Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/risingof98withac00unse THE RISmG OF ’98: WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE VOLUNTEERS, FRENCH ALLIANCES, INVASIONS, &c. “ Rebellion ! foul dishonouring word I Whose wrongful hlight so oft has stained The holiest cause that ton^e or sword Of mortal ever lost or gained — How many a spirit, horn to bless, Has sunk beneath that withering name, Whom but a day’s — an hour’s success — Had wafted to eternal fame.” Moore. DUBLIN; JAMES M'CORMICK, 16 Chbist-Churcu Place. London ; W. Strange, PATERNOSTan-Row. HP? (T994 96): nof selected film oxists at another library se.’^-L h PEEF ACE. Rose and the Thistle together may cling, And impart to each other their thorn and their stinir • Shamrock of Erin be found ’ With their porcupine prickles eternally bound ? The past destiny of Ireland would appear to resemble that of her mother-countiy Spain, and, unless the Irish have degenerated from their Milesian or Spanish sires, why should not their future efforts to recover their liberties be finally crowned with the same success as those of the Span- iards ? It has been said that the Irish are an imaginative people, and that it is the genius of the Celtic race “always to hope and never to despair.” The natural character of the Trench and Irish, who are both Celtic nations, proves that they can preseiwe an easy philosophic gaiety, and spirit of content under circumstances which would sink the gloomy Teuton to a state of absolute hopelessness, if not drive him to commit suicide. And what is there, we should be glad to know, in the condition of Ireland, to despair of. Suppose the marriage beds and cradles of Ireland have not yet sent forth the race who are to rule the island. What then ? — are we to despair? Certainly not. If with Moses we are not fated to enter on the promised land, then let us produce another race, who, led on by a victorious young Joshua, will partake of the good inheritance. Even allowing, what indeed is not at all probable, that Ourse.ves alone., our children, or children s children, are viii. PREFACE. not fated to enjoy “man’s greatest earthly blessing — Li- berty,” still we maintain that the Irish would indeed be all their English enemies accuse them of being — a base, infe- rior, degenerate, brawling, cowardly, slavish crew — if they ever despaired of that glorious old struggle handed down to them by their heroic ancestors ; a struggle which muse finally end in the restoration of Ireland to her natural, an- cient, and honourable condition of an independent nation. If we Irish always bear in mind the history of Spain, we will clearly see that there is no sound reason why our strug- gle with the English should not terminate as gloriously as that of the Spaniards with the Mahommedan or Moorish invaders of Spain. The commencement of the misfortunes of Spain and Ire - land bears a strong analogy in many respects. Shall the termination be similar in the case of Ireland ? — Time will tell. In 711 the Mahommedan invaders of Spain, being invited in by treachery, landed from Africa, encountered Eoderic king of Spain, at Xeres, defeated him, and overran all Spain. The native Spaniards, although either driven into the mountains of Gallicia and Asturias, in the extreme north of Spain, or reduced to subjection, still never despaired of again becoming masters in their own country, and getting rid of their foreign conquerors. After a long and memor. able struggle of 780 years, the persevering Spaniards at length prevailed, and ended the contest of centuries, by planting their victorious banners on the Moorish towers of Grenada, in 1491. The English invaders, having been also invited in by treachery, landed in our country in 1169, defeated Roderic O’Connor, the king of Ireland, and overran the greatest part of the kingdom. Since that event 677 years have rolled over, and the hereditaiy contest between the nati\ e PREFACE. ix. Irish and foreign English still continues undecided. Why, then, should the Irish despair, when they are told that (al- though the English are here long enough, God knows !) the Mahommedans preserved their dominion in Spain 103 years longer than the English have yet done in Ireland, and nevertheless those Mahommedans were, in the end, driven out. At the same time, it is but justice to acknow- ledge that the Mahommedans (who were, like the Jews, Deists) behaved in a far kinder and more tolerant manner to the conquered Spanish Christians, than the English Ca- tholic or Protestant tyrants did to the oppressed Irish. The Spanish Christians have never been able to upbraid the Mahommedans with forging such an infernal inhuman code of laws as the penal code, which England composed for the Catholic Irish. Nothing can prove stronger how natural it is for men to govern their otvn country, under God alone, than this fact, that the language and feelings of patriots are the same in all ages and nations, no matter how distant. Thus, if we look back to the beginning of the fourteenth century, we find Donald O’Neill, king of Ulster, when addressing Pope John XXII. in a letter, using language precisely similar to what might be used by the Irish of our own days, if a tussle was going on between the two nations. The Irish of that time, being naturally sick of English tyranny, resolved to drive those foreigners en- tirely out of the island, just as their ancestors had expelled the Danes, and they accordingly invited in Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, whom they crowned king of aU Ireland. In the above letter of O’l^ eill, which contains a statement of the crimes committed by the criminal English invaders against the innocent Irish na- tives, we find the following passage, which, we must con- fess, contains far manlier, more noble, and juster send- PREFACE. ments than are to be met with in any of those innumerable verbose and unintelligible documents manufactured by the loyal lawyers of the present day. “ We,” says this honest intelligible Irish manifesto of the fourteenth centuiy, ‘ ‘ cher- ish, at the bottom of our hearts, an inveterate hatred, pro- duced by lengthened recollections of injustice — by the mur . der of our fathers, brothers, and nearest kindred, and which will not be extinguished in our time, nor in that ol our children ; so that as long as we have life, we will fight AGAINST THEBT, without regret or remorse, in defence of OUR RIGHTS. We will not cease to fight against and an- noy them, until the day when they themselves, for want of power, shall have ceased to do us harm, and the Supreme Judge shall have taken just vengeance on their crimes; which we firmly believe will sooner or later come to pass. Un- til then we will make war upon them unto death, to RECOVER that INDEPENDENCE WHICH IS OUR NATURAL RIGHT; being compelled thereto by very necessity, and willing rather to brave danger like men, than to languish under insult.” The celebrated living French historian Thierry, when commenting on these noble sentiments of the king of Ulster and the Irish princes, writes as follows : — ‘ ‘ This promise of war unto death, made upwards of 400 years ago, is not yet forgotten ; and it is a melancholy fact, but worthy of remark, that in our own days,” alluding to 1798, ** blood has flowed in Ireland on account of the old quarrel of the conquest. The period in futuidty when this quarrel shall be terminated, it is impossible to foresee ; an aversion for England, its government, its manners, and its language, is still the native passion of the Irish race. From the day of the invasion, the will of that race of men has been con- stantly opposed to the wiU of its masters ; it has detested PREFACE. xi. what they have loved, and loved what they have detested. * * * This unconquerable obstinacy, this lengthened remembrance of departed liberty, this faculty of preserving and nourishing through ages of physical misery and suffer- ing, the thought of that which is no more — of never de- spairing of a constantly -vanquished cause for which many generations have successfully and in vain perished, in the field and by the executioner — is perhaps the most extraor- dinary and the greatest example that a people has ever yet given ” “In this tenacious attachment,” says Mr O’Cal- laghan, author of the Green Book, “ to past national re- collections and ardent belief in ultimate political regener- ation, even under the most depressing circumstances, the Irish may be classed with the ancient Messenians, the J ews, the modern Greeks, and the heroic Poles.” The possi- bility of extei*minating such a magnificent people, such a persevering race of men, has been, after repeated efforts, long since abandoned in despair by the unnatoal English enemy. The possibility of crushing and enslaving such a hardy, fierce, warlike, agricultural nation as the Irish, who now amount to above eight millions, including two millions of cool temperate determined men, capable of using arms, has been also given up. To keep back, plunder, divide, man- age, bamboozle, or hoodwink that people, is now the only remaining policy of England. Let us hope that the day is near at hand, when such a mean shallow policy will be seen through. Let it not be said, that the cunning of the Eng- lish Eox is a match for the strength of the Irish Lion. We think we already hear the thundering roars of “ Faugh-a- bawlya” and “Lamh laider aboo,” booming from the consti- tutional throats of two millions of United Irishmen. But before this humcane of liberty approaches, sweeping all be- Xll. PREFACE, fore it, it becomes us as good Irishmen to think of the martyrs of by-gone days, and that good old cause for which Fitzgerald bled and Emmet died. Before we begin the Kising of ’98, we must say a few words of the previous his- tory of Ireland. The readers of the National Library have been by this, informed that although the English enemy invaded this island in 1169, still the Irish were not reduced to the degrading condition of subjects, till long after. To- wards the end of the sixteenth century, or above 400 years after the for^gn invasion, Leland was crushed — not by what some imaginative writers describe on paper as the power of England— but really by their own divisions, which is proved by this one fact alone, that the armies of England serving in Ireland in Ehzabeth Tudor’s reign, were com- posed chiefly of Irish Catholics. Down to the end of Eli- zabeth’s reign, or 1603, the Irish still preserved all the character of a separate nation — Irish language, dress, man- ners, with chiefs, bards, brehons, galloglasses, kerns, &c. All this was put an end to by James Stuart, a Scotchman, who succeeded Ehzabeth, and brought the proud Irish under a foreign yoke for the first time. Not being accustomed to be absolute slaves under foreign tyrants, it was no wonder that the Irish endeavoured re- peatedly to shake off the Enghsh yoke. Britain had been conquered in succession by the Komans, Saxons, Danes, and Nonnans ; but L’eland had as yet resisted or escaped all attempts of the kind. Finding England embroiled in civil war, the Irish rose up in 1641 ; but owing to their di- visions, were finally put down by Cromwell in 1651-52. When King William was invited over from Holland, in 1688, by the English, the Irish taking part vdth James II., king of England, were involved in war with the Dutch and English. This war, having lasted from 1688 to 1691, was l*n SPACE. xiii. concluded by a solemn treaty, signed at Limerick, in Oc- tober 1691. By this treaty the Irish Catholics wei-e al- lowed to enjoy what is called the rights of subjects, and the Irish army was embarked for France, according to agree- ment. The Irish, during this war, had fought remarkably well. The battle of the Boyne could not be called an English victory ; the first siege of Limerick was certainly an Irish victory ; at Aughrim, the Irish had gained the day, when a chaixce shot (which, 'tis said, would Idll the devil) took off St. Euth, the French general who com- manded the Irish. At the second siege of Limerick, the Dutch general Ginckle was at the head of an army of 40,000 men, with 80 pieces of cannon and 9 mortars. After having reduced a great part of the town to ruins, and effect- ing a breach in the fortifications wide enough to admit a hundi-ed men abreast, he was afraid to risk an assault on the town. In this state of things, while the wet season was fast appr ^aching. General Ginckle, by direction of his Dutch master, iVilliam, offered the Irish favourable terms, and they were accepted. A few days after the treaty was signed, the long-expected French fleet arrived off the Irish coasts ; and the Irish, from a false notion of honom, in- stead of falling on like men, knocking all the English and Dutch on the head, and driving them out of the country, stuck to the treaty, and retired to France. They ought to have recollected, that nothing can be more dishonourable than to let an enemy forcibly enter into or take possession of one’s country ; all free nations punish such invading offenders with death. Are not the notions of national and female honour similar ? — surely the forcible seizure or pos- session of either constitutes dishonour ! When the Irish had embarked for France, the English enemy, of course, broke the treaty in every article. The old penal laws were PREFACE. xiy. noy re-enacted, and new ones forged. The foreign-aiv crndancy and English-connexion faction, being frightened the noble stand made by the Irish in the late war, now resolved to completely break down their power, and reduce them to slavery, which they effected. In this state the Irish continued, till the American war commenced in 1775 Some of the severest penal laws were repealed in 177^. In the contest with America, all the forces that England could serape together were required, and Ireland was left without any English troops. The French having joined the Americans, the Irish Protestant slave owners became alarmed at the withdrawal of the regular English army. Having petitioned the English government for aid, they were told that there was none to spare — that they should defend themselves ; hence the Volunteers were organised in 1777* This Protestant militia gradually increased, till it amounted to 80,000 or 100,000 men. With the success of the Americans, the progress of free- dom advanced, and it even reached Ireland. France, Spain, and Holland having joined America, England was humi- liated and heaten. In 1782 the Irish Volunteers compelled England to acknowledge the independence of the Irish par- liament. A peace with America took place in 1783, and England now directed all her attention to Ireland ; and de- termined to recover by corruption, what she had lost from w'eakness. The truth of it w^as, the question of the inde- pendence of the Irish legislature and free trade had been unanimously passed by a corrupt Irish parliament. The genius and oratory of Grattan, backed the resolutions of the Dungannon Volunteers of February 1782, and the ho- rough-mongering parliament yielded to the pressure froa without, because it could not do otherwise. The English government and parliament acknowledged PREFACE. XV. the independence of Ireland for the same reason. How- ever, the Volunteers, after the fever of excitement had passed over, began to coolly reflect on the composition of the Irish parliament, which was not what it ought to have been— ,a representative body — but a den of brokering bigotted thieves — a set of corrupt jobbing judases, who sold their votes, or rather the Irish nation’s votes, to Eng- lishmen for money every year. In order to ascertain the state of Irish parliamentary representation, the Volunteers caused to be printed and published lists of the Irish House of Commons, designating the mode in which each repre- sentative was elected, and by whose personal influence or nomination ; and also stating the numbers of persons who nominally returned the member, and as far as could be* ascertained, what money or valuable consideration was given for such unconstitutional representation. “The result of this inquiry,” says an eminent Irish writer, “ left no room to doubt the applicability of those inquiries to a great proportion of the Commons House of Parliament. The Earl of Ely nominated 9 members ; the Earl of Shannon nominated 7 ; and above 20 other members of the House of Lords nominated and elected members for the House of Commons. Many individuals openly sold their patronage for money to the best bidder ; others returned members at the nomination of the Viceroy or his secretary ; i and it appeared that the number of representatives elected freely by the people, upon constitutional principles, did not compose one -fourth of the Irish Commons.’