
 and even if anything should happen me in that event, 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 257 
 
 you and the babies will be the care of the nation ; 
 so let me entreat of you not to give way to any 
 gloomy ideas. 
 
 ' Direct your answer to Le Citoyen Smith, Petite 
 Rue St. Roche, Poissoniere, No. 7, a Paris. 
 
 ' My sincere love to Mary and the little ones. God 
 Almighty for ever bless you, because I dote on you. 
 
 'Yours, ever, 
 
 ' J. Smith.' 
 
 Extracts from Letter to Mrs. Tone. 
 
 ' I am surprised you did not receive my last letter 
 addressed to you at Princeton, because I enclosed 
 it in one to Rejmolds and Rowan jointly, which it 
 seems they received, which is a little extraordinary ; 
 however, as it happens, it is no great matter, for it 
 is little more than a duplicate of the one you got by 
 way of Havre.^ 
 
 ' I am heartily glad that Matt is safe and well. 
 If I had him here now, I could make him a captain 
 and my aide-de-camp for a word's speaking to the 
 general; so that, if he has any wish for a military 
 life, it is unlucky that he did not come with you, as I 
 desired in my letter to you which miscarried. I will 
 reserve for Matt the very first company of grenadiers 
 in the army ; so Mary will have two brothers, in that 
 
 ' These letters contained instructions to my mother to carry the 
 papers and everything from America. Can it be that Reynolds already 
 meditated to keep them? — Editor of Twin's JonrnaCSy &c. 
 
258 Ireland in '98. 
 
 case, of the etat militaire, instead of one ; and perhaps 
 she may have three, for Arthur {of whom I have not 
 heard one word since he left Philadelphia) is now old 
 enough to carry a pair of colours.^ 
 
 ^ Fehmary 11, 1797. — I gave you, in my last, a 
 short sketch of our unlucky expedition, for the failure 
 of which we are, ultimately, to accuse the winds alone, 
 for, as to any enemy, we saw none. In the event, 
 the English took but one frigate, and two or three 
 transports ; so you see the rhodomontades which you 
 read in the English papers were utterly false. I 
 mentioned to you that I had been sent by General 
 Grouchy, with his despatches, to the Directoire 
 Executif, which you are not to wonder at, for I am 
 highly esteemed by the said general ; inasmuch as, 
 the first day I marched before him, thinking of you, I 
 missed the step, and threw the whole line into confusion; 
 upon which I determined to retrieve my credit, and ex- 
 erted myself so much, that, at the end of the review, the 
 general thanked me for my behaviour. I thought, at 
 the time I wrote, that I should be ordered back to 
 Brest, but General Hoche, who commanded our ex- 
 pedition in chief, has, it seems, taken a liking to me ; 
 for, this very blessed day, he caused to be signified 
 to me, that he thought of taking me, in his family, to 
 
 ^ Arthur, who had joined his brother in America soon after his 
 arrival, had been sent home in January 1796 on an important mission 
 by his brother — namely, to communicate the intelligence of his ap- 
 proaching departure for France, and the commencement of his ne- 
 gociations with the French Government, to the northern leaders of 
 the United Irishmen.— R. R. M. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 259 
 
 the army of Samhre and Meuse, which he is appointed 
 to command ; to which I repHed, as in duty bound, 
 that I was at all times ready to obey his orders ; so, 
 I fancy, go I shall. . . . 
 
 ' I rely upon your courage in this, as on every 
 former occasion in our lives ; our situation is to-day a 
 thousand times more desirable than when I left you 
 in Princeton; between ourselves, I think I have not 
 done badly since my arrival in France ; and so you 
 will say when you read my memorandums. I came 
 here knowing not a single soul, and scarcely a word 
 of the language ; I have had the good fortune, thus 
 far, to obtain the confidence of the Government, so 
 far as was necessary for our affair, and to secure the 
 good opinion of my superior officers, as appears by 
 the station I hold. It is not every stranger that 
 comes into France and is made adjutant-general, 
 " with tim points on his shoulder," as you say right 
 enough ; but that is nothing to what is, I hope, to 
 come. I cannot explain myself further to you by 
 letter; remember the motto of our arms, ^^ Never 
 despair /".... 
 
 ' Your ever affectionate husband, 
 
 'J. S., Adjt-Gen.!!!' 
 
 From June to October 1797 we find, by Tone's 
 journal, active preparations were making for the 
 Dutch expedition at the Texel. At the close of Sep- 
 tember 1797, Tone, on his arrival from Holland in 
 Paris, had found his wife and children there in health 
 
260 Ireland in '98. 
 
 and spirits. He also found his friend Lewines, of 
 Dublin, there in the capacity of accredited agent of 
 the Leinster Directory of the United Irishmen, ' as 
 minister from Ireland ; ' and of that appointment Tone 
 says : ' I am heartily glad of it, for I have an excel- 
 lent opinion of his integrity and talents.' But there 
 had been there another quondam leader of the United 
 Irishmen, of whom Tone wrote a little later thus to 
 his wife : ' What, in God's name, is T. doing at 
 Paris ? and especially why does he go by a name so 
 notorious ? I will whisper you that it is out of 
 pure vanity ; but let it go no farther. (Smgs) — 
 " Oh, ^tis thus well all stand by the great Napper Tandy ^ ' 
 Tone, in his journal, June 23, 1797, says : ' Hoche 
 showed Lewines Simon's letter, which contained the 
 assurance of the Directory " that they would make no 
 peace with England wherein the interests of Ireland 
 should not be fully discussed, agreeably to the wishes 
 of the people of that country." This is a very strong 
 declaration, and has most probably been produced by 
 a demand made by Lewines in his memorial, " that 
 the French Government should make it an indispen- 
 sable condition of peace, that all the British troops 
 be withdrawn from Ireland, and the people left at 
 full liberty to declare whether they wished to con- 
 tinue the connection with England or not." Hoche 
 added, that preparations were making also in Holland 
 for an expedition, the particulars of which he would 
 communicate to us in two or three days, and in the 
 meantime he desired us to attend him to Cologne. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 261 
 
 ''June 25. — At nine o'clock at night the General 
 sent us a letter from General Daendels, Commander- 
 in-Chief of the army of the Batavian Republic, ac- 
 quainting him that everything was in the greatest 
 forwardness, and would be ready in a very few days ; 
 that the army and the navy were in the best possible 
 spirit ; that the Committee for Foreign Affairs (the 
 Directory per interim of the Batavian Republic) de- 
 sired most earnestly to see him without loss of time, 
 in order to make the definite arrangements ; and, 
 especially, they prayed him to bring with him the 
 deputy of the people of Ireland, which Daendels 
 repeated two or three times in his letter. In conse- 
 quence of this I waited on the General, whom I found 
 in his bed in the Cour ImpSriale, and received his orders 
 to set off with Lewines without loss of time, and 
 attend him at the Hague. 
 
 ' June 28. — This morning, at ten, Lewines and 
 I went with General Hoche to the Committee for 
 Foreign Affairs, which we found sitting. General 
 Hoche began by stating extremely well the history 
 of our affairs since he had interested himself in them ; 
 he pressed, in the strongest manner that we could 
 wish, the advantages to be reaped from the emancipa- 
 tion of Ireland, the almost certainty of success if the 
 attempt were once made, and the necessity of at- 
 tempting it, if at all, immediately. It was Citizen 
 Hahn who replied to him. He said he was heartily 
 glad to find the measure sanctioned by so high an 
 opinion as that of General Hoche ; that originally the 
 
262 Ireland in '98. 
 
 object of the Dutch Government was to have invaded 
 England, in order to have operated a diversion in 
 favour of the French army, which it was hoped would 
 have been in Ireland ; that circumstances being totally 
 changed in that regard, they had yielded to the 
 wishes of the French Government, and resolved to go 
 into Ireland ; that, for this purpose, they had made 
 the greatest exertions, and had now at the Texel an 
 armament of sixteen sail of the Hne, ten frigates, 
 15,000 troops in the best condition, eighty pieces of 
 artillery, and pay for the whole for three months ; 
 but that a difficulty had been raised within a few 
 days, in consequence of a requisition of the Mmister 
 of Marme, Trueguet, who wished to have 5,000 French 
 troops, instead of so many Dutch, to be disembarked 
 in consequence. That this was a measure of extreme 
 risk, inasmuch as the discipline of the Dutch navy 
 was very severe, and such as the French troops would 
 probably not submit to ; that, in that case, they 
 could not pretend to enforce it with regard to their 
 own troops, the consequence of which would be a re- 
 laxation of all discipline. General Hoche imme- 
 diately replied, that, such being the case, he would 
 take on himself to withdraw the demand of the 
 Minister of Marine, and satisfy the Directory as to 
 the justice of their observations ; and that he hoped, 
 all difficulty on that head being removed, they would 
 press the embarkation without a moment's delay. It 
 was easy to see the most lively satisfaction on all 
 their faces at this declaration of General Hoche, which 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 263 
 
 certainly does him the greatest honour. ... A 
 member of the committee, I believe it was Van 
 Leyden, then asked us, supposing everything suc- 
 ceeded to our wish, what was the definite object of 
 the Irish people ? To this we replied categorically, that 
 it was to throw off the yoke of England, break for 
 ever the connection now existing with that country, 
 and constitute ourselves a free and independent 
 people. They all expressed their satisfaction at this 
 reply, and Van Leyden observed that he had travelled 
 through Ireland, and to judge from the luxury of the 
 rich, and extreme misery of the poor, no country in 
 Europe had so crying a necessity for a revolution. 
 To which Lewines and I replied, as is most religiously 
 the truth, that one great motive of our conduct in 
 this business was the conviction of the wretched state 
 of our peasantry, and the determination, if possible, 
 to amend it. The political object of our visit being 
 now nearly ascertained, Hahn, in the name of the 
 committee, observed that he hoped either Lewines or 
 I would be of the expedition, as our presence with 
 the General would be indispensable. To which Hoche 
 replied, ''that I was ready to go," and he made the 
 offer, on my part, in a manner peculiarly agreeable 
 to my feelings. It was then fixed that I should set 
 off for the army of Sambre et Meuse for my trunk, 
 and especially for my papers, and that Lewines 
 should remain at the Hague, at the orders of the 
 committee, until my return, which might be seven or 
 eight days. The meeting then broke up. 
 
264 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ^Jidy 4. — Instantly on my arrival at the Hague, 
 I waited on General Daendels, whom I found on the 
 point of setting out for the Texel. He read the 
 letter, and told me everything should be settled with 
 regard to my rank, and that I should receive two 
 months' pay in advance, to equip me for the cam- 
 paign. . . . 
 
 ''July 8. — Arrived early in the morning at the 
 Texel, and went immediately on board the Admiral's 
 ship, the " Vryheid," of 74 guns, a superb vessel. 
 Found General Daendels aboard, who presented me 
 to Admiral de Winter, who commands the expedi- 
 tion. . . . 
 
 ^ July 10. — I have been boating about the fleet, 
 and aboard several of the vessels ; they are in very 
 fine condition, incomparably better than the fleet at 
 Brest, and I learn from all hands that the best pos- 
 sible spirit reigns in both soldiers and sailors. 
 Admiral Duncan, who commands the English fleet 
 off the Texel, sent in yesterday an officer with a flag 
 of truce, apparently with a letter, but in fact to re- 
 connoitre our force. De Winter was even with him ; 
 for he detained his messenger, and sent back the 
 answer by an officer of his own, with instructions to 
 bring back an exact account of the force of the 
 enemy. 
 
 ' July 11. — This day our flag of truce is returned, 
 and the English officer released. Duncan's fleet is 
 of eleven sail of the line^ of which three are three- 
 deckers. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 265 
 
 ^ July 13. — I have had a good deal of discourse 
 to-day with General Daendels, and I am more and 
 more pleased with him. His plan is, to place such 
 of our people as may present themselves at first in 
 the cadres of the regiments which we bring out, until 
 our battalions are 1,000 each ; that then we may 
 form a corps, and he will give us proper officers to 
 discipline and organise it ; that he will keep the main 
 army of 8,000 or 10,000 men in activity, and leave 
 the security of our communications, the guarding of 
 passes, rivers, &c., to the national troops, until they 
 are in a certain degree disciplined. A great deal of 
 this is good, but we must be brought more forward 
 in the picture than that for every reason in the 
 world. ... 
 
 ^ July 14. — General Daendels showed me to-day 
 his instructions from the Dutch Government. They 
 are fair and honest, and I have no doubt he will act 
 up to them. The spirit of them is, always to main- 
 tain the character of a faithful ally, not to interfere 
 in the domestic concerns of the people, to aid them 
 by every means in his power to establish their liberty 
 and independence, and to expect no condition in 
 return, but that we should throw off the English 
 yoke, and that, when all was settled on that score, 
 we should arrange our future commerce with the 
 Dutch Republic on the basis of reciprocal advantages 
 and accommodation. And I am convinced, from 
 what I see of Daendels, and the frankness of his cha- 
 racter, that he will act up to his instructions. 
 
2G6 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ' The report to-day is, that we shall get under way 
 to-morrow, and I see a bustle in the ship, which 
 seems to confirm it ; but I follow my good old rule : 
 to ask no questions. It is, to be sure, glorious, the 
 prospect of this day. 
 
 ^ July 17. — The wind is as foul as the devil. At 
 Brest we had, against all probability, a fair wind for 
 five days successively, during all which time we were 
 not ready, and at last, when we did arrive at our 
 destination, the wind changed and we missed our 
 blow. 
 
 ' Here all is ready, and nothing is wanting but a 
 fair wind. We are riding at single anchor. I hope 
 the wind may not play us a trick. It is terribly 
 foul this evening. Hang it- and damn it! Forme, 
 I am in a rage which is truly astonishing, and can do 
 nothing to help myself Well ! Well ! 
 
 ^ July 19. — Wind foul still. Horrible! Horrible! 
 Admiral de Winter and I endeavour to pass away 
 the time playing the flute, which he does very well ; 
 we have some good duets, and that is some relief. 
 It is, however, impossible to conceive anything more 
 irksome than waiting, as we now are, on the wind ; 
 what is still worse, the same wind which locks us up 
 here is exactly favourable for the arrival of remforce- 
 ments to Dmican, if Lord Spencer means to send him 
 any. Naval expeditions are terrible for their uncer- 
 tainty. . . . There never was, and never will be, such 
 an expedition as ours if it succeeds ; it is not merely 
 to determine which of two despots shall sit upon a 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 267 
 
 throne, or whether an island shall belong to this or 
 that State ; it is to change the destiny of Europe, to 
 emancipate one, perhaps three nations, to open the 
 sea to the commerce of the world, to found a new 
 empire, to demolish an ancient one, to subvert a 
 tyramiy of six hundred years. And all this hangs 
 to-day upon the wind. I cannot express the anxiety 
 I feel. Well, no matter ! I can do nothing to help 
 myself, and that aggravates my rage. 
 
 ^ July 20. — This evening I had the pleasure to 
 count nineteen sail of British vessels, which passed 
 the mouth of the Texel under an easy sail. The 
 General assures me, however, that there are not above 
 twelve sail of the line among them, according to the 
 comparison of the best accounts which have been 
 received. Wind foul, as usual. The following is 
 the state of our army : Infantry, eighteen battalions, 
 of 452 men, 8,136; chasseurs, four battalions, at 540 
 men, 2,160 ; cavalry, eight squadrons, 1,650 ; ar- 
 tillery, nine companies, 1,049 ; light artillery, two 
 companies, 389 ; etat-major, 160 ; total 13,544. It 
 is more than sufficient. Would to God we were all 
 arrived safe and well at our destination ! 
 
 ' August 1-2. — Everything goes on here from bad 
 to worse, and I am tormented and unhappy more 
 than I can express, so that I hate even to make these 
 memorandums. Well, it cannot be helped. On the 
 30th, in the morning early, the wind was fair, the 
 signal was given to prepare to get under way, and 
 everything ready, when, at the very instant we were 
 
268 Ireland in '98. 
 
 about to weigh the anchor and put to sea, the wind 
 chopped about and left us. . . . I am, to-day, 
 twenty-five days aboard, and at a time when twenty- 
 five hours are of importance. There seems to be a 
 fate in this business. Five weeks, I believe six 
 weeks, the English fleet was paralysed by the mutinies 
 at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and the Nore. The sea 
 was open, and nothmg to prevent both the Dutch 
 and French fleets to put to sea. Well, nothing was 
 ready ; that precious opportunity, which we can never 
 expect to return, was lost ; and now that, at last, we 
 are ready here, the wind is against us, the mutiny is 
 quelled, and we are sure to be attacked by a superior 
 force. 
 
 ''August 5. — This morning arrived aboard the 
 " Vryheid," Lowry, of county Down, member of the 
 Executive Connnittee, and John Tennant, of Belfast. 
 I am in no degree delighted with the intelligence 
 which they bring. The persecution in Ireland is at 
 its height, and the people there, seeing no prospect of 
 succour, which has been so long promised to them, 
 are beginning to lose confidence in themselves and 
 their chiefs, whom they almost suspect of deceiving 
 them. They ground their suspicions on the great 
 crisis of the mutiny being suff'ered to pass by, with- 
 out the French Government making the smallest 
 attempt to profit of it, and I can hardly blame them. 
 They held out till June 24, the last day allowed 
 by the British Government, in the proclamation 
 ofi^ering a general pardon, and, that day being arrived, 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 269 
 
 they have almost entirely submitted and taken 
 the oath of allegiance ; most of them have like- 
 wise given up their arms, but it appears that the 
 number of firelocks was much less than was imagined. 
 In consequence of all this, the Executive Committee 
 has doubled its efforts. M'Neven was despatched 
 from Dublin to France, and sailed from Yarmouth 
 on July 5 ; of course he is, I reckon, long before 
 this in Paris. Lowry, Tennant, and Bartholomew 
 Teeling came together to Hamburg, where they ar- 
 rived about a fortnight ago, and finding the letter I 
 wrote to my sister, acquainting her with my being 
 here, Teelmg immediately sailed for England, and I 
 am in hopes he will get back safe, in which case his 
 arrival will give courage to the people ; the other two 
 came here. But, as I said already, it is hard to judge 
 at a distance. 
 
 ' Keogh, I know, is not fit for a coup de main ; he 
 has got, as Lewines tells me, M'Cormick latterly into 
 his hands, and, besides, Dick is now past the age of 
 adventure. I am surprised that Emmett did not show 
 more energy, because I know he is as brave as Cassar 
 of his person. It seems to me to have been such an 
 occasion missed as we can hardly expect to see 
 return. 
 
 '■ Lowry and Tennant say there are now at least 
 80,000 men in Ireland of British troops, including 
 the militia and yeomanry corps, who, together, may 
 make 35,000 ; but in this account I am sure there 
 is great exaggeration ; for they spoke very much by 
 
270 Ireland in '98. 
 
 guess, and a number that is guessed, as Johnson 
 remarks, is always exaggerated. 
 
 ' August 12. — The wind is as foul as ever, and I 
 begin fairly to despair of our enterprise. 
 
 ' To-night Admiral de Winter took me into secret, 
 and told me he had prepared a memorial to his 
 Government, stating that the design originally was 
 to be ready for the beginning of July, and that every- 
 thing was, in consequence, embarked by the 9th ; 
 that the Enghsh fleet at that time consisted, at the 
 very most, of thirteen sail of the line, which could 
 not make any effectual opposition ; that contrary 
 wind having prevailed ever since, without an hour's 
 intermission, the enemy had had time to reinforce 
 himself to the number of seventeen sail of the line, so 
 that he had now a superiority in force over the Dutch 
 fleet, which, of course, rendered the issue of an en- 
 gagement, to a certain degree, doubtful ; that, by 
 this unforeseen delay, which might, and probably 
 would, continue still longer, a great additional con- 
 sumption of provisions had taken place, so that, in a 
 very few days, there would be barely sufficient for 
 the voyage north. . . . He proposed that a report 
 should be published industriously that the expedi- 
 tion had been abandoned ; but that from 2,500 to 
 3,000 of the troops, with twenty or thirty pieces of 
 artillery, and all the arms and ammunition, should be 
 despatched in a small flotilla for the original destma- 
 tion, where they should land the men, arms, and 
 artillery, and he would charge himself with the exe- 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 271 
 
 cution of the plan. . . . These are, most certainly, 
 very strong reasons, and, unfortunately, the wind 
 gives them every hour fresh weight. I answered, that 
 I did not see at present any solid objection to oppose 
 to his system ; and that all I had to say was, that, if 
 the Batavian Republic sent but a corporal's guard to 
 Ireland, I was ready to make one. So here is our 
 expedition in a hopeful way. It is most terrible. 
 Twice, mthm nine months, has England been saved 
 by the wind. It seems as if the very elements had 
 conspired to perpetuate our slavery and protect the 
 insolence and oppression of our tyrants. 
 
 ' August 15. — As it will require three weeks to a 
 month to arrange matters for the expedition on the 
 present plan, Lowry and Temiant have determined 
 to go on to the Hague, and, if they have time, to 
 Paris, in order to see M'Neven and Lewines, and to 
 join with them in endeavouring to procure assistance 
 from France, and especially, if possible, to obtain a 
 small armament to co-operate with that from the 
 Texel, and which, by spreading the alarm, and dis- 
 tracting the attention of the enemy, must produce the 
 most beneficial effects. . . . 
 
 ' August 21. — Breakfasted with the General. He 
 told me, in the first place, that the Government had 
 rejected a plan proposed by the Admiral — viz. to 
 transport 2,500 men, and the arms, stores, and am- 
 munition, and had determmed to persist in their 
 original design ; that, however, in consideration of the 
 lateness of the season, he had prepared a memorial, 
 
272 Ireland in '98. 
 
 wMch tie showed me, for a new arrangement, which 
 is shortly this — to sail out and fight Admiral Duncan. 
 If the issue of the battle be favourable, to pass over 
 immediately 15,000 men, or as many more as we can 
 send, in everything that will swim, to Scotland ; to 
 seize, in the first instance, on Edinburgh, and march 
 right on to Glasgow, taking every possible means to 
 alarm the enemy with the idea that we meant to 
 penetrate by the North of England, which is to be 
 done by detaching flying parties, makmg requisitions, 
 &c., on that side; to maintain ourselves, meantime, 
 behind the canal which joins the Frith of Forth to 
 the Clyde, having our right at Dumbarton and our 
 left at Falkirk, as well as I can remember, for I have 
 not at present either the map or the memorial before 
 me ; to collect all the vessels in the Clyde, and pass 
 over the army to the North of Ireland ; to send round, 
 whilst these military operations were going on by 
 land, the frigates, and such transports, as few as 
 possible, as might be necessary, to carry over the 
 artillery, stores, &c. Finally, that the English would 
 probably be alarmed by all this for their own country, 
 and perhaps recall a part of their troops from Ire- 
 land. . . . 
 
 ' August 25-26. — The General has submitted his 
 plan to General Dejean, who approves of it entirely 
 in a military point of view, provided the frigates can 
 get round to meet us. 
 
 ^September 1. — Admiral Duncan's fleet has been 
 reinforced to twenty-one sail of the line, so that, even 
 
Memoir of Theobald Wolfe Tone. 273 
 
 if the wind come round in our favour, it would be 
 madness in us to venture an action with such a ter- 
 rible inferiority of force; in addition to which, we 
 have now, in consequence of the delays occasioned by 
 the wind, not above ten days' provisions remaining 
 for the troops on board. The plan proposed is, in 
 fact, but an improvement on the last one — viz. to 
 land the troops, and quarter them in the neighbour- 
 hood, so as to be able to collect them in forty- eight 
 hours ; to appear to have renounced the idea of the 
 expedition, but in the meantime to re victual the fleet 
 with all diligence and secrecy, which may occupy 
 probably a month ; to endeavour even to reinforce it 
 by one or two vessels, which might, in that time, be 
 got ready for sea. All this will bring us to the time 
 of the equinox, when it will be impossible for the 
 enemy, who will besides, it is probable, have relaxed 
 in his vigilance, in consequence of these manoeuvres, 
 to keep the sea. When all is ready, the troops are to 
 be re -embarked with the greatest expedition, and a 
 push to be made instantly for Scotland as already 
 detailed.' 
 
275 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THEOBALD WOLFE TONE (continued). 
 