* The Volunteers at length resolved to demand a reform of parliament, and to bring the measure before t!x existing House of Commons, in a way which they conceived would render it irresistible. They accordingly determined to form a national representative assembly to be composed of 300 XVI. PREFACE. delegates, selected from the ditFerent regiments of Irish Volunteers. On the 10th of November 1783, the grand national Convention assembled at the Royal Exchange, and subsequently adjourned to the Rotunda. Lord Char- lemont was elected chairman, and the assembly continued its sittings till December 2nd, 1783. Had this Convention been conducted by honest leaders, it would have, as a matter of course, obtained aU its objects. However, this was not the case ; that ignorant vice — Irish confidence — as usual, left room for Iidsh treachery to act, and England triumphed. For some unaccountable reason, Grattan stood aloof from the Rotunda meeting. The Convention adopted a measure of parliamentary reform ; and decided, that their sittings should continue till the parliament determined the question. This plan of reform, framed by Flood, was accordingly introduced into the Irish House of Commons ; and after violent debates, was finally rejected by the Borough-mongers, who certainly could hardly be expected to vote for their own destruction. Had the Convention simply ordered a company of Volunteers to enter the House, with fixed bayonets, the desired reform could have been afterwards very easily brought about. The Irish Reform bill was rejected by a corrupt majority of 158 to 49 honest members, who voted for the measure. Of the majority, 138 were placemen, the very persons on whom the bill was intended to operate. “It is,” says a celebrated author, ‘ ‘ very remarkable that it was 138 place- men that rejected the Reform bill in 1783, and that it was the same number of placemen who carried the Union bill in 1800, which if reform had succeeded, never could have been passed. Upon this very decision, ultimately depended the existence of Irish independence. The Volunteers were insulted, their bill was rejected without a hearing, their PREFACE. XV 11. intentions were calumniated, even their name was repro- bated ; their services were forgotten, and that very cor- ruption which they sought to reform, thus had its full revenge." Owing to the treachery of that aristocratic noodle and bigot Caulfield (Lord Charlemont), the Convention of Volunteers assembled at the Kotunda was suddenly dis- solved. The acting of the trick is thus described by Sir Jonah Ban-ington, in his Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation: — “On Monday morning he (Charlemont) repaired to the Rotunda before the usual hour of sitting. None but his own immediate partizans were aware of his intention ; the meet- ing w^as expected to be most important, and the delegates had no suspicion of his Lordship’s early attendance. On his taking the chair, a delegate immediately arose to expa- tiate on the insults which the Convention had received during the debate of Saturday. His Lordship became alarmed ; a protracted statement might give time for the arrival of delegates, when all his objects would surely be frustrated. He at once took a step which had scarcely a parallel for duplicity, and which, though of the shallowest nature, proved the most effectual. He instantly silenced the member, as being out of order, on the ground that one House of Parliament never could take notice of what passed in another ; and that the Convention had adopted the rules and orders of parliament. Thus by collecting every ray of feebleness and absurdity into one focus, he prevented any continuation of the subject; and whilst he declared the Convention a house of parliament, resolved to terminate its existence. After some conversation, a farewell address was rapidly passed to his Majesty, and his Lordship boldly adjourned the Convention — sine die. The Rotunda was quickly vacated, and when the residue of the delegates— xviii. PREFACE. the ardent friends of the Volunteer body — came to tahe their places, they found the doors closed, the chairman 'withdrawn, and that body upon which the nation relied for its independence, dissolved for ever. The delegates, mortified and abashed, returned to their homes ; many fiiends of Earl Charlemont were soon ashamed of their conduct ; and his Lordship’s want of sincerity, for the first time, was indisputably proved, and underwent well-merited animadversions. ” With the dissolution of the Convention, the power of the Volunteers rapidly declined ; and all hopes of parliamentary reform likewise vanished. “ The people,” says Sir Jonah Barrington, “were severed, but the government remained compact-; the parliament was corrupted, the Volunteers were paralysed, and the high spirit of the nation exhibited a rapid declension. The jealousy of patriots is always destructive of liberty. A new event, however, soon proved the weak delusions of Earl Charlemont. At the dissolu- tion of the Convention, he recommended a Reform Bill to be presented to parliament, as emanating solely from civil bodies, unconnected with military character.* Every ex- periment is silly, where its failure can be clearly anticipated, and almost every man in Ireland well knew, that such a bill would be lost in such a parliament. Mr Elood, how- ever, tried the experiment, and it failed ; he attempted it without spirit, because he 'was without confidence. Mr Grattan supported it with languor, because it was the measure of his rival. The military bill had been scouted, because it was military, and the ci'vil bill was rejected because it was popular. A corrupt senate never wants a * The decided opinion of the whole Bar, after a long and solemn dis- cussion, was that the Volunteers, as an armed body, had not divested themselves of any civil right political or personal. PREFACE. xiz. vicious apology. The Yolunteers now drooped, yet their resolutions were published, their meetings were not sus- pended, and their reviews continued ; but these appeared only as boyish shows, to amuse the languid vanity of their deluded general. He passed their lines in military state ; he received their salutes with grace and condescension, and recommended them to be tranquil and obedient ; and, after a peaceful campaign of four hours^ duration, composed his mild and grammatical despatches, and returned to his Marino, and to the enjoyment of the more congenial ele- gancies of literature and of private friendships. The tem- perate system now gained ground ; some patriots lost their energy, others lost their influence, and the government experienced the wisdom of their negative measures. That noble institution, the Volunteers of Ireland, survived, how- ever, these blows some years. This only luminary of her sphere was, by the devices of the government, gi’adually obscured, and, at length extinguished IT' The French revolution which commenced in 1789, gave a renewed impulse to the feeling of liberty, which was first engendered from the successful American revolution. In two years after the French movement commenced, we trace the origin of the National Association of United Lishmen, whose noble leaders — because they loved their country, and wanted to have Ireland for the Irish were cut off by the English. On such men, a Protestant scholar of our Irish Univer- sity, Trinity College, has (to his eternal honour) com.posed those noble “ Irish lines which the English, during the mock trials of 1844, ‘‘attacked,” but were disgraceftiUy routed. PREFACE. THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD. Who fears to speak of Ninety-eight ? Who blushes at the name ? When cowards mock the patriots’ fete, Who hangs his head for shame ? He’s all a knave, or half a slave, Who slights his country thus ; But a true man, like you, man, Will fill your glass with us. We drink “ The Memory of the brave,” The faithful, and the few — Some lie far off beyond the wave,’ Some sleep in Ireland, too. All — all are gone — but still lives on The fame of those who died ; All true men, like you, men; Remember them with pride ! Some on the shores of distant lands, Their weary hearts have laid ; And by the strangers’ heedless hands Their lonely graves were made. But though their clay be far away Beyond the Atlantic foam — In true men, like you, men. Their spirit’s still at home. The dust of some is L'ish earth, Among their own they rest ; And the same land that gave them birth Has caught them to her breast. And we will pray, that from their clay Full many a race may start, Of true men, like you, men, To act as brave a part. They rose in dark and evil days To right their native land ; They kindled here a living blaze. That nothing shall withstand. Alas ! that Might should vanquish Right ! They fell, and passed away; But tnie men, like you, men. Are plenty here to-day. Then — “ Here’s their memory” — ^may it bo For us a guiding light. To cheer oiu* strife for Liberty, And teach us to unite. Through good or Ul, be Ireland’s still, Though sad as theirs your fate; And true men, be you, men, Like those of Ninety-Eight. THE RISK OF « CHAPTER I. United Irish Society founded in Belfast — Organized by Theohaid Wolfh Tone — First meeting — Declaration of the United Irishmen — Plan for a Reformed Irish House of Commons. The Society of United Irishmen dates its foundation from October 1791 . The first object of that national association was the attainment of Catholic Emancipation and Parlia- mentary Reform, both of which measures have since been car- ried, and are now the law of the land. The formation of the great association of United Irishmen, commenced in Ulster. “In the beginning of October 1791,” Theobald Wolfe Tone states in his Memoirs, “ that he was invited to spend a few days in Belfast, in order to assist in framing the first Club of United Irishmen, and to cultivate a personal ac- quaintance with those men, whom, though he highly es- teemed, he as yet only knew by reputation.” Thus invited, Tone went down from Dublin along with his friend Russel (who had just retired from the English army), and on arriving in Belfast, he speaks of “having some reason to esteem himself particularly fortunate in forming connexions with Samuel Neilson, Robert and WiUiam Sims, William Sinclaire, and Thomas M‘Cabo, the men most distiii“ 22 THE RISING OP ’98. guished for their virtue, talent, and patriotism.” Tone then proceeds to say, “We formed our club, of which I ■WTote the declaration, and certainly the formation of that club commenced a new epoch in the politics of Ireland.' After spying for about three weeks in Belfast, Tone and his fri^d Russel returned again to Dublin, with in- structions to cultivate the leaders in the popular interest, being Protestants; and, if it were possible, to form in the capital a club of United Irishmen. “ It is apparent,” says Dr Madden, “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 Russel; was adopted by the Simses, M‘Tier, M‘Cabe, Haslitt, and Sinclaire; that Tone reduced that plan into form, and acted at the onset, in the organization of it, in accordance with the previous views of those already named, and in connexion a little later with other members who possessed considerable influ- ence, from their wealth and station, in the town of Belfast. In fact, correctly spealdng, Samuel Neilson was the origi- nator, and Tone the organizer of the Society, the framer of its declaration, the pensman to whom the details of its formation were intrusted.” The object of Tone in assisting in the formation of the Belfast and Dublin societies, is not to be mistaken, since he clearly announces it in his diary, where he honestly says, “ to break the connexion with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assist the independ- ence of my country, these are my objects.” We have a proof that Russel was acquainted with Tone’s national objects, from a letter addressed by Tone to Russel, early in 1791, which fell into the hands of the English government. However republican the ideas of Ncilson and the Belfast THE KI81NG OF ’98. 23 patriots might have afterwards been, still at the beginning they professed to be satisfied with demanding parliamentary independence, Reform, and Emancipation. Tone’s influence :n the Belfast societies lasted while he remained in Ireland, but in Dublin his republican principles had xontraiy effect. The leaders of the society which Tone had just organized in the metropolis, were with few exceptions aj)prehensive of being compromised by his opinions. “ The club,” says Tone, “ was scarcely formed, before I lost all pretensions to anything like influence in their measures.” In Tone’s account of his first visit to Belfast in October 1791, we find that even before the United Irish Society was yet foimed, there was a secret committee of the leading patriots of that town ; which committee seems to have re- sembled those secret committees of the English, which they call “ Cabinet Councils,** “Privy Councils,” &c, where plots and conspiracies have been so often hatched against the unsuspecting Irish. “ Their mode of doing business,’^ says Tone, speaking of the Belfast patriots, “was by a secret committee, who are not known or suspected of co- operating, but who in fact direct the secret movements of Belfast.” The members of the secret committee were — William Sinclaire, Samuel M‘Tier, Samuel Neilson, Wil- liam M‘Cleery, Thomas M‘Cabe, William Sims, Robert Sims, Henry Haslitt, William Tennent, Campbell, Gilbert M‘Ilveen. On the 14th of October 1791, Theobald Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russel were admitted members of the com- mittee ; and it was on that occasion that arrangements w'ere entered into for the first public meeting of the Belfast club of United Irishm*^^ It was agreed, that M‘Tier should be the chairman at the meeting, that Sinclaire should move the I'esoluti.or % Sims second them, NeilsoB 21 THE RISING OF ’9^. move the printing, and Tone and Russel state the senti- ments of the people of Dublin. Accordingly, the appointed meeting took place on the 18th of October, and Tone having dined with Neilson, attended it. The club consisted of 36 original members ; and six new ones were proposed upon this occasion. A conresponding committee was now formed, which consisted of Neilson, Haslitt, M‘Tier, and Sims. The principal business done was the commencement of a correspondence with the Catholic Committee and the Dublin popular leaders, requesting their co-operation and assistance. The following documents explain in the clearest manner the objects and principles of the original Society of United Irislimen : — “we have no national government. “We are ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Eng- lishmen, whose object is the interest of another country, whose instrument is corruption, whose strength is the weakness of Ireland, and these men have the whole of the power and patronage of the country as means to seduce and subdue the honesty and the spirit of her representatives in the legislature. Such an extrinsic power, acting with uniform force in a direction too frequently opposite to the true line of our obvious interests, can be resisted with effect solely by unanimity, decision, and spirit in the people, qualities which may be exerted most legally, constitution- ally and efficaciously by that great measure essential to the prosperity and freedom of Ireland — an equal representation of all the people in parliament. “ We do not here mention as grievances the rejection of a place bill, of a pension biU, of a responsibility bill, the sale of peerages in one house, the corruption publicly avowed THE RISING OF ’98. 25 \ in the other, nor the notorious infamy of borough traffic between both ; not that we are insensible of their enormity, but that we consider them as but symptoms of that mortal disease which corrodes the vitals of our constitution, and leaves to the people in their own government but the shadow of a name. “ Impressed with these sentiments, we have agreed to form an association, to be called ‘ The Society of United Irishmen,’ and we do pledge ourselves to our country, and mutually to each other, that we will steadily support and endeavour by all due means to carry into effect the follow- ing resolutions : — . “1st. Resolved — That the weight of English influence in the government of this country, is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce. “ 2nd. That the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed, is by a complete and radical re- form of the representation of the people in Parliament. “3rd. That no reform is practicable, efficacious or just, which shall not include Irishmen of every religious per- suasion. “ Satisfied as we are that the intestine divisions among Irishmen, have too often given encouragement and impu- nity to audacious and corrupt administrations, in measures which but for these divisions they durst not have attempted, we submit our resolutions to the nation, as the basis of our political faith. “We have gone to what we conceive to be the root of the evil ; we have stated what we conceive to be the remedy; with a Parliament thus reformed every thing is easy ; with- out it nothing can be done ; and we do call on and most 26 TUB RISING OF ‘98. earnestly exhort our countrymen in general, to follow our example, and form similar societies in every quarter of the kingdom for the promotion of constitutional knowledge, the abolition of bigotry in religion and politics, and the equal distribution of the rights of man throughout all sects and denominations of Irishmen. “ The people, when thus collected, will feel their own weight, and secm-e that power which theory has already admitted as their portion, and to which, if they be not aroused by their present provocations, to vindicate it, they deserve to forfeit their pretensions for ever. “James Napper Tandy, Secretary.” “plan for an equal representation of the people OF IRELAND IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. “ Prepared for their consideration hy the Society of United Irishmen of Dnhlin. “1st. That the nation, for the purpose of representation solely, should be divided into 330 electorates, formed by a combination of parishes, and as nearly as possible equal in point of population. “ 2nd. That each electorate should retm-n one represen- tative to parliament. “ 3rd. That each electorate should, for the convenience of caiTying on the elections at the same time, be subdi- vided into a sufficient number of parts. ‘ ‘ 4tli. That there should be a returning officer for each subdivision, to be respectively elected. “ 5th. That the electors of the electorate should vote, each in the subdivision in which he is registered, and haa resided, as hereinafter specified. “6th. That the returning offioirs of the subdivisions should severally return their respective polls to the return- THE RISING OF ’98. 27 ing-officer of the electorate, who shall tot up the whole, and return the person having a majority of votes, as the representative in parliament. “7th. That every man possessing the right of suffi’ago for a representative in parliament, should exercise it in his ovm person only. “ 8th. That no person should have a right to vote in more than one electorate at the same election. “ 9th. That every male of sound mind, who has attained the full age of twenty-one years, and actually dwelt, or maintained a family establishment in any electorate for six months of the twelve immediately previous to the com- mencement of the election, (provided his residence, or maintaining a family establishment, be duly registered, ) should be entitled to vote for the representation of the electorate. “ 10th. That there should be a registering officer, and a registry of residence, in every subdivision of each electorate; and that in all questions concerning residence, the registry should be considered as conclusive evidence. “11th. That all elections in the nation should commence and close on the same day. “ 12th. That the votes of all electors should be given by voice, and not by ballot. “ 13th. That no oath of any kind should be taken by any elector. “ 14th. That the full age of twenty-five years should he a necessary qualification to entitle any man to be a representative. “ 15th. That residence within the electorate should not, but that residence within the kingdom should, be a neces- sary qualification for a representative. 