 French Expedition for Ireland's liberation — Nearing Bantry Bay — 
 Strange fatalities — Hurricane — Return of the Expedition — Ex- 
 tracts from letters — Dutch preparations — The Fleet at the Texel 
 — (leneral Daendel's instructions — A foul wind — Bad news from 
 Ireland — Delays — New plans — Failure — Buonaparte — Matthew 
 Tone's fate^Fatal Expedition — Tone's recognition — Imprisonment 
 and trial — Last words — Death. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington's opinion of Theobald 
 Wolfe Tone's journals is thus referred to in Moore's 
 diary, March 15, 1833, in an account of a dinner at 
 Rogers's : — 'In talking of Wolfe Tone's journal, which 
 Labouchere compared with Swift's journal to Stella 
 (and pronounced it affected, insincere, &c.), Rogers 
 mentioned what I was glad to hear, that the Duke of 
 Wellington had spoken highly of it to him, and 
 said that but few books had ever interested him so 
 much.' ^ 
 
 This journal shows that from December 1797 to 
 September 1798 Tone and Lewines had made many 
 and unsuccessful attemj^ts to procure assistance from 
 the French Government. But with the expulsion of 
 Camot from the Directory, the death of Hoche (in 
 
 ' Mooters Memoirs, vi. 317. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 Ireland in '98. 
 
 September 1797, at the age cf twenty-nine, some said 
 of consumption, others of poison), and the ascendency 
 of Buonaparte's star, every chance of effectual assist- 
 ance was lost. 
 
 Grouchy and Villaret, in their different capacities, 
 contributed to the frustration of the objects of the 
 Brest expedition. The elements conspired against 
 the armament fitted out at the Texel, and the same 
 aUies, the only unsubsidised allies of Great Britain's, 
 were again faithful to her interests in the last attempt 
 of this kind in September 1798. On the death of 
 Hoche, September 18, 1797, Buonaparte succeeded to 
 the chief command, and the preparations for the new 
 expedition that Hoche had left in a state of forward- 
 ness, received little encouragement from his successor. 
 He attributed at St. Helena to his own ignorance of 
 the resources and population of Ireland, not only the 
 failure of that expedition, but his own downfall. 
 Buonaparte, moreover, was jealous of Hoche, and 
 disposed to thwart any measure of his calculated to 
 enhance his reputation. 
 
 With the loss of Carnot in the Directory, the 
 death of Hoche, the failure of the Dutch expedition, 
 the departure of Buonaparte for Egypt, and the in- 
 creasino; difficulties and embarrassments of the French 
 Republic, died away all Tone's expectations of any 
 effective aid from France for Ireland. Of Buona- 
 parte's views with respect to Ireland, we read in 
 young Tone's narrative of the events preceding 
 Hardy's expedition, that ' to the enterprise against 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 277 
 
 Ireland, the favourite object of Hoche, and to prose- 
 cute which he was ostensibly recalled, he, Buona- 
 parte, felt a secret but strong repugnance. 
 
 ' Though the liberation of that country might 
 prostrate for ever the power of England, and raise 
 the Republic to the pinnacle of fortune (a circum- 
 stance for which he did not yet wish, as it would 
 render his services needless), it oiFered no prospects 
 of ao^orrandisement to him ; it streno^thened the re- 
 publican cause, which he disliked ; and the principles 
 of the Irish leaders, when he investigated the busi- 
 ness, appeared too closely allied to those of the 
 Jacobins. Neither did he ever sufficiently appreciate 
 the means and importance of that country ; his know- 
 ledge of it, as may be seen in my father's memoirs, 
 was slight and inaccurate. The Directory, who began 
 to fear him, and wished to get rid of him, entered 
 willingly into his views when he proposed to use 
 this expedition only as a cover, and direct their real 
 efforts to the invasion of Egypt. 
 
 ' It is asserted that he said, on the occasion, 
 " What more do you desire from the Irish ? You 
 see that their movements already operate a powerful 
 diversion." Like every selfish view, I think this is a 
 narrow one. The two most miserable and oppressed 
 countries in Europe always looked up to Napoleon 
 for their liberation. He never gratified their hopes ; 
 yet, by raising Ireland, he might have crushed for 
 ever the power of England, and by assisting Poland, 
 placed a curb on Russia. He missed both objects. 
 
278 Ireland in '98. 
 
 and, finally, fell under the efibrts of Russia and of 
 England. And it may be observed, as a singular 
 retribution, that an Irishman commanded the army 
 that gave the last blow to his destinies. 
 
 'When my father was presented to him, and 
 attached to his army as adjutant-general, he received 
 him with cold civility, but entered into no communi- 
 cations. His plans were already formed. Ostensibly 
 a great force was organised on the western coasts of 
 France, under the name of the Army of England ; but 
 the flower of the troops were successively withdrawn 
 and marched to the Mediterranean.^ . . . 
 
 'On May 20, 1798, Buonaparte had embarked 
 from Toulon. On the 23rd the Irish insurrection 
 broke out. As the news of each arrest, and of 
 each action, successively reached France, he (Tone) 
 urged the generals and Government to assist the gal- 
 lant and desperate struggle of his countrymen, and 
 pressed on them the necessity of availing them- 
 selves of the favourable opportunity which flew so 
 rapidly by. They began their preparations without 
 delay ; but money, arms, ammunition, and ships, all 
 were wanting. By the close of June, the insurrection 
 was nearly crushed, and it was not till the beginning 
 of July that my father was called up to Paris, to 
 consult with the Ministers of the War and Navy 
 Departments, on the organisation of a new expe- 
 dition. 
 
 ' At this period his journal closes, and the public 
 
 ^ Tone's Memoirs, ii. 514. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 279 
 
 papers, my mother's recollections, and a few private 
 letters, are my sole documents for the remaining 
 events. The plan of the new expedition was to 
 despatch small detachments from several ports, in the 
 hope of keeping up the insurrection and distracting 
 the attention of the enemy until some favourable 
 opportunity should occur for landing the main body, 
 under General Kilmaine. General Humbert, with 
 about 1,000 men, was quartered for this purpose at 
 Rochelle ; General Hardy, with 3,000, at Brest ; and 
 Kilmaine, with 9,000, remained in reserve. This plan 
 was judicious enough, if it had been taken up in time. 
 But, long before the first of these expeditions was 
 ready to sail, the insurrection was subdued m every 
 quarter. . . . 
 
 ' The indignation of the unfortunate Irish was j ust 
 and extreme against the French Government, which 
 had so repeatedly promised them aid, and now ap- 
 peared to desert them in their utmost need.' 
 
 A miserable expedition, at the instance of Napper 
 Tandy, was at length fitted out, of which Toners son 
 thus speaks : — 
 
 ' The final ruin of the expedition was hurried by the 
 precipitancy and indiscretion of a brave but ignorant 
 and imprudent officer. This anecdote, which is not 
 generally known, is a striking instance of the dis- 
 order, indiscipline, and disorganisation which began 
 to prevail in the French army. Humbert, a gallant 
 soldier of fortune, but whose heart was better than 
 his head, impatient of the delays of his Government, 
 
280 Ireland in '98. 
 
 and fired by the recitals of the Irish refugees, deter- 
 mined to begin the enterprise on his own respon- 
 sibility, and thus oblige the Directory to second 
 or to desert him. Towards the middle of August, 
 callino; too:ether the merchants and magistrates of 
 Rochelle, he forced them to advance a small sum 
 of money and all that he wanted, on military requisi- 
 tion ; and embarking on board a few frigates and 
 transports, with 1,000 men, 1,000 spare muskets, 
 1,000 guineas, and a few pieces of artillery, he com- 
 pelled the captains to set sail for the most desperate 
 attempt which is perhaps recorded in history. Three 
 Irishmen accompanied him, my uncle, Matthew Tone, 
 Bartholomew Teeling, of Lisburn, and Sullivan, 
 nephew to Madgett, whose name is often mentioned in 
 these memoirs. On August 22 they made the coast 
 of Connaught, and, landing in the Bay of Killala, 
 immediately stormed and occupied that Httle town. 
 
 * Strange and desperate as was this enterprise, 
 had it been prosecuted with the same spirit and vivacity 
 with which it was begun, it might have succeeded, 
 and Humbert, an obscure and uneducated soldier, 
 might have effected a revolution, and crowned his 
 name with immortal glory. But encircled, on Sep- 
 tember 8, at Ballinamuck, by an entire army, his 
 small band, after a gallant resistance, were compelled 
 to lay down their arms. 
 
 ' The French were received to composition and 
 shortly exchanged, but the Irish were slaughtered 
 without mercy ; and the cruelties afterwards exer- 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 281 
 
 cised on the unresisting peasantry will render the 
 name of General Lake remembered for ages in those 
 remote districts of Connanght. Of the Irish who had 
 accompanied Humbert, Sullivan escaped under the 
 disguise of a Frenchman, and Matthew Tone and 
 Teeling were brought in irons to Dublin, tried, and 
 executed.^ ^ 
 
 Matthew Tone came over to Ireland in the un- 
 fortunate expedition of Humbert. Theobald, in his 
 diary, speaks of him as a young man of a more solid 
 judgment than his brother William. He was of a 
 reserved and retiring disposition, of a silent turn, and 
 frequently absent in company ; yet, says his brother, 
 ' he had a more enthusiastic spirit than any of us.' 
 He was ' a sincere republican, and capable of sacri- 
 ficing everything for his principles.' Before he was 
 twenty-five, he had visited England twice or thrice, 
 had spent twelve months in America, and as much in 
 the West Indies. He attempted to establish himself 
 in the busmess of a cotton manufacturer in Prosper- 
 ous, in 1790, but was not successful, though totally 
 free from an attachment to pleasure and amusements. 
 In August 1794 he crossed over to France, with the 
 intention of enterino; the French service, but was 
 thrown into prison at Dunkirk on the suspicion of 
 being an Enghsh spy. There he remamed till May 
 1795, when he was liberated by order of the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety, and soon after embarked at 
 Havre de Grace for America. 
 
 > Tone's Life, ii. 520. 
 
282 Ireland in '98. 
 
 When he arrived, his brother was about to quit 
 the United States for France, and did leave that 
 country without knowing of his arrival. Matthew 
 remained in America till October 1797. He had 
 determined to settle in America, but unfortunately 
 changed his purpose, in consequence of a letter from 
 his brother urging him to return to France, and 
 holding out the prospect to him of a captaincy in a 
 regiment of grenadiers. 
 
 Theobald, in his diary for November, expresses 
 his satisfaction at his arrival, 'just in time to take a 
 part in the expedition.' He now entered the French 
 service, and soon obtained the rank his brother had 
 led him to expect. The failure of the Dutch expedi- 
 tion left him without active employment till prepara- 
 tions for that of Humbert began to be made. He 
 accompanied Humbert to Killala, and was taken pri- 
 soner immediately after the battle of Ballinamuck. 
 He was conveyed to Dublin, and lodged in the Pro- 
 vost prison in the Royal Barracks. 
 
 On September 24 he was brought to trial before a 
 court-martial, on a charge of high treason. 
 
 On September 29 he was executed on Arbour 
 Hill, and on his way to the place of execution he was 
 treated with unnecessary harshness and unfeeling 
 conduct on the part of the ' ministers of j ustice ' who 
 officiated on that occasion. The object failed, for 
 their brutality did not in the slightest degree discon- 
 cert him. He met his fate with the decent solem- 
 nity and the fortitude, devoid of all affectation of 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 283 
 
 indifference, of a brave and a good man. His body- 
 was given up to his friends, conveyed to the house 
 of William Dunbarin, and was interred in Bodens- 
 town. 
 
 Young Tone, in reference to the failure of Hum- 
 bert's expedition, observes : ' The news of Humbert's 
 attempt, as may well be imagined, threw the Directory 
 into the greatest perplexity. They instantly deter- 
 mined, however, to hurry all their preparations, and 
 send off at least the division of General Hardy to 
 second his efforts as soon as possible. The report of 
 his first advantages, which shortly reached them, 
 augmented their ardour and accelerated their move- 
 ments. But such was the state of the French navy 
 and arsenals, that it was not until September 20, 
 1798, that this small expedition, consisting of one 
 sail of the hne and eight frigates, under Commodore 
 Bompart, and 3,000 men, under General Hardy, was 
 ready for sailmg. The news of Humbert's defeat 
 had not yet reached France. 
 
 ' Paris was then crowded with Irish emig-rants 
 eager for action. The mass of the United Irishmen 
 embarked in a small and fast sailing boat, with Napper 
 Tandy at their head. They reached, on September 
 16, the Isle of Raghlin, on the north-west coast of 
 Ireland, where they heard of Humbert's disaster. 
 They merely spread some proclamations, and escaped 
 to Norway. Three Irishmen only accompanied my 
 father in Hardy's flotilla ; he alone was embarked in 
 Hardy's vessel, the "Hoche;" the others were on 
 
284 Ireland in '98. 
 
 board the frigates. These were Mr. T. Corbett and 
 M'Guire, two brave officers, who have since died in 
 the French service, and a third gentleman, connected 
 by marriage with his friend Russell, who is yet living, 
 and whose name it would, therefore, be improper in 
 me to mention. [Hamilton.] 
 
 'At length, about September 20, 1798, that fatal 
 expedition set sail from the Baye de Camaret. It 
 consisted of the " Hoche," 74 ; " Loire," " Resolue," 
 " Bellone," " Coquille," " Embuscade," " Immor- 
 talite," " Romaine," and " Semillante," frigates; and 
 " Biche," schooner and aviso. To avoid the British 
 fleets, Bompart, an excellent seaman, took a large 
 sweep to the westward, and then to the north-east, 
 in order to bear down on the northern coast of Ire- 
 land from the quarter whence a French force would 
 be least expected. He met, however, with contrary 
 winds, and it appears that his flotilla was scattered ; 
 for, on October 10, after twenty days' cruise, he ar- 
 rived ofi'the entry of Lough Swilly, with the "Hoche," 
 the "Loire," the "Resolue," and the "Biche." He 
 was instantly signalled ; and, on the break of day 
 next morning, October 11, before he could enter the 
 bay or land his troops, he perceived the squadron of 
 Sir John Borlase Warren, consisting of six sail of 
 the line, one I'azee of sixty guns, and two frigates, 
 bearing down upon him. There was no chance of 
 escape for the large and heavy man-of-war. Bompart 
 gave instant signals to the frigates and schooner to 
 retreat through shallow water, and prepared alone to 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 285 
 
 honour tlie flag of his country and liberty by a des- 
 perate but hopeless defence. 
 
 'At that moment, a boat came from the " Biche " 
 for his last orders. That ship had the best chance to 
 get off. The French officers all supplicated my father 
 to embark on board of her. " Our contest is hope- 
 less," they observed ; "we will be prisoners of war, 
 but what will become of you ? " " Shall it be said," 
 replied he, " that I fled, whilst the French were 
 fighting the battles of my country ? " 
 
 ' He refused their ofi^ers, and determined to stand 
 or fall with the ship. The " Biche " accomplished her 
 escape, and I see it mentioned in late pubhcations, 
 that other Irishmen availed themselves of that occa- 
 sion. This fact is incorrect, not one of them would 
 have done so, and besides, my father was the only 
 Irishman on board the " Hoche." 
 
 ' The British admiral despatched two men-of-war, 
 the razee and a frigate, after the " Loire " and 
 " Resolue," and the " Hoche " was soon surrounded 
 by four sail of the line and a frigate, and began one 
 of the most obstinate and desperate engagements 
 which have ever been fought on the ocean. During 
 six hours she sustained the whole fire of the fleet, till 
 her masts and rigging were swept away, her scuppers 
 flowed with blood, her wounded filled the cock-pit, 
 her shattered ribs yawned at each new stroke and let 
 in five feet of water in the hold, her rudder was car- 
 ried off, and she floated a dismantled wreck on the 
 waters ; her sails and cordage hung in shreds, nor could 
 
286 Ireland in '98. 
 
 she reply with a single gun from her dismounted bat- 
 teries, to the unabating cannonade of the enemy. At 
 length she struck. The "Resolue" and "Loire" 
 were soon reached by the English fleet ; the former 
 was in a sinking condition; she made, however, an 
 honourable defence; the "Loire" sustained three 
 attacks, drove off the English frigates, and had 
 almost effected her escape; at length, engaged by 
 the "Anson," razee, of sixty guns, she struck after 
 an action of three hours, entirely dismasted. Of the 
 other frigates, pursued in all directions, the "Bellone," 
 " Immortalite," " Coquille," and " Embuscade " were 
 taken, and the "Romaine " and " Semillante," through 
 a thousand dangers, reached separate ports in France. 
 ' Durmg the action, my father commanded one of 
 the batteries, and, according to the report of the 
 officers who returned to France, fought with the 
 utmost desperation, and as if he was courting death. 
 When the ship struck, confounded wdth the other 
 officers, he was not recognised for some time ; for he 
 had completely acquired the language and appearance 
 of a Frenchman. The two fleets were dispersed in 
 every direction, nor was it till some days later that 
 the " Hoche " was brought into Lough S willy, and the 
 prisoners landed and marched to Letterkenny. Yet 
 rumours of his being on board must have been cir- 
 culated, for the fact was pubhc at Paris. But it was 
 thought he had been killed in the action, and I am 
 willing to believe that the British officers, respecting 
 the valour of a fallen enemy, were not earnest in in- 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 287 
 
 vestigating the point. It was at length a gentleman, 
 well-known in the county Derry as a leader of the 
 Orange party, and one of the chief magistrates in that 
 neighbourhood, Sir George Hill, who had been his 
 fellow- student in Trinity College, and knew his 
 person, who undertook the task of discovering him. 
 It is known that in Spain, grandees and noblemen of 
 the first rank pride themselves in the functions of 
 familiars, spies, and informers of the Holy Inquisi- 
 tion : it remained for Ireland to oifer a similar 
 example. The French officers were invited to break- 
 fast with the Earl of Cavan, who commanded in that 
 district ; my father sat undistinguished among them, 
 when Sir George Hill entered the room, followed by 
 police constables. Looking narrowly at the company, 
 he singled out the object of his search, and stepping 
 up to him, said, " Mr, Tone, I am very happy to see 
 you." Instantly rising with the utmost composure, 
 and disdaining all useless attempts at concealment, 
 my father replied, " Sir George, I am happy to see 
 you ; how are Lady Hill and your family ?" Beckoned 
 into the next room by the police officers, an unex- 
 pected indignity awaited him. It was filled with 
 military, and one General Lavan, who commanded 
 them, ordered him to be ironed, declaring that, as on 
 leaving Ireland to enter the French service he had 
 not renounced his oath of allegiance, he remained 
 a subject of Britain, and should be punished as a 
 traitor. Seized with a momentary burst of indig- 
 nation at such unworthy treatment and cowardly 
 
288 Ireland in '98. 
 
 cruelty to a prisoner of war, lie flung off his uniform, 
 and cried, " These fetters shall never degrade the 
 revered insignia of the free nation which I have 
 served." Resuming then his usual calm, he offered 
 his limbs to the irons, and when they were fixed, he 
 exclaimed, " For the cause which I have embraced, I 
 feel prouder to wear these chams, than if I were de- 
 corated with the Star and Garter of England." 
 
 ' The friends of Lord Cavan have asserted that this 
 extreme, and I will add, unmanly and ungenerous be- 
 haviour, was provoked by his outrageous conduct 
 when he found that he was not to have the privileges 
 of a prisoner of war. This supposition is not only 
 contradicted by the whole tenour of his character and 
 his subsequent deportment, but no other instances of 
 it have ever been specified, than those noble replies 
 to the taunts of General Lavan.' 
 
 Tone was no sooner recognised than he was taken 
 into an adjoining room and fettered, as he states, by 
 the orders of Lord Cavan ; and thus fettered, he was 
 conveyed on horseback from Letterkenny to Derry 
 under an escort of dragoons. 
 
 On Tone's arrival in Dublin he was imprisoned in 
 the Provost in the Royal Barrack, one of the bastilles 
 of the capital, then under the charge of the notorious 
 Major Sandys. Tone was found by the few friends 
 who were permitted to visit him previous to trial, 
 in the same dungeon in which his brother had been 
 confined a few days previously, and from which he 
 had been led to execution. 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 289 
 
 Previously to his trial, Tone's relative, William 
 Dunbavin, had an interview with him in the Provost. 
 His law agent was likewise permitted to visit him on 
 two or three occasions after his conviction. His father 
 would have gone to see him after the trial, but Tone 
 had wisely determined to spare himself and the poor 
 heart-broken old man the pangs of such a parting, and 
 had sent an intimation to his friends to that effect. 
 
 The trial took place on Saturday, November 10. 
 Tone conducted himself with great firmness and 
 manliness. He had prepared a speech, in which he 
 traced his history from the day of his quitting Ireland, 
 and justified his conduct on patriotic grounds, part 
 of which only he was allowed to deliver, the rest 
 being considered inflammatory. 
 
 Being asked by the Judge Advocate if there was 
 anything else he wished to off'er to the court, Tone 
 replied that if he was not to be brought up again 
 before the decision of the court, there were a few 
 words more he wished to say, and, permission being 
 granted, the prisoner proceeded : — 
 
 ' " I conceive that I stand here in the same light 
 with our Emigres ; and if the indulgence lay within 
 the power of the court, I would only request — what 
 French magnanimity allowed to Charette and to the 
 Count de Sombrevil — the death of a soldier, and to 
 be shot by files of grenadiers. This is the only favour 
 I have to ask, and I trust that men susceptible of the 
 nicer feelings of a soldier's honour will not refuse 
 the request. It is not from any personal feeling that 
 
 u 
 
290 Ireland in '98. 
 
 I make this request, but from a respect to the uniform 
 which I wear and to the brave array in which I have 
 fought. From papers which I yesterday delivered 
 to the Brigade Major, it will be seen that I am as 
 regularly breveted an officer in the French service 
 as any here is in the British army, and it will be 
 seen that I have not any commission as a protection." 
 
 ' The papers were then produced, and were a 
 brevet for tlie rank of chef de brigade, and a letter 
 of service, both having the signatures of the President 
 of the French Directory and the Minister of War. . . . 
 He repeated his desire to be indulged with death in 
 the most honourable manner, and as he had no doubt 
 of the decision of the court, he expressed a wish that 
 the confirmation of it by the Lord- Lieutenant might 
 be had as soon as possible, and execution of the 
 sentence immediately follow — within an hour, if it 
 were practicable. 
 
 ' The President replied that the court would 
 forthwith proceed to a consideration and judgment 
 of his case, after which no delay would take place in 
 transmitting the proceedings to his Excellency ; and 
 that it was probable whoever went with them would 
 bear back the Lord-Lieutenant's determination on 
 the subject. 
 
 ' The prisoner then thanked the court for the 
 indulgence which had been extended to him. He 
 w^as brought back to the Provost Marshalsea. 
 
 ' The whole of Saturday and Sunday, Mr. Tone 
 expressed much anxiety to learn the decision of his 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 291 
 
 Excellency the Lord- Lieutenant concerning the re- 
 quest he had made as to the mode of his execution ; 
 havino; no doubt at all as to the sentence of the 
 court, and its confirmation by his Excellency. 
 
 ' On Sunday evening he was informed that his 
 conviction and sentence was confirmed by his Ex- 
 cellency ; but that his request, as to the mode of 
 his execution, could not be complied with ; that he 
 must suiFer the same fate as others who were taken in 
 war against their King and country ; and that the 
 peculiar circumstances of his case rendered it neces- 
 sary his execution should be in the most public 
 manner, for the sake of a striking example ; that he 
 must be executed in front of the New Prison.' ^ 
 
 On Saturday night Tone wrote two letters, one 
 addressed to the French Directory, wherein he called 
 to the attention of its members his services in the 
 Republic, his sacrifices, and the forlorn state of a 
 beloved wife and three infant children, about to be 
 deprived, by his death, of protection and support. 
 The letter was written in such terms as became the 
 writer and his situation. The other was addressed 
 to his wife — that noble woman, who was worthy of 
 being the wife of Tone. One or two passages from it 
 will sufiice to show the terms on which their union 
 was founded and maintained : 
 
 ' Dearest Love, — The hour is at last come when 
 we must part. As no words can express what I feel 
 
 ^ Dublin Magazine, November 1798. 
 
 V 2 
 
292 Ireland in '98. 
 
 for you and our children, I shall not attempt it. 
 Complaint of any kind would be beneath your courage 
 and mine. . . . Adieu, dearest love. I find it im- 
 possible to finish this letter. Give my love to Mary 
 (his sister), and above all things, remember that you 
 are the only parent of our dearest children, and that 
 the best proof you can give of your affection for me, 
 will be to preserve yourself for their education. God 
 Almighty bless you all. — Yours ever, 
 
 ' T. W. Tone.' 
 
 His dying wishes were fulfilled to the letter. 
 The only parent of his dearest children remembered 
 her duty to them and to the memory of their father, 
 and, through great difficulties, in many trials and 
 tribulations, with scanty means, and with little sym- 
 pathy on the part of former friends, that duty was 
 performed by her with heroic constancy and courage. 
 
 On Sunday, November 11, Tone addressed another 
 letter to his wife — the last he wrote — in which he 
 tells her, ' his mind was as tranquil as at any period 
 of his life.' His dying request was, that ' she should 
 keep her courage as he had kept his. . . . Cherish 
 his memory, and preserve her health and spirits for 
 the sake of their dearest children.' 
 
 Among the effects delivered to his father after 
 his decease was a pocket-book, which was sent, by 
 Tone's directions, to his old friend Mr. Jolin Sweet- 
 man. The pocket-book must have been either on 
 Tone's bed or person when the fatal act was com- 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 293 
 
 mitted on the night of the 11th. The green silkUning 
 of the book is stained with blood, and on the hnins;- 
 the words are written in Tone's handwriting : ' T. W. 
 Tone, Nov. 11, 1798. Te nunc habet ista secundum.' 
 These last words ever written by poor Tone, the 
 reader will find in Virgil's second eclogue. The 
 poet, as an inducement to Alexis to come to him, 
 tells him that he has a seven -jointed flute, which 
 Damoetas, dying, gave him, saymg : ' Now, for its 
 second master, it has thee.' 
 
 Fistula, Damoetas dono mihi quam dedit olim, 
 Et dixit moriens : ' Te nunc habet ista secundum.' 
 
 On Sunday night, after Tone had apparently set- 
 tled himself to rest, it is supposed that he inflicted 
 the wound on his neck which caused his death. 
 
 ' The wound, which was inflicted with a pen- 
 knife, intersected the windpipe between two of the 
 cartilaginous rings which form that organ, and 
 amount to what surgeons style the operation of 
 bronchotomy ; it was dressed, but only with a view 
 to prolong life till the fatal hour of one o'clock, ap- 
 pomted for the execution, to which end the cart was 
 prepared, and an escort of cavalry and infantry under 
 orders to attend it. But in the meantime a motion 
 was made in his Majesty's Court of King's Bench, 
 then sitting, to arrest execution, grounded on an afii- 
 davit sworn by the father of the prisoner, that he had 
 been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, on a 
 charge of high treason, before a military court of 
 seven members, sitting in the barrack of Dublin, 
 
294 Ireland in '98. 
 
 though he did not belong to his Majesty's army ; 
 while his Majesty's Court of King's Bench was sit- 
 ting, before which the prisoner might have been 
 tried in the ordinary way. Mr. Curran, who ably 
 argued the point, moved that an Habeas Corpus do 
 issue forthwith to bring up the prisoner instanter. 
 
 ' The court immediately complied, and the officer 
 who served the order on the provost-marshal returned 
 with answer, that Brigadier- Major Sandys said he 
 would comply with no orders but those of the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the garrison. The court immedi- 
 ately directed the sheriff to rej^air to the barrack, 
 take Mr. Sandys into custody, and bring him before 
 the court. The sheriff, on his return, reported that 
 Major Sandys was not to be found; that he had seen 
 General Craig, at whose instance he accompanied the 
 surgeon to Mr. Tone, and that the surgeon reported 
 the prisoner could not be removed to court, without 
 danger of instant death. 
 
 ' The surgeon attended and made affidavit to the 
 same effect, and the return of the writ of Habeas 
 Corpus was postponed for four days, and the court 
 ordered the sheriff in the meantime to take the body 
 of Theobald Wolfe Tone into his protection. In this 
 situation he continued until Monday, November 19, 
 when he died, having suffered most excruciating pain 
 for eight days. 
 
 ' His body was delivered to his parents for inter- 
 ment.' ^ 
 
 ^ Dublin Magazine, 
 
Theobald Wolfe Tone. 295 
 
 His son thus speaks of his last moments : 
 
 ' Stretched on his bloody pallet in a dungeon, 
 the first apostle of Irish union, and most illustrious 
 martyr of Irish independence, counted each lingering 
 hour during the last seven days and nights of his 
 slow and silent agony. No one was allowed to ap- 
 proach him. Far from his adored family, and from 
 all those friends whom he loved so dearly, the only 
 forms which flitted before his eyes were those of the 
 grim jailer and rough attendants of the prison ; the 
 only sounds which fell on his dying ear, the heavy 
 tread of the sentry. He retained, however, the calm- 
 ness of his soul and the possession of his faculties 
 to the last. And the consciousness of dying for 
 his country, and in the cause of justice and liberty, 
 illumined, like a bright halo, his latest moments and 
 kept up his fortitude to the end. There is no situa- 
 tion under which those feelings will not support the 
 soul of a patriot.' 
 
 Thus passed away one of the master spirits of 
 his time. The curse of Swift was upon this man — 
 he was an Irishman. Had he been a native of any 
 other European country, his noble qualities, his bril- 
 liant talents, would have raised him to the first 
 honours in the state, and to the highest place in the 
 esteem of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 His name survives, however, and his memory is 
 probably destined to survive as long as his country 
 has a history. Peace be to his ashes ! 
 
THOMAS lU'SSELL, 
 
297 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THOMAS RUSSELL. 
 
 Malicious accounts— Parentage — Education — Five years' service in 
 India — ' Beautiful Bess Goddard ' — Second love — Friendship with 
 Tone — They establish Society of United Irishmen in Belfast and 
 Dublin — Thomas Digges — Russell's embarrassments — Fresh career 
 — Remarkable pamphlet — Extracts — Arrest — Correspondence — 
 Verses — Arrival in Paris — Disastrous mission — Government re- 
 ward — Trial — AflFecting speech — 'The Grave of Russell' — His 
 character and motives. 
 
 Two brief notices of the life of Thomas Russell 
 have been given to the public — one in the ' Ulster 
 Magazine ' of January 1830, and another in ' Eraser's 
 Mao^azine' of November 1836. The former of these 
 is accurate, so far as it goes, but the account is too 
 meagre to give a sufficient insight into the character 
 and motives of one who was among the founders and 
 leading members of United Irishmen. The notice re- 
 ferred to in ' Eraser's Magazine ' was written by Mr. 
 M'Skimmin, a weaver of Carrickfergus, and revised 
 for publication by a gentleman of high standing in 
 literature in London, who would have lent no hand 
 to its publication had he known the misstatements 
 and misrepresentations it contained. M'Skimmin 
 was a man of very remarkable attainments for his 
 position in life, and in his 'History of Carrickfer- 
 
298 Ireland in '98. 
 
 gus ' displayed considerable research and ability ; but 
 the political atmosphere in which he lived had given 
 so strong a bias to his opinions that it had disposed 
 him to turn his attention wholly to the faults and 
 follies of the unfortunate northern leaders of the 
 United Irishmen, and to ignore the excellent qualities 
 for which many of them were remarkable. He main- 
 tained that assassination was recognised by the United 
 Irish Society in Dublin, and that a committee duly 
 appointed for this horrid purpose acted in Belfast, 
 two of whose members he named as instigators of, 
 and parties to, a regularly organised system of assas- 
 sination ; but when it is stated that Thomas Addis 
 Emmett was one of the members named by M'Skun- 
 min, it is unnecessary to take much trouble to rebut 
 the gross misstatements of this man. 
 
 In a letter dated January 1837, a friend of 
 Russell's, a gentleman of the highest character and 
 of opposite political sentiments to the latter, in refer- 
 ence to the injurious light in which the character of 
 Thomas Russell had been placed in the article called 
 ' The Secret History of the Insurrection of 1803,' 
 stated ' that he had made an inquiry into the accuracy 
 of the statements respecting Russell, and, through the 
 kindness of several individuals, he had recovered 
 various documents of his, and others relating to him, 
 which, with many original papers previously in his 
 possession, enabled him to say that the entire article in 
 question was far from being correct or consistent with 
 truth, and, as far as regarded Russell, he was pre- 
 
Thomas Russell. 299 
 
 pared to prove that it was a corapilation containing 
 very gross misstatements. Hope, in reference to 
 M'Skimmin's article, says : ' The account of the 
 insurrection of 1803, called "its secret history," is 
 the labour of a man suspected by the people in 1798, 
 who fled from his home to the Castle of Carrickfergus, 
 where he served in a corjDs of invalids. Tn this account 
 a few facts are interlarded with much fiction, truth 
 has been suppressed where it was not palatable, 
 and, altogether, the article is a malicious fabrication, 
 and I declare it a total misrepresentation of the facts 
 communicated by me and calculated to lead the future 
 historian astray.' So much for the notice of Russell 
 in M'Skimmin's statement and the degree of credit 
 to be attached to it. 
 
 Thomas Russell was born at Betsborough, Dun- 
 nahane, in the parish of Kilshanick, county Cork, 
 November 21, 1767. The family originally came 
 from Normandy and settjed in the neighbourhood of 
 Taunton, in Somerset, from whence, in the times of 
 the trouble in England, some of the members went 
 to Ireland, and became fixed residents near the city 
 of Kilkenny. 
 
 His father, John Russell, was originally intended 
 for the church, but afterwards entered the army. He 
 saw a great deal of service ; was at the battles of 
 Dettingen and Fontenoy, where his company of 
 grenadiers was nearly cut to pieces ; in 1761-2, 
 served in Portugal, in the foreign auxiliary force, 
 under the command of the Count de Lippe-Schom 
 
300 Ireland in '98. 
 
 berg, to whose staff he was attached, having been 
 selected, on account of his acquirements, to act as 
 interpreter to his general. 
 
 On Captain Russell's return to Ireland, he was 
 placed in a high situation in the Royal Hospital at 
 Kilmainham ; there he died at a very advanced age 
 in December, 1792. Thomas Russell was entirely 
 educated by his father, and, being intended for the 
 church, was early initiated in the Greek and Latin 
 lano-uao^es and well grounded in mathematics. At 
 the early age of fifteen he went out as a volunteer 
 to India with one of his brothers, Captain Ambrose 
 Russell, of the 52nd regiment. Thomas Russell, for 
 his conduct in the field, was commended by Sir John 
 Burgoyne for a commission in his brother's regiment ; 
 part of it was ordered to Pondicherry, where Russell 
 acted as aide-de-camp to Colonel Barry, and, the 
 colonel being wounded in some engagement, Thomas 
 Russell brought him off the field. On his return to 
 Madras he was appointed to one of the newly raised 
 regiments, which were subsequently reduced, and an 
 order issued for all officers on half-pay to return to 
 Europe. Thomas Russell quitted India after five 
 years' service, which had made him favourably known 
 to Sir John Burgoyne, Lord Cornwallis, and also to 
 the Honourable Colonel Knox. On his return to 
 Europe he intended to enter the church, pursued his 
 studies for that purpose, and even went to the Isle of 
 Man to be ordained ; it seems that some regulations 
 had to be complied with, previous to ordination, which 
 
Thomas Russell. 301 
 
 necessitated his return to Ireland. Soon after this 
 event, however, his purpose was abandoned and he 
 was appointed to the 64th regiment by Sir John 
 Irwin. 
 
 About this period he made the acquaintance of a 
 young lady named Elizabeth Goddard, of whom, in 
 his diary, he constantly speaks in terms of the most 
 impassioned admiration and ardent affection. Scraps 
 of verses, some of them full of poetry, as well as 
 passion, are intermingled with his notices of his 
 meetings with her, and all are devoted to the cele- 
 bration of her beauty or the expression of his own 
 devotion. Russell's passion for the ' beautiful Bess 
 Goddard ' was a hopeless one ; either diffidence or 
 pride prevented the lover making a declaration of his 
 feelings, till the information reached him that the 
 3^oung lady was engaged to another. In 1795 she 
 became the wife of a Mr. Kington, of Newry. 
 
 But if the ' course of true love never did run 
 smooth,' the current in this case, as in most others, 
 gradually regained its former smoothness. About a 
 year after the marriage of Miss Goddard, Russell 
 formed an attachment for Miss Sims, the sister of 
 his friends William and Robert Sims, of Belfast. 
 James Hope says that Russell spoke of Miss Sims 
 in terms of sincere affection ; and the impression left 
 on Hope's mind was that his friend was strongly 
 attached to her. 
 
 Tone's passion for raillery and grave irony as 
 displayed in his journals has led to the formation of 
 
302 Ireland in '98. 
 
 very erroneous opinions ; of some of the men he 
 speaks under ridiculous nicknames, and often taxes 
 them with defects the very opposite of their most 
 prominent virtues and estimable qualities. Thus, 
 Russell figures in his journals as P. P., parish priest, 
 a profane person, swearing occasionally, frequently 
 ' very drunk,' ' gloriously drunk,' and disorderly. 
 But when Tone, in France, hears of the arrest of his 
 friend, he thus speaks of him, in allusion to the men- 
 tion he had made of him in his journals : ' My heart 
 smites me when I think of the levity with which I 
 have spoken of my poor friend Russell, under the 
 name of P. P.' The fact was, Russell's well-known 
 gravity of deportment and demeanour, his strong 
 sense of the importance and value of religion, his 
 habitual decorum and propriety in social intercourse, 
 were made the subject of ironical jocularity in Tone's 
 diaries. What he really thought of Russell may be 
 gathered from the followmg passages which are taken 
 from Tone's ' Life ' : 
 
 ' About this time I formed an acquaintance with 
 my invaluable friend Russell, a circumstance which I 
 look on as one of the most fortunate of my life. 
 Suffice it to say, that to an excellent understanding 
 he joins the purest principles and the best of hearts. 
 I wish I had ability to delineate his character, with 
 reo;ard to his talents and virtues. ... I think the 
 better of myself for being an object of esteem to such 
 a man as Russell.' 
 
 In his diary, referring to the intelligence of the 
 
Thomas Russell. 303 
 
 arrest of Russell, Tone says : ' It is impossible to 
 conceive the effect this heavy misfortune has on my 
 mind ; ... if Russell and Neilson fall, where shall I 
 find two such men to replace them? My poor friend 
 Russell, with whom I have spent the happiest hours 
 of my life, and whom I love with the affection of a 
 brother,' 
 
 Russell having joined his regiment in Belfast, 
 found the people so much to his taste, and rendered 
 himself so agreeable to them, that he was speedily 
 admitted into their confidence and became a member 
 of several of their clubs. Up to this time his pursuits 
 and tastes had been entirely of a literary kind. To 
 use his own words to a lady : ' Burke's " Sublime and 
 Beautiful" had more charms for him than all the 
 speculations of Mr. Paine on the " Rights of Man." ' 
 He was then a loyal subject, entertaining strong 
 theoretical opinions of the advantages of republican 
 institutions, united with monarchical government, 
 and above all of the truth of the maxim, that the 
 end of good government was the happiness of the 
 great body of the people. This opinion, from the 
 outset of his career to the close, seemed to be the 
 guiding one of his politics, unmixed with selfish 
 feelings, unalloyed with objects of ambition, enter- 
 tained with sincerity, supported with singleness of 
 purpose, and with enthusiasm that bordered on exul- 
 tation that might mislead his judgment, but could 
 not leave a suspicion of his integrity, or of the recti- 
 tude of his intentions. 
 
304 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Russell's acquaintance with Tone, which began in 
 the year 1789, had a mighty influence on his career. 
 Soon after he joined his regiment m Belfast, he made 
 the acquaintance of the leading men of liberal politics 
 in the town. At the instance, or with the concur- 
 rence of some of them, he wrote to Tone, requestmg 
 him to prepare a declaration for the Belfast Volunteer 
 Company, which Tone accordingly did, alluding in 
 one passage to the Catholic claims. But that passage 
 was withdrawn, and the withdrawal of it set Tone 
 ' thinking more seriously than he had done on the 
 state of Ireland.' Tone went to Belfast in 1791, at 
 Russell's request, and was introduced by him to all the 
 leading men of the town, and the members of the 
 secret society, who regulated the political movements 
 of the place. The first Society of United Irishmen 
 was formed on the occasion of this visit. Russell 
 accompanied Tone to Dublin, where they likewise 
 established the society. 
 
 Among Russell's acquaintance in Belfast in 1791, 
 there was a very remarkable person, an American, of 
 the name of Thomas Digges, who had been employed 
 in England in the capacity of American agent for the 
 exchange of prisoners. This man carried the art of 
 deceiving persons of first-rate talents farther and 
 with more success even than most of his class. 
 Everyone found him a man of extensive information, 
 of specious address, of conversational powers that 
 seemed to belong to a vigorous understanding, and 
 all persons of note in the town received him into 
 
Thomas Russell. 305 
 
 their houses ; his society was courted, and his opinions 
 received with respect. His plausibility imposed on 
 men of all professions and avocations — doctors, 
 divines, lawyers, votaries of literature, merchants, 
 politicians of all shades of liberal opinions. As an 
 American, the naivete and ultral-iberalism of his 
 downright democratic principles was tolerated, even 
 by those who hated republicanism. Digges' repub- 
 lican notions extended, at length, to property as well 
 as to political privileges ; he borrowed a pair of 
 silver spurs from Samuel Neilson which he did not 
 think it worth his while to return. He was arrested 
 in Belfast in the autumn of 1791, and poor Lieutenant 
 Russell was induced to go bail for him for a debt 
 amounting to 200/. Before the time fixed for the 
 payment of the bond, Digges was imprisoned for 
 theft. He contrived, however, after some days' con- 
 finement, to effect his escape, and finally returned to 
 his own country, where he hved in easy circumstances. 
 
 Russell's sanguine and enthusiastic temperament 
 was the occasion of the embarrassment in which he 
 was placed ; he was compelled to sell his commission 
 to pay the debt of the swindler Digges, but previous 
 to this he had been connected with the leading 
 political men in Belfast, which connection and his 
 conversion to their opinions he attributed chiefly to 
 the influence of Mr. William Sinclair, a gentleman 
 who afterwards seemed forgetful of the share he had 
 in the ruin of poor Russell. 
 
 After the sale of his commission, Russell was 
 
 X 
 
306 Ireland in '98. 
 
 left almost entirely without resources. In the latter 
 part of 1791, he went to live at Dungannon, and 
 through the interest of his friend Colonel Knox was 
 placed in the commission of the peace for the county 
 of Tyrone, and appointed to the situation of Seneschal 
 of the Manor Court at Dungannon. This appoint- 
 ment he only held nine months, and then resigned it 
 from conscientious feelings, having differed from his 
 brother magistrates of the county respecting the mode 
 of deciding questions between Catholics and Dissen- 
 ters, and having publicly stated on the bench that 
 ' he could not reconcile it to his conscience to sit as 
 magistrate on a bench where the pi^actice prevailed of 
 inquiring ivhat a man's religion was before i7iquiring 
 into the crime with which a prisoner was accused.^ 
 These words ought to be inscribed on Russell's tomb. 
 At that period there were also differences between 
 the linen merchants and the weavers, and Russell's 
 sympathies with the latter caused him to be looked 
 on with suspicion as a man with dangerous leanings 
 towards the people, in fact a Republican. After 
 throwing up his appointment he returned to Belfast, 
 and, being without resource or employment, was 
 dependent solely on the kindness and liberality of 
 Dr. M'Donnell, in whose house he lived for a con- 
 siderable time. The situation was then obtained for 
 him of librarian to the Belfast Library, and it was 
 while holding this appointment that the idea was 
 suggested by him of founding the Belfast Academical 
 Institution. 
 
Thomas Russell. 307 
 
 Russell's intimate connection with the Society of 
 United Irishmen, as an active member, busily engaged 
 in promoting its views, may be dated from his return 
 to Belfast in October 1792. When the alteration 
 was made in its constitution, and it became a secret 
 society, he was made a sworn member of it by Mr. John 
 Agnew Farrell, of Meaghermon, near Larne, a linen 
 bleacher. The three individuals who were the most 
 active of the northern leaders were Neilson, Russell, 
 and M'Cracken ; the two latter were closely connected 
 and warmly attached to each other. 
 
 Russell wrote a great deal in the ' Northern Star,' 
 and other periodicals of similar politics. Several of 
 the poetical pieces of considerable merit, in these publi- 
 cations, are attributed to him. 
 
 In the summer of 1796, a pamphlet was published 
 in Belfast by Thomas Russell, which rapidly passed 
 through two editions, and drew the attention of 
 Government to its author, who, on the title-page, 
 had the boldness to style himself ' An United Irish- 
 man.' In this remarkable production, the state of 
 the country, and of the question of Catholic emanci- 
 pation, is reviewed. The following passages from it 
 afford a fair specimen of its style, and of the writer's 
 ability in the treatment of his subject : 
 
 X 2 
 
308 Ireland in '98. 
 
 (. u 
 
 A Letter to the People of Ireland on the 
 Present Situation of the Country," by Thomas 
 Russell, an United Irishman. 
 
 * It is a goodly thing, brethren, to dwell together in unity. — Psalms. 
 
 ' From the time that the convention of Volunteers 
 failed in obtaining their great object of reform, in the 
 year 1784, the spirit of the nation gradually declined ; 
 and in the year 1791, and the preceding ones, it may 
 be said to have been utterly extinguished. The pros- 
 perity of reform seemed to be allowed by all but those 
 who had an interest in the Government ; and it was 
 lost by that body not espousing the claims of the 
 Catholics. By this, it became only an eifort of part 
 of the people, and was lost, and deserved so to be. 
 This dereliction of Catholic claims did not arise from 
 a want of liberality in the bulk of the Volunteers 
 (for their resolutions and declarations, particularly 
 the northern ones, at the time of the memorable and 
 illustrious institution, assert the right of the Catholics 
 in the most explicit manner) ; but from their placing 
 too great a confidence in their leaders, who were men 
 of the first lordly and landed interests in Ireland, and 
 who shamefully and meanly deserted the people. 
 
 ' The Catholics at that time were led, from the 
 dereliction of their cause by the convention, to enter- 
 tain no hopes from the liberality or justice of the 
 Protestant or Dissenting interest. The great mass 
 of that body were then and before ignorant of, and 
 
Thomas Russell. 309 
 
 uninterested in, the general politics of Ireland. Un- 
 acquainted with the remote cause, they felt nothing 
 but the oppression of the tax-gatherer, tithe proctors, 
 and their landlords. Unconnected by any band of 
 union, and having none of ability, education, conse- 
 quence, or integrity to espouse their cause, they re- 
 mained in a state of hopeless despondency ; or, if any 
 attempted to redress what they conceived to be 
 grievances, by partial disturbance, they were crushed 
 in a moment by the power of Government, supported 
 by the whole landed and ecclesiastical bodies. 
 Severe punishments were inflicted ; and the most 
 odious ideas of criminality were annexed to those 
 unfortunate offenders, while no serious inquiry was 
 instituted into the real or supposed grievances which 
 led these wretched and ignorant beings to transgress 
 laws which they had no share in framing ; but which, 
 if they did not obey, death or exile, or such punish- 
 ment as the framers thought proper to annex to the 
 action, was certain to follow. 
 
 ' Such a system must and did produce a degrada- 
 tion of spirit ; and they looked up, not to justice and 
 rights of nature, but to the discretion of the land- 
 lords and magistrates. The Catholic gentry, with 
 some exceptions, were men who, being precluded by 
 the laws from sharing any of the power of Ireland, 
 to which their fortunes and families gave them pre- 
 tensions, could only engage in the pleasurable pur- 
 suits of the times ; and from an adherence to their 
 conscience, found themselves inferior, in point of 
 
10 Ireland in '98. 
 
 political consequence, to every petty Protestant 
 squire. Personal courage, necessary to protect them 
 from personal insult, they possessed to an eminent 
 degree ; but a century of slavery had divested them 
 of political courage or a wish for political disquisition. 
 Their most darmg and adventurous spirits acquired 
 in all the armies of Europe (England excepted) an 
 high and deserving reputation. By them it was that 
 the name of Ireland was heard out of its limits ; for 
 otherwise, the town of Birmingham was as well 
 known, and possessed as much weight in the scale of 
 Europe and the British Empire, as the island which 
 we inhabit has ever done since the capitulation of 
 Limerick. . . . 
 
 ' The only political organisation of the Catholics 
 was a committee, composed of some members elected 
 mostly from the city of Dublin, and in which the 
 Catholic lords and some of the gentry assumed the 
 right of voting. They were a body which made 
 humble applications to Government from time to 
 time, but were very little attended to. The impres- 
 sion which Government, and not unsuccessfully, 
 wished to make on them was, that Government were 
 willing to serve them, but that the Presbyterians and 
 Protestants were against it, and so recommended 
 loyal and dutiful behaviour. Indeed, of so little con- 
 sequence were the Catholics considered, that in the 
 summer of 1790 or 1791, the then Lord- Lieu tenant, 
 Lord Westmoreland, being in the South, refused to 
 receive a dutiful and loyal address from the Catholics 
 
Thomas Russell. H 
 
 of one of the southern cities, because in it they 
 expressed a hope that their case might be taken into 
 consideration. 
 
 ' There was no national spirit in Ireland ; on the 
 contrary, the anniversary of those events which led 
 to the degradation of the country was celebrated, 
 strange as it may appear, by Irishmen with martial 
 pomp and festivity, differing in this from all nations, 
 ancient or modern. If any felt differently, they pru- 
 dently concealed their sentiments. 
 
 ' The great Protestant landholders had the repre- 
 sentation of the people, as it is called, in their own 
 hands ; the power of returning members to the House 
 of Commons, even for counties, with one or two ex- 
 ceptions, was in the hands of a few leading men in 
 each district. When these could not agree as to the 
 person who was to be called a representative of the 
 people, the speculations ran, " that my Lord Such-a- 
 one's interest, joined to Sir John Such-a-one, would 
 succeed in returning Mr. Such-a-one against the 
 Marquis of Such-a-one." As to the interest or wishes 
 of the community, that was not pretended to ; and 
 the men thus returned had the power, for the power 
 of England was to support them, of taxing the 
 people of Ireland to what amount their honour and 
 consciences directed. It was an easy, pleasant, and 
 lucrative task to govern such a country ; the person 
 sent over had only to engage so many of the great 
 land and borough holders in his interest as insured 
 a hollow majority in the Commons, and as these gen- 
 
312 Ireland in '98. 
 
 tlemen and their friends could be remunerated by the 
 taxes they imposed on Ireland, and the places created 
 there, it did not cost the English agent much. How- 
 ever, as economy is a virtue, it was practised by the 
 English agent in some respects, for he did not retain, 
 except in cases of emergency, more than was suffi- 
 cient to do the King's business ; by this means he 
 had a greater number of places and emoluments to 
 bestow on his English friends, and such as were 
 useful to the English ministry elsewhere. 
 
 ' From this system, it is obvious that the interests 
 of some of these landholders will in smaller matters 
 clash with each other; though in the main object, 
 that of holding in their hands the power of the 
 country against the people at large, they will agree. 
 In proportion, then, as the people show any desire to 
 assume political consequence, these gentlemen will 
 all unite with the English party against the common 
 enemy — the people — and in proportion as the people 
 are crushed and torpid, the separate interest of these 
 gentlemen in counties and boroughs — making of roads, 
 canals, excisemen, commissioners, bishops, judges, 
 &c. — will be considered, and differences will arise ; 
 this will serve as a clue to the parliamentary debates. 
 Let them be taken, for example, about the year 
 1791. . . . 
 
 ' The aristocracy, or oligarchy, governed Ireland 
 with despotic sway; such a system could be only 
 upheld, first, by foreign and extrinsic power, which 
 Gould at any time crush the whole nation; second, 
 
Thomas Russell. 313 
 
 by ignorance ; third, by cowardice ; fourth, by want 
 of military resources in the people ; or finally, by the 
 disunion of the people among themselves. Now, as 
 to the first, though England be the most powerful of 
 the two nations, yet it is undeniable that much of 
 that power has been, and now is, derived from the 
 connection between the two islands; if any person 
 doubts of this, let him consider the immense resources 
 in provisions and men drawn from this country during 
 the diff'erent wars in which England has thought 
 proper to engage. Suppose every Irish soldier with- 
 drawn from the English armies, what a figure would 
 they make ? How would they protect those foreign 
 possessions which are so much vaunted of, and to 
 which Irish merchants are forbidden to trade ? It is 
 said that the English fleets cover the ocean — how 
 could these fleets be provisioned if Ireland did not 
 furnish it ? If every Irish seaman had been with- 
 drawn from the English fleet on June 1, will any 
 man in his senses say that that memorable victory 
 would ever have been obtained ? It were easy to 
 dilate on this ; and to push it still farther, by show- 
 ing that if Ireland, instead of being neutral in any 
 contest (particularly the present) in which England 
 was engaged, was hostile, the commercial pre-eminence 
 of England on which her political power is founded 
 would not be eclipsed but extinguished. . . . 
 
 ' The only cause adequate to depress such a people 
 was disunion — so long as that prevailed, so long could 
 this aristocracy plunder and insult the country, and 
 
314 Ireland in '98. 
 
 even quarrel among themselves for the division of the 
 spoil with impunity; but whenever a union of the 
 people takes place — when they once consider all 
 Irishmen as their friends and brethren — the power 
 of this aristocracy will vanish. Nor is this abstract 
 reasoning ; let facts be appealed to. 
 
 ' In the year 1791, it was projected by a few indi- 
 viduals, who were abhorrent of the mode in which 
 Ireland was governed, to banish religious prejudices, 
 by effecting a union of Irishmen of all religious per- 
 suasions, and by that means to obtain a reform of 
 Parliament, which should equally include Irishmen 
 of every sect. . . . 
 
 'In this winter, the independent part of the 
 Catholic Committee differed from their aristocracy of 
 lords and gentlemen, and, by a decisive majority, 
 freed themselves from those hereditary advisers. A 
 few of these gentlemen published an address, such as 
 Government wished — but, as all who isolate them- 
 selves from the mass of their party do, they soon 
 became insignificant. That session produced some 
 trifling relaxation of the Penal Code ; but this did not 
 deter the independent part of the Catholics, who per- 
 sisted in urging their claims. The great body of 
 Dissenters were rapidly embracing and promoting 
 them ; and the calling a General Committee of the 
 Catholics, who could fully and indisputably represent 
 the wants and sentiments of that body, still further 
 promoted the great cause. 
 
 ' From the moment that the attempt at union was 
 
Thomas RuHsell. 315 
 
 obvious, the aristocracy lost no oj^portunity of abus- 
 ing the system, and all who were active in promoting 
 it ; and in the absurd and wicked language of that 
 faction, the union of a people, so desirable to every 
 man of virtue and religion, was called an unnatural 
 union ; but it was against the meeting of the Catholic 
 Committee that their chief efforts were directed, and, 
 in consequence, the grand juries at the summer as- 
 sizes issued their resolutions, of which the sentiments 
 and composition were equally contemptible. Those 
 formidable denunciations, and the torrents of abuse 
 which were poured forth in the public prints, did not 
 prevent the meeting of the Delegates of the Catholics 
 in Dublin, on December 3, 1792, a memorable day 
 for Ireland. This meeting was sanctioned by the 
 great body of the Dissenters, who by associations and 
 resolutions enforced their claims — and this may be 
 considered as the act, and the only act for a length of 
 time, of the Irish people. Now what was the conse- 
 quence ? The very Government, who, some time 
 before, slighted the Catholics and their claims, now 
 requested to have the petition of the Catholics trans- 
 mitted by them to the King, and it was refused them ; 
 and the very Parliament who met shortly after, and 
 who had refused to listen to any alteration, now ac- 
 knowledged the propriety of a reform, and were 
 willing to concede one. Now it is obvious that this 
 alteration could have arisen only from the union and 
 spirit of the people ; no other adequate cause can be 
 assigned. Most people were then of opinion that the 
 
316 Ireland in '98. 
 
 great desideratum of Ireland, a reform, would be 
 obtained, and it apparently required little ability to 
 ensure it. Had the same line of conduct been pur- 
 sued, the unity of action and design which had hitherto 
 produced such great effects — if Catholic Emancipation 
 had been considered but as a step, and as a step 
 which would be almost useless, unless accompanied 
 by reform — it probably would have succeeded. . . . 
 
 ' At this time some individuals were anxious to 
 know how much Government would grant to the 
 Catholics. That any of the Catholics should be 
 satisfied with a partial repeal of the Penal Code or 
 even make the total repeal their ultimate object, was 
 sufficient to prove a want of unity in the design. 
 From the instant that the Government saw this, the 
 cloud which hovered over them was dissipated, as if 
 by enchantment ; that instant they took their ground ; 
 the Catholic Bill was proci^astinated ; strong measures 
 were adopted with the greatest harmony and unani- 
 mity by Parliament ; part of the people was attacked ; 
 the most spirited part of the North was dragooned ; 
 proclamations were issued ; Volunteers were disarmed -, 
 arbitrary punishments were inflicted ; prosecutions 
 were instituted ; the Gunpowder and Militia Bills were 
 passed ; the nation was foiled m its pursuit, and put 
 down ; terror was the order of the day ; it could 
 scarce be believed but by those who were witness to 
 it, how rapid the change was in the spirit of the 
 metropolis ; and so completely was the common enemy, 
 the people, subdued, that long before the end of the 
 
Thomas Russell. 317 
 
 session some of the Opposition again ventured to rail 
 at the Government. The Cathohc Bill did not pass 
 till the month of April, and it may be doubted 
 whether, if the battle of Neerwinden and the defection 
 of Dumouriez had taken place sooner, it would have 
 passed into a law ; and had the royal assent been re- 
 fused, there was no spirit in the nation to bring it 
 forward in a shape likely to ensure its success. But 
 though the bill did pass, yet the spirit of the people 
 being for the time suppressed — the vital principle of 
 union being for a time suspended — and the political 
 powers of the country remaining in the same hands, 
 it was to be expected that the bulk of the Catholics 
 would feel the vengeance of every petty country 
 aristocracy. Irritated by their late defeat, every 
 man must see that this was the case ; witness the 
 prosecutions of Fay, Bird, Delahoyd, Byrne, &c. ; 
 witness the severities exercised on the lower orders 
 of Catholics which continue to this day, and of which 
 it is impossible to hear the true account without 
 indignation and horror. 
 
 ' It was plain that the Catholic gentry would be 
 equally odious on the same grounds ; that any 
 privilege to which they could aspire under the Act, 
 that of being a grand juror or a magistrate, could 
 only make them the tail of an aristocracy which 
 detested them, and the only real consequence they 
 could have, would be from their intimate union with 
 the Catholic body. Their interest, then, as well as 
 their duty, should have led them to make a common 
 
318 Ireland in '98. 
 
 cause with the Catholics of their country ; by this 
 it is not meant that they should support them in any 
 improper proceeding, but that they should protect 
 the poor with their fortunes, their ability, and their 
 courage, whenever they were oppressed and mal- 
 treated merely as Catholics, of which the three last 
 years afford so many cruel instances. . . . 
 
 ' But it unfortunately happened that, in many 
 instances, the Catholic gentry attached themselves to 
 this aristocracy, or at least did not protect the people. 
 This often arose from a fear of being implicated as 
 Defenders, from the system of terror which was then 
 spread, and from the want of that political courage 
 which has been before mentioned. The consequence 
 was, that such men, without acquiring the confidence 
 or having any influence wdth the aristocracy, lost all 
 weiofht and influence with the lower orders, and thus 
 became both insignificant and insecure. That the 
 lower orders, thus left to themselves, conceiving that 
 they were oppressed and without people of knowledge 
 or consequence to advise or protect them, should at 
 times commit unjustifiable actions is not surprising 
 This was another instance of the misfortune of want 
 of union. And it is certain that the Catholic body, 
 since the passing of that bill, have been regarded 
 with a jealous eye, and have not derived from it that 
 security and importance, nor Ireland that degree of 
 freedom, which may be expected. The very summer 
 following, such was the strength of Government and 
 the weakness of the nation, that the Militia Act was 
 
Thomas Russell. 319 
 
 enforced, though it was so obnoxious to the people 
 that it was resisted in many counties, and much 
 blood was spilled before it was carried into effect : a 
 formidable Irish army was raised, armed, and dis- 
 ciplined to keep Ireland in subjection ; the armed 
 peasantry of one country were employed to subdue 
 the peasantry of another, who were resisting real or 
 supposed grievances that they had felt in common. . . . 
 ' The weakness of the country is still further ex- 
 emplified by what occurred during the administration 
 of Earl Fitzwilliam, and on his removal. When Mr. 
 Pitt deemed it expedient to dupe the Duke of Port- 
 land and some more of his party, it was generally 
 understood that part of the bargain was, that the 
 Irish affairs were to be managed by them — and Lord 
 FitzwilHam's appointment was in consequence of 
 that arrangement. This Portland party had some 
 retainers in the Irish Parliament, who were part of 
 the gentlemen of opposition, and they were to be in 
 the administration under him ; this was to be a 
 Government of conciliation, that is, some unimportant 
 concessions were to be made ; but by them the great 
 point, a bhnd obedience to the English influence and 
 administrations, particularly in regard to the present 
 war, was to be ensured. . . . The great measure of 
 conciliation was, the repeal of the remainder of the 
 Penal Code. It was understood that this was cer- 
 tainly to take place — addresses and petitions poured 
 in from all parties in favour of it. However, so far 
 from passing, this Governor was recalled, and the 
 
320 Ireland in '98. 
 
 addresses from all parts of Ireland requested his stay, 
 and the passing of the bill : he was removed^ and it 
 was rejected ; and the gentlemen of opposition, from 
 railing at the French, the seditions, the Defenders, 
 &c., were again at leisure to resume their old trade 
 of railing ao-ainst the Government. . . . 
 
 ' One curious fact came to light by the removal of 
 Lord Fitzwilliam, which shows what dependence is 
 to be put in courts and statesmen, and should sink 
 deep in the mind of every Irishman. He asserts in 
 his letter, in vindication of himself, " that his orders 
 from England, and his own intentions, were not to bring 
 on the Catholic question if it could be kept back."" 
 
 ' From that period, new laws of an oppressive 
 and sanguinary nature have been enacted and en- 
 forced, for the purpose of extinguishing any spark of 
 freedom that might yet exist. For the last eighteen 
 months, a system of brotherly love and union, and 
 a revival of national spirit, has been rapidly taking 
 place among the people — it was to be expected that 
 this would be opposed. Of late, a set of men have 
 appeared in different parts of the North, styling 
 themselves Orangemen, and professing themselves to 
 be inimical to the Catholics. Some of these called 
 Orangemen, in the cotinty of Armagh, were un- 
 doubted execrable villains and plunderers ; but many 
 have taken that name and arrayed themselves by the 
 instigation of artful and wicked men. Now, as these 
 Orano-emen can have no real interest in this, and as 
 many of them are very ignorant, and as some of 
 
Thomas Russell. 321 
 
 tliem have appeared in places where no disturbance, on 
 pretext of reh'gion, had taken place ; and as religious 
 animosity was the engine by which this country was 
 kept in subjection ; this may be considered as the 
 last effort of the enemies of Ireland to prevent that 
 union which, when once effected, will terminate their 
 power. , . . 
 
 ' Great pains have been taken to prevent the mass 
 of mankind from interfering in political pursuits ; 
 force, and argument, and wit, and ridicule, and in- 
 vective, have been used by the governing party, and 
 with such success that any of the lower or middle 
 rank of society who engage in politics have been, 
 and are, considered as not only ridiculous, but in 
 some degree culpable ; even those who are called 
 moral writers employed their talents on the same 
 side, so that at last it became an undisputed maxim 
 that the poor were not to concern themselves in what 
 related to the government of the country in which 
 they lived ; nevertheless, it is an error of the most 
 pernicious nature, as will appear from considering 
 the subject. Those insolent enslavers of the human 
 race, who wish to fetter the minds as well as the 
 body, exclaim to the poor, " Mind your looms, and 
 your spades and ploughs ; have you not the means 
 of subsistence ? can you not earn your bread, and 
 have wives and get children ? and are you not pro- 
 tected as long as you keep quiet ? and have you not 
 all that you can earn, except so much as is necessary 
 for us to govern you ? leave the government to wiser 
 
 Y 
 
322 Ireland m '98. 
 
 heads and to people who understand it, and interfere 
 no more ! " 
 
 ' Now in the first place, think who this Govern- 
 ment have for the most part been ; "by their fruits 
 sliall ye know them ; " look at their fruits in history, 
 and see what terrible calamities the perfidy, ambition, 
 avarice, and cruelty of these rulers have brought on 
 mankind ; look at the people who are said to make 
 laws for this country ; look at some of that race who 
 inherit great fortunes without the skill or capacity of 
 being useful ; those fungus productions who grow 
 out of a diseased state of society, and destroy as well 
 the vigour as the beauty of that which nourishes 
 them. These are some of the wiser heads ; these are 
 the hands in which the people are to repose their 
 lives and properties ; for whose splendid debaucheries 
 they must be taxed ; and for whose convenience they 
 must fetter even their thoughts. 
 
 ' Now on what foundation do these arrogant 
 claims rest ? it is not superior virtue, for in such 
 hands power should be vested ; on a fair comparison 
 it will be found that the aristocracy have not a supe- 
 riority in that respect. Power, long continued in 
 any mortal hands, has a tendency to corrupt ; and 
 when that power is derived from birth or fortune, 
 and held independent of the people, it is still more 
 likely to be abused; it is not that they contribute 
 more to the support of the State, for that is mani- 
 festly not the case. Supposing, for a moment, that 
 the whole of the expense was defrayed by the rich. 
 
Thomas Russell. 323 
 
 though they might, with some colour of justice, 
 claim the exclusive right of making laws affecting 
 property, yet this could never extend to laws affect- 
 ing life — every man has a life to lose, though perhaps 
 no property — laws, therefore, affecting life, should 
 have his concurrence. But take any district, and 
 see how much more the mass of the people pay than 
 the governing party; and it is still more obvious, 
 when the proportion which each pays according to 
 his income is considered. Here, if a man of five 
 pounds income pays one, the proportion to a man of 
 one thousand pounds income would be two hundred 
 pounds ; but this proportion is not observed. , . . 
 
 ' It is not here intended to question the right of 
 landed property, but merely to show, as is evident 
 from these considerations, that even in a pecuniary 
 view, the mass of the people are entitled to a share in 
 the government as well as the rich. 
 
 'Agriculture is the basis of all riches, commercial 
 as well as others ; the earth was given to man by 
 Him who alone had a right to give it, for his subsist- 
 ence; let not those then who raise the fruits of it 
 among us be despised. But these are, in the language 
 of the great, " the mob, the rabble, the beggars on 
 the bridge, the grey-coated men, whose views are 
 anarchy and plunder, and whose means are bloodshed 
 and murder. Are such men to be trusted with power ? 
 No ! Keep them down ; do they complain, disregard 
 them ; do they resist, dragoon them ; send an army 
 
 T 2 
 
324 Ireland in '98. 
 
 to burn their houses, and murder them with the 
 bayonet or the gibbet." 
 
 ' The God of heaven and earth endowed these 
 men with the same passions and the same reason as 
 the great, and consequently, qualified them for the 
 same liberty, happiness, and virtue ; but these gen- 
 tlemen conceive themselves wiser than the Deity; 
 they find that he was wrong, and set about rectifying 
 his work ; they find the moral qualities and political 
 rights of their fellow-creatures commensurate with 
 their fortunes ; they punish the poverty which their 
 own insatiable avarice in a great degree creates ; and 
 thus, as in every case when the will of God is de- 
 parted from, instead of order, confusion, folly, and 
 guilt is produced, either immediately or ultimately. 
 How different was the conduct of him in whom we 
 profess to believe! What did he, who knew the 
 hearts of man, say of the great and powerful? He 
 did not revile the poor — he comforted, he instructed, 
 he blessed them, he forgave them their sins, and de- 
 clared the judgments of God on such as laid on them 
 grievous burthens and hard to be borne. 
 
 ' Though it appears that the mass of mankind 
 have a right to political freedom, yet the extent of 
 the duty which is incumbent on every member of 
 society in consequence, does not seem to be sufficiently 
 attended to, notwithstanding it is a duty of the 
 greatest magnitude, as will appear from the following 
 considerations : 
 
 ' 1. No man can doubt that as a moral agent he is 
 
Thomas Russell. 325 
 
 accountable to God for the use to which he applies 
 his money, his strength, his time, and his abilities. 
 
 ' 2. If one man was applied to by anotlier to assist 
 him in committing a robbery or murder, there can be 
 no doubt that it is his duty to refuse, and not only 
 so, but to endeavour to prevent the perpetration of 
 the deed. 
 
 '3. If he was asked for money to carry such 
 purpose into effect, he is bound to refuse ; if he gave 
 it, he would be as guilty of the design of robbery or 
 murder as he who planned or executed it. 
 
 ' 4. No man, or set of men, let them call them- 
 selves or be called what they please, or be they ever 
 so numerous, can make an act which is immoral in 
 itself, proper, or can have any power to authorise its 
 commission. 
 
 ' 5. Man is bound to refuse committing robbery, 
 murder, or other sinful act, and to resist its being 
 perpetrated, if resistance be in his power, whether he 
 is ordered or incited by one or ten thousand. . . . 
 
 ' The prosperity of a nation does not consist in 
 the acquisition of immense fortunes by any class of 
 men, such as merchants or landholders. The pros- 
 perity of a State has been well defined by the excellent 
 Mr. Tytler in his "Historical Register": "If the 
 majority can procure a comfortable subsistence with 
 little labour, and have something to share with those 
 who are in want, the state of the people is flourishing ; 
 but, on the other hand, if they feel that they can scarce 
 live upon their income, and that this income can 
 
326 Ireland in '98. 
 
 only be procured by incessant toil, that the moment 
 this toil is interrupted they are in absolute want, 
 then the country does not flourish." Now it is 
 notorious that the majority of the people in this 
 country are in a state of extreme poverty, that is, by 
 hard and incessant labour that they can subsist, and 
 if sickness or accidents befal them, they are almost 
 deprived of the means of existence. But, supposing, 
 for a moment, that by the war, prosperity and afflu- 
 ence, sufficient to satiate avarice, was brought home 
 to every individual of the nation ; still, if the war 
 was unjust, this wealth would only be the fruits of 
 robbery and murder. If the English, or any other 
 people, think gold a sufficient cause to shed blood — if 
 they are satisfied to fill the world with carnage and 
 misery, that they may acquire cloves and nutmegs, 
 and contracts, and slaves — let it not be so with us ; let 
 justice be the rule of our conduct, and let us not, for 
 any human consideration, incur the displeasure of the 
 Deity. . . . 
 
 ' Let not Ireland be considered as unimportant 
 in the war ; immense sums have been voted to its 
 support. It has been calculated that near one-third 
 of the seamen in the British navy are Irish. Above 
 150,000 Irish soldiers have been employed in the war. 
 Mankind are used to disregard actions which do not 
 immediately fall under their observation. Let us 
 for a moment consider the miseries which this multi- 
 tude of men have inflicted on people who never 
 injured them ; the number of our fellow-creatures 
 
Thomas Russell. 327 
 
 whom tliey have killed or mangled ; the widows and 
 orphans that they have made, who cry to heaven for 
 redress ; the plunder, violence, rapes, massacres, con- 
 fusion, flight, affliction, anguish, despair and horror 
 which they have occasioned, and which are incident 
 to and inseparable from the execrable trade of war. 
 Are then these dreadful scenes less real, or are the 
 Irish nation less accountable for them because they 
 are acted at a distance, because they occur in France, 
 in Flanders, in Holland, in the Atlantic, in the East 
 or West Indies, than if they occurred at home ? 
 
 ' Consider, beside, the number of these, your 
 countrymen, who have themselves perished by disease, 
 famine, and the sword ; think of the men torn, 
 without even legal process, from their destitute inno- 
 cent families, under the name of Defenders, by a set of 
 detestable ruffians ; crammed on board of ships of 
 war, and there forced to fight in a cause which, 
 perhaps, they thought wrong. The North American 
 savages are superior to such a practice. When they 
 go to war, every man of the tribe who disapproves of 
 it is at liberty to remain at home or peaceably follow 
 his avocations of hunting ; but here a man may be 
 forced to act against his reason and his conscience, or 
 be exposed to such torments as all men's fortitude is 
 not equal to withstand. Are the Irish nation aware 
 that this contest involves the question of the slave 
 trade, the one now of the greatest consequence on the 
 face of the earth ? Are they willing to employ their 
 treasure and their blood in support of that system, 
 
328 Ireland in '98. 
 
 because England has seventy or seven thousand mil- 
 lions engaged in it ; the only argument that can be 
 adduced in its favour, monstrous as it may appear ? 
 Do they know that that horrid traffic spreads its 
 influence over the globe ; that it creates and perpe- 
 tuates barbarism and misery, and prevents the spread- 
 ing of civilisation and religion, in which we profess to 
 believe ? Do they know that by it, thousands and 
 hundreds of thousands of these miserable Africans 
 are dragged from their innocent families like the 
 miserable Defenders, transported to various places, 
 and there treated with such a system of cruelty, tor- 
 ment, wickedness, and infamy, that it is impossible for 
 language adequately to express its horror and guilt, 
 and which would appear rather to be the work of 
 wicked demons than of men ? If this trade is wrong, 
 is it right for the Irish nation to endeavour to con- 
 tinue it ? . . . 
 
 ' It appears that the Irish nation have not that 
 portion of liberty which would give them an efficient 
 weight in their government ; that this want of liberty 
 arises from want of union among the people ; that by 
 union the people would acquire sufficient weight to 
 give political integrity and virtue to their government, 
 and liberty, peace, and happiness to themselves ; and 
 that they are bound by every consideration of interest, 
 of reason, of justice, of mercy, and of religion, to 
 pursue that union. . . . 
 
 ' Thomas Russell.' 
 
 ' Belfast, Sept. 11, 1796. 
 
Thomas Bii-ssell. 329 
 
 Russell's exertions in the cause of the United 
 Irishmen were not confined to his assistance in the 
 press and m the councils of the society ; he took a very 
 active part in propagating the system in the counties 
 of Antrim, Down, Tyrone, and Donegal. He was in 
 the habit of making pedestrian excursions through 
 these counties, and his efforts to gain over persons of 
 the Presbyterian persuasion, notorious for their hos- 
 tility to those of the Roman Catholic religion, met with 
 more success than those of any other northern leader. 
 
 In the summer of 1796 the chief military com- 
 mand in the county of Down was assigned to Russell. 
 Though his pamphlet was the means of drawing on 
 him more closely the attention of Government, yet 
 long before this, a letter addressed to him by Tone 
 had fallen into their hands, in which letter sentiments 
 of hostility to British interests were freely expressed. 
 In April 1797, when a committee of United Irishmen 
 were seized at Alexander's public-house, in Belfast, 
 two boxes were broken open and the contents, among 
 which were several letters of Russell's, were carried 
 away. There can be little doubt that the eyes of the 
 authorities were on him from this period ; however, 
 no violent measures were had recourse to against him, 
 but many efi'orts were made to draw him from a 
 society of which he was one of the founders and 
 leaders. 
 
 On September 16, 1796, in one of the periodical 
 sweeps of terror of that period, Thomas Russell was 
 arrested in Belfast ; and though he had received 
 
Ireland in '98. 
 
 timely notice of this event, he refused to take advan- 
 taofe of the information and surrendered himself to 
 the doughty peer, the Earl of Westmeath. The 
 prisoners were sent to Dublin, and, having undergone 
 an examination before Mr. Justice Boyd, were com- 
 mitted to prison. Some were sent to Kilmainham ; 
 others, among whom was Thomas Russell, were 
 confined in Newgate. When several of his fellow- 
 prisoners were liberated on bail, it was suggested to 
 Russell to offer security for his good behaviour ; this 
 he refused to do, on the grounds that ' his so doing 
 would be an acknowledgment of having done some- 
 thinof wronof, which he never would admit.' Russell 
 remained in confinement until March 19, 1799, when 
 he was embarked and sent, with the other State 
 prisoners, to Fort George. Here he remained till the 
 latter part of June, 1802, when the prisoners, in 
 virtue of the compact entered into with the Govern- 
 ment, and so shamefully violated by it, were at length 
 permitted to leave the country. 
 
 Among some of the papers of Russell's which 
 have been preserved, are portions of a correspondence 
 between him and the well-known botanist and natural 
 historian, John Templeton. A few extracts will 
 serve to throw light on the character and pursuits of 
 a man whom the writer in ' Fraser's Magazine ' 
 represents as a ' fanatic demagogue, bordering on 
 fatuity, dreaming of nothing but "treasons, strata- 
 gems, and broils." ' 
 
 The correspondence from which the following ex- 
 
Thomas Ruasell. 33 L 
 
 tracts are taken took place, at distant intervals, during 
 the confinement of Russell in Newgate, and in Fort 
 George, in Scotland. 
 
 ' I would not,' he says, ' change places with any 
 one of those by whose means I am here, nor do 1 
 repent, nor would I alter any part of my political 
 conduct, for I acted as well as I was able for the good 
 of my country and of mankind, and I know that I 
 shall ultimately be tried by an infallible, just, and 
 merciful Judge. . . . 
 
 ' In regard of what you mention, that "I could 
 get my enlargement by application to Government, 
 but that I want an apology from them," your in- 
 formation has been erroneous. I have repeatedly 
 and recently applied, by letter, to Mr. Cooke and Mr. 
 Pelham, to be brought to trial, or liberated, but no 
 attention has been paid to my demand. . . . 
 
 ' I have often demanded my papers, but to no 
 effect. They relate almost exclusively to science, and 
 some to a work on history, which I had planned four 
 years ago, and for which I had made many extracts, 
 memoranda, &c. . . . 
 
 ' You are right in supposing the Government have 
 no charge against me ; they make no secret of this. 
 Mr. Pelham has declared it. I am only thought to be 
 dangerous. What folly ! . . . 
 
 ' To such as had the misfortune to connect the 
 cause of Irreligion with that of Liberty, I beg them 
 attentively to consider France, for some years past 
 governed by professed atheists and deists, to see them 
 
332 Ireland in '98. 
 
 introducing boundless profligacy by their marriage 
 laws, sending others to the scaffold ; and now a 
 remnant of them, with detestable hypocrisy, trying 
 to establish their power, endeavouring to bind the 
 French, by other claims, to the feet of tyranny. / 
 trust this delusion is likewise over, and that m,en will see 
 the only true basis of Liberty is Morality, and the only 
 stable basis of Morality is Religion. . . . 
 
 ' So far from conceiving the cause of Ireland lost, 
 or being weary of its pursuit, I am more than ever, 
 if possible, inflexibly bent on it ; for that I stay (if I 
 can stay) in Europe; all the faculties I possess shall 
 be exercised for its advancement; for that I wished 
 to go to Ireland, not to reside, but to see how I shall 
 be able to serve it, and that I can only know when 
 at large. Every motive exists to stimulate the gene- 
 rous mind — the widows and orphans of my friends, 
 the memory of the heroes who fell, and the sufferings 
 of the heroes who survive. My very soul is on fire ; 
 I can say no more.' 
 
 The following lines, written in Fort George, by 
 Thomas Russell, on Mrs. Emmett's visit to her hus- 
 band, afford a specimen of his poetic taste : 
 
 Companions so brave, who in evil thus meet 
 
 For the glorious endeavour our country to free, 
 Amidst all our sufferings such moments are sweet 
 
 When brothers in bonds still united can be. 
 May Providence graciously grant this request — 
 
 May we live our dear country triumphant to see ! 
 Or if this is too much, and it should be judged best, 
 
 May our deaths, like our lives, serve dear Ireland to free. 
 
Thomas Russell. 333 
 
 How delightful the thought that an object so great, 
 
 Embracing the rights and the freedom of all, 
 Can thus in a prison such transports create, 
 
 And in exile itself can our country recall ! 
 That you who endeavour these rights to secure, 
 
 By arts, or by eloquence, science, or arms, 
 To courage like yours, find affections so pure. 
 
 And virtue and beauty devoting their charms. 
 
 The State prisoners were at length liberated on 
 June 30, 1802 ; Russell had undergone an imprison- 
 ment of five years and nine months without a trial, 
 and by the acknowledgment of the Chief Secretary, 
 Mr. Pelham, without any specific information against 
 him, and was thrown on the world, in a foreign 
 country, without friends or resources, a ruined man. 
 After proceeding to Rotterdam, in company with his 
 friends, Emmett, Wilson, Sweeny, and Cormick, Rus- 
 sell arrived in Paris and remained there for some 
 time in the house of a Mrs. Delaney, an Irish lady, 
 whose husband had held a high situation in some 
 Government department. A few months later, many 
 of the other leaders had entered the French service, 
 but Russell appears to have had no desire to accept 
 a commission in the French army. He belonged to 
 that party whose members had no faith in the French 
 Government, and no opinion of the honesty of its 
 intentions towards Ireland. 
 
 Robert Emmett arrived in Paris either in Sep- 
 tember or October, 1802, and on the strength of the 
 co-operation which he had been led to expect, both 
 at home and abroad, Thomas Russell was led to em- 
 bark in Robert Emmett' s undertaking. At a con- 
 
334 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ference held between them, they determined on listening 
 to jyroposals which began at this time to be broached, in 
 a mysterious manner, by persons of rank and influence, 
 hitherto supposed to be covert friends of the United Irish 
 system,, both at home and abroad. The undertaking 
 meeting with Russell's approval, it was agreed that 
 Robert Emmett should proceed to Ireland and inform 
 Russell when it would be advisable for him to return. 
 This was carried out, and in the month of April, 
 1803, Russell was in Dublin, seldom venturing 
 abroad, except by night. At length, some untoward 
 circumstances induced the conspirators to fix an 
 earlier day than the one that had been appointed, for 
 the accomplishment of their designs, Russell, with 
 the title of general, to have the chief command of all 
 the forces in the North, was despatched to Ulster, 
 accompanied by the man whose services were called 
 into requisition on every emergency of extraordinary 
 peril, and where extraordinary prudence, as well as 
 fidelity, was required — James Hope. 
 
 Of the disastrous mission on which these two 
 men were engaged, and of its ultimate failure, it is 
 needless to give minute particulars. James Hope, in 
 his account of the affair, says: 'Agents were among 
 the northerns, advising them to wait until they saw 
 how the south would act. . . . Nothing appeared 
 among them but timidity and a desire to know what 
 only concerned spies. . . . We were all beset with 
 spies and informers — the principal leaders in par- 
 ticular. . . .' 
 
Thomas Russell. 335 
 
 That Russell entertained the most extraordinary 
 and extravagant expectations of the general rising 
 throughout the country was proved by a proclama- 
 tion issued by him soon after his arrival in the North, 
 and produced at his trial. 
 
 Thomas Russell, on his arrival in Dublin, had 
 lodgings taken for him in Parliament Street, in the 
 house of a gunsmith named Muley. Here he re- 
 mained in seclusion till September 9, 1803, when he 
 was arrested by Major Sirr. The prisoner was ap- 
 prehended on suspicion of being some person of con- 
 sequence connected with Emmett, but who he was 
 was not known, or affected to be known, by the major. 
 
 The Government had offered a reward of 500Z. 
 for the apprehension of Russell, and a further reward 
 of 500/. was offered, as ' part of a sum subscribed by 
 some of the inhabitants of Belfast ' for the aforesaid 
 purpose. 
 
 The General Commandino- in Belfast, Briofadier- 
 General Campbell, offered a further reward of 500Z. 
 for the apprehension, or for information that might 
 lead to the arrest, ' of the above-mentioned traitor.' 
 
 Russell was brought to Downpatrick from Dublin, 
 in a carriage, accompanied by Dr. Trevor, Inspector 
 of Prisons, whose mission, it would seem, was to act 
 as spy on the prisoner, and to endeavour to extract 
 information from him. Russell was confined in the 
 governor's rooms, in the prison; an officer's guard 
 was placed at the entrance. 
 
 The following extracts from a letter to Miss 
 
336 Ireland in '98. 
 
 M'Cracken, written shortly before his trial, show 
 what his opinion was as to its result, and his feelings 
 with respect to the failure of his efforts : 
 
 ' Humanly speaking, I expect to be found guilty, 
 and immediately executed ; and as this may be my 
 last letter, I shall only say that I did my best for my 
 country, and for mankind ; errors, from my fallible 
 judgment, I have doubtless committed, and I beg 
 their pardon for them — for I have no wish to die — 
 but far from regretting its loss, in such a cause, had 
 I a thousand lives, I would willingly risk or lose 
 them in it ; and be assured liberty will, in the midst 
 of these storms, be established, and God will wipe 
 off the tears from all eyes.' 
 
 Miss M'Cracken no sooner heard of Russell's 
 having been sent to Downpatrick, than she used 
 every effort to save her unfortunate friend. So much 
 tenderness of heart, mixed with so much heroism and 
 energy in the practice of benevolence, are seldom 
 found united in the same being. Miss M'Cracken 
 went among: her friends and those of Russell, and 
 collected a sum of about 80^. The remainder was 
 made up by her, and the lawyers were brought down. 
 Joy strenuously defended his client, and told Miss 
 M'Cracken, after the trial, ' he never in his life felt so 
 interested for any man.' 
 
 On October 19, 1803, at a special commission at 
 Downpatrick, Thomas Russell was tried before Baron 
 George, on a charge of high treason. The Attorney- 
 General, Mr. Standish O'Grady, and the Solicitor- 
 
Thomas Russell. 337 
 
 General, Mr. M'Clelland, both subsequently Barons 
 of the Exchequer, prosecuted for the Crown ; Coun- 
 sellors Joy and Bell defended the prisoner. Various 
 witnesses were called, who gave somewhat contradic- 
 tory evidence, to prove that the prisoner had endea- 
 voured to stir up the people into rebellion, and a 
 proclamation issued for this object by him was 
 produced. 
 
 After the statement of the case and evidence had 
 been gone through on the part of the Crown, the pri- 
 soner said he considered himself precluded, as a man 
 of honour, from any defence. ' There are,' he said, 
 ' but three possible modes of defence — first, by calling 
 witnesses to prove the innocence of my conduct ; 
 secondly, by calling them to impeach the credit of 
 opposite witnesses ; or by proving an alibi. As I 
 can resort to none of these modes of defence, without 
 involving others, I consider myself precluded from 
 any.' 
 
 The following account of the conduct of Russell 
 during his trial is taken from a letter written by Miss 
 M'Cracken : 
 
 ' The composure, dignity, and firmness of our 
 beloved friend, both on his trial and at the last awful 
 scene, commanded the esteem, admiration, and as- 
 tonishment of all who beheld him. Those even who 
 had never before had the pleasure of his acquaint- 
 ance, and who had only for a few days an opportunity 
 of conversing with him, found themselves attached 
 to him by an extraordinary and irresistible impulse, 
 
 z 
 
188 Ireland in '98. 
 
 such as they had never felt for any man before. Even 
 those who had been most active in pursuing him to 
 death, now launch out in his praise, and lament the 
 necessity they imagine themselves to have been under 
 of making him a sacrifice. . . . 
 
 ' At the conclusion of his trial, he addressed the 
 court in a speech the most beautiful, affecting, and 
 dignified, during which the most profound silence 
 prevailed, and all were compelled to acknowledge, 
 however they might differ from him in opinion, that 
 they believed him to have been actuated by the purest 
 intentions. 
 
 ' The execution took place about noon on October 
 21, 1803, the day after the trial. The Rev. Mr. 
 Forde, a clergyman of the Church of England, attended 
 Russell, in the brief interval between conviction and 
 execution. He had been brought up in the Protes- 
 tant religion ; for some time during his residence in 
 Belfast, previous to his first imprisonment, he so far 
 seceded from, the Church of England as to attend the 
 Presbyterian place of worship. Mr. Forde observed 
 that he made use of a Greek Testament ; he said he 
 was in the habit of reading it fi'om choice in the 
 original. Just before going to execution he gave this 
 Testament to the Rev. Mr. Forde, in whose family it 
 now is, and is kept as a relic. . . . 
 
 ' On reaching the gateway where the preparations 
 were made, Russell said, " Is this the place?" After 
 ascending the platform, he spoke a short time to Mr. 
 Fulton, and then looked forward through the gateway 
 
Thomafi Russell. 339 
 
 to the troops and people who were beyond them, and 
 in a clear firm voice said : "I forgive my persecutors ; 
 I die in peace with all mankind, and I hope for mercy, 
 throuo-h the merits of mv Redeemer, Jesus Christ." 
 He then turned round, and, addressing himself to the 
 sub- sheriff and the few gentlemen who were present 
 in the prison -yard, with an expression of great 
 benignity and perfect calmness, said, ' Gentlemen, 
 may God Almighty bless you all.' His manner was 
 perfectly calm and collected. The cap was then put 
 on — the planks knocked away. He died without 
 apparently suffering. 
 
 ' The executioner then lowered down the body ; 
 the barrels and planks were removed, and the gates 
 closed. The decapitation then took place, the gates 
 were again opened, the barrels and planks replaced, 
 and the executioner, holding the head in his hands, 
 displayed it for an instant, and the gates were again 
 closed.' 
 
 The above account was received from a gentleman 
 of the name of Anderson, living in Downpatrick, who 
 was present at the execution, on duty. 
 
 Russell was buried in the churchyard of the 
 parish church ; a plain slab is laid over his grave, 
 and on it is written : 
 
 ' The Grave of Russell.' 
 
 We must remember that we are now reading the 
 life of Thomas Russell by the glimmering light of 
 the history of the failure of his attempt, and judging 
 
 z 2 
 
340 Ireland in '98. 
 
 of his actions, without being sensible of so doing, by 
 the record of his conviction at Downpatrick, and the 
 remembrance of the obloquy which that conviction 
 carried with it. Had that attempt been successful, 
 or had that trial at Downpatrick terminated in an 
 acquittal, how mightily would our opinion of his in- 
 tellectual and moral qualities have been enhanced ! 
 
 Men like Russell, of exalted notions of honour, 
 of purity of principle, of unswerving integrity, of 
 unbounded confidence in others, whom they judge of 
 as they would be judged by them, of great hopes in 
 the justice of their cause, and of enthusiastic expec- 
 tations of its success : these are the men whose blood 
 brings forth, in due time, the buds and blossoms of 
 liberty ; they seem ordained to be its martyrs, and 
 not the master spirits, who are permitted to lead its 
 followers into the promised land. 
 
 There never was a man who loved his country- 
 men with more intense feelings of devotion than 
 Thomas Russell. To the very intensity of those 
 feelings is to be mainly attributed the unfortunate 
 termination of his career. They misled his judg- 
 ment, but the evils which an iniquitous Government, 
 at the outset of his career, had inflicted on Ireland, 
 were sufficient to bring sober-minded persons to that 
 point of which M'Intosh speaks when he says, " Men 
 feel more than they can reason," and he might have 
 added, reason only as if they felt their wrongs were 
 not to be endured. 
 
341 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WILLIAM JAMES M'NEVEN. 
 
 Descent — Education in Germany — Return to Ireland— Catholic Com- 
 mittee — Represents Navan — Joins United Irishmen — Dangerous 
 mission — ' Protestant ascendency ' — Secret Committee of House of 
 Lords — Examination of M'Neven — Second examination — Arrest 
 and imprisonment — Fort George — Visits to the Continent — Com- 
 mission in French army — Resignation — Arrival in New York — 
 Successful career — Marriage — Devotion to Ireland — Public ordeal 
 — Domestic affliction — Severe illness — Death — Tribute to his 
 memory. 
 
 One of the prominent members of the United Irish- 
 men was William James M'Neven. He was de- 
 scended from a family which had possessed consider- 
 able property in the North of Ireland, which property 
 had been transmitted in a direct line from father to 
 son, until Cromwell's time. At that period, the 
 sentence passed on the Irish who differed from the 
 usurper in matters of religion was, " To Hell or 
 Connaught ; " alternatives which did not present 
 much variety in the way of choice. The property of 
 the M'JSTevens was forfeited, and lands were allotted 
 them in the wilds of Connaught ; these lands they 
 held until the year 1805, when, on M'Neven emi- 
 grating to America, they were sold. His uncle, 
 
342 Ireland in '98. 
 
 William O'Kelly M'Neven, had left [reland many 
 years before and settled in Germany, where, having 
 attained eminence in the medical profession, he had 
 been appointed physician to the Empress Maria 
 Theresa, with the title of baron. When M'Neven 
 was about twelve years old, he was sent for by his 
 uncle to receive his education in Germany. Here he 
 remained for eight or ten years, receiving an excellent 
 education at the military college of Prague, and finally 
 graduating at Vienna at the age of twenty. Baron 
 M'Neven was a man of learning and science, and at 
 his house his nephew enjoyed the society of the most 
 polished and learned men of the neighbourhood. 
 About the year 1794, M'Neven returned to Dublin, 
 where he commenced the practice of his profession. 
 By this he soon realised a handsome competency, and 
 with every advantage of ability, education, and family 
 influence, would doubtless have become eminent in 
 literature and science, had the circumstances of the 
 time permitted him to lead a retired and studious 
 life. This, however, was not to be ; the unhappy 
 condition of Ireland called for the services of her sons, 
 and M'Neven was not the man to be deaf to such a 
 call. 
 
 For some time he had been a constant attendant 
 at the meetings of the Catholic Committee in Dublin, 
 and had been much interested in their debates. 
 Among the members of the committee were nearly 
 all the influential Catholics, both lords and commons. 
 On one occasion a dispute arose as to the nature of a 
 
William James 3PNeven. 343 
 
 remonstrance about to be offered to the Government. 
 It was opposed by the democratic party, on the 
 ground that it was too servile an.d obsequious in 
 tone ; while tlie aristocratic party approved it as 
 being discreet and loyal, M'Neven warmly opposed 
 the aristocratic party, and the measure was carried 
 against them. In an address, published by the 
 citizens of the town of Navan, he was heartily con- 
 gratulated on the part he had taken, and from this 
 may be dated the commencement of his public career. 
 In the following year, 1792, a convention of Catholics 
 having been called to ascertain their sentiments on 
 the subject, the towns of Galway and Navan selected 
 M'Neven as their representative ; he chose the one 
 which had previously distinguished him by its 
 approval. In the meetings of the convention he 
 made several able speeches, which were published, and 
 also originated and effected the measure which ob- 
 tained for the forty-shilling freeholders the privilege 
 of elective franchise. It was probably about this 
 time that M'Neven became acquainted with Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald and Arthur O'Connor, who ex- 
 plained their views to him and requested his co- 
 operation. He gladly assented to their proposals, and 
 became a member of the secret society of United 
 Irishmen, from which time he devoted all his energies 
 to the liberation of Ireland — his constant dream and 
 desire. This devotion to public interests, however, 
 did not interfere with the practice of his profession, 
 in which he was very successful. 
 
344 Ireland in '98. 
 
 In the Catholic Parliament, as the Catholic Com- 
 mittee was often called, Dr. M'Neven was the leader 
 of those who sought the right of the elective franchise, 
 and during an exciting meeting he moved an amend- 
 ment to the effect that the Catholics should demand 
 it to the full extent it was exercised by the Protest- 
 ants. The petition, thus amended, was presented to 
 the King and graciously received. In the following 
 session of Parliament a bill was passed in conformity 
 with the petition, and to this act of M'Neven Ireland 
 was indebted for the creation of that most coura- 
 geous and patriotic class of citizens, the forty- shilling 
 freeholders. The first great result of this creation 
 was the election of Daniel O'Connell for the county 
 of Clare, and the consequent emancipation of the 
 Catholics. 
 
 Dr. M'Neven continued to take an active part in 
 everything connected with the Catholic question, and 
 was soon advanced to the chief executive office as 
 one of the five directors of United Irishmen. Dan- 
 gerous missions were frequently entrusted to him, and 
 were promptly accepted. With the object of seeking 
 arms, ammunition, and allies, he proceeded to Paris as 
 the agent of Ireland, and was in constant communi- 
 cation with Theobald Wolfe Tone, then in Holland. 
 While the doctor was in Paris, a peace was being 
 negotiated at Lisle by the English and French Com- 
 missioners, which it was very important, for the 
 interest of Ireland, to delay or prevent. M'Neven 
 and Tone used every endeavour to effect a rupture of 
 
William James M^Neven. 345 
 
 the negotiations, or if they were unsuccessful in this, 
 to place on the protocol a demand for the internal 
 independence of the Irish Parliament, including the 
 religious freedom of the Catholics. The English pleni- 
 potentiaries returned home without making peace, 
 and an invasion of Ireland, which completely failed, 
 was attempted the next winter. 
 
 On September 11, 1792, the corporation of Dublin 
 passed a series of resolutions, unanimously setting 
 forth their grand principle, ' Protestant ascendency,' 
 and their determination to support it with their lives 
 and fortunes. Having set forth the Roman Catholics 
 to be in possession of — 
 
 ' The most perfect toleration of their religion ; 
 
 ' The fullest security of their property ; 
 
 ' The most complete personal liberty ; 
 it was resolved, ' That w^e consider the Protestant 
 ascendency to consist in 
 
 ' A Protestant King of Ireland ; 
 
 ' A Protestant Parliament ; 
 
 ' Protestant electors and Government ; 
 
 ' The benches of justice ; 
 
 ' The army and the revenue ; 
 
 ' Through all their branches and details Protes- 
 tant ; 
 
 ' And this system supported by a connection with 
 the Protestant realm of Britain.' 
 
 The first Catholic convention ever called, re- 
 sponded to the sentiments put forth by the Dublin 
 corporation. At a meeting of the delegates on Sep- 
 
346 Ireland in '98. 
 
 tember 3, 1792, Dr. M'Neven, in a very powerful 
 speech, asserted the rights of his Catholic countrymen 
 to the enjoyment of every privilege accorded to their 
 Protestant fellow-subjects, and by his spirited attack 
 on the corporation, inflicted a greater blow and a 
 heavier discouragement on Protestant ascendency 
 than it had ever sustained. 
 
 ' It was this ascendency,' he said, ' that in the 
 reigns of Elizabeth and James, like a ferocious tiger, 
 devastated the land of our fathers, and after estab- 
 lishing its den on a depopulated waste, surrounded 
 it, in a succeeding age, with the horrors of mental 
 darkness ; it was this ascendency that, breaking 
 through the sympathies of nature, and the obliga- 
 tions of eternal justice, established the slow tortures, 
 the recreant prohibitions, the unnatural, unmanly 
 enormities of the Penal Code. It was this ascen- 
 dency that annihilated the flourishing manufacture 
 of woollens, that abandoned Irish shipping, shocked 
 Irish commerce, and despoiled the nation of indepen- 
 dence, as it now deprived the Catholic of franchise. 
 It was that same spirit of rapacity and division 
 which prowled for addresses, and instigated grand 
 juries. 
 
 ' Its opposition to justice had at length taught 
 the people their resources ; it stimulated virtue, 
 awakened pride, and armed every passion of the heart 
 in defence of the best interests of the country. They 
 must now come forward manfully with the long list 
 of their grievances in one hand, the charter of liberty 
 
William James 3PNeve?i. 347 
 
 in the other, and arraign at the bar of national 
 justice this monster, which strides over a prostrate 
 land, and taunts the people from every ministerial 
 print and grand jury, with the clanking of their 
 chains.' 
 
 M'Neven ended his address by moving a slight 
 amendment in the prayer of the petition for ' a par- 
 ticipation in the elective franchise ; ' he proposed that 
 the word ' equal ' be inserted before that of ' partici- 
 pation.' 
 
 On the following day, December 4, he addressed 
 the delegates in a speech no less powerful than the 
 former, in support of ' a demand for total emancipation, 
 as the most honourable, the most consistent, and the 
 wisest measure for them to adopt ; one that could not 
 be withheld by the power in the country, and would 
 not be opposed by the power out of it.' 
 
 M'Neven sailed from Yarmouth for Holland on 
 July 7, 1797, on his mission from the Directory of 
 the United Irishmen. At page 55 of ' The Pieces of 
 Irish History,' he gives the following account of the 
 knowledge of the British Government of the com- 
 munications which had been carried on with France : 
 ' Their knowledge of the negotiations of the United 
 Irishmen with foreign states was equally notorious, 
 and at this time one of the deputies had personal 
 evidence of its extent and accuracy. That knowledge 
 was obtained from some person in the pay of England 
 and in the confidence of France. 
 
 ' On March 12 preceding, after the arrests in 
 
348 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Dublin, Mr. Cooke told Dr. M'Neven that Govern- 
 ment was in possession of a copy of the memoir given 
 by him to the French minister, and he removed, in 
 this instance, all suspicion of his own veracity, by 
 detailing a great part of its contents. The day 
 following. Dr. M'Neven was again questioned by the 
 Anglo-Irish Privy Council concerning the same paper. 
 Of this discovery he found means to inform several 
 of his friends, and at the period of the negotiation 
 he had the satisfaction of knowmg that one of those 
 persons was actually in France, and had, in all pro- 
 bability, already communicated the intelligence to 
 the Directory.' 
 
 A garbled account having been given of the 
 examinations of Dr. M'Neven before the secret 
 committee of the House of Lords, on Auo;ust 7 and 
 8, 1798, he published, conjointly with Emmett and 
 O'Connor, an authentic account of what took place, 
 and the following is a copy of it : 
 
 The Examination of William James APNeven he- 
 fore the Secret Committee of the House of Lords, 
 August 7, 1798. 
 
 Lord Chancellor. Pray, Dr. M'Neven, what number 
 of troops did the Irish Directory require from the 
 French Government for the invasion of Ireland ? 
 
 M''Neven. The minimum force was 5,000 men, 
 the maximum, 10,000 men. With that number, 
 and a large quantity of arms and ammunition, we 
 
William James M''Neven. 349 
 
 knew that an Irish army could be formed and disci- 
 plined. This, aided by the universal T\ish of the 
 people to shake off the yoke, we had no doubt would 
 succeed ; and we were always solicitous that no 
 foreign force should be able to dictate in our country. 
 Liberty and national independence being our object, 
 we never meant to engage in a struggle for a change 
 of masters. 
 
 Loi'd Chancellor. Was not your object a separation 
 from England? 
 
 M'Neven. It certainly became our object, when 
 we were convinced that liberty was not otherwise 
 attainable ; our reasons for this determination are 
 given m the memoir ; it is a measure we were forced 
 into, inasmuch as I am now, and always have been, 
 of opinion, that if we were an independent republic, 
 and Britain ceased to be formidable to us, our interest 
 would require an intimate connection with her. 
 
 Lord Chancellor. Such as subsists between Ensf- 
 land and America? 
 
 M'Neven. Something like it, my lord. 
 
 Archbishop of Cashel. In plain English, that 
 Ireland should stand on her own bottom, and trade 
 with every other country, just according as she 
 found it would be her interest? 
 
 M}Neven. Precisely, my lord ; I have not, I own, 
 any idea of sacrificing the mterests of Ireland to those 
 of any other country, nor why we should not, in 
 that, as in every other respect, be as free as the 
 Enoflish themselves. 
 
350 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Archbishop of Cashel. Ireland could not support 
 herself alone ? 
 
 M^Neven. In my opinion she could, and, if once 
 her own mistress, would be invincible against England 
 and France together ; but this, my lord, is a com- 
 bination never to be expected. If necessary, I could 
 bring as many proofs in support of this opinion as 
 a thing admits of which may be only supported or 
 opposed by probabilities. 
 
 Lord Kihvarden. Had the North any intention of 
 rising in rebellion in the summer of 1797? 
 
 M^Neven. It had an intention of rising in arms 
 after General Jake's proclamation. 
 
 Lord Kilwarden. What prevented it? 
 M'-Neven. The people of the North were made 
 acquainted with assurances received about this time 
 from France, that the expected succours would be 
 shortly sent to us ; and it was represented to them, 
 that we would be giving the English a great advan- 
 tage by beginning before they arrived. For this, as 
 well as other reasons, I was always averse to our 
 beginning by ourselves. 
 
 Lord Kilwarden. Then if you thought you would 
 have succeeded, you would have begun? 
 
 M^Neven. Most probably we should ; at the 
 same time I am bound to declare, that it was our 
 wish to act with French aid, because that would tend 
 to make the revoh^on less bloody, by determining 
 many to join in it early, who, while the balance of 
 
William James M'-Neven. 351 
 
 success was doubtful, would either retain an injurious 
 neutrality, or even perhaps oppose it. 
 
 Lord Kilwarden. The Union held out to the poor 
 an assurance that their condition would be amelio- 
 rated; how was this to be accomplished? 
 
 M''Neven. In the first place by an abolition of 
 tithes; and in the next, by establishing such an 
 order of things as would give more free scope to 
 their industry, and secure to them a better recom- 
 pense for it. 
 
 Archbishop of Cashel. Can you account for the 
 massacres committed upon the Protestants by the 
 Papists in the county of Wexford ? 
 
 M'-Neven. My lord, I am far from being the apo- 
 logist of massacres, however provoked ; but if I am 
 rightly informed as to the conduct of the magistrates 
 of that county, the massacres you allude to were acts 
 of retahation upon enemies, much more than fana- 
 ticism ; moreover, my lord, it has been the mis- 
 fortune of this country scarcely ever to have known 
 the English natives or settlers otherwise than ene- 
 mies, and in his language the Irish peasant has but 
 one name for Protestant and Englishman, and con- 
 founds them : he calls both by the name of Sasanagh ; 
 his conversation, therefore, is less against a religionist 
 than against a foe ; his prejudice is the elFect of the 
 ignorance he is kept in, and the treatment he receives. 
 How can we be surprised at it, when so much pains 
 are taken to brutalise him ? 
 
 Lord Chancellor. I agree with Dr. M'Neven : 
 
352 Ireland in '98. 
 
 the Irish peasant considers the two words as synony- 
 mous; he calls Protestant and Englishman indiffer- 
 ently, Sasanagh. 
 
 Lord Kilwarden. I suppose the religious esta- 
 blishment would be abolished with the tithes ? 
 
 M^Neven. I suppose it would. 
 
 Lord Kilwarden. Would you not set up another ? 
 
 M'Neven. No, indeed. 
 
 Lord Kilwarden. Not the Roman Catholic ? 
 
 M^Neven. I would no more consent to that than 
 I would to the establishment of Mahometanism. 
 
 Lord Kilwarden. What would you do, then ? 
 
 M'Neven. That which they do in America ; let 
 each man profess the religion of his conscience, and 
 pay his own pastor. 
 
 Lord Chancellor. Do you think the mass of the 
 people in the provinces of Leinster, Munster, and 
 Connaught care the value of this pen, or the drop of 
 ink it contains, for Parliamentary Reform or Catholic 
 Emancipation ? 
 
 ALNeven. I am sure they do not, if by the mass 
 of the people your lordship means the common il- 
 literate people ; they do not understand it. What 
 they very well understand is, that it would be a very 
 great advantage to them to be relieved from the 
 payment of tithes, and not to be fleeced by their 
 landlords ; but there is not a man who can read a 
 newspaper, who has not considered the question of 
 Reform, and was not once, at least, attached to that 
 measure; the people of the least education under- 
 
William James M^Neven. 353 
 
 stand it ; and why the common people, whose opinion 
 on every other occasion is so little valued, should 
 be made the criterion of public opinion, I do not 
 know. 
 
 Lo7'd Chancellor. I dare say they all understand 
 it better than I do ? 
 
 M^Neven. As to Catholic Emancipation, the 
 importance of that question has passed away long 
 since ; it really is not worth a moment's thought at 
 the present period. 
 
 Lord Dillon. Has the Union extended much into 
 Connaught ? 
 
 M^Neven. It has, very considerably. 
 
 Lord Dillon. I did not think so. What is the 
 extent of the organisation ? 
 
 M'Neven. Less, perhaps, than in other places ; 
 it got later into Connaught, but very greq^^numbers 
 have taken the test. From the misery of the poor 
 people, and the oppressiveness of landlords in many 
 parts of that province, we have no doubt but if the 
 French ever land in force there, they will be joined 
 by thousands, probably by the whole of its popu- 
 lation. 
 
 Archbishop of Cashel. If the French had made 
 peace at Lisle, as you say they were willing to do, 
 they would have left you in the lurch ; and may they 
 not do so ao:ain ? 
 
 M^Neven. The French Government declared that 
 it would not deceive the Irish ; and that it must make 
 peace if England offered such terms as France had 
 
 A A 
 
354 Ireland in '98. 
 
 a right to expect ; but that if the insincerity of the 
 Cabinet of St. James's should frustrate the negotia- 
 tion, the Irish should never be abandoned; and I 
 now consider the Directory as bound by every tie of 
 honour never to make peace until we are an indepen- 
 dent nation. 
 
 Archbishop of Cashel. What security have you 
 that the French would not keep this country as a 
 conquest ? 
 
 M^Neven. Their interest and our power : if they 
 attempted any such thing, they must know that 
 England would not fail to take advantage of it ; that 
 she would then begin to get a sense of justice towards 
 Ireland, and make us any offer short of separation, as 
 she did America, when by a like assistance America 
 was enabled to shake off her yoke ; moreover, it is not 
 possible for the French to send any force into this 
 country which would not be at the mercy of its inhabi- 
 tants ; but the example which was held out to them, 
 and to which they promised to conform, was that of 
 Rochambeau in America. 
 
 A Member of the Commission. To what number 
 do you think the United Irishmen amounted all 
 over the kingdom ? 
 
 M''Neven. Those who have taken the test do not, 
 I am convinced, fall short of 500,000, without reckon- 
 ing women and old men. The number regularly or- 
 ganised is not less than 300,000 ; and I have no doubt 
 all these will be ready to fight for the liberty of 
 Ireland, when they get a fair opportunity. 
 
William James ]\PNeven. 355 
 
 Lord Chancellor. We shall not trouble you with 
 any more questions. 
 
 August 8, 1798. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh. Dr. M'Neven, the Lords have 
 sent us the minutes of your examination before them, 
 and we only wish to trouble you with some questions 
 as to the interior state of the country. 
 
 Speaker. Pray, sir, what do you think occasioned 
 the insurrection ? 
 
 APNeven. The insurrection was occasioned by 
 the house-burnings, the whipping to extort confes- 
 sions, the torture of various kinds, the free quarters, 
 and the murders committed upon the people by the 
 magistrates and the army. 
 
 Speaker. This only took place since the insurrec- 
 tion ? 
 
 M'-Neven. It is more than twelve months (looking 
 at Mr. Corry) since these horrors were perpetrated 
 by the Ancient Britons about Newry ; and long before 
 the insurrection they were quite common through 
 the counties of Kildare and Carlow, and befjan to 
 
 " CD 
 
 be practised with great activity in the counties of 
 Wicklow and Wexford. 
 
 Corry and Latouche. Yes, a few houses were 
 burned. 
 
 M^Neven. Gentlemen, there were a great deal 
 more than a few houses burned. 
 
 Speaker. Would not the organisation have gone 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 Ireland in '98. 
 
 on, and the Union become stronger, but that the in- 
 surrection was brought forward too soon ? 
 
 MNeven. The organisation would have pro- 
 ceeded, and the Union have acquired that strength 
 which arises from order ; organisation would at the 
 same time have given a control over the people, 
 capable of restraining their excesses ; and you see 
 scarcely any have been committed in those counties 
 where it was well established. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh. You acknowledge the Union 
 would have become stronger but for the means taken 
 to make it explode ? 
 
 MNeveii. It would every day have become more 
 perfect, but I do not see anything in what has 
 happened to deter the people from persevering in the 
 Union and its objects ; on the contrary, if I am 
 rightly informed, the trial of force must tend to give 
 the people confidence in their own power, as I under- 
 stand it is now admitted, that if the insurrection was 
 general and well conducted it would have been suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Sir J. Parnell. Do you know the population of 
 Wexford county ? 
 
 M^Neven. Not exactly ; but people agree that if 
 the insurrection of a few counties in Leinster, unskil- 
 fully as it was directed, was so near overthrowing the 
 Government, a general rising would have freed Ire- 
 land. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh. Were not the different measures 
 of the Government, which are complained of, sub- 
 
William James M''Neven. 357 
 
 sequent to various proceedings of the United Irish- 
 men? 
 
 M^Neven. Prior, my lord, to most of them ; if 
 your lordship desires it, I will prove by comparison 
 of dates that Government throughout has been the 
 aggressor. (^His lordship ivas 7iot curious.) 
 
 Speaker {looking at the minutes from the Lords). 
 You say that you wished to keep back the insurrec- 
 tion ; how do you reconcile that with the general 
 plan of arming ? 
 
 M''Neven. From the time we had given up Re- 
 form as hopeless, and determined to receive the 
 French, we adopted a military organisation, and pre- 
 pared to be in a condition to co-operate Avith them ; 
 but it. was always our msh to wait, if possible, for 
 their arrival. We wished to see liberty established 
 in our country with the least possible expense of 
 private happiness, and in such a way that no honest 
 man of either party should have cause to regret it. 
 We had before our eyes the revolution of 1688, in 
 which a popular general, with only a small army, 
 gave the friends of liberty an opportunity of declaring 
 themselves ; accordingly, upon that celebrated occa- 
 sion, the junction of the peoj^le of England with King 
 William was so extensive, that war and its con- 
 comitant evils were entirely precluded. I know the 
 case would be the same here if there was a French 
 landing. 
 
 Mr. Alexander. Although talents and education 
 are to be found m the Union, yet there is no com- 
 
358 Ireland in '98. 
 
 parison, in point of property, between those who 
 invited the French and those who brought in King 
 Wilham. 
 
 M^Neven. Pardon me, sir, I know very many 
 who possess probably much larger properties than 
 did Lord Danby, who signed the invitation to the 
 Prince of Orange, or than did Lord Somers, who was 
 the great champion of the revolution. The property 
 in the Union is immense ; but persons in a situation 
 to be more easily watched were not required to render 
 themselves particularly conspicuous. 
 
 Speaker. But in case of a revolution, would not 
 many persons be banished or destroyed, and their 
 properties forfeited ; for instance, the gentlemen here? 
 
 3PNeven. We never had a doubt but in such an 
 event many of those who profess to be the warmest 
 friends of the British connection would very quickly 
 join us, and the readiness with which we have seen 
 them support different other administrations, led us 
 to suppose they might possibly do us the honour of 
 supporting our own. I am confident, sir, that in case 
 of revolution, the United Irishmen would behave 
 better to their enemies than their enemies do to them. 
 
 Speaker. Was not the ' Olive Branch,' and the 
 arms she had on board, destined for this country? 
 
 3PNeven. I never heard they were ; arms have 
 been frequently offered, but we always refused to 
 accept them without troops ; for we knew that in- 
 surrection would be the immediate consequence of a 
 landing of arm.s, and we constantly declared to the 
 
William James M'Neven. 359 
 
 French Government, that we never meant to make 
 our country a La Vendee or the seat of Chouan. 
 
 Speaker. Do you think Catholic emancipation or 
 parliamentary reform are objects of any importance 
 with the common people? 
 
 M^Neven. Catholic emancipation, as it is called, 
 the people do not care about ; I am sure they ought 
 not now ; they know, I believe, very generally, that 
 it would be attended with no other effect than to 
 admit into the House of Peers a few individuals who 
 profess the Catholic religion, and enable some others 
 to speculate on seats in the House of Commons. No 
 man is so ignorant as to think this would be a 
 national benefit. When Lord Fitzwilliam was here 
 I considered the measure a good one, as it would 
 have removed the pretexts of those feuds and ani- 
 mosities which have desolated Ireland for two 
 centuries, and have been lately so unhappily exacer- 
 bated ; but now that those evils have occurred, Avhich 
 the stay of that nobleman would have prevented, 
 they are not little measures which can remedy the 
 grievances of this country. 
 
 (Speakei', looking over at somebody. See that.) 
 
 Speaker. But are you not satisfied that reform 
 would go as little way to content the people as 
 Catholic emancipation ? 
 
 APNeven. Sir, I can best answer that question 
 by declaring what the sentiments of the United Irish- 
 men were at different periods. When Mr. Ponsonby 
 brought in his first bill of reform, I remember having 
 
360 Ireland in '98. 
 
 conversed with some of the most confidential men in 
 the North on that subject, and they declared to me 
 they would think the country happy and likely to 
 think itself so, by getting that bill. When he 
 brought in his last bill, I am sure the country at 
 large would have been satisfied with the same. 
 
 Lord Casdereagh, They would have been satisfied 
 to efi'ect a revolution through a reform. 
 
 M^Neven. If a change of system be one way or 
 other inevitable, of which I have no doubt, and which 
 you yourselves cannot but think highly probable, 
 who can be so much interested in its occurring peace- 
 ably as you are ? In any tranquil change you will 
 retain your properties, and the immense influence 
 which attaches to property ; in such a situation you 
 would necessarily have a considerable share in the 
 management of aff'airs ; and I cannot conceive how a 
 revolution, effected in such a manner, would much 
 confound the order of society, or give any consider- 
 able shock to private happiness. 
 
 Speaker. Don't you think the people would be 
 dissatisfied with any reformed Parliament which 
 would not abolish the Church establishment and 
 tithes ? 
 
 M'Neven. I have no idea of a reformed Parlia- 
 ment that would not act according to the interest 
 and known wishes of the people. I am clear that 
 tithes ought to be suppressed, and have no doubt the 
 Church establishment would follow. 
 
 A Member. Would you not set up another ? 
 
William James M'-Neven. 361 
 
 M''Neven. Most certainly not; I consider all 
 Church establishments as injurious to liberty and 
 religion. 
 
 Mr. J. C. Bercsford. Will you tell me what you 
 understand by a free House of Commons ? 
 
 M^Neven. One which should be annually and 
 freely returned by the people, and in which their 
 interests, for the most part, should direct their de- 
 cisions. 
 
 Mr. J. C. Beresford. What do you thmk of pot- 
 walloping boroughs ? they afford a specimen of uni- 
 versal suffrage. 
 
 M^Neven. I know some adversaries of reform 
 who have less reason to be displeased with them 
 than I have; but they are a proof of how useless 
 would be any partial reform, and that a thing may 
 be noxious in a detached state, wdiich would form a 
 valuable part of a good system. 
 
 A Member. It seems we are reduced to the un- 
 fortunate situation of not being able to content the 
 people without a reform which would overthrow the 
 Church establishment, and break the connection with 
 England. 
 
 M''Neven. If you be in that situation, give me 
 leave to tell you it was brought on by the persever- 
 ance with which every species of reform has always 
 been refused, and the contumely manifested towards 
 those who petitioned for it. Discussion was pro- 
 voked by this treatment and resentment excited ; the 
 consequences of which are now that the people would 
 
362 Ireland in '98. 
 
 probably exercise to its full extent whatever privilege 
 they acquired, though, if timely granted, they would 
 stop far short of the length to which it might be 
 carried ; this is the nature of man ; but, sir, I see no 
 necessary connection between the fall of the establish- 
 ment and a separation from England. 
 
 Speaker. Sure, if the head of the Church was 
 removed, the connection would be broken. 
 
 M'Neven. It might be preserved through the 
 King, if the Irish thought proper to retain it. As 
 the Parliament now exists, with two-thirds of it (if 
 I may be allowed to speak frankly) the property of 
 individuals in the pay of the British Cabinet, the 
 connection is indeed injurious to Ireland, and it is 
 rendered so by the Parliament ; but if we had a free 
 Parliament, there might be a federal connection ad- 
 vantageous to both countries. 
 
 Sir J. Paimell. Under that federal connection 
 Ireland would not go to war when England pleased. 
 
 M^Neven. I hope not. Were the connection of 
 this nature, it would probably have preserved Eng- 
 land from the present war, and rendered her the same 
 kind of service which might be expected from a free 
 House of Commons, if she had one. 
 
 A Member. "What has hitherto prevented the 
 French from invading this country ? 
 
 M^Neven. Nothing, I am sure, but inability; 
 this, however, will not always last ; and I have not 
 the least doubt but when it passes off they will 
 invade it, unless by a change of system you content 
 
William James M^Neven. 363 
 
 the nation and arm it against them ; it will then 
 defend itself, as it did before by its volunteers. 
 
 Speaker. What system ? 
 
 M''Neven. A system of coercion, and a system 
 of injustice, to be replaced by a system of freedom. 
 
 Sir J. Parnell. Would you not be disposed, as 
 well as other gentlemen who may have influence 
 with the people, to exert it, in order to induce them 
 to give up their arms, without the intervention of 
 force ? 
 
 M'Neven. I cannot answer that question, unless 
 I am told what equivalent is meant to be given them 
 for such a surrender. 
 
 Sir J. Parnell. Pardon. 
 
 M'Neven. They never considered it a crime to 
 have arms, nor do I ; on the contrary, they have 
 been taught and know it is a right of theirs to 
 possess them. If any attempt is made to take from 
 them their arms, they will mistrust the motives, and 
 think, not without reason, that it is intended by such 
 conduct to leave them naked, at the mercy of their 
 enemies. 
 
 Sir J. Parnell. Pikes are horrible weapons, and 
 I don't know but a law might be passed against them. 
 
 M'Neven. I am sure I have seen as strange laws 
 passed without any difficulty ; but one might equally 
 as well be made against muskets and bayonets. 
 
 Sir J. Parnell. But pikes are not in the con- 
 templation of the law which gives the subject the 
 right of possessing arms. 
 
364 Ireland in '98. 
 
 IPNeven. I believe, Sir John, the law which 
 declares that right to belong to every freeman was 
 partly obtained by the pike. 
 
 Speaker. It was Magna Charta. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh. What is likely to be the effect 
 of the insurrection that has just been put down ? 
 
 M^Neven. It will teach the people that caution 
 which some of their friends less successfully endea- 
 voured to inculcate; and I am afraid it will make 
 them retaliate with a dreadful revenge the cruelties 
 they suffered, whenever they have an opportunity. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh. Will they, do you think, rise 
 again? 
 
 M'Neven. Not, I believe, till the French come ; but 
 then, most assuredly, whenever they can join them. 
 
 Speaker. Will the people consider themselves 
 bound hereafter by the oaths of the Union ? 
 
 M^Neven. I suppose they will. 
 
 Speaker. Would you ? 
 
 ]\PNeven. I who am going to become an emi- 
 grant from my country am dispensed fi'om answering 
 that question ; yet I acknowledge, were I to stay, I 
 would thmk myself bound by them ; nor can I dis- 
 cover anything in what has passed to make it less my 
 duty. 
 
 Speaker. Ay, you consider a Republican Govern- 
 ment more economical ? 
 
 M^Neven. Corruption is not necessary to it. 
 
 Speaker. How did you mean to pay the loan 
 from Spain ? I suppose from our forfeited estates. 
 
William, James M'-Neven. 365 
 
 M^Neven. Rather, sir, from your places and pen- 
 sions. If I only take the pension list at 100,000/. 
 (it has been considerably higher, and I believe it is 
 so still), that alone would be sufficient to pay the 
 interest of four times the half million we meant to 
 borrow. I need not tell you that money can be got 
 when the interest can be regularly paid. We con- 
 ceive, also, there are several places with large salaries, 
 for which the present possessors do no other service 
 than giving votes in Parliament; another consider- 
 able fund would, we imagine, be found by giving 
 these sums a different application. 
 
 Speaker. Do you remember Mr. Grattan's motion 
 about tithes ? Was not that a short cut towards 
 putting down the Established Church? 
 
 M'Neven. If the stability of the Established 
 Church depends on the payment of tithes, the Church 
 stands on a weaker foundation than in civility I would 
 have said of it ; but sure I am, sir, that if tithes had 
 been commuted according to Mr. Grattan's plan, a 
 very powerful engine would have been taken out of 
 our hands. 
 
 A Memhe7\ Is not the Union much indebted to 
 the Roman Catholic clergy? 
 
 M'Neven. The principle of burying all religious 
 differences in oblivion was warmly embraced by the 
 Catholic clergy ; some of them became more active 
 members of the Union, and I make no doubt but 
 they are in general well affected to the liberties of 
 their country. 
 
366 Ireland m '98. 
 
 Speaker. Have not the priests a great influence 
 over the people ? 
 
 M''Neven. When they espouse the interests of 
 the people, they are readily obeyed by them from the 
 reliance that is placed on their better sense and edu- 
 cation ; when they oppose these interests, they are 
 certaml}^ found to have neither authority nor influ- 
 ence ; of this I can give you two important examples. 
 At the time the Catholic Committee was opposed by 
 the sixty-eight, together with Lord Kenmare and his 
 marksmen, a priest, between Kilbeggan and Moate, 
 who endeavoured to seduce his flock to support the 
 slavish principles of that party, was well-nigh hanged 
 by his own parishioners, for what they deemed 
 treachery to their interests. The other, a priest in 
 the North, who thought fit to preach against the 
 Union ; the flock immediately left the chapel, and 
 sent him word they would for that Sunday go to the 
 meetinsf-house, and that if he did not desist from such 
 politics in future, they would come near him no more. 
 Of such a nature, gentlemen, is the influence of the 
 Catholic clergy. 
 
 Speaker. Are the bishops much looked up to ? 
 
 WNeven. They are not, as far as I can learn, so 
 well beloved or so much confided in by the people as 
 the inferior clergy. 
 
 Speaker. Can you assign any reason for that ? 
 
 ]\INeven. I am inclmed to believe it is because 
 they are seen so much about the Castle, and because 
 some acts coming from that body have manifested 
 
William James M'-Neven. 367 
 
 an over -extraordinary compliance for the supposed 
 wishes of Government. 
 
 Speaker. Did you see Dr. Hussey's letter ? What 
 do you think of that ? 
 
 M^Neven. I have seen it and disapprove of it. 
 As one name and paper is mentioned, I cannot hel]3 
 saying, that I have seen another letter, with the name 
 of Dr. Moylan, which contained a remarkable false- 
 hood in favour of Administration ; but as this was 
 only a pious fraud perhaps, I could never hear that 
 they complained of it. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh. We will detain you no longer. 
 
 William James M'Neven. 
 
 Dr. M'Neven was arrested on March 12, 1798, 
 imprisoned for some time in Kilmainham, and subse- 
 quently removed to Fort George. While at the 
 latter place he devoted much tune to study and 
 research. Among other things he gave much of his 
 attention to the writings of Ossian, many of which 
 he translated from the original Gaelic. After the 
 arrival of Mrs. Emmett and her children at Fort 
 George, it became one of the recreations of the State 
 prisoners to educate the latter ; Dr. M'Neven in- 
 structed them in French, and compiled a French 
 grammar for their use. 
 
 After his liberation he passed the summer and 
 autumn of 1802 in travelling through Switzerland on 
 foot, and wrote an account of his journey, called ' A 
 
368 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Ramble in Switzerland.' He also visited his relations 
 in Germany during the same year. 
 
 In 1803 he went to Paris, and, in the belief that 
 Ireland would be attacked by the French, and that 
 he was devoting himself anew to the cause of his 
 beloved country, he obtained a commission in the 
 French army. This, however, he resigned, on finding 
 that his hopes were doomed to disappointment, and 
 in June 1805 set sail from Bordeaux for New 
 York. That city he reached on the anniversary of 
 the freedom of America. Dr. M'Neven presented 
 his letters, and declared his intention of becoming a 
 citizen ; he fixed on New York as his residence, and 
 commenced the practice of his profession. In this he 
 was so successful that he speedily assured himself 
 an easy competence. In 1808 he was appointed 
 professor of midwifery in the College of Physicians 
 and Surgeons, and in 1811 exchanged his chair for 
 that of chemistry. In 181 2 he was appointed resident 
 physician to General Clinton. In 1816 materia 
 medica was added to chemistry, and he gave instruc- 
 tion in both branches till 1820, when they were again 
 separated. 
 
 In 1826, he resigned his professorship in the 
 College of Physicians, and united with Drs. Hosack, 
 Francis, Mott, and Godman, in the Duane Street 
 School. Here, the chair of materia medica was again 
 assigned him. This school was discontmued in 1830, 
 and at that point Dr. M'Neven closed his career 
 as a teacher. In 1832, during the cholera, he was 
 
William James M^Neven. 369 
 
 chosen one of the medical council, to whom was 
 assigned the supervision of the hospitals and other 
 establislunents for the sick. In 1840, he was again 
 appomted resident physician, an office which he 
 resigned a few weeks before his death. He published, 
 in 1820, an exposition of the atomic theory, which 
 attracted favourable notice both at home and abroad, 
 and about the same time, an edition of ' Brande's 
 Chemistry,' which is extensively used as a text-book. 
 
 In 1823, he was elected a member of the American 
 Philosophical Society ; he was also a member of the 
 Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, 
 which society used to meet frequently at his house in 
 Park Place. All those most eminent in science, arts, 
 and literature, with any distinguished strangers who 
 might be visiting the city, were convened on these 
 occasions, and formed a brilliant circle. 
 
 Five years after his arrival in America, Dr. 
 M'Neven married the widow of Mr. John Tom, a 
 merchant of New York, and sister to Mr. Richard 
 Richer, an eminent lawyer, for many years known as 
 District Attorney and Recorder of New York. 
 
 During the whole period of his residence in his 
 adopted country. Dr. M'Neven took an active and 
 prominent part in her politics, and supported her 
 laws and constitution with consistency and firmness. 
 Towards his native land his devoted attachment 
 remained unchanged ; he was ever active in her 
 service, and seized every occasion which offered to 
 promote the great object of her happiness. He was 
 
 B B 
 
370 Ireland in '98. 
 
 a member of nearly every society formed in New- 
 York, having for its object the honour or interest of 
 his countrymen. In the year 182(S-9 he was ap- 
 pointed president of the society, ' The Friends of 
 Ireland,' which contributed greatly to the means 
 which ensured the success of the emancipation of the 
 Irish Catholics. During the existence of this society, 
 a larsre amount of Catholic rent was transmitted to 
 Ireland, and similar associations w^ere formed through- 
 out the United States and even in Mexico. Dr. 
 M'Neven wrote an account of its proceedings, read 
 before the Literary Association of the Friends of 
 Ireland, published in the 'New York Truth- Teller ' 
 of July 1830. He also took a warm interest in pro- 
 moting, by every means, the welfare of emigrants to 
 America, and was president of the Emigrant Society 
 up to the period of his death. 
 
 In the spring of 1834, M'Neven passed through 
 one of those ordeals which public men in America 
 have occasionally to go through. Jackson's removal 
 of the deposits from the United States Bank had been 
 publicly spoken of by the doctor as ' unwise and 
 unstatesmanlike.' Up to that time he had been a 
 strenuous supporter of Jackson. A furious clamour 
 was raised against him ; he w^as accused of incon- 
 sistency, and of having accepted bribes from the bank 
 to support its interests. Even the Irish press as- 
 sailed him in the fiercest manner ; he was mobbed, 
 and would doubtless have been maltreated, if he had 
 fallen mto the hands of the enraged multitude. Some 
 
William James M'Neven. 371 
 
 of the lower orders of his own countrymen joined in 
 this outrage on a man who had suifered imprison- 
 ment and exile in their cause, and who had devoted 
 twenty-nine years of his life in America to their 
 interests. 
 
 Tliis trying occasion, however, only served to 
 reveal the nobility of M'Neven's character. He 
 gave expression to no complaint, nor would he allow 
 others to speak harshly of his treatment. He said 
 his ' poor countrymen had been deceived ; they 
 would soon find out their error, and make amends 
 for their folly.' In a short time the usual mutability 
 of public opinion was exhibited, and he found him- 
 self, as he expected, reinstated m his old position in 
 public favour. 
 
 In December 1832, Dr. M'Neven received a 
 severe blow in the death of his eldest son, a young 
 man whose fine talents and amiable disposition had 
 awakened the brightest hopes for his future, and 
 whom his father could not, to the last day of his life, 
 name without tears. 
 
 In the spring of 1838, M'Neven was first at- 
 tacked with severe illness, and so much was his 
 health impaired that he gave up the practice of his 
 profession, and removed with his family to the resi- 
 dence of his son-in-law, Thomas Addis Emmett, about 
 four miles from the city. The frequent and painful 
 attacks to which he was subject were borne with 
 Christian patience and philosophic fortitude. Books 
 were an unfailing resource to him, and he read every - 
 
 li B 2 
 
872 Ireland in '98. 
 
 thing with avidity. On November 25, 1840, as he 
 was returning from the city, a heavy loaded waggon 
 came in contact with his gig. M'Neven was thrown 
 from it, and the wound which he received in the leg, 
 combined with the shock of the fall, occasioned a 
 lono; and severe illness. Throus^hout this he was 
 remarkable for the serenity of his temper ; the society 
 of his family and friends was his greatest happiness, 
 and he frequently spoke of his death with calmness 
 and even cheerfuhiess. During the month of June 
 his strength failed rapidly, and on July 12, 1841, he 
 breathed his last. 
 
 A touching tribute to the memory of M'Neven 
 has been paid by his daughter, who furnished many of 
 the foregoing particulars. ' As a husband and father,' 
 she says, ' he was most affectionate, and tender and 
 indulgent to the greatest degree. He was a firm and 
 faithful friend, and always willing to aid the unfor- 
 tunate to the utmost of his power. I cannot forbear 
 mentioning the generosity of his nature, which made 
 him ever ready to acknowledge the talents of others 
 and rejoice in their success.' 
 
 The most strikinu; feature in M'Neven's charac- 
 ter was an imperturbable coolness and self-possession, 
 combined with the most remarkable simplicity of 
 mind, and singleness of purpose ; he was totally 
 devoid of fear in the maintenance of his principles, 
 and if the interests of the cause he espoused had 
 called for any extraordinary effort, though its issue 
 were to prove fatal to him, M'Neven would have 
 
William James M^Neven. 373 
 
 walked to the scaffold with the same air and aspect 
 of composure that he would have gone with to his 
 bed. There was nothing brilliant in his talents, or 
 showy in his conversation ; his abilities, however, as 
 a public speaker were considerable, and one or two 
 extracts from his early speeches give an idea of the 
 plain sound sense, and strong conviction of the truth 
 and justice of his cause, which distinguished the 
 speeches of M'Neven. 
 
 As a lecturer, he was simple, clear, and animated ; 
 as a practitioner, judicious and efficient ; as a man, 
 amiable, honest, and kind-hearted ; as a patriot, 
 ardent, active, bold, disinterested ; with him, the 
 love of country was a passion as well as a principle, 
 and when that country shall cease to cherish his 
 memory, she will be utterly unworthy of him. 
 
BARTHOLOMEW TEELING. 
 
375 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW TEELING. 
 
 Descent — Luke Teeling — Unjust persecution — Bartholomew's child- 
 hood — Education — Mrs. Teeling — Military associates — Joins 
 United Irishmen — Enters the Army of the Republic — Friendship 
 of Lord Edwai'd Fitzgerald — ' Erin go Bragh ' — Accompanies 
 Humbert's expedition — Firing on the flag of truce — Battle of 
 Ballinamuck — Teeling made prisoner — Humbert's remonstrance — 
 Trial — The defence — Humbert's letter — Sentence. 
 
 The yoiitliful subject of this memoir was of an 
 ancient Catholic family. The history of it is strik- 
 ingly illustrative of that of the country, with the 
 fortunes of which its own has been, for nearly six 
 hundred years, so totally identified, that there was 
 no one of the afflictions of Ireland of the cup of 
 which its members did not deeply drink, nor did any 
 light break upon her dark destiny in the ray of 
 which their hopes and their spirits did not quicken 
 and revive. 
 
 The first of the name who figures in the history 
 of Ireland was an An^lo- Norman knio;ht. who, in 
 the reign of Henry III., joined a formidable body, 
 which appears to have embarked under the cele- 
 brated Earl, Thomas de Clare, for the subjugation of 
 Munster. 
 
376 Ireland in '98. 
 
 The fate of this expedition, commanded by the 
 most illustrious Englishman of his day, was like that 
 of others of a similar character, such as the English 
 historian has not thought fit to record. 
 
 Throughout the civil wars of the seventeenth 
 century, the Teelings were faithful adherents of the 
 royal cause, and the prostration of the House of 
 Stuart, at the ill-starred revolution, brought with it 
 the prostration of their house. The then representa- 
 tive of the family, an officer of King James's army, 
 havmg fallen at the battle of the Boyne, his estate 
 was declared forfeited, and under an Act passed in 
 the 11th and 12th William III. sold for the benefit 
 of the Crown. 
 
 The century which succeeded, if it was not the 
 least agitated, was certainly the darkest and the most 
 hopeless in the history of Ireland. The English are 
 accustomed to say it was the most peaceful. ' They 
 made a solitude and called it peace ! ' In this national 
 obscurity we lose sight of the family of Teeling, and 
 they are no more heard of till the close of the eigh- 
 teenth century. 
 
 But when a hundred years had passed, the sleeping 
 energies of our devoted people were once more aroused. 
 
 It was a fine saying of that noble-minded Jewess, 
 ' Manure with despair, so it be genuine, and you will 
 have a noble harvest,' and the elasticity of the human 
 heart to resist the pressure of misfortune is illustrated 
 in the history of nations, as well as in that of indi- 
 viduals. 
 
Bartholomew leeling. 377 
 
 After two or three eiforts to regain their legitimate 
 rights, the cause of the Stuarts became utterly hope- 
 less, and their race was on the verge of extinction. 
 The spirit of Jacobitism was gone from Ireland. But 
 ' nations are not mortal like the men that inhabit 
 them,' nor will a people perish even with a race of 
 princes. 
 
 Not by the restoration of the ancient dynasty, but 
 by admission within the portals of the new constitution, 
 was the regeneration of Ireland to be wrought. And 
 then began that remarkable system of peaceful and 
 constitutional agitation, which has been productive of 
 such wonderful and such happy results. 
 
 We find in the 'Life of Tone ' that, in 'the begin- 
 ning of December 1792, the general committee of the 
 Catholics of Ireland, which first represented the whole 
 strength of their body, opened their meetings ; and the 
 single circumstance of their sitting with all the forms 
 of a legislative assembly in the capital produced a kind 
 of awe and stupefaction in the Government. Never 
 did such a convention begin its proceedings under 
 auspices more favourable. Their friends were roused, 
 their enemies were stunned, and the British Govern- 
 ment, extremely embarrassed at home, shewed no 
 desire to interfere.' 
 
 Amongst the most distinguished of this body for 
 talent and mental accomplishment, and foremost in 
 the avowal, at least, of those bold and spiritual views, 
 which have ever since prevailed among the Catho- 
 lics, was Luke Teeling of Lisburn. Prefixed to the 
 
378 Ireland in '98. 
 
 recorded motion from the amendment of the first 
 Catholic petition, and for the insertion of the prayer 
 for total, unqualified, and unconditional emancipation, 
 we find his honoured name. 
 
 Luke Teeling had acquired a considerable fortune 
 in the pursuit of that branch of commerce which is 
 regarded as the staple trade of Ireland, and to which 
 Ulster owes its vast superiority to the other provinces 
 in wealth and social comfort. It was established 
 there by the French Huguenots, and in the aristo- 
 cratic character of those who engaged in it, as well 
 as in the large fortunes it returned them, seems to 
 have resembled that which the Venetians established 
 at Marseilles. 
 
 The linen merchants of the North of Ireland were, 
 at the period of which I speak, somewhat of the same 
 class of men as the merchants of that city when the 
 Mirabeaus trafficked there, and the sons of men of 
 the highest rank, and in some cases of title, were ap- 
 prenticed to them. 
 
 The social position then, which Mr. Teeling 
 occupied, was the very highest, and I allude to it 
 particularly, because it was in connection with it that 
 his political position was so peculiar. Ranking with 
 the gentlemen around, he was altogether devoted to 
 the service of the people ; and exerting his great 
 influence to procure parliamentary honours for those 
 whom he regarded as the people's friends, he was 
 himself under the ban of political exclusion. 
 
 In the return of the Hon. Robert Stuart (after- 
 
Bartholomew Teeling. 379 
 
 wards Lord Castlereagh) for the adjoining county 
 of Down, while his exertions were, perhaps, not less 
 influential than those of any other individual, he was 
 precluded from the exercise of the commonest right, 
 that of the elective franchise. 
 
 As a Catholic he stood altogether alone. He 
 possessed, therefore, the unbounded and almost ex- 
 clusive confidence of the Catholics of the provinces. 
 For Antrim he was chosen as a delegate to the con- 
 vention as a matter of course. And the Protestant 
 inhabitants of Belfast paid him the singular compli- 
 ment of assembling together, and unanimously voting 
 that he possessed their confidence too, and fully re- 
 presented their opinions. How he performed the 
 important trust which was thus reposed in him, will 
 best be seen from the ' Account of the Proceedings 
 of the General Committee of the Catholics of Ireland,' 
 which I have no hesitation in saying is the very 
 best fragment of Irish history extant. 
 
 An interesting account of the devastation of his 
 property, and of his four years' imprisonment, will be 
 found in the ' Personal Narrative ' of his son (Charles 
 Hamilton Teeling), as well as a series of letters 
 written during that period to a confidential friend, 
 w^hich are replete with sentiments of philosophy and 
 religion, and evince as high honour, as much intre- 
 pidity and practical fortitude, as anything I ever met 
 wdth in tale or history. 
 
 The eldest son of the preceding was Bartholomew 
 Teeling, who was born in the year 1774. The 
 
380 Ireland in '98. 
 
 characteristic qualities which distinguished the brief 
 career of his manhood began very early to be deve- 
 loped. In childhood his spirit was most adventurous 
 and bold, yet his temper was as gentle, and his dis- 
 position as tender and humane, as if he had been 
 designed for a life of domestic tranquillity. He was 
 impatient of wrong, and scarcely brooked the restraint 
 which the stoical and somewhat severe principles of 
 his father imposed upon him ; but to his mother, 
 whose idol he was, and to his sisters, he was warmly 
 and tenderly attached. There was no youthful ad- 
 venture too daring, or even extravagant for him ; but 
 nothing which inflicted pain, or which trifled with 
 human misery, ever had his countenance. Even in 
 boyhood his habit was thoughtful and studious ; and 
 he was placed, at an early age, at a very celebrated 
 academy, which was presided over by a clergyman 
 of the Established Church, the Reverend Saumarez 
 Dubondieu, who is represented to have been a man of 
 refined taste, profound erudition, and distinguished 
 moral virtues. This establishment flourished, I un- 
 derstand, under the same enlightened master for more 
 than half a century, and sent forth many men who 
 became eminent at the bar, in the army, and in the 
 senate, all of whom cherished in after life an almost 
 filial attachment to their venerable preceptor. 
 
 Under this gentleman's tuition, Teeling acquired 
 high classical and literary attainments, and pursued 
 his studies with assiduity to the close of his career. 
 Except when actually under arms, he made it an 
 
Bartholomeio Teeling. 381 
 
 invariable practice to devote some hours every day 
 to reading. There is evidence of his taste in the 
 volumes which remain of a library which he selected 
 before he left Ireland, and I have seen several of them, 
 all the works of masters in poetry, philosophy and his- 
 tory, and all distinguished by the careful erasure of a 
 name which had been written on the title page. In 
 the dispersion of his father's family, they had fallen 
 into the hands of a friend, who, though sincerely 
 attached to him, had regarded his own safety, and 
 dreaded, in the reign of terror which ensued, lest any- 
 thing should lead to a knowledge of his connection 
 with a ' rebel.' 
 
 Such tendencies and habits made it not very likely 
 that Teeling would be one of the earliest victims to 
 the awful penalties of high treason. He was even 
 accustomed to restrain the more excitable temper of 
 his brother Charles ; and when ' the coming events 
 began to cast their shadows before,' he used, with a 
 melancholy foreboding, in allusion to the dark fate of 
 the hero of Shenstone's beautiful ballad, familiarly to 
 term him ' Jamie Dawson.' 
 
 There was much in Teeling's external circum- 
 stances which, combined with his general disposition 
 and mental culture, was calculated, if not to prevent 
 his adoption of the republican principles which pre- 
 vailed at this period in the province of Ulster, at 
 least considerably to modify their sternness. On 
 his mother's side his connections were all thorough 
 
 o 
 
 royalists. This lady was the sister of the late 
 
382 Ireland in '98. 
 
 Mr. Taafe, of Smarmore Castle, who was the repre- 
 sentative, I believe, of that branch of the family who 
 held the earldom of Carlingford under the dynasty of 
 the Stuarts, and whose sons still possess extensive 
 estates in the counties of Louth and Meath. 
 
 I must now say a word or two of the excellent 
 mother of Teeling — not so much because of the well- 
 formed opinion that almost all distinguished men in- 
 herit their characteristics rather from the mother than 
 from the father, as because I myself have the liveliest 
 recollection of the amiable and endearing qualities of 
 this venerated being ; of her ardent piety ; of her 
 active benevolence ; of her cheerful spirit ; and her 
 most graceful presence. While she was still a child, 
 she had been seen by him who was to be her hus- 
 band, and who, struck with her girlish beauty, had 
 resolved 'to wait for her.' She consequently, at the 
 very earliest age, united her fate to his, and, at the 
 end of fifty years, during which they journeyed to- 
 gether through all the vicissitudes of life. 
 
 In all their wanderings round this world of care, 
 In all their griefs, and they had had their share, 
 
 the romance of this early attachment continued fresh 
 and unabated. The contrast, perhaps, of her bright 
 and buoyant spirit, with the stern and unbending one 
 of the haughty politician I have alluded to, was more 
 calculated to give endurance to their love than tlie 
 most perfect similarity could have done ; and to the 
 last hour of her existence she was the pride and idol 
 of her family. 
 
Bartholomew V Teeling. 383 
 
 It was a matter of astonishment how she con- 
 trived, after the severe trials she had met with, to 
 push the badges of grief away from her, in the 
 society of those she loved, and to enter into the 
 sports of her grandchildren, as mirthful as the young- 
 est of them. She was proud of her high birth, and 
 used to recount to her grandchildren the bright deeds 
 of her ancestors — the loyal efforts of the noble com- 
 mander of the Irish forces ; of the unhappy Charles ; 
 and the heroic defence of her castle, by the Lady 
 Cathleen, agamst the ruthless Cromwell and liis ad- 
 venturers. 
 
 But she scarcely ever touched upon the untimely 
 fate of her own sons, slaughtered or scattered over 
 the world. Once only did I hear her mention her 
 gallant son, or allude to his dark fate, and then came 
 a gush of anguish, which showed, mdeed, the sources 
 of her grief were far from being dried up ; but, as I 
 have already said, she turned from her own woes to 
 alleviate those of others, and to spread joy around. 
 
 Teeling's personal associates, in his own pro- 
 vince, were all of the dominant party, and many 
 of the military profession. There was an encamp- 
 ment at that time at Blaris-Moor, m the immediate 
 vicinity of his father's house, at which the officers 
 of the several regiments were frequent guests and 
 visitors. A close intimacy with many of them and 
 friendship with a few was the consequence of his 
 relationship, and this intimacy and friendship en- 
 dured, under circumstances well calculated to try 
 
384 Ireland in '98. 
 
 their value. When the French army surrendered at 
 Ballinamuck, there were several British officers on 
 the field who were personally acquainted with Teeling, 
 yet none of them gave the slightest mark of recogni- 
 tion, or any intimation whatever to the authorities, 
 that the French general's aide-de-camp was a British 
 subject. 
 
 The part of Bartholomew Teeling in the forth- 
 coming struggle was early resolved upon ; and not 
 with the moderate and peaceable majority of the 
 society to which he became attached, had he any 
 thought of ameliorating the condition of his country 
 by constitutional reforms ; but with the more resolute 
 and aspiring few, he aimed at the total subversion of 
 English power in Ireland. 
 
 His first step was to make himself perfectly ac- 
 quainted with her resources ; with her capabilities of 
 entering upon and maintaining an internal war ; with 
 the intellectual and physical qualities, the habits and 
 the manners of her people ; with their wants and 
 their endurance, their hopes and their resolves, as 
 well as with the natural features of the country — her 
 rivers, her coasts, and her harbours ; and to effect 
 this he had to travel the whole island on foot before 
 he had reached the age of manhood. 
 
 It must have been very soon after his return from 
 this tour that he became a United Irishman ; for he 
 shortly went to reside (for the purpose, it appears, of 
 extending the ' Union ' throughout the southern coun- 
 ties) with a friend to whom he was much attached, 
 
Bartholomew Teeling. 385 
 
 the late John Byrne, of Worcester, a gentleman of 
 large fortune, who havhig spent some years in Lis- 
 burn, for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of 
 the linen trade, had built extensive bleaching" mills 
 on the banl-js of the Dundalk river, as well as a hand- 
 some residence, on which he and Teeling bestowed 
 the significant appellation of ' United Lodge.' 
 
 Still in pursuance of his object, and before final 
 preparations had been made for insurrection in Ire- 
 land, he embarked for France, and entered the army 
 of the Republic under the name of Beron. His 
 brother is under the impression that he served a 
 campaign under General Hoche, and the family were 
 fortunate enough to recover, and still carefully pre- 
 serve, a highly valued token of the friendship and 
 esteem in which he was held by that illustrious hero. 
 
 He paid one visit to Ireland (in disguise of course) 
 prior to his final return to it with the French army ; 
 and whether or not he had any express mission, 
 there can be little doubt of what the object of this 
 visit was, or the account to which he turned it. He 
 made no attempt to see any of his own family ; but 
 he entered into close communication with the United 
 Irish leaders, and impressed upon the minds of all he 
 met the necessity of a speedy rising in Ireland. The 
 talent and energy which he displayed in negotiation 
 made him endeared and respected by all ; but he seems 
 to have especially won upon the confidence and affec- 
 tion of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who became attached 
 to liim witli all the ardour of his fine nature. T am 
 
 c o 
 
386 Ireland in '98. 
 
 inclined to think there was another of the Geraldines, 
 too, who took some iiiterest in the fate of the young 
 soldier. I saw a ring, which was presented to him by 
 one of them, on the occasion, probably, of this visit. 
 It is a plain gold hoop, and characters are inscribed 
 upon it, which perhaps lost nothing of the magic 
 they possessed in those days, that they seem to have 
 been traced by the hand of no dexterous engraver. 
 
 ' Erin go Bragh ' 
 
 is upon the outside ; and within, there have been 
 since somewhat more carefully inscribed, 'his name 
 and life's brief date ' ; and this it is which most of all, 
 in the estimation of the present possessor, gives to 
 this little relic a price beyond rubies. 
 
 He wore it the night previous to his execution, 
 when he sent it to his brother as the dearest pledge 
 he had to leave of fraternal love. 
 
 This visit took place in the autumn of 1797 ; and 
 while we have no record of the more important trans- 
 actions in which he was engaged, we find him in the 
 following November m Paris, with Tone and a few 
 other Irishmen, including his own early friends and 
 immediate political associates, Lowry and Tennant, 
 entertaining the French generals. ' Our dinner,' says 
 Tone, in his lively journal, ' was superb, and every- 
 thing went off very well.' 
 
 [Up to this point the narrative was written by 
 B. Teeling, barrister-at-law, nephew to the subject 
 of this memoir.] 
 
Bartholomew Teeling. 387 
 
 Bartholomew Teeling accompanied Humbert to 
 Ireland on the fatal expedition which reached the bay 
 of Killala on August 22, 1798. He held the rank of 
 captain in the French service, and was appointed 
 aide-de-camp to Humbert at the departure of the 
 exjDedition from France. He accompanied his general 
 to Ballina, who marched from Killala with about 800 
 men (leaving 200 to garrison the latter place), and 
 on August 27 was present at the battle of Castle- 
 bar. 
 
 Charles Teeling, in his ' Personal Narrative of the 
 Irish Rebellion,' describes the force under Humbert 
 as less than 800 ; that under Lieut. -General Lake 
 6,000, with 18 pieces of cannon. After the defeat and 
 rout of the latter force, Charles Teeling states, his 
 brother was despatched by Humbert with an escort 
 and flag of truce, bearing proposals to the commander 
 of the British troops. On coming up with the 
 retreating army, the flag was fired on, the escort 
 slain, and the ofiicer made prisoner. After many re- 
 fusals of access to General Lake, and repulsed propo- 
 sals to the prisoner to communicate with officers of 
 inferior rank, he was at length admitted to the presence 
 of the English general. The tenor of his message 
 was an anxious desire, on the part of the French 
 general-in-chief, to put a stop to the eff'usion of 
 blood, and an offer of honourable terms of capitulation 
 to General Lake and the troops under his command. 
 Lake received the message with sullen choler, and 
 observed to the bearer of it : ' You, sir, are an Irish- 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 Ireland in '98. 
 
 man ; I shall treat you as a rebel. Why have you 
 been selected by General Humbert on this occasion?' 
 Teeling replied, he was selected in order to convey 
 the proposed terms in language which General Lake 
 understood ; and with regard to his menace, ' General 
 Lake could not be ignorant he had left wdth the 
 French many British officers, prisoners at Castlebar.' 
 Lake retired, and in a short time General Hutchinson 
 came forward, and apologised for the conduct of the 
 troops, and the treatment the bearer of the proposals 
 had met with, and begged it might be attributed to 
 the laxity of discipline at a moment of great excite- 
 ment. Teeling was then sent back, having declined 
 an escort of British troops to convey him beyond 
 the lines, stating that he would trust to General 
 Hutchinson's honour for his protection ; whereupon 
 the latter said he would be his escort, and he accord- 
 ingly accompanied him along the British line. 
 
 ' Humbert (continues Charles Teeling) was 
 enraoi'ed at the intellio;ence of the murder of the 
 escort, and the imprisonment of his officer, and spoke 
 of reprisals ; but Teeling pacified him, and persuaded 
 him eventually to liberate several of the British 
 officers who were in his power.' 
 
 On the occasion of Teelmg's return to Castlebar, 
 Humbert, in acknowledging his services, observed 
 that he owed his life to him that day m the engage- 
 ment. Teeling's bravery in the field was not more 
 conspicuous than his humanity subsequently to the 
 engagement, in rescuing numbers of persons from 
 
Bartholomew Teeling. 389 
 
 the hands of the insurgent peasantry, and saving the 
 houses and property of the obnoxious gentry from 
 plunder and devastation. 
 
 Teeling was strongly impressed with the impolicy 
 of Humbert's delay at Castlebar ; he repeatedly 
 pressed him to follow up his success, before the army, 
 advancing under the command of Cornwallis, should 
 effect a junction with Lake's forces. 
 
 The next account we find of Teeling, is of his 
 distinguished bravery at the battle of Ballinamuck, 
 on August 8, where he fought hand to hand by the 
 side of Humbert, till the French were borne down by 
 an army whose numbers exceeded theirs in a far 
 greater proportion than they did at the previous 
 battle of Castlebar. 
 
 After the surrender of the French army, a cartel 
 was concluded for the exchange of prisoners, under 
 which, Humbert and the residue of his force was to 
 proceed to France ; but no stipulation was made 
 specially for the Irish officers who accompanied 
 Humbert, or terms of any kind for the unfortunate 
 people who had joined the French standard. Teeling 
 was among the prisoners who had surrendered at 
 Ballinamuck. His person was identified ; he was 
 set apart from the French prisoners, and claimed as a 
 British subject by General Lake. Humbert inefi^ec- 
 tually remonstrated, and demanded his officer in the 
 name of the French Government. He said, that had 
 he known that such a claim would have been made, 
 before he would have surrendered his officer, 'he 
 
390 Ireland in '98. 
 
 should have perished in the midst of them ; he would 
 have had a rampart of French bayonets around 
 him.' 
 
 • Humbert insisted on accompanying his aide- de- 
 camp, and was permitted to do so as far as Longford. 
 He remained one night in Longford jail with 
 Teeling, and then was ordered to proceed to Dublin. 
 In a few days the former was removed to the capital 
 to be tried by court-martial, and m the interim was 
 imprisoned in the Provost in the Royal Barracks, in 
 the charge of Major Sandys. 
 
 The following account of the trial of Teeling is 
 taken from the ' Irish Monthly Register ' of October, 
 1798: 
 
 ' The court having met at twelve o'clock, the 
 prisoner, Mr. Teeling, was brought forward, and pre- 
 sented a form of affidavit, which stated the necessity 
 of certain persons from the town of Castlebar, and of 
 the French General Humbert, to attend as witnesses 
 on his part, and requiring time until these could be 
 produced. This affidavit he professed himself ready 
 to subscribe to. 
 
 ' The court having been cleared for the purpose of 
 consulting on this application, remained closed for 
 some time. On the re -admission of strangers, the 
 Judge- Advocate declared that no decision had been 
 formed on the subject of their conference ; but that 
 after the evidence for the prosecution had been gone 
 through, it would then be a proper season to deter- 
 mine whether the application of the prisoner was such 
 
Bartholomew Teeling. 391 
 
 as could be complied with. The court having accord- 
 ingly proceeded to hear evidence, 
 
 ' William Ooulson was called for the purpose, as 
 explained by the Judge- Advocate, of identifying the 
 person of Mr. Teeling, and proving the fact of his 
 being a natiiral-born subject of the King, and of 
 assuming a different name. This, however, was 
 rendered unnecessary by Mr. Teeling candidly ac- 
 knowledo-ino' that he had been born in Ireland, but on 
 entering the service of France adopted the name of 
 Beron. He made this acknowledgment, he said, in 
 order to save any trouble to the court, that was not 
 connected with a manly and honest defence of him- 
 self. 
 
 ' Michael Burke was then sworn. This witness 
 deposed that he went to Castlebar on August 31, where 
 he saw the prisoner, who told him that he came with 
 the French 5 that he saw him act as a French officer 
 under the connnand of General Humbert ; that the 
 prisoner told the witness he fled from this country 
 fourteen months ago, m consequence of an order hav- 
 ing been issued by Government for putting him to 
 death ; that he blamed the gentlemen of that neigh- 
 bourhood, and censured their inactivity and tardiness 
 in coming forward with their assistance, and that they 
 should do so although the soldiery should burn their 
 houses ; adding that his place in the North had been 
 burned by the army. The witness further deposed 
 that he was in Castlebar from Friday until the Tues- 
 day following, during which time he saw a consider- 
 
392 Ireland in '98. 
 
 able number of pikes fabricated for the purpose of 
 arming the rebels who should assist the French. 
 From Castlebar he accompanied the French as far as 
 Coloony, where he took occasion to quit them pre- 
 vious to the action which took place there between 
 the enemy and the King's forces. Being asked what 
 brought him to Castlebar, he replied, that he went 
 there for the purpose of obtauiing information for 
 Government. He was then asked why he did not 
 quit the French sooner, if his motive for joining them 
 was such as he professed, and to this he answered 
 that he was detained by the difficulty of getting a 
 pass from the persons empowered to give them. He 
 deposed that it was princi})ally through Mr. Teeling, 
 and the other gentlemen who spoke English, that the 
 French commander-in-chief had issued his orders, 
 and that those gentlemen saw these orders executed ; 
 and he concluded his direct evidence by the voluntary 
 declaration, that while he was witness of it, the con- 
 duct of the prisoner at Castlebar, and on the way to 
 Coloony, was most exemplary. 
 
 ' The Judge- Advocate, having here read the 
 minutes of the evidence, asked the prisoner if he 
 wished to interrogate the witness, by way of cross- 
 examination. 
 
 ' Mr. Teeling replied, that he merely wished the 
 witness to explain what he meant by his (the 
 prisoner's) exemplary conduct. 
 
 ' To this the witness, in explanation, said that 
 enormities had been committed by the rebels against 
 
Bartholomew Teeling. 393 
 
 a certain description of people, which, when com- 
 plained of, they endeavoured to excuse by saying 
 that they had only injured Protestants ; on which Mr. 
 Teeling warmly exclaimed, that he knew of no differ- 
 ence between a Protestant and a Catholic, nor should 
 any be allowed ; and that, as far as he could, he would 
 not suffer persons of any sect to be injured ; and the 
 witness further added, that the prisoner constantly 
 and zealously interfered in preventing the excesses 
 to which the rebels were inclined. 
 
 ' The witness having been further questioned as 
 to his motives for apparently joining the French 
 army, he said that he proceeded from Loughrea, the 
 place of his residence, to Castlebar, voluntarily, and 
 of his own accord, to obtain information for the 
 Government of the state of the enemy ; that he was 
 taken prisoner by a party of rebels at Hollymount, 
 but, on affecting to be an United Irishman, he was 
 permitted to go on to Castlebar, On arrivmg there, 
 and professing attachment to the invaders, he was 
 appointed a secretary to take returns of men and 
 arms, composing the rebel force, but he never exer- 
 cised ihe duties of the office. 
 
 ' Mr. Teeling here briefly addressed the court, and 
 again urged the necessity which existed for the 
 attendance of General Humbert, and the persons 
 from Castlebar and the county Mayo, in order to 
 support his defence. He also represented that his 
 ajxent was oblio:ed to attend the assizes of Armao-h, 
 and, under all these circumstances, requested such 
 
394 Ireland in '98. 
 
 indulgence in point of time as would enable him to 
 obviate those difficulties that lay in the way of his 
 defence. 
 
 * The Judge-Advocate answered that, as to the 
 presence of General Humbert, it was out of the 
 question, as he was not within the jurisdiction of the 
 court, but that the letter written by General Humbert 
 to the president of the court, and which, in the 
 opinion of the court, contained everything in favour 
 of the prisoner that could result from a personal 
 exammation, without the risk of being weakened by 
 a cross-examination, would be admitted as evidence 
 m his favour, and transmitted, with the mmutes of the 
 trial, to his Excellency the Lord -Lieutenant. With 
 respect to the other persons, to admit the necessity of 
 their attendance would be to produce a delay, opera- 
 ting against the purposes of speedy justice, for which 
 courts -martial were especially constituted. If the 
 attendance of those persons was to go to the merits of 
 the case, the court would certainly feel itself bound to 
 pay attention to the application relative to them ; but 
 there appeared nothing to justify a conclusion that 
 the evidence of those persons would be any other 
 than palliative, and in this respect their testimony, 
 however respectable those persons might be, must 
 fall infinitely short of that which the witness for the 
 prosecution had already voluntarily given in favour 
 of the prisoner, and who proved that the conduct 
 of Mr, Teeling had been such as even to challenge 
 the approbation of a person, whose examination of 
 
Bartholomeio Teeling. 395 
 
 that conduct had been made with a hostile inten- 
 tion. 
 
 ' The prisoner repeated his desire not to give 
 the court unnecessary trouble, and acknowledged that 
 the evidence of the persons at Castlebar was merely 
 intended as palliative, 
 
 ' The Judge- Advocate again said, that no evidence 
 could come so strongly before that court in favour 
 of the prisoner, as that which had been given by 
 the witness already examined ; adding that if Mr. 
 Teeling wished to address anything to the court in 
 the way of defence, the court was ready to attend to 
 him. 
 
 ' The prisoner said that if it was mconvenient to 
 the court to adjourn to Saturday, he would make his 
 defence to-morrow ; but if their indulgence would 
 extend the period of his defence to the day following, 
 he would be in a state of better preparation. 
 
 ' To this the Judge-Advocate replied, that the 
 adjournment of the court would not affect him, for 
 he need not be brought up again until Saturday. 
 
 'The court then adjourned. 
 
 ' The court having met at twelve o'clock, the 
 prisoner, Mr, Teeling, was brought up to make his 
 defence, which he read from a written paper to the 
 following effect : 
 
 ' " Mr. President, — I know I am addressing a court 
 of soldiers, and men of honour ; my case is short. 
 I feel that my defence ought to be simple and con- 
 cise. I shall confine myself to the suggestion, and 
 
196 Ireland in '98. 
 
 the suggestion only, of a very few matters ; fully 
 persuaded that if they have weight, they will not 
 be without effect, however unadorned and unen- 
 forced. 
 
 ' " I am accused of high treason. Permit me, 
 sir, with the most profound respect, to observe how 
 many and great the advantages are, which the re- 
 gular laws of this country give to every man under 
 such a charge, which I would have if tried before the 
 ordinary tribunals which are now open, and to which 
 I am amenable, and which I cannot have here ; and 
 permit me just to submit to you how far it is agree- 
 able to your constitution, in a case of life, to decide 
 upon me in an extraordinary and summary way, and 
 whether such trial can be had according to law. To 
 me, sir, this question cannot be unimportant. To 
 the members of this honourable court, I presume to 
 think, that, as a point of constitutional liberty, it is 
 infinitely more important than it could be as merely 
 regarding the fate of a single individual. Sir, I am 
 accused of treason as an Irish subject. I admit I 
 was born an Irishman, but I had for a considerable 
 time relinquished my connection with this country, 
 and became the subject of another, where I embraced 
 the profession of a soldier, in which I need scarcely 
 observe to this honourable court, that it was my duty 
 to obey the orders of m}'' superiors without the privilege 
 of inquiry ; and that any disobedience of them must 
 have been followed by infamy and death. In obedi- 
 ence to such an order, which you will see contained 
 
Bartholomeiv Teeling. 397 
 
 no intimation whatever of the object of the expedi- 
 tion, I repaired to La Rochelle, embarked with my 
 general as his aide-de-camp, and was landed in Ire- 
 land. You will decide, sir, whether I can fairly be 
 considered as an Irish subject, deliberately rebelling 
 against the state of which he was a member, or join- 
 ing an invader as a traitor against that state. That 
 I acted as a French officer I admit, nor do I fear it 
 can prejudice me in a court of soldiers, to say that I 
 did my duty to the utmost of my power. I did what 
 I conceived my duty. I did not desert my post. I 
 did not endeavour, as a conscious traitor, to save 
 myself by flight. I did not endeavour to waste un- 
 necessary blood by fruitless resistance. 
 
 ' " I surrendered upon the confidence of beino- 
 treated as a prisoner of war. To that privilege of 
 the conquered, the general under whom I served, and 
 to whom I immediately belonged, has put in a claim 
 in his own and in my behalf ; to that privilege, sir, 
 permit me, with great respect, to repeat my preten- 
 sion. It is with you, sir, and this honourable court, 
 to decide upon it. One word more, sir, and I have 
 done. The witness against me said that my conduct 
 was exemplary in discountenancing all religious anti- 
 pathy, and all violence and injury to individuals ; 
 perhaps it scarcely becomes me to claim any merit 
 upon such a ground as that. Certainly I did not 
 pursue that conduct under any idea that it might 
 thereafter give me a claim to that mercy which I was 
 then ready to extend, merely because I felt that I 
 
398 Ireland in '98. 
 
 ought not to abuse the power which I had of with- 
 holding it, and because I had learned, as a Roman 
 Catholic, that every man was my fellow- Christian. 
 Sir, I shall trouble you no further ; I have no further 
 case, and I have no witnesses to examine. I feel 
 gratefully the humanity I have found at your hands. 
 I know the high character of the great personage in 
 whose breast my fate may, perhaps, find its final 
 decision. To you, sir, and to him, if it shall so 
 happen, I do submit that fate ; and whether it shall 
 be life or death, I shall await it with that confidence 
 which becomes a man who has no doubt that his sen- 
 tence can be neither unjust nor unmerciful." ' 
 
 ' Humber^t, General Chief, Commanding in the French 
 Anny, to the President of the Court-Martial. 
 
 ' Sir, — I wrote some days ago to Lord Cornwallis, 
 relative to the generous conduct that has been ob- 
 served by my aide-de-camp, Teeling, since he came 
 into your country. 
 
 ' I dare to hope, sir, that he will pay attention to 
 my letter, and that he will not leave you ignorant of 
 the particulars of it. 
 
 ' I proceed myself to put you in possession of 
 them, well persuaded that you will regard them. 
 
 ' Teeling, by his bravery and generous conduct, 
 has prevented in all the towns through which we 
 have passed, the insurgents fi'om proceeding to most 
 cruel excesses. Write to Killala, to Ballina, to Castle- 
 
Bartholomew Teeling. 399 
 
 bar ; there does not live an inhabitant who will 
 not render him the greatest justice. This officer is 
 commissioned by my Government ; and all these 
 considerations, joined to his gallant conduct towards 
 your people, ought to impress much in his favour. 
 I flatter myself that the proceedings in your court 
 will be favourable to him, and that you will treat 
 him with the greatest indulgence. 
 
 ' I am, with respect, 
 
 ' Humbert. 
 
 ' On board the "Van Tromp " (September 18, 1798).' 
 
 Here the trial closed, and the court after some 
 deliberation found the prisoner guilty, and sentenced 
 him to death, with a recommendation to mercy. The 
 minutes were in the usual way laid before the Lord- 
 Lieutenant, and by him the sentence was approved. 
 Teeliiig's conduct previous to and at the time of 
 execution was marked by a strength of mind and 
 fortitude seldom met with. 
 
 ' Walker's Hibernian Magazine,' a timid and 
 servile periodical of that day, gives the following 
 particulars of his conduct at the place of execution : 
 ' He conducted himself, on the awful occasion, with a 
 fortitude impossible to be surpassed, and scarcely to 
 be equalled. Neither the intimation of his fate, nor 
 the near approach of it, produced on him any dimi- 
 nution of courage. With firm step and unchanged 
 countenance he walked from the prevot to the place 
 of execution, and conversed with an unaffected ease 
 
400 Ireland in '98. 
 
 while the dreadful apparatus was preparing. With 
 the same strength of mind and body he ascended the 
 eminence. He then requested permission to read a 
 paper which he held in his hand. He was asked by 
 the officer, whose immediate duty it was, whether it 
 contained anything of a strong nature ? He replied 
 that it did, on which permission to read it was refused, 
 and Mr. Teeling silently acquiesced in the restraint 
 put on his last moments. . . .' 
 
 Thus perished on the scaffold Bartholomew Tee- 
 ling, in the twenty-fourth year of his age. 
 
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