28 THE RISING OF ’98. “ That no property qualification should be neces- sary to entitle any man to be a representative. “ 17th. That any person having a pension, or holding a place in the executive or judicial departments, should be thereby disqualified from being a representative. “ 18th. That representatives should receive a reasonable stipend for their services. “ 19th. That every representative should, on taking Iiis seat, swear that neither he, nor any person to promote his interest, -with his privity, gave, or was to give any bribe for the suffrage of any voter. “ 20th. That any representative convicted by a jury, of having acted contrary to the substance of the above oath, should be for ever disqualified from sitting or voting in parliament. “21st. That parliaments should be annual. “22nd. That a representative should be at liberty to resign his delegation upon giving sufiicient notice to his constituents. “23rd. That absence from duty for should va- cate the seat of a representative.” In the first society of United Irishmen, the most promi- nent persons were — Dr Drennan, James Napper Tandy, Archibald Hamilton Kowan, Hon Simon Butler, Oliver Bond, &c. TUE RISING OF ’98. CHAPTER II. Irish National Guards — Proposed re^^val of the Volunteers — Hamilton Eowan and others persecuted — The United Society attacked — Irish and English oaths — New organization of the Society — Account of the Directories. The United Irishmen, observing that three millions of brave Protestant Americans, had obtained all they desired by armed force, and that the efforts of the French nation, who used the same natural means, had been rewarded with like success, desired to imitate the examples before their noses, and become a free nation. They either wished to re- vive the constitutional assemblies of armed Volunteers, or to form, like the French, a new body of national guards. Accordingly, in 1792, money was raised by subscription, to arm and embody a number of men in the metropolis, under the title of National Guards, with a handsome green uniform, which was adopted as the national colour. The buttons were inscribed with a harp, the armorial ensign of Ireland, divested of the English crown (which is usually cocked up above it), in order to denote, as was supposed, the intended abolition of English monarchy or foreign connexion. Accordingly, the 9th of December was appointed as a day of general muster for the guards. This assembly of constitutional force, or native militia, was, however, pre- vented by the English-connexion or foreign-ascendancy party. On the 8th of December, the day immediately preceding that of the intended parade, a proclamation was issued by the English viceroy and committee or council, from the English Castle of Dublin, Ship. street, prohibiting 30 THE RISING OF '98. all such assemblies, wbich they called seditious ; and com- manded the gOYerament magistrates to suppress them by military force, in case they should assemble. As the English garrison had been increased in order to overawe the citizens, the National Guards did not assemble, lest they should be treacherously attacked or slaughtered by a greater number of the English army. The leaders of the United Irishmen, however, met on the 14th of December, and published a proclamation, exhort- ing the Volunteers to resume their arms as formerly, for the maintenance of tranquillity throughout the kingdom, against foreign and internal enemies ; and advising the Protestants of Ireland, to choose deputies for provincial assemblies, prior to the meeting of a general convention, which they declared to be advisable, in order to combine and make common cause with the great body of their Catholic fellow-countrymen. On account of this manifesto, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, who had acted as secretary to the above assembly, was arrested by the English in the following month. This celebrated Protestant patriot was a gentleman of respectable family and fortune, remarkable for his great strength and com'age, of a most amiable cha- racter, and the warmest philantrophy. Such a man, be- cause he desired to see Ireland ruled by Irishmen, was prosecuted, fined, imprisoned, and only escaped death by flying into exile. And yet the very English who put a man to death if he opposes English connexion with, or rather ascendancy over Ireland, would also put the same man to death, if he tried to establish a Piench connexion or union with England. Wliat miserable inconsistency ! On the llth of March 1793, a paper notice or proclama- tion was Issued fi'om the English Castle of Dublin, Ship- •street, proliibiting all further parades or reviews of the THE RISING OF *98. 31 Irish. Tliis paper had the intended effect of dissolving the Irish National Militia or Volunteers, who were never once named by their well-known title, but included under the term “ armed bodies.” At a meeting of the society of United Irishmen, held in February 1793, the Hon Simon Butler in the chair; Oliver Bond, secretary; a declaration was brought before the meeting, and adopted by them, condemning as illegal the proceedings of the secret committee of the Irish House of Lords. This committee which had been appointed to in- quire into the recent disturbances, compelled witnesses to answer questions on oath, compromising themselves, and directed to the discovery of evidence in support of prosecu- tions already going forward. For the above declaration of the society, Butler and Bond were brought before the bar of the Irish House of Lords, and on admitting the adoption of the declaration by the Society, the Lord Chan- cellor pronounced the judgment of the House, viz — That they should be imprisoned for six months, and obliged to pay a fine of £500 each to the king of England.” In January 1794, two years after the publication of the above-named proclamation of the society, Hamilton Rowan was brought to a mock trial, and found guilty on English law, by a corrupt Irish jury. This Protestant gentleman was condemned to be robbed (or fined, as the cant term goes) of £500. He was also sentenced to be confined for wo long years in the English prison of Newgate, and afterwards to give security for £4000 to the English king George, during seven years. In June of the same year. Hr William Drennan, a literary man, and physician, who had been chainnan in the same assembly, was tried, but fortunately acquitted. James Napper Tandy, a citizen of Lublin, and a most active member of political or philan- 32 TilE RISING OF ’ 98 . trophic societies, who on arrest had given bail, made his escape the preceding year to avoid a trial. Hamilton Kowan also contrived by stratagem, to escape from the English prison, and get abroad. His resolution to attempt this flight, was hastened by the arrest of a famous Irish Protestant pa- triot, the Hev William Jackson, who had gone on apolitical mission to France. In Jackson’s correspondence, Hamilton Eowan was implicated, and might, in consequence, have been put to death by the English. In 1794, the English government, feeling alarmed at the progress and principles of the United Irish Society, directed its vengeance against it. Accordingly, on the 4 th of May 1794, their Society’s usual place of meeting, the Tailor’s Hall, Back-lane, Dublin, was attacked by the paid police ; their meeting was dispersed, and their papers plundered. Several of the leaders had already been prosecuted and imprisoned, many of the more timid part of the members of the Society, had retired ; the more determined, honest, or republican portion however remained. After the first Society of United Irishmen had been sup- pressed, a new organization of the body took place ; a new constitution was formed, and an oath of secrecy or test was adopted, to be first taken by all members previous to ad- mission. The test begins, “ In the awful presence of God,” and runs thus: “I, A. B., do voluntarily declare that I will persevere in endeavouiing to form a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of every religious persuasion, and that I wiU also persevere in my endeavours to obtain an equal, fall, and adequate representation of all the people of Ireland. I do further declare, that neither hopes, fears, rewards, or punishments, shall ever induce me, directly or indirectly, to inform on or give evidence against any mem- ber or members of this or similar societies, for any act or THE RISING OF ’ 98 . 33 expression of theirs, done or made collectively or individu- ally, in or out of this Society — in pursuance of the spirit of this obligation.” Here, no doubt, the reader will not fail to observe the great spirit of fairness and toleration which distinguished the oath of the United Irishmen, from that of the United Englishmen in former times. In the United Irish oath, there is not one word said about swearing any English or foreigners to obey the Irish. Every native Irishman is simply called on to make a natural, grateful, and religious vow before the great, good, and just God, to love his own fellow-countiymen, and serve his native land. Moreover, no Englishman, Scotchman, Welshman, German, Dutch- man, Hanoverian, or any other beggarly foreigner, was ever compelled by the United Irishmen to perjure himself by taking an unnatural blasphemous oath to obey the Irish — ^for is it not blasphemous to swear before God, against the very land which he allowed one to be bom in ? The English in former times, on the contrary, never had such a fair form of oath, as that of the United Irishmen. For- merly the English ruifians, after first murdering, burning, robbing, and ravishing the greater part of the unoifending Irish ; used then, like loyal, merciful, and religious ene- mies, present on the sword’s point an oath of allegiance, to be quickly swallowed down by the remainder of the natives. By this compulsory oath, a true-blooded Irishman was ob- liged to swear, against his grain, to obey or serve some tyrannical fellow or other, called king of England, no mat- ter who he might chance to be. Thus, descendants of our old native Irish kings — men with the pure blood of such heroes as Niall the Grand (the triumphant invader of Bri- tain and Gaul), or old Brian Boru (the Dane-smasher), 34 TUB RISING OF ’ 98 . coursing through their veins — have been compelled bj' iu- pacious and blood-thirsty Englishmen, to swear — ^what ? — . yes, gracious heavens ! to swear to obey and serve a whole parcel of murdering mongrels and wicked foreigners, such as James Stuart, a Scotchman, who robbed all the Ulster Irish of their tenant-right, and was moreover addicted to dark and unnatm'al crimes ; or William of Orange, who robbed and butchered the Irish, made and broke the treaty of Limerick, and murdered the Scotch clan M ‘Donald, in the valley of Glencoe ; or George Guelphs, the Hanoverian, who murdered Count Konigsmark, and kept the Irish as slaves under Penal laws, so infamous, that if they at present existed, the Irish millions would be justified in rising up like men, which unfortunately they were not numerous enough to do in the Penal times. In this enlightened age, would it not be wise for all na- tions to form natural and national oaths, on the model of that framed by the United Irishmen ; thus every native Englishman, might take an oath before God, to love and ser^^e the English and England, or quit the country.- Every native Frenchman, might take an oath before God, to love a.id serve Frenchmen and France, or quit the country. Every United American, might take an oath before God, to love and serve the United Americans and the United States, or quit the country; and, above aU, every native United Irishman, might take an oath before God, to love and serve United Ireland, and the United Irish, or quit the country. Surely such a universal oath of allegiance might be adopted by all nations and all rehgions ; it would be natural, na- tional, moral, just, and honourable. Such an oath, ten- dered once a-year, under the open canopy of heaven, by the whole armed male population or miUtia of all countries. THE RISING OF ’ 98 . 35 would be grateful to God, and serviceable to man. What would become of all man-butchers, bloody conquerors, and foreign tyrants under such a system ? In order to answer the necessary purposes of secrecy, concert, and uniformity of action, a remodelling of the National Association was effected ; and it would be difficult perhaps to devise a plan more efficient than that which was now adopted. In order to avoid the mixture of persons unknown to each other, it was decreed, that no society should consist of more than twelve persons, and those, as nearly as possible, of the same street or neighbourhood. By each of those societies of twelve, a secretary Avas chosen ; and the secretaries of five such societies, formed a commit- tee, called the Lower Baronial. The next step in the scale Avas the Upper Baronial Committee, to constitute which, ten Lower Baronials sent each a member ; and above this again rose the District or County Committee, composed of one member chosen from each Upper Baronial. Having provided by these successive layers, as it were, of delegated authority — each exercising a superintendence OA^er that immediately below it, for tlie purpose of organis- ing the several counties and populous towns ; they next superadded a Provincial Committee, which was composed of two or sometimes three members, elected from each of the County Committees. Last of all came the Executive — the apex of the system — which consisted of five persons chosen in such a manner from the Provincial Committees, as to leave the members of the latter in entire ignorance as to the individuals selected. Over the whole body thus organised, the Executive possessed full command, and could transmit its orders with but little risk through the whole range of the Union in this manner: one member of the Executive, communicated them to one member of the 36 THE RISING OF ’98. Provincial Committee, and he again to the secretary of the County Committee, who in hke manner passed them do\v'n through the secretaries of the Baronials, and these on to the secretaries of the subordinate societies. The facihty with which it was found that this plan — though at first designed for a purely civil organization — could be adapted, mthout changing its structure, to military purposes, rendered it a doubly formidable engine in the hands that finally directed it. The secretary of each sub- ordinate society of twelve, was easily transfoimed into a Serjeant or corporal; the delegate of five societies to a Lower Baronial, became a captain, with 60 men under his command ; and the delegate of ten Lower Baronials, to a County or District Committee, took rank as a colonel, at the head of a battalion of 600 men. In May 1795, the civil organization of the Society was completed in Ulster, and the mihtary organization in August 1796. “An erroneous opinion,” says Dr Mad- den, “prevails with respect to the direction of the affairs of the United Irish Societies throughout the country. The di. rectory of the Leinster societies, the principal members of which, subsequent to 1796, were — Arthur O’Connor, Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr M‘Nevin, Ohver Bond, and others of the Dubhn leaders, at different periods, it is com- monly supposed was the only one in existence ; such, how- ever, is not the fact. Ultimately there were four directories, one for each of the provinces. The Ulster Directory was the first estabhshed. The principal members of it were — Samuel Neilson, two merchants ( natives of Belfast, one still hving in that town), and Dr White, now residing in America. The Munster Directory was only in existence a short time before the suppression of the rebellion. The Connaught Directoiy was hkewdse of short duration, and THE RISING OE ’98. 37 action was more limited than any of the others. The Ulster Directory was fonned about the beginning of 1795. In 1796, Oliver Bond was associated with its other mem^- hers. In his examination be states, that “he acted with that association in conducting the affairs of the Union; and when the Leinster organization was completed, early in 1797, lie was regularly elected a member, of the Execu- tive, though he declined to act officially. He, however, continued in the confidence of the Union, and was con- sulted by them on all affairs of moment.” The circumstance of the early existence of the Ulster Directoiy, and the emanation from it of the most important measures, subsequently taken up and attempted to be car- ried into effect by the Leinster Directory, is worthy of notice. These measures, it is gen^*ally imagined, origi- nated with the latter. Arthur O’Connor became a member of the Leinster Directory in November 1798. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and another person of exalted rapk, still living, was nominated at the same time. T. A. Emmet was not appointed till January 1797, and Dr M‘Nevin about the same period. “ None of them were members of the United system until September or October 1796. In November. 1796, Arthur O’Connor, accompanied by Lord Edv/ard 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 vicinity of Belfast, and resided there for some months. During their stay, their intercourse with the Belfast lead.* ers prepared the way for the combined action of the Dubliii and Northern societies.” B 38 THE RISING OF ’98. CHAPTER III. United Irish Society of Protestant origin— Protestants naturally fond of self-government — Catholic nations subject to others — Leaders of the United Irishmen Protestants — Their principles — United Irish signs. The English — who have always handled rehgion in Ire- land, as well as in other countries, for their own interested purposes — falsely assert, that the Society of United Irish- men was of a sectarian character; and they have even called the insurrection of ’98, a “Popish rebellion.” As for the great mass of those who fought in ’98, they were undoubtedly Catholics, and for a very good reason too, they could’nt help it ; they had not changed their old reU- gion, either from interest, error, or conviction; they were, as the majority of the Irish, bom by the wiU of the Creator in the Catholic religion, in which they lived and died, just as millions had, by the will of the Creator, died Pagans before Christ arrived at his 30th year, and Protestants since the time of Luther. Speaking on the subject of ’98, Dr Madden observes, ‘ ‘ That if we separate the actors from the organizers of the rebelhon” (as he calls it) “ of ’98, we shall find that the Protestant and Presbyterian members, compared with the Roman Catholic members, are in the proportion of about four to one. There never was,” says the same authority, ‘ ‘ a greater mistake than to call this struggle a Popish rebellion ; the movement was pre^ eminently a Protestant one.” The fact of it is, both the Catholics and Protestants of Ireland, are like all others, naturally rebels, patriots, or advocates of self-government; and but for the arts of irreligious, but united Englishmen, who shuddering at the very idea of United Irishmen, bring in religion to divide the Irish, aU would now, as in 1782, agree to govern their owm country, just as the Ainc- THE RISING OF ' 98 . 39 ricans do America — the English, England — or the French do France. The old Irish, who are mostly Catholics, well know that their native country was an independent honourable king- dom long before any of the present states of Europe, or of the whole world — except China — ^were founded. How can the old Catholic Irish ihen “forget themselves to stone,” while they, at the same time, remember their ancestors ? As for the Protestants of Ireland, they are like all other Protestants, naturally rebels, patriots, or advocates of self- government, that is, they think themselves, under God, just as good as any other men. This is the genius of the Protestant religion. Hence, while old Catholic nations are found quietly submitting to Protestant nations, no Protestant nation will bear to be ruled by any Catholic nation, aye, or Protestant nation either. Hence the Dutch Protestants., drove out the Catholic Spaniards. Hence the Protestant Swiss will not submit to the Catholic Austrians. Hence three millions of Protestant Americans, drove off the Protestant English. In fact, properly speaking, there are only three kingdoms in all Europe, subject to foreign- ers, and those three are peopled by men who profess the Catholic religion, which some assert, teaches that obedience or looking up to others, is one virtue, and humility or looking down on ourselves is another virtue ; while the Protestants, strange to say, hardly regard those qualities as virtues at all, but have even gone so far as to assert, that obedience and humility are merely words invented and lauded up by the rich, knowing, proud, idle, dependent, immoral, and unproductive classes, in order to bamboozle, oj.prsss, and plunder the poor, ignorant, industrious, and virtuous people, who produce every thing, and arc rcaliy left nothing. 40 TUS RISING OF ’ 98 . Protestant authors have also said, that obedience to other men, and huinihty in ourselves, tend to destroy self-respect, or self-reliance, without which men will not fight against t^Tanny, and for their country and liberty ; and that when obedience, humility, or subjection of mind is carried to ex- tremes, and'not controlled by reason, it only serves to degrade one man beneath another, and to throw the whole human race back to the old ignorant state of things, when only two sects existed, the rich masters and the poor slaves. Be this as it may, without professing to agree with ‘ ‘ stilF Protestants, ” one fact, however, which liberal Protestant authors have repeatedly asserted, cannot, we’re sorry to be obhged to acknowledge, be denied by any honest or educated man, and that fact is — the three subject or slave states of Europe, are mostly inhabited by Catholics. These are — Catholic Poland, Catholic Italy, and Catholic Ireland, most certainly three of the most fertile and noblest countries in Europe. Every brave honest Catholic must regret this sad state of things. If we count the Irish labourers or foreign slaves, toiling away in England, Scotland, America, and the Colo- nies, along with eight millions of Irish slaves, working under English overseers at home, there will be mustered at least ten millions, aU of Irish birth. Those descended of Irish blood, in the United States, England, Scotland, the Colonies, &c, make about ten millions more. There are near thii’ty millions of Catholic Poles, and above twenty millions of Catholic Italians. Here are sixty millions of Catholics, permitting foreigners to lord it over them; ought this to be case? Let not the free and flourishing Protestants have it in their power to be constantly scoffing, jeering, pointing the finger at us, and saying in derision, “ Catholic slaves,” “Popery and slavery always go toge- tlier,” and such other annoying and galling epithets. Let THE RISING OF ’93. 41 the Irish proudly answer, that Brien Boru, who drove out those usurpers the Danes, was a Catholic ; and as it would not be loyal to dangerously tell the Irish to imitate Brien Boru, let us saMy advise the Catholic Poles and Italians, to knock their foreign Russian and Austrian tyrants on the head, and raise the Catholic men in the eyes of Protestant men, women, and children of Europe, who have hitherto boldly asserted, that Catholics are not allowed to seize and enjoy the blessings of liberty, without which men are in some respect worse off than beasts, who enjoy ah the rights of nature, for as the old Greek poet Menander, when writing above 250 years before Christ, says . “ All creatures are more bless’d iii their condition, And in their natures worthier than man. Look at yon ass! a sorry beast, you’ll say, And such in truth he is — poor hapless thing! Yet these his sufferings spring not from himself. For all that Nature gave him he enjoys. Wliilst we, besides our necessary ills. Make ourselves sorrows of our ownbegetthig,'* The United Irish Society, as we have shown, was of Protestant origin. The Irish Protestants of Belfast thought themselves “every inch as good” as the Republican Pro- testants of America, who had lately beaten out the English ; and they thought that an old nation like Ireland, had as much right to enjoy the blessings of liberty, as any English colony. The leaders of the United Irishmen, were remark- able for bravery, talents, honesty, and disinterestedness, or self-devotion. We are sorry to say, that although Ireland has doubled her population since ’98, still she cannot pro - dace such a host of fine tnie-blooded Irishmen as in ’98. Those men scorned the humbug doctrine, tliat tlie poor alone were to sacrifice themselves in politics, and the rich to be the gainers. 42 THE RISING OF ’98. Most of the men of ’98, were men ot rank, or fortune, or character. The leaders of those times were not trading politicians, money- worshippers, popular jobbers or brokers, hungry rapacious la'wyers, or characterless men. Most of the men of ’98, were prepared to lay down their lives in the field, or on the scaffold, lor their native land ; or to suffer exile, imprisonment, and persecution in the cause of freedom. Nothing reflects greater honour on the Protest- ants of Ireland, than the fact of their having produced such a rich crop of honest, brave noble leaders as those of ’98. To pass over a host of others, where are such men now to be found, as General Theobald Wolfe Tone, General Lord Edward Fitzgerald, General Arthur O’Connor, Thomas Addis Emmet, Eobert Emmet, Archibald Hamilton Eowan, Dr Drennan, all Protestants. Indeed, Dr M‘Nevin was almost the only Catholic leader of eminence in ’98. But the most convincing proof of the virtue and principle of the men of ’98, and the justice of the measures which they advocated, is this — the patriots of those times are daily rising in the estimation of the Irish nation, and Parliament- ary Eeform, and Catholic Emancipation, for which they contended, have been carried. Even the prospect of Repeal is hourly growing nearer, by which event the plundered Irish constitution of 1782 will be restored, and other name- less blessings will be then sure to follow. On the other hand, those horrible judases and conmpt wi’etches, who sold their native land for vile money, and the bloody mon- sters who murdered the Irish, and once carried things with a high hand, are already sunk in the lowest infamy ; and if any one dared to rise up to defend them, he would run the risk of being torn to pieces, by a -surtuous and in- dignant nation, who will not listen to anything against the men of ’98. THE RISING OF ’98. 43 We have indeed reason to be rejoiced with the future prospects in store for the Irish. Who dare sav “boo” to eight millions? With us the exercise of patriotism has become a safe and easy habit, and with some, even a money- making pursuit ; it was not so in the days of our fatners. “They rose in dark and evil daj-s, To right their native land.” Before we digress to another subject, it only remains to mention the test, signs, and emblems of the United Irish- men, wliich are thus described by a late writer : — “ The candidate for admission into the Society, after it became a secret one in 1794, was sworn either by indivi- duals, or in the presence of several members, in a separate room from that in which the meeting was held. A paper, consisting of eight pages of printed matter, called the con- stitution, was placed in his right hand, and the nature of it was explained to him: that part of it called the “ Test” was read to him, and repeated by him. The oath was administered either on the Scriptures, or a prayer-book ; and while it was administering to him, he held the consti- tution, together with the book, on his right breast. The constitution contained the Declaration, Besolutions, Eules, Test, Eegulations for the various committees, and form of certificate of admission into the Society. ‘ ‘ The mode of recognition was the following : — A mem- ber, desiring to ascertain if a person was initiated, or to make himself known to another party — on meeting with a person not previously known as a United Irishman, — repeated the first letter of the word “ United,” in this man- ner — “ I know U the person accosted, if initiated, an- swered — “ I know N and so on^ each alternately repeat- ing the remaining letters of the word. Where further proofs of initiation were required, there was a form of 44 THE RISING OF ’ 98 . examination in a seiies of questions, to which the following answers were required, in common use among the lower orders. “ Q — Are you straight? “ A — I am. “ Q How^ straight? “A — As straight as a rush? ‘ ‘ Q — Go on then ? “ A — In truth, in trust, in unity, and liberty. Q — What have you got in your hand? ‘ * A — A green bough. ‘ ‘ Q — Where did it first gi'ow * ‘ A. — In America. “ Q — Where did it bud? “A — In Trance. “ Q. — Where are you going to plant it ? “ A — In tlie crown of Great Britain.” THE RISING OF ’98. 4i> CHAPTER IV. English conspiracy against the Irish nation — Infamous tyrannical mea- sures planned by the mock parliament and conspirators— Con ven- tion Act— Gunpowder Bill — LordFitzwiUiam sent over, and recalled — Insurrection Act. Having sliotvn that the Society of United Irishmen, was of Protestant origin — that its leaders were mostly Protest- ants, and that the object of the Society was to reform the Irish parliament, and to abolish sectarian distinctions and quarrels, by equalizing all religions, and procuring eman- cipation for the Irish Catholics, we must now take a rapid sketch of the criminal and tyrannical proceedings of a few foreign or English villains, calling themselves government, and the Irish traitors, who were leagued with them, and had entered into a great conspiracy to abolish the Irish constitution of 1782, to corrupt and sell the Irish Parlia- ment, and to reduce Ireland to the degraded condition of an English province. The English, who are very fond of liberty themselves, but will not allow others (if they can help it) to enjoy the same precious treasure, very properly hold it as a true maxim, that ‘ ‘ taxation without representation is tyranny. ” Now if this definition be a sound one, the Irish Volunteers would have been perfectly justified in 1782, if they had disowned the corrupt Irish Parliament, and elected a new one. In fact, the United Americans, because England dared to tax them in an English parliament, where they were not represented, resisted such foreign tax-masters by force, and finally thrashed the English and Hessian mur- derers out of Ameiica. Since which event, the United Americans have, as a reward for their virtuous conduct, 46 THE RISING OF ’98. become the first nation in the world. When the National Association of United Irishmen began to preach the ra- tional doctrines of reform and representation, instead o f any concessions being made to them, things, on the con- trary, became every day worse and worse. In 1793 , a most infamous bill, the “ Convention Act,” was manufactured by the knot of corrupt villains and job- bers in .the pay of England, calling themselves representa- tives of the Irish nation, parliament, &c. This bill was intended to crush all popular liberty, as is shown by its title, which runs thus : ” An act to prevent the election or appointment of assemblies, purporting to represent the people, or any description of the people, under pretence of preparing or presenting petitions, complaints, remonstran- ces, and declarations, and other addresses to the king, or to both or either Houses of Parliament, for alteration of matters established by law, or redress of alleged grievances in Church and State,” &c. The Gunpowder Bill was also passed this session of 1793. The object of this act was to deprive the Irish people of ammunition, &c, which they as men, by nature have as much right to manufacture and possess as the English, or French, or Americans liave. During tliis year an Act was also passed, to raise 16,000 Irish militia, and also to raise 5000 regular troops, in addi- tion to the old regular Anglo-Irish establishment of 12,000 inen. Thus, tlie United Irishmen seeing that they could obtain nothing by constitutional means, were obliged as men, in self-defence, to seek other means, just as the Eng- lish did in the reign of Charles the First, when they rose up against their o^vn king, whose head they cut off ; or as they did in the reign of James the Second, his son, whom they drove off the throne. On the 4th of March 1794, Mr Ponsonby introduced into THE RISING OF ’96. 47 the Irish House of Commons, a bill for amending and im- proving the state of the representation of the people in parliament, but in the second reading the bill was post- poned to a future day by a majority of 98. In the begin- ning of 1795 , however, a sudden change took place in Irish affairs; and on the 4th of January, Lord Westmorland^ the English military Viceroy of Ireland, was recalled to England. The murmurs and discontents that had for some time prevailed among the Irish Catholics and Dissenters, now excited the most serious alarms in England. The secret connexions subsisting between the Lush patriots and the French revolutionists, frightened the English, who saw clearly, that if the French allies once landed in Ireland, they would easily enable that country to recover its ancient independence, and to form itself into a republic, just as the American colonists had done a few years before. In this critical juncture, Earl Fitzwilliam was appointed Viceroy of Ireland. His inclinations to reform measures, rendered the appointment veiy popular with the Irish nation ; and Earl FitzwiUiam, on his arrival in Ireland, was received with universal approbation. The Irish parliament met on the 22d of January 1795, and unanimously voted Lord Fitzwilham the most favour- able addresses ; and on the 9th of February agreed to tho amplest supplies that had ever been granted by an Irish parliament. At the desire of the CathoHcs, Grattan moved^ on the 1 2th of February, for leave to bring in a bill for the relief of persons professing the Eoman Cathohc religion, which was agreed to by the House after a very trifling op- position, and Messrs Grattan, Ponsonby, Knox, and For- bes, were appointed to prepare the bill. But the universal satisfaction of the Irish, arising from the expected emancipation of the Catholics, and the aboli- 4S THE RISING OF ’96. tion of all sectarian quan'els and distinctions, was suddenly damped by the intelligence that anived two days after tha passing of the motion, that the English ministers were arerse to the measure. Lord Fitzwilliam informed them of the great danger that would infallibly result from re- tracting the assent so formally given to a motion of such importance, and explicitly refused, by taking upon him that ofHce, to be the person “ to raise a flame which nothing but the force of arms could put down.” Such were his own words. In consequence of this answer he was dismissed from his post, which was conferred upon Lord Camden, a most horrible villain . The universal dissatisfaction of the Irish at the removal of Lord Eitz\rilliam was soon manifested in a very serious manner. Tumults arose in several places, which were not quelled without the intervention of the military. Even from the most moderate of the disaffected, addresses were presented to Lord Fitzwilliam, filled with indignation on account of the treatment he had experienced, and teeming ■with invectives against the authors of his disgrace. From this period may be dated that deep and settled spiiit of discmtent, which rapidly increased to the highest pitch of viGicnce, and pervaded both Catholics and Dissenters, and was even felt by numbers of Protestants themselves, w^ho thought that the most auspicious opportunity of reconciling all parties and interests had been arrogantly thrown aside by' an infamous foreign-ascendancy faction, who grasped at the possession of all the places of power and profit, and assumed the absolute control of all the affairs of the Irish state. The resentment of the Irish public ’v\'as strongly marked when Lord Fitzwilliam took his departure from Ireland on the 25th of March. It was a day of general THE RISING OF ’98. 41 gloom : the shops were shut ; no business of any kind was transacted, and the whole city was put in mourning. His coach was drawn to the water-side by some of the most respectable citizens, and the people seemed intent on erery demonstration of grief. In 1796 another tyrannical measure, called “ The In- sm-rection Act,” was introduced into the Irish parliament. By this infamous bill, any seven ruffians, called justices of the peace, if bribed, and in the pay of a foreign or English government, had only to go through the form of signing a piece of paper, stating that they considered their county in a state of disturbance, “ or in danger of becoming so.” On sending this piece of paper, according as directed, to the English Castle of Dublin, Ship-street, where the secret committee or piivy council, and the English military vice- roy, held their nocturnal meetings, the county so re- commended was proclaimed, or put under martial law, which w^as signified to the unfortunate people by a bit of paper, with “Yfhereas” at the top, and some Englisfe man’s name at the bottom. CHAPTER- V. Irish Alliance 'with France — Glorious French Revolution, and Division ©fDand — Triumph of Liberty — Banquet at Paris, Lord Edward Fitzgerald present. While those English villains, and the Irish parliament conspirators in their pay, were oppressing and plotting against the Irish nation, a Erench fleet and army of libe- ration appeared off the Iiish coasts. So lea-ring this-fright-> ful scene of domestic corruption and foreign tyranny just 50 THE RISING OF '98. described, we must now take a glance at the foreign policy of Ireland, and the negociations and alliances which the United Irish leaders in their wisdom thought fit to form between the Irish and French, who may be called kindred nations, since they are both of Celtic race, and are equally remarkable for then’ military spirit, gaiety, politeness, love of glory, strong passion for liberty or native governments, and dislike of English tyranny and ambition, which never rests, but is always unjustly invading the freedom and possessions of other countries. All nations, both ancient and modern, have had their periodical revolutions, but the Celtic French, when they tried their hand, eclipsed the whole world in this respect. Before that celebrated revolution, France was morally in the lowest state : the great mass of the French nation were in much the same condition as the Irish are at present — overtaxed, famine-stricken, rackrented, and sunk in igno- rance and despair. Nor were the aristocrats of France less degraded in the last centui’y : they lived in idleness, debauchery, and dependence; and instead of supporting themselves like men, honestly and honourably by their own exertions, they dragged immense absentee-rents from toil- worn peasants, in the remote parts of France, which they squandered in Paris. When the French revolution took place, the people resolved wisely to become their own resi- dent landlords, and determined not to starve or rob their virtuous wives and innocent little children any longer, in order to pamper blood-sucking tyrants and di’ones, who never “worked a stroke,” or produced anything for society except vice. The people, as was natural in every country, sympathized with the French revolution or reformation ; kings, aristocrats, and the rich, wicked, idle, unproductive, and bamboozling or word-mongering classes, were, on the THE RISING or ’98. 51 contrary, struck with dread. They saw clearly if a system of promotion from the ranks was once adopted throughout all society, and an universal order of merit established, that nature’s aristocracy would be restored, that all useless, idle, and roguish distinctions would soon be extirpated, and that virtue, talent, and industry, would surely meet with those rewards which the Creator, as an intelligent and just Being, must have intended that they should receive in a civilized and enlightened age. Since the French revolu- tion, every Frenchman has his snug cottage and bit of land, and the humblest man in France may rise to the highest position in his own country, if he has virtue, talent, or in- dustry. Was it any wonder that the Irish reformers, rid- den over by a corrupt committee or parliament, in the pay of England, should sympathize in the French reformation ? Surely not ! Hence we find that the Irish Volunteers sent addresses of congratulation to the French, and rejoiced in their successful efforts to exalt and liberate the human race. In the year 1791-2 Eabaud de St. Etienne, the bosom friend of Brissot, a famous leader in the French National Assembly, passed some time between Dublin aud Belfast, preaching those sentiments of philanthi'opy and liberty which teach mankind that they are noble, accountable beings, that they should equally despise those who inflict tyranny or endure slaveiy, and that if they are not free from the iron yoke of their own species, they are worse off than the mere beasts, vFo even enjoy amongst ach other a certain degree of liberty and equality ; and who like the birds and insects, whenever they elect and obey leaders, choose them for their merit, courage, and sagacity. Not only did the poor and oppressed of all nations sympathize in' the French Ee volution, or human emancipation, but even several honest fellows who were unfortunately bom LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URSANA-CH^r/lPAlGrl 52 THE RISING OF ’93. amongst the rich, unfeeling, and dependent classes of so- ciety, shared in the universal satisfaction Amongst other manifestations in favour of the universal emancipation of the virtuous or useful millions, from the unjust yoke of a few thousand of the vicious and useless classes, we find the following. A public banquet was given on the 18th of November 1792, at Paris, by the English, Irish, and Scotch residents of that city. At this enter- tainment “ to celebrate the triumph of liberty in the vic- tories gained over their late invaders, by the armies of France,” Lord Edward Fitzgerald, with several others, attended. Nothing could be more delightful and brotherly than the whole scene ; after a description of which, the phi- lanthropic writer whom we quote, makes the following humane and generous remarks : “ That men were not bom to hate and murder each other at the command of robbers and assassins, which the folly and cowardice of mankind have dignified with the name of kings, and the ministers of kings, is a truth which no longer exists as the specula- tion of the philosopher, or remains to adorn the page of a book, but is now forcibly and irresistibly brought home to men’s business and bosoms. Aristocracy itself would have dropt its scowl, and, delighted to find itself Man, would have here shared the glow of honest enthusiasm which bursts forth, in wishes for the universal happiness of man- kind, from the hearts of the Prussian, Austrian, Italian, American, French, Hollander, and English, who were assembled on this joyful occasion.” Amongst the several toasts given were the following : “ The republic of France, founded on the rights of man;” ‘‘ The armies of France : may the example of its citizen soldiers be followed by all enslaved countries, till tyrants and tyranny ts extinct*; The speedy abolition of aU hereditary titles and feudal THE RISING OF ’98. 58 distinctions;” “ The ladies of Great Britain and Ireland: particularly those who have distinguished themselves by their writings in favour of the French Kevolution, Mrs Charlotte Smith, Miss Williams, Mrs Barbauld, &c;” “ The ladies of France : especially those who have defended the cause of liberty by the sword, the two Fernigs, An- selme, &c;” “The great republic of man; may revolu- tions never be made by halves !” General Dillon, an Irish natural nobleman, in the service of France, after expressing the satisfaction which he experienced at meeting so respect- able an assembly on so happy an occasion, testified the joy he felt in being one who contributed to drive the horde of its invaders from France, and his willingness when called on to perform, if necessary, similar service to his own country, and proposed, “ The people of Ireland : and may govern- ment profit by the example of France, and reform prevent revolution.” Several of the above philanthropic or charitable toasts were proposed or seconded by Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who renounced the blasphemous title of “Lord,” which it seems absurd to apply to the Great Creator and to the little creature in one and the same breath, which is fre- quently done from thoughtlessness and irreverence. CHAPTER VI. French decree in favour of the vhole human race — Rev William Jack- son — English spy — Jackson seized — Similar fate of Jackson, Cato, and Judas Maccabeus — Jackson talces poison, to escape a public execution — Judge’s charge — Suicide of Thadeus O’Byrne. On the 19th of November 1792, “a decree of fratomity (or brotherhood), and assistance to all people,” was una- nimously passed by the National Conve.itior, and ordered 54 THE RISING OF ’98. to be forthwith translated, and printed in all languages.’* This glorious emanation from the old Gauls or Celts ran thus : — “The National Convention declare in the name of the Trench nation, that they will grant fraternity and as- sistance to all people who wish to recover their liberty; and they charge the executive power to send the necessary orders to the generals, to give assistance to such people, and to defend those citizens who have suifered or may suf- fer in the cause of liberty.” The flame of freedom, once kindled in Trance, quickly spread through all Europe. In 1793-4 the Kev William Jackson, an Irish Protestant clerg}^man, and a native of Ulster, having visited Trance, became a convert to, and a zealous disciple of, the new Trench republican doctrines ; and returned with a view of extending those ideas in England and Ireland, wTere the people were then groaning under the most corrupt and wealthy aristocracy in the world. Having returned to Ireland, this Protestant patriot became acquainted with those Irish natural noblemen, Hamilton Rowan, and Theobald Wolfe Tone. Meantime that horrible monster William Pitt had em- ployed an English spy or traitor, named Cockayne, wTo got into the confidence of the honourable and unsuspecting Jackson, and then betrayed him, and swore away his life for vile money. This Irish Protestant clergyman was ac- cordingly marked out for death. He was arrested in April 1794, by the paid tools of a foreign-ascendancy faction, and dragged to an English dungeon, where so many mil- lions of Irish patriots and martyrs had gone before him, for the crime of believing in and practising the natural doctrine of liberty, which the Creator has even taught the very savages to die for. After pining for a whole year within the dismal walls of an THE RISING OF ’98. 55 English state prison this poor Protestant republican was hauled up for an English trial and condemnation. He was accused by his persecutors of two species of treason, compassing tlie death of George Guelphs the 1 bird, an English king, a great enemy to the liberties of man ; and a long paper or indictment, written out by scriveners or clerks, and containing charges of no less than fourteen overt acts, was produced, as a closer, to settle things as the government wished. Seeing that there was no chance of escaping death, once he had fallen into the clutches of the Enghsh, this Irish clergyman, who was not a common man, determined to deprive his persecutors of the pleasure, revenge, and vic- tory, which they expected to enjoy, by offering up a human sacrifice on the public scaffold, as the Mexicans used to do. When entering conscientiously and disinterestedly on the course which he esteemed best, the Rev Mr Jackson, seems, like a true-blooded Irishman, to have calculated the danger before hand, and made up his mind to lose his hfe in the cause of natm'al liberty and Old Ireland, without, of course, foreseeing how he should die. Cato was highly honoured by the ancient Romans, because seeing that Caesar was triumphant, the repubhc destroyed, and that he could no longer Hve free, he called for his sword, and willingly died by his own hand. Judas Maccabeus, the High Priest of the Jews, who, says the Jewish historian Josephus, “left behind him a glorious reputation,” also willingly offered himself up to certain death, for his country and liberty, when he, unlike Jackson, might have escaped. Bacchides, the Syrian general, having entered Judea (by the command of Demetrius, king of Syria,) at the head of 20,000 foot, and 2,000 horse, Judas marched against him with only 1,000 men, who shortly after were reduced, by 56 THE RISING OF ’98. desertion, to only 800. When this little band of J ews said that they v/ere not a body sufficient to fight so great an army, J udas, their High Priest and leader, thus replied : “Let not the sun ever see such a thing, that I should show my back to the enemy ; and although this be the time that will bring me to my end, and I must die in this battle, I will rather stand to it courageously, and bear whatsoever comes upon me, than, by now running away, bring reproach upon my former great actions, or tarnish their glory.” However justifiable or glorious such deaths as those of the senator Cato, or Judas Maccabeus, the High Priest, might have been esteemed by the ancients, modems have been taught to regard voluntary death or suicide in a dif- ferent light; and all sects of Christianity seem to have agreed in this, that it is sinful to anticipate death, no matter how disgraceful, or cruel, or certain such death may chance to be. Notwithstanding what holy men say, human nature, when exposed to great trials, will, it is to be lamented, occasionally break through all given regula- tions. Where the exact boundaries of martyrdom begin or end, the most learned theologians have, at the same time, sometimes found it difficult to define. Thus, in the first ages of Christianity, we read that many Christians in their zeal to partake of expected happiness in another ex- istence, used rather to seek death, and were on some occa- sions thought to be too prodigal of their lives. Many pious or noble-minded virgins, also, to avoid insult or dishonour, have thrown themselves over precipices, and into livers and lakes, and have been defended for such conduct by Christian writers. Every day thousands of men go to certain death, and hire out their lives in the army or navy for mere money, and without the least idea of principle. Many likemse cut THE RISING OF ’93. 57 off their lives by their own vices ; many also, from the dimes they have perpetrated, die like Judas and Castlereagh, by their own hands. Thus all human nature is frail, and no wonder that Jackson, when tried beyond his strength, yielded to his impulses, and hurried out of a world where he found no tiling but persecution and inconsistency, being condemned to death, because he desired to see Ireland a republic; while Washington, the American republican, who committed the very same crime, is deservedly lauded up to the skies. On the 24th of April 1795, the Eev William Jackson, an Irishman, was found guilty on English law, and con- demned by a paid, and of course, impartial judge, who having finished the job, passed off the following compliments to the twelve packed jurymen Gentlemen, you have acquitted yourselves with honour and conscientious REGARD FOR JUSTICE ; you havc done your duty, and we will do ours. It is more than a century since this land has been cursed with such a crime, and we trust your verdict will operate in preventing a repetition of it.” In this lingo we do not find one word of remorse or sorrow expressed. The judge seems to chuckle with as much delight at the prospect of seeing a Protestant clergjrman slain, as a butcher would at the idea of killing a cow or sticking a sheep. More- over, the judge never seems to think it once necessary to prove what was impossible to prove, namely, that republi- canism was a crime worthy of a cruel, bloody, and dis- graceful death. The villain never dilated on the grand principles of universal liberty, or freely discussed all forms of tyranny and government in open court. He never told the court, that if republicanism was a crime worthy of deatli, then all the Scotch and English, in Charles I.’s reign, were worthy of death, along with their bloody butcher CromwelL 58 THE RISING OF ’98. The villain never told the court that if republicanism was a crime worthy of death, then all the Americans, with their virtuous leader Washington, were worthy of death ; besides all the French, numbering 26 millions, and all the repub- licans of ancient and modern history, such as the Jews, under their Judges, Brehons, or Presidents, the classic Greeks, the ancient Eomans, Carthagenians, Venetians, Genoese, Dutch, &c, and a hundred other nations. On the 30th of April 1795, the first Irish martyr for republican principles, after suffering every indignity, was again hauled up for fin al condemnation. He had, however, taken poison that morning, and was observed to look pale and ghastly on entering the court, which in those days was like the den of a sick lion, of which a fox, no doubt a republican, observed, when invited by the lion to go see him, that the tracks of all animals might be traced to the den, but none could be traced coming from it. After con- trolling every feeling which agitated his agonized frame, poor Jackson, staring his loyal persecutors in the face, at last fell down before them, and expired in open court. Such was the unhappy fate of this truly uncommon man. Well might the sublime Greek poet Meutinder, who flou- rished above 250 years before Christ, say — “ The lot of all, most fortunate is his, Who, having staid just long enough on eartl To feast his eyes with this Mr face of nature, Sun, sea, and clouds, and Heaven’s bright staiTy fires. Drops without pain into an early gi-ave. F or what is hfe, the longest life of man. But the same scene repeated o’er and o’er! A few more lingering days to be consum’d In throngs and crowds, with sharpers, knaves, and thieves, From such the speediest riddance is the best.” Nothing enlarges and liberalises the mind more than tlie study of history ; and the fate of Jackson, the first Irish republican martyr, reminds us of the fate of a poor Irisli THE RISING OF '98. 59 rranciscan friar, who, in order to escape a public execu- tion, departed this life exactly in the same manner, in 1538, during the reign of Henry YIII. This Irish ec- clesiastic, had just arriyed with a letter from Rome, to the prince of Ulster, which was found on his person, and began thus : — “ My son, O’Neill.” A bigotted and brutal historian of the English faction, thus describes the fate of Thadeus O’Byrne : — “About midsummer, one Tliady Byrne, a Eranciscan friar, was apprehended, and was to be sent prisoner into England, to the Lord Privy Seal, but the cowardly sophister being told that he would certainly BE HANGED, was Seized with such a pannick fear, that he murdered himself in the Castle of Dublin, on the 24th day of July, and among other papers the following letter was found about him,” &c. Thus men in every age will be found to act alike when placed in similar circumstances, and perhaps none but the Great Creator, would be capable of properly judging of the relative faults or merits of Marcus Portius Cato, Judas Maccabeus, William Jackson, and Thadeus O’Byrne. Let the charitable Christian remember, that the enemies of those men are, in some measure, answerable for their lives ; and above all, let it be recollected that even according to Eng- lish law, Jackson, like many others of the United Irishmen, was murdered, since he was convicted on the testimony of one suspicious hired witness ; while in England, t\vo wit- nesses were required to convict a man. Hence Curran truly observed, “ that the breath which cannot even taint a man in England, shall in Leland, blow him from the earth.” 60 THE RISING OF ’98. CHAPTER VII. Exile of Tone — Sails for America— Returns to Europe — Lands in F ranee — Alliance with France — Iiish Ambassadors — French expedition for Ireland — English dread of the Irish. Tone having formed an acquaintance with his countryman Jackson, was obliged to enter into a compromise mth the English government, with whom he conditioned to depart into exile. His object was to go to the United States, the land of Liberty, and then depart for Prance, where Tone ■resolved to seek assistance, in order to liberate oppressed .Ireland from the yoke of England, and form that country into a republic like the United States. These designs he had discussed with his friends Russel and Emmet before he left Ireland. May the 20th, 1795, Tone left Dublin for Belfast, where he took shipping for America, and sailed from his beloved land on the 13th of June. Having re- mained in the United Sates some months, he landed in Havre, Irom America, on the 1st of Pebruary 1796. Tone after some time proceeded up to Paris, where he arrived on the 12th of Pebruaiy. When in America, he was introduced to the Prench minister to that country, and he brought over from America letters to Monroe, the American minister at Paris, through w'hom Tone easily formed an acquaintance with the Prcnch ministers. One of the first pieces of news which Tone learned was rather strange. It appears that in 1 781, during tlie time of the Irish Volunteers, the Prench government had intended to have sent an expedition to Ireland, to se- parate her from England, just as they had done in the case of the United States of America. The English at that THE RISING 0¥ '98. 61 period be^ng weakened by the loss of the American colonies^ and the war which they carried on with France, Spain , Holland, and the United States, could not have interfered with the profound political views of France, who was then more powerful, even at sea, than England. On this occa- sion, the English government — as their only resource — gave a bribe to the French minister, the Count de Vergenues, not to let the intended friendl}’" expedition to Ireland, take place. Such was the corrupt state of things in France, before the E-evolution. Even when that great country was at war with England, her most vital interests were sacrificed by her own minister for filthy gold. In 1796, at a meeting of the Executive Directory of the United Mshmen, it was detennined to seek foreign assist- ance. The absolute and tyrannical conduct of the Anglo- Irish faction, had now left no further room for constitutional resistance. Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Arthur O’Connor were accordingly deputed to proceed to France, in order to enter into an alliance with that country. Lord Edward Fitzgerald set out for France in the latter end of May. Having passed through London, he arrived at Hamburgh, where he w^as joined by Arthur O’Connor. On account of Lord Edward’s being married to the daughter of the Duke of Orleans, it was thought more advisable that Arthur O’Connor should negociate with the French Direc- tory. Arthur O’Connor and Lord Edward remained for some time in Switzerland, when the former had an interview with the French General Hoche, on the Frontier, v/ho pro- mised that a liberating expedition would sail from tlie har- bours of France, for Ireland, in the ensuing autumn. In November 1796, a French agent arrived in Ireland, to infor^oii the Directory, that the expected fleet, with arms and am/nimiticn, would amve atBantry Bay, in December 62 THE RISING OF ’98. following. To Theobald Wolfe Tone, this expedition is chiefly to he attributed. On the 15th of December, Theo- bald Wolfe Tone, who was now Adjutant- General in the French service, sailed on board the fleet from Brest, for Ireland. The whole armament on leaving France amounted to 43 sail, of which 17 were ships of the line, 13 fngates, and the rem.ainder corvettes, transports, &c. The fleet earned on board it, 13,975 French soldiers, 41,160 stand of amis, 20 pieces of field artiller}^ and 9 of siege artillery (including mortars and hoivitzers), 61,200 barrels of gun- powder, 7,000,000 musket cartridges, and 700,000 flints, besides an infinite variety of other articles. Owing to fogs and wintry weather, the fleet was scattered on the voyage; and on the 22nd of December, we find that 35 sail, includ- ing Tone’s ship, had arrived together off* Ban try Bay. After lying for some days in this bay, the tempestuousness of the weather increased to such a degree, that the French Admiral Bouvet determined to quit his position, and re- turn to France. Indeed he could not do otherwise without disobeying orders, since he had received no intelligence of General Hoche, who along with his staff* were on board the Fraternite frigate, which was separated from the fleet by a storm that scattered the entire expedition as it left the coast of France. The land officers on board Admiral Bouvet’s division of the fleet, insisted on landing the troops, but as General Hoche — the commander of the land force, who alone possessed the plan of the expedition — was absent, Admiral Bouvet refused to comply with their proposals. So he set sail for Brest, where he safely arrived on the 1st of Januaiy 1797- The other divisions of the fleet afteiwards returned to Brest, Avith the loss of only five vessels, namely, two ships of the linCj and three frigates. Of these, one 8 hip of the line foundered at sea, and the other after bravely THE RISING OF ’98. 63 maintaining a desperate engagement off Brest, against se- veral English ships, ran ashore to prevent capture. As to the three frigates, tvi^o foundered at sea, and the other fell into the hands of the English. “ The fate of this fleet,” says an English or hostile writer, “proved, even to sense, what needed no proof in the eye of reason — that a superior naval force is not in all cases a certain security against invasion. Ireland, notwithstanding the superiority of the English fleet, was sixteen days at the mercy of the enemy ; and was saved from attack only by the elements.” Such was the jabbering of the frightened English tyrants and usurpers, even before the United Ame- ricans built tire first steam vessel. Since the invention of steamers, the coasts of Ireland are opened to the whole civilized world ; and there is an end put to that mean Chi- nese policy, used by the cunning English towards Ireland ; the dirty policy of cooping up a social and generous nation, from the alliance and intercourse of all nations. Had even Admiral Bouvet’s division, consisting of 35 ships, landed at once their troops, the generous objects of our French alhes would have been most certainly effected ; but while delaying for the remaining vessels to join, unfa- vourable winds and fogs arose, which alone prevented the establishment of an Irish republic at that time, and probably saved England from a mild Irish yoke. For every man w'ith an ounce of sense in his head, now admits that if the Irish once got a taste of arms and discipline, and had honest, brave, money-despising leaders, they’d leather any nation in the whole world who dared unjustly to attack them ; and soon make elbow-room for themselves elsewhere, if Ireland was not big enough to satisfy their natural ambition. Hence the English are always striving to keep off the day of reckoning, by forging arms bills, gunpowder acts, &c, fearing 64 THE RISING OF ’ 93 . and knowing that if the Celtic Irish (wlio naturally are of a warlike disposition, and could muster two millions of males, capable of wielding arms) once got 'weapons into their hands, they -would quickly become a first-rate military people ; and v/ould not only take Ireland for the Irish, but most probably — if unjustly attacked — invade, and in a few weeks conquer the degenerate English, bring about a mili- tary union between the two islands, and perhaps extend once more the gloiy of the Irish arms to the continent of Europe. Surely there would be nothing wonderful in doing all this, for every one kno'W’^s that the glorious old Irish kings Dathi and Niall the Crand, in the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era, led the victorious Irish on successful expeditions into Britain and Gaul. Moreover, the Irish mercenaries who served in the French brigades and Eng- lish regiments, certainly not a fair specimen of the nation, since they wore blue or red liveries, instead of green and gold uniforms, passed off as the troops of other nations, and fought only for fun or money. Still, nevertheless, these men, although neither animated by hope, glory, or love of country, have, in contending in aU climates, with all nations in turn, discovered a truly precious secret for Ireland, namely, that the common run of Irish fighting in foreign countries, are more than a match for a greater number of the best troops of all other nations, even when fighting in their own climates. Thus have the Irish soundly thrashed the English at Fontenoy, foiled the Imperial Guards at Waterloo, and in the Peninsula, leathered the Austrians out of Cremona, hunted the Spaniards out of Monte Video, and knocked about the Turks, Italians, Dutch, Portuguese, Canadians, Swiss, Belgians, Germans, Moors, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, and all others, “like sj many ehuttleeocks.’’ THE RISING OF '98. 65 CHAPTEK VIII. Resolutions of the United Irishmen— Irish gi’atitude— Seizure of Ulster Protestants arms— Grattan’s remonstrance— Perjured Pelham. Meanwhile, we must return to the domestic state of Ire- land. The United Irishmen seeing that all liberty was crushed, the constitution abolished, and Ireland reduced to submit to an absolute despotism, felt that they were called upon to use eveiy exertion for their country, and to act as others had done. The English rebels or patriots in the reign of Charles the First, finding the constitution astray, drew their swords and cut their king’s head off. In the reign of James, his son, they invited in foreigners or Dutchmen, and with their aid turned out their king, James the Second. The United Americans imitated the English, invited in foreigners or Frenchmen, and with their aid got rid of the English. The Dutch rebels or patriots, as is well kno\vn, also invited into Holland, foreigners both English and French, and with their aid got rid of the usurping Spaniards. The United Irishmen resolving to imitate the English rebels or patriots, and the American and Dutch republicans, had, as we have seen, foimed an alliance mth the French nation. Strange to say, although the English had, with all the business habits of their nation, been most industriously employed for above 600 years, in robbing, ravishing, mur- dering, exterminating, exiling, torturing, starving, and brutalising the Irish, still the descendants of that unfortu- nate people, the United Irishmen, who had as yet escaped the general fate of their ancestors, felt not the least grati- tude to the English, who are always ready enough to preach 66 THE aieiNQ OF *98. the text of “ love your enemies” to the Irish, but will never practice such text themselves. Let us picture to ourselves a figure of Biitannia, dressed in scarlet, like a harlot o. Babylon, standing on the bleeding corpse of Erin, with a bloody sword in one hand, while she is rifling the pocket of her victim with the other, and exclaiming all the time, “ Love your enemies “Be grateful.” What a blasphe- mous farce ! It was not thus that the Heavenly Sa^dour preached the doctrines of peace and philanthropic brother- hood to his disciples. The modesty of the foreign English, has always induced them to make large demands on the gratitude of the native Irish, in return for what are called “ the blessings of the English government.” Such claims were made on the glorious and immortal Grattan in 1780, by the paid English faction. Let us see how that inspired man answered, it was thus : “I shall,” said Ireland’s greatest orator, “hear of ingratitude. I name the argument to despise it, and the men who make use of it. I know the men who use it are not grateful, they are insatiate ; they are public extor- tioners, who would stop the tide of public prosperity, and turn it to the channel of their own emolument. I know of no species of gratitude which should prevent my country from being free ; no gratitude which should oblige Ireland to be the slave of England. In cases of robbery and usur- pation, nothing is an object of gratitude, except the thing stolen. — the charter violated. A nation’s liberty cannot, like her treasure, be meted and parcelled out in gratitude ; no man can be grateful or liberal of his conscience, nor woman of her honour, nor nation of her liberty ; there are certain uniinpartible, inherent, invaluable properties, not to be alienated from the person, whether body politic or body natural. With the same contempt do I treat that the rising of '98.. 67 charge which says, ‘ that Ireland is insatiable saying that Ireland asks nothing but that which England has robbed her of — ^her rights and privileges ; for to say, that Ireland will not be satisfied with liberty, because she is not satisfied with slavery, is folly.” While the United Irishmen were acting on those natural, simple, and universal principles of liberty, which it would be blasphemous to condemn, since they are planted in human beings by the Creator, whom we all should look up to, and respect in his works, the English, and the wicked synagogue of wretches in their pay, lyingly calling them- selves representatives of the Irish nation, were not idle. The appearance of the armada of liberation sent by the French allies had filled the English with terror. That wicked people, instead of allowing the Irish to reform their own parliament, and to abolish unnatural religious hatreds and quarrels, by carrying the emancipation of the Catho- lics, determined to encroach farther on the rights and li- berties of the Irish nation. Accordingly about two months after the French fleet returned to France, a great blow was aimed at the Irish. One Pelham, a paid English se- cretary over the Irish, sent down a letter, dated the 3d of March 1797, from the English Castle of Dublin, Ship- street, inciting a most horrible tyrant and Engfish mercen- ary, named General Lake, to rob the Ulster Protestants of their arms and ammunition ; which, as virtuous Irish citizens and farmers, they could make an honester use of, and were certainly more entitled to possess, than any of* the hired, drunken, unprincipled man-butchers or soldiers then prowling through the homesteads of Ireland, with the suspicious red coat of England on their backs, and the Biimingham bayonet in their fists. Accordingly Lake issued a paper notice or proclamation 68 THE RISING OF '98. at Belfast, dated tlie IStli of March 1797, inciting persons to inform against those who had arms for the defence of themselves, and their shuddering wives, sisters, and daugh- ters, v/ho were soon to be exposed to the licentious passions of the most abandoned and ruffianly soldiers that England, during 600 years, has thought good enough to quarter on the innocent unoffending people of Ireland. The quantity of Irish arms unjustly seized during 1797 by the mercenaries and informers in the pay of England, in the provinces of Leinster and Ulster only, was as fol- lows: — Pikes or spears, 70,630; guns, 48,109; pistols, 4,463; swords, 4,183; ba^mnets, 1,756; blunderbusses, 248; musket -bari'els, 119; sword-blades, 106; cannon, 22 pieces. Total — 129,636. It also appears from the letters of the English agents or emissaries that many arms jDlundered from the poor people of Leinster and Ulster are not included in this return ; as in various places they fell into the clutches of the yeomen. Every one knows that in the last century the government was almost to a man composed of villains who were either themselves guilty of robbery, murder, or perjury, or were found employing, rewarding, and inciting others to commit those horrible crimes. A most disgraceful instance of perjmy and evasion oc- curred in connection vrith Lake’s paper notice or procla- mation. Grattan, v/ith his usual coimage, denounced the infamous unconstitutional conduct of the English govern- ment in plundering the Irish nation of their arms. He saw clearly that the English and Hessian butchers were just going to be let loose on the defenceless people, and he knew that Irishmen would soon hear the piteous cries of innocence, the wild shrieks of beauty, or the dying groans of manhood ringing in their ears. THE RISING OF ’98. 69 Oil the 16t}i of March, the very day before the national festival of St Patrick’s day, Grattan went down to the Irish House of Commons, and stated that a paper had been that day put into his hand, which, on reading, very much ex- cited his astonishment. “It was an article published in a newspaper, called the Belfast News-Letter, purporting to be a proclamation from General Lake, and signed with the name of that General, declaring the whole province of Ulster to bo out of the king’s peace, and without the pale of the constitution. Such an act he considered as one of the most mischievous measures at this moment that any man could be guilty of towards the tranquillity of the countiy, as violating of the constitution and the bill of rights — such an act as he could hardly suppose General Lake would have attempted with- out the orders of government ; and such an order as do- manded the interference of the House. He held the paper in his hand, and wished to know' from the right lion gen- tleman (Mr Pelham) if the proclamation had been issued by the authority of government. “ Mr Pelham submitted to the right hon gentleman whether, if General Lake had taken any illegal proceed- ings, there were not other modes of investigating the pro- priety of such proceedings, or the authority upon which such proceedings were adopted, than pressing him to an- swer the question he now asked ; or to avow or disavow the measure on the mere authority of a scrap of printed PAPER, authenticated upon no other proof than its appear- ance in, a newspaper. “ Mr Grattan answered that as the right hon gentleman did not think it expedient to give him an answer on the s^abject, he should tahe an opportunity of moving for an official copy of the instructions of government to General Lake touching this measure.’’ 70 THE RISING OF ’ 98 . What could be expected from such a crew of villains as those who then managed the English government, when we find their representative, Pelham, called Secretary for Ireland, skulking from the responsibility of an act which he had certainly perpetrated by orders of his employers? CHAPTER IX. English get np religions quarrels — Peep-o’-Day Boys — Orangemen — Defenders — State of Armagh — Lord Gosford — English treatment of Irish Protestants. Meantime the country was fast approaching to the state government required it to be in, so that they could crush all remains of Irish liberty, butcher the people, remove the Irish parhament, prevent all reform, increase religious quarrels and bloodshed, by keeping back Catholic emanci- pation, and reduce Ireland to the infamous, unnatural, and degraded condition of a slave-country under England. In order to bring about the long-concocted conspiracy against the Irish nation, the monsters who held power in those times sent their emissaries to foment religious dis- cords amongst the unoffending and primitive Irish. Those irreligious inhuman villains, easily induced the Irish to persecute, plunder, and kill each other, ow ing to their sim- phcity, or mistaken views of the eternal laws of the Great Creator, who has in his wisdom formed various races or individuals with such various dispositions, and exposed them to be affected by such a variety of chances and acci- dences, such as bkth, fortune, natural disposition, parent- age, climate, law^s, language, governments, &c, that very few can be blamed for differing on abstract, speculative questions of religion. Hence the majority of men receive THE RISING OF ’98. 71 or follow the religion of their parents, and having neither time nor education to guide themselves, they are compelled to seek the counsel and instruction of the religious profes- sors of that faith which they have been taught to adopt or believe in from the days of their youth. About the year 1795 the factions of the Peep-o’-Day Boys, Orangemen, and Defenders, began to disturb the country, but at first their quarrels were chiefly confined to Ulster. The Peep-o’-Day Boys were professed Presby- terians and Protestants; the Defenders were Catholics. The Peep-o’-Day Boj^s are supposed to have arisen in the year 1784, in the county of Armagh, and they were also known by the names of Protestant Boys, Wreckers, &c, till in 1795 they adopted the foolish name of Orangemen, which is not half as good a name as Irishmen. Surely that Irishman cannot be high minded who goes to the Low Countries in search of a nickname. How few Orangemen know even the origin of their name ? Orange* was a small district or estate in the South of France, which once be- longed to the Nassau family, but was forfeited by Louis XIY. From this petty place a Dutchman who married Mary Stuart, daughter of James Stuart, an Englishman, took the name of Prince of Orange, which he retained after the property had gone into other hands. There is some * Orange is an ancient territory in France, which from the elcA^enth to the sixteenth century had its own princes, just as several districts of Ireland had. Philihert of Chalons, the last prince having died without issue in 1531, ttie territory of Orange passed through his sister (who was married to the Count of Nassau), to the house of Nassau. It con- tinued in this family till the death of WDliam Henry of Nassau-Orange (William the III of England), when the succession became the subject of disputes. The chief claimants were Frederic William I, king of Prussia (who claimed through his mother), and the prince of Nassau Dietz, statholder of Friesland (who claimed by the will of William III). The king of Prussia, however, notwithstanding the protests of other claimants, ceded the territoiy of Orange by the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, to France. The reigning dynasty, who now rule the ancient re- n THB RISING OF ‘93. meaning in Orangewoman, for slie sells oranges , but an Orangeman — ^what else does that mean but a Catholic pea- sant, who is a native of Orange, in the South of France ? Therefore the term Irish Orangeman is just as absurd as if one said a Scotch Newrjman, an English Derrjman, a French Araiaghman, a Chinese Connaughtman, or an American Munsterman. The Irish Protestant may say that he calls himself the absurd name of Orangeman after a Dutchman, whose principles, he, without knowing what they were, adopts as liis own. But what was the real character of William the Dutch- man, Statholder, Prince of Nassau, or Prince of Orange, or King of England ? Dr Smollett, a Protestant write:*, tells us that William was “a fatalist in rehgion,” which many soldiers are, and all Turks. As to religion. King William did not care a straw about it. Like many other great men he used it as a step-ladder to raise himself, and so far was he from hating Catholics that he had many Ca- tholics amongst his own guards. The first Orange Lodge was formed in September 1795. The Peep-o’-Day Boys and Orangemen were mere tools in the hands of the English, a people who know right well how' to use all religions for their own profit. The Peep- o’-Day Boys, or Orangemen, had got some confused idea public of Holland, are of the house or family of Oranpce, and the heir apparent bears the title of Prince of Orange. In 1830 the Catholic Belgians (who occupy a territory only one-third the size of Ireland), to their eternal honour, rose up like men, andknodted their Dutch tyrants on the head. Accordingly, the national congress of Belgian freemen having got rid of Dutch connexion and foreign ascendancy,, decreed in November 1830, that the house of Orange-Nassau should be for ever excluded from all usurped power in Belgium. Orange, the capital town of the territory of Orange, is an old Celtic city, and was known to the Eomans under tlie name of Arausio. It now contains about 9000 in- habitants, and is situated in the department of Vauclusc, about 15 miles to the north of Avignon, once the absentee residence of the Popes cf Homs. THE RISING OF ’98. ^ 73 put into their silly heads that it was their duty, as Protest- ants and Irishmen, to root out or exterminate their Catho- lic brother-irishmen of Ulster. Speaking of the Orangemen of Armagh, an impartial writer says, “Their object appears to have been not to suffer a Catholic to remain within the limits of their sphere of action. They posted up on the doors of Catholics pe- remptory notices of departure, specifying the precise time, a week at the farthest, pretty nearly in the following words • ‘ To hell or to Connaught with you, you bloody Papists, and if you are not gone by (naming the day), we will come and destroy yourselves and your properties : we hate all Papists here.’ ” “ In the beginning of 1796,’^ says an enlightened English author, “ it was generally believed that 7000 Catholics had been forced or burned out of the county of Armagh, and that the ferocious banditti who had expelled them, had been encouraged, connived at, and protected by the govern- ment.” But the most undoubted testimony of the sufferings of the unfortunate Catholics, or Defenders, rests on Protest- ant authority itself, and is as follows: — “At a numerous meeting of the magistrates of the county of Armagh, held December 21st, 1795, at the special instance of Lord Viscount Gosford, governor, his Lordship having taken the chair, opened the business of the meeting by the follow- ing address : — “ Gentlemen, ^ “Having requested your attendance here this day, it becomes my duty to state the grounds upon which I thought it advisable to propose this meeting, and at the same time to submit to your consideration a plan, which occui’s to c 74 THE RISING OF ’ 98 . me, as most likely to check the enormities that have already brought disgrace upon the county, and may soon reduce it into deep distress. “ It is no secret that a persecution, accompanied with all the circumstances of ferocious cruelty, which have in all ages distinguished the dreadful calamity, is now raging in this county. Neither age nor sex, nor even acknow- ledged innocence as to any guilt in the late disturbances, is sufficient to excite mercy, much less to afford protection. “The only crime which the wretched objects of this ruthless persecution are charged with, is a crime indeed of easy proof ; it is simply a profession of the Roman Catho- lic faith, or an intimate connexion with a person profess- ing that faith. A lawless banditti have constituted them- selves judges of this new species of delinquency, and the sentence they have pronounced is equally concise and ter- rible — ’tis nothing less than a confiscation of aU property, and an 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 — a proscription, that cer- tainly exceeds in the comparative number of those it con- signs to ruin and misery, every example that ancient or modem history can supply ; for, where have we heard, or in what story of human cruelties have we read, of more than half the inhabitants of a populous country depiived at one blow of the means, as w^ell as of the fruits of their industry; and driven, in the midst of an inclement season, to seek a shelter for themselves and their helpless familief where chance may guide them ? ‘ ‘ This is no exaggerated picture of the horrid scend now acting in this county ; yet, surely it is sufficient to Awaken sentiments of indignation and compassion in the THE RISING OF ’ 98 . 75 'coldest bosom ; these horrors, I say, are now acting, and acting with impunity — the spirit of impartial justice (with- out which law is nothing better than an instrument of ty- ranny) has for a time disappeared in this county, and the supineness of the magistracy of Armagh is become a com- mon topic of conversation in every comer of the kingdom. “It is said in reply, the Roman Catholics are danger- ous — they may be so — they may be dangerous from their numbers, and still more dangerous from the undoubted views they have been encouraged to entertain ; but I will venture to assert (without fear of contradiction), that upon those very grounds, these terrible proceedings are not more contrar}’' to humanity, than they are to sound policy. “ It is to be lamented that no civil magistrate happened to be present with the military detachment on the night of the 21st instant; but I tmst the suddenness of the occa- sion, the unexpected and instantaneous aggression on the part of the delinquents, will be universally admitted as a full vindioation of the conduct of the officer and the party under In* command. “ Gentlemen, I have the honour to hold a situation in this county, which calls upon me to deliver my sentiments, and I do so v/ithout fear and without disguise. “lamas true a Protestant as any gentleman in this room, or in this kingdom ; I inherit a property which ray family derived under a Protestant title, and with the bles- sing of God I will maintain that 4itle to the utmost of my power ; I wdll never consent to make a sacrifice of Pro- testant ascendancy to Catholic claims, with whatever me- naces they may be urged, or however speciously or in- sidiously supported. “ Conscious of my sincerity in this public declaration, ^which I do not make unadvisedly, but as the result of ma- 76 THE RISING OF ’ 98 . tTire deliberation, I defy the paltry insinuations that malice or party spirit may suggest. “ I know my own heart, and I should despise myself, if under any intimidation, I could close my eyes against such scenes as present themselves on every side, or shut my ears against the complaints of a persecuted people. “ I should be guilty of an unpardonable injustice to the feelings of gentlemen here present, were I to say more on this subject : I have now acquitted myself to my conscience and my country, and take the hberty of proposing the fol- lowing resolutions : — I. “ That it appears to this meeting, that the county of Armagh is at this moment in a state of uncommon dis- order ; that the Roman Cathohe inhabitants are grievously oppressed by lav/less persons unknown, who attack and plunder their houses by night, and threaten them with in- stant destruction unless they immediately abandon their lands and habitations. III. “ That the instructions of the whole body of the magistracy to their Committee shall be, to use eveiy legal means within their power to stop the progress of the per- secution now carrying on by an ungovernable mob, against the Roman Catholic inhabitants of this comity.” Of the resolutions it is only necessaiy to insert two, as the remainder are merely formal. Such is the degradmg condition to which Protestants have been reduced by England, who used to call herself a Protestant power when anything could be made by Pro- testantism, but who, like a true trader, gave up the Pro- testant business when it no longer yielded any profit ; re- minding one of a candid Jew, who, on being asked by a magistrate what rehgion he was, replied, ‘ ‘ 1 used, please your worship, to attend to the Jewish religion for a long THE RISING OF ’9B. 77 time, but at length, discovering that I made nothing by it, I gave it up, and do not now frequent any house of wor- ship.” What could be more infamous than the conduct of England to the Irish Protestants ? Has she not used them as turnkeys and jailors over the Irish Catholics? Has she not corrupted aU their principles, seduced them from the path of virtue under a promise of marriage, and then flung them on the street like an abandoned mistress ? Oh, yes ; it is England who has rendered the Irish Protestant a scoff and a bye- word to the Protestants of all nations. Look at the gvand position of the “Protestants of Erin’s land” in 1782. What were the Dutch, Swiss, Scotch, American, or any Protestants, compared to them at that time ? They possessed the whole fee-simple of the finest island in the world, had 80,000 Protestant Volunteers, and the greatest orator of any age or nation, Grattan, at their head. They possessed all the offices of power and profit — the govern- ment, army, navy, excise, and had a wealthy church. Ihey had three millions of peaceful, industrious, submis- sive Irish Catholics to v/ork under them. They had only to emancipate these people, and reform the parliament, and they would have then been looked up to and obeyed by all, and “ flourished great and free” the undisputed masters of one of the finest islands on the face of the globe. But what is an Irish Protestant now ? Does he not see that England who raised up his Church has destroyed it ? Does he not see that England deprived him of a nation, and has left him even without a party? Does he not see that England with her intrigues, and unchristian calumnies, and vile gold, and affected bigotry, and Peep-o’-Day Boys, and Orangemen, separated him from his brother-irishman, prevented him from reforming his Irish Parliament, and antic pating liis Catholic subjects, and then— passed niobh 78 THE RISING OF ’ 98 . measures herself? Does he not see that England has butchered the finest Protestants that Ireland ever sa^y, martyred heroes like Eitzgerald, Tone, Emmet, and hosts of others ? Does he not see that England exiled the finest Protestants the world ever saw, such as Arthur O’Connor, Addis Emmet, Hamilton Powan, and ship loads of others? Are not the Protestants of other lands the first to wave the standard of liberty ? But who has made the Irish Protestant hoist the black flag and no quarter, butcher his fellow-countrymen, betray and sell his country like another Judas? Who else but England ? The Protestants of Ireland know and feel all this : they have felt adversity, have become an altered race of men, have seen through the villanies of the Enghsh, are sorry for the past, and will be forgiven, and will again take the good Protestant oath, “in the awful presence of God, to form a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of every religious persuasion.” Then, and not till then, will Ireland be what she ought to be. Religious prejudices, quarrels, and murders shall cease ; and all Irishmen of all opinions shall once more become United Irishmen, and shall again sing together in grand chorus, joined hand in hand as of old, Let each man choose his favom'ite way his Maker to adore; And well tell the world we’re Irishmen, we’re Paddys, and no more. THE RISING OF ’98. 79 CHAPTER X. Irish emhassy to France— Lewins and M'Nevin — Dutch liberating ex- pedition for Ireland — Englisli misrepresentations. While the English conspirators were exciting the deluded Protestants -to murder their Catholic brother-irishmen in the name of religion, and were at the same time robbing the enlightened Protestants of their arms, the United Irish- men were not neglecting their own interests. Accordingly, in March 1797, Mr Lewins, a respectable Irish sohcitor, was sent over by the Irish Directory, as envoy to the Erench Directory. He was instructed to press the Erench govern- ment to fulfil its promise of sending another expedition to Ireland. The ternis which the Irish demanded, were at once agreed to by their Erench allies ; they were as follows : France was to send over to Ireland, from 5000 to 10,000 troops, and 40,000 stand of arms, besides ammunition, and a loan of £500,000. The Erench alhes were to come to Ireland, on the very same conditions as they went to Ame- rica in 1776. The Irish republicans were to form their own government, and France was to be paid for the ex- pense of the expedition, loan, &c, as in the case of America, and just as Holland was indemnified by the EngEsh, for the expenses of the hberating fleet and army which she sent to England in 1688, under the command of the Prince of Orange. In June 1797, another envoy, Dr M'Nevin, was sent over to France, in order to hasten the liberating expedition. He was instructed to demand an extra supply of arms, in addition to the 40,000 agreed upon, on account of the un- m THE RISING OF ’98. just seizure of the arms of the Ulstet Protestants, by General Lake. When Dr M‘Nevin arrived in Hamburgh* he applied to M. Reinhardt, the resident minister of the Prench republic, for a passport. To this, Reinhardt re- plied, “ that he had orders not to deliver a passport without first applying for, and obtaining the permission of his go- vernment in every case. When pressed by Dr M‘]S[evin, Reinhardt was inflexible ; but always offered to transmit to Paris, a memoir, detailing the object of his mission. This memoir was at last prepared, and as Reinhardt knew the English language, and could at any rate translate the memoir into cipher, it was deemed unnecessary to compose it in French. Two days after it was delivered, Reinhardt’s scniples vanished, and he granted the passport. M‘Nevin afterwards saw the deciphered copy of this paper in French, in Tallyrand’s office, where it was kept under the particular key of the chief secretary. The original, in English, w^as withdrawn from Reinhardt, and never afterwards enti usted by M‘Nevin into any hands but those upon whom siarj)icion could not attach ; and independent of the security offered by his character, there is this strong circumstance, that the copy of the memoir which Dr M‘Nevin saw in the hands of Lord Clare, was from the French, and not the English ; so that it seems probable that Tallyrand, or som*e one else in the confidence of the French government, procured a copy of the memoir for a sum of English gold. In August 1797, the Irish Directory received a commu- nication from Lewins, their envoy, infonning them “ that the Dutch republic were fitting out an expedition at the Texel, for Ireland. Towards the end of July, the Dutch fleet was ready to sail for Ireland, and consisted of 15 sail of the line, 10 frigates and sloops, with 27 transport ships, of 150 to 450 tons bmthen. The land forces of the expe- THF RISING OF ’98. 81 liifcion, including cavalry, infantry, and artillery, amounted to 13,544 men. General Daendels, an honest republican, commanded the land forces ; the brave Admiral De Winter led the fleet, and that true-blooded Irishman, General Tone, was on board, to accompany the expedition. If this fleet and army of liberation had arrived in Ireland, it would have been a glorious event for Holland. The liberating expedition which Holland sent to England in 1688, only brought tyranny on the Irish. The expedition of 1797* would have wiped out old scores, brought liberty to Ireland, and reflected eternal honour on the Dutch republicans. Speaking of the Texel armada, on the 19th of July 1797, Tone says, “ There never was, and never will be such an expedition as ours if it succeeds ; it is not merely to de- termine which of two despots shall sit upon a throne, or whether an island shall belong to this or that state ; it is to change the destiny of Europe — to emancipate one, per- haps 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 tyranny of 600 years. And all this hangs to-day upon the wind. I cannot express the anxiety 1 feel.” Owing to contrary winds, the Dutch fleet was prevented from sailing during the favourable season. At length Admiral De Winter, on the 10th of October, put to sea, to join the French fleet at Brest, where an expedition was preparing for Ireland. The Dutch were however inter- rupted by a superior English fleet, and a bloody tussle took place off Camperdown , where the Dutch fought with their usual bravery, but were after a long engagement defeated. It is only right to mention that Tone, along with the French ministers, was of opinion that some members of the Dutch government were bribed by the vile gold of 82 THE RISING OF ’98. the monster Pitt ; and that they ordered the fleet to sail at an appointed time, and thus betrayed it into the power of the English, who don’t wish any foreigners but themselves, to visit the social Irish. Tone writing just as the fleet was ready to sail, thus speaks of the terms on which the Dutch were to come to Ireland ; — “ July 14th, General Daendels showed me to-day his instructions from tlie 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 maintain the cha- racter of a faithful ally, not to interfere in the domestic concerns of the people ; to aid them by eveiy 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 advantage and accommodation. Nothing can be more fair and honour- able ; and I am convinced from what I see of Daendels, and the frankness of his character, that he will act up to his instructions.” The English have lyingly asserted that the Irish are unlike all other rational beings, and incapable of governing themselves. Hence those English say, that if the millions of the Irish lions who are still sleeping, w^ere compelled by oppression to rise up unanimously on the few English foxes, and “make a meal’s meat of them,” that the said Irish would forsooth go to all this fuss for others, not for them- selves — that they would send off to France for French schoolmasters, and that after they had devoured the Eng- lish, they would then quietly submit to the French, whom the English call their inferiors. This is all damnation humbug. What is it, but as much as to say that the Lish THE RISING OF ’98. 83 nation are no better than the poor ass in the fable, who was jogging along loaded with panniers^ when his master sud- denly infonned him ‘‘that the enemy was coming,” and cried out “run, run.” To which the ass replied, “that there was no use in liis running, since, in any case, he must carry the panniers.” If England, by her unjust usui'pations, drives the Irish to imitate all other nations, and shake off an oppressive yoke, the Irish in that case will do just as other nations have done in similar cases. When the Protestant Ameri- cans called in the Catholic French to assist them in their glorious tussle for liberty, the English then asserted that America would become a province of Popish France, and other nonsense ; but what has been the result ? — IFlien the English rebels or patriots who were afraid to rise np against their own king, James the Second, invited in the Ilntch to deliver them, did they submit to the Dutch ? or did Eng- land become a Dutch province, governed by a Dutch Lord - Lieutenant. When the Dutch rebels or patriots invited in the English, in order to get rid of the Spanish yoke, did the Dutch on driving out the Spaniards, become subjects of the English ? Did the Greeks on driving out the Turks, by the assistance of the Eussians and French, become subject to either of those powem ? But why quote any more cases to upset such a miserable fallacy, which only amounts to this — that no nation can ever shake off the yoke of another, without falling a prey to a third. Was there ever yet strung toge- ther such a wretched piece of balderdash as this ? On this principle no individual or nation should ever care to seek for any of its stolen property or rights, for fear of having such property or rights seized again by a third party. Was there ever yet heard such nonsensical stuff as this? Fol- lowing this rule, it is clear that if all nations or indiriduals 84 THE RISING OF ’ 98 . who recover their rights and properties from one set of tyrants and robbers, must of necessit}' lose those rights and properties again, and yield them up to other tyrants and robbers, then there is no use in having any rights or pro- perties at all. For if those who are strong enough to re- cover their just rights and properties by force of arms, must lose them quickly again, how can others who have rights and properties to lose, defend them from any robbers and tyi'ants who may desire to possess them ? By this argument the tyrant, the robber, the murderer, the ravisher, &c, who first comes, should be received with open arms; they should be even allowed to bully, rob, murder, ravish, and to have and to hold all they wish, and be regarded in the light of lawful possessors, saviours, de- liverers, and protectors, who nobly save us from imaginary third parties, who may be worse than themselves. Was there ever such confounded blasphemy as this ? Suppose some unprincipled, weak-minded, creature-worshipping, oppressed, and plundered slave, in the midst of his dark- ness and sufie rings should cry out in foolish despair, ‘‘ O Great and J ust Creator, why have you created millions of men for no higher and better purpose than to be tyrannized over, robbed, and murdered by their fellow-men ?” Might not a just-minded man in pity answer, “O little and unjust man, you blaspheme God’s goodness, and wrong liis justice. He has created you all naturally equal, which if you were not content to be blinded, bamboozled, and deluded by each other, you might easily perceive. Are you not all born of woman in the same manner, and do you not come into the world alike naked and helpless ? Are you not nursed in the same way ? Are you not all the same in the hands of the midwife, nurse, or accoucheur ? Have you not the same animal secretions and infirmities. THE RISING OF ’ 08 . 85 and diseases of body, and the same sensual passions and appetites. After your short-lived career is finished, are you not all the same when dead ? Does the nurse or phy- sician who attends the sick and dying, or the old woman who washes the dead body, or the physician who dissects it, or the worms who eat it, perceive any difference between you, whether you were rich or poor, tyrants or slaves. And now, oh man, learn that God has created you for just and noble purposes, and pursuits. To the animals, insects, birds, fishes, and reptiles, he has given instinct, which they preserve natural and unimpaired, and only surrender with their lives. But on man God has bestowed a far nobler gift. He has given him God-like reason, which unerring guide he is bound to preserve, as the insects do their instinct, natural and unimpaired, and not to surrender it but with life. Such rewards has he ordained for those who preserve and cultivate the use of their reason, and such punishments has he ordained for those who surrender up and neglect to cultivate their reason ; that mankind naturally equal, seem to be divided into two great sects, the rich and poor, tyrant and slave, knowing and ignorant. Alan -ridden man, know that God has given you the means of recovering the use of your own reason, even when lost. He has sent inspired men to discover printing, paper, and machinery ; all know- ledge and science are now placed even within the reach of the humblest among you, the labouring man. History and anatomy teach you what you are. Cultivate astronomy and chemistiy. Take in hand the telescope and micro- scope ; learn to know the Creator through his works ; and discover with your own eyes what an almighty and magni- ficent Being he is. Respect and rcAvard all talented, su- perior, or inspired men, who discourage creature- worship and money- worship ; teach real knowledge, or principles. m THE RISING OF "98. and advance the reason, and elevate the condition of the human race. These are God’s aristocracy. Despise all cunning impostors, bamboozlers, or word-mongers, bloody tyrants, fat idlers, dependent degraded do-nothings, roguish drones, who live out of others exertions, keepers-back of mankind, advocates of human misery, and deniers of God’s wisdom and- goodness, mock aristocracy, enemies of know- ledge, worshippers of human creatures, blarneying hypo- crites, cowardly seducers, men without moral courage, selfish sensualists, fawning flatterers, rogues who spend more on eating, drinking, and clothing, than they earn by their own labour, oppressors of the poor, mercenary man- butchers, base informers, money-hunters, cowardly mur- derers, bastard breeders, and all such as wilfully remain in slavery and ignorance. Finally, oh man, learn that as the Great Creator knows .every thing, and the beasts nothing, the more you know, the more your condition will resemble God’s, and the less you know, the more your condition will resemble that of the brute beasts. Know that knowledge is power — that the God-like reason and mind of man are given him for use as well as the animal body — that as the body is in the best health when cultivated, exercised, and fed, go is the mind ; and that whoever would cunningly endeav- our to cripple, keep back, and darken the mind or reason of man, is a blasphemer of the Creator’s grandest work, an impostor, a bamboozler, and a tyrant.” CHAPTER XI. Armagh address to the Catholic exiles— Meeting at the Royal Exchange — English proclamation against the United Irishmen — State of Ire- land in 1797. It is now necessary to take a glance at the state of Ireland in 1797. The reader has seen how the English monsters. THE RISING OF * 98 . sr for their own infernal purposes, excited the deluded Peep • o*-day Boys and Orangemen to rob and murder their poor Catholic brother-irishmen, in the name of religion. Those poor wretches had in self defence (as the name expressed) formed themselves many years before into a society called Defenders. The Defenders had been treated with the most horrible cruelty by the English government and their vile tools. The jails were crowded vdth these unfortunate crea- tures, and on one occasion, the monster Luttrell, Lord Car- hampton, hauled out no less than 1300 of them from the prisons ; and (no doubt having got the wink in the proper direction) sent them off, without any legal process or trial, on board English ships of wai* and transport vessels. In 1797 , however, a respectable meeting of enlightened Pro- testants was held in the county Armagh, and an address was adopted, which, from its spirit, liberality, and patriot- ism, will ever reflect eternal honour on the Protestants of Ulster. The address, inviting back the Catholic exiles, and denouncing the hellish government of that day, ran thus : — “Friends, brethren, and fellow-citizens — In this un- happy country, the designing emissaries of a venal and profligate administration have, with impunity, too long scattered amongst us the seed of disunion and religious per- secution ; they saw that if the people were once united in the bands of social love and affection, that system of cor- ruption, which they have substituted for the pure spirit of the constitution, would have perished for ever. “ Hence, brethren, they adopted the diabolical maxim, “ Divide and conquer.” In their hands the religion of the most high God, the spirit of which is peace, love, union, and social order, has become the instrument of discord and bigotry — of persecution, bloody and relentless. 88 THE RISING or ’98. “We lament that infatuation, that ill-judged and mis- guided zeal, which drove from their habitations many of our most useful citizens, and rendered our country odious to the world. From this moment we wish to bury for ever all religious contentions, and all animosities that may se- parate us from our fellow-citizens. “ In the union of love, in the spirit of universal benevo- lence, we invite you, that are now forlorn and friendless wanderers through the kingdom, to return to your habita- tions. At your return you will find us united as one man, and ready to receive, without religious distinctions, our countrymen into a holy and religious and exalted compact. “ Our aim is to procure a reform in parliament, and Ca- tholic emancipation ; and to the attainment of these grand objects, our progress shall he moderate, yet firm — and tem- perate, yet irresistible.*’ On the 8th of April 1797, a most respectable meeting of the freemen and freeholders of the city of Dublin was held at the Koyal Exchange, to petition or beg the English king, George Guelphs, the third of that name, “to dismiss his piinisters for ever, and to take to his councils, men who enjoy the confidence of his subjects.” Every one knows that George Guelphs, like mauy other kings, if at any com- mon, honest, or industrious pursuit, could hardly earn his bread. He was a great enemy of the liberties of man, and although he never risked his own plump body, yet he seems to have delighted in man-butchering, for he got up a cm- sade against the Americans, and caused 30,000 German or Hessian murderers (hired at tenpence a -day each) to be transported from Germany 4000 miles over the ocean, in order to cut the throats of the justice and liberty-loving Americans, THE EISING OP ’93. 89 I'roin the time George Guelphs was called king, in 1760, to his death in 1820, it is calculated that no less than one hundred millions of money, wrung out of the blood, brains, and vitals of toiling millions, were expended on liim and his idle family. This man was a great enemy of the Irish Catholics, In his latter days he became imbecile in his mind, which caused him to do and say very queer things. Thus, on seeing an apple-dumpling, he is said to have asked, “How did the apples get into the paste ?” and on entering the English House of Lords, he, with some acuteness, commenced ad- dressing them, “ My lords and peacocks.” At the above-named meeting, the following persons, amongst others, attended: — Henry Grattan, J. P. Curran, Hampden Evans, Hon Mr Leeson, Hon R. Moore (the present Lord Cloncurry), Brabazon Ponsonby, and George Ponsonby, &c. All those Irishmen, by nature infinitely the superiors of George Guelphs, were obliged to address him as their superior. The American republicans call this system degrading creature- worship : enlightened English- men call it rational loyalty. The useless petition of the Irish, which runs thus, is valuable as containing the complaints of the nation at that time* — . “ May it please your Majesty, “ We, your Majesty’s faithful and loyal subjects, tio freemen and freeholders of the city of Dublin, beg leave to approach the throne with the strongest assurances of affec- tion, and to express at the same time with all humility our decided opinion with respect to the councils of your Ma- jesty’s ministers, who have prosecuted the present disas- trous war with an obstinacy that can only be equalled by their misconduct of the same — and who have in this coun^ 90 THE RISING OF try pursued a system of government inconsistent witli the principles of the constitution, injurious to the independency of parliament, and subvei-si of the liberty of the subject. “ Your ministers have bicn puhhcly charged with the sale of peerage, for the purpose of procuring seats in par- liament, and when evidence was offered to convict them of the same, they shrunk from the inquiry. Places have been created for the express purpose of procuring majorities in parliament, and those attacks upon the constitution have been accompanied by a doctrine which pleaded for the ne- cessity of corrupting the legislature, in a memorable decla- ration, equally public and audacious. “ Your ministers have endeavoured to support their sys- tem of coiTuption by terror and violence, and accordingly have applied to parliament for the enaction of certain sta- tutes, namely, the gunpowder bill, convention bill, insur- rection bill, and a bill for the suspension of the habeas cor- pus act, whereby yom- subjects have been deprived of their personal liberty, their dearest rights, and of all those ines- timable privileges, for the defence of which your Majesty’s family was chosen to the sovereignty of these kingdoms. “ That in addition to all this your ministers have of late issued an order for putting the North under military go- vernment, and military execution ; an order which amounts to an exercise of a dispensing power, lawless, unprecedented, and outrageous. That here we beg leave to submit to your Majesty how dangerous such a measure, if persisted in, may be to the connection of the two countries, and how rash these ministers must be who persevere in a war with France, and at the same time commence hostilities against the North of Ireland. “ Tliat the conduct of your ministers towards the Catho- lics of Ireland has been equally impolitic and illiberal ; and THE RISING OF ’98. 9i notwithstanding your gracious recommendation from the throne in favour of your Catholic subjects, they caused^ several innocent members of the Catholic communion to be tried for their Lives, and endeavoured to exclude Catho- lics from those offices and franchises to which by law they were admissible, exercised against their characters the most unqualified abuse, and your English ministers having authorised Earl Fitzwilliam to hold out hopes of full eman- cipation, they recalled him for supporting the same ; and when your people petitioned your Majesty in expressions of concern and disappointment, they received no ansv/er, save only troops poured into this country by those ministers. “Your ministers have loaded your people with taxes beyond example, and given a fatal blow to public credit by their measures foreign and domestic. Our commerce has declined, our manufactures are severely depressed, and our manufacturers starving by thousands. When the country was threatened with invasion they neglected its defence, and when they attempted to negotiate peace, they proved themselves insincere and incapable. “We therefore most humbly implore your Majesty to dismiss them for ever from your presence and councils, and that you will restore the blessings of peace, and give to all your people the full enjoyment of a free constitution.’* On the 17 th of May 1797, the villanous conspirator and English viceroy Cambden, sent out a paper notice or pro- clamation from the English Castle of Dublin, Ship-street, in which the United Irishmen were openly threatened with physical force, covered with abuse, but not proved to have done anything to bring their country under a foreign yoke, which all agree is the greatest curse any nation can suffer. Meanwhile the United Irishmen, now that the constitu- tion was abolished, were preparing to resist the force of the 92 THE RISING or *98 English conspirators bj force ; 500,000 Irishmen were en- rolled in the National Association, and of these at least 300,000 fighting men could be calculated on by their lead- ers, if nothing unforeseen occurred. Curran, in the life of his father, gives the following sketch of the United Irish- men, and the state of Irish society about this period : — Their numbers had soon become so great, that nothing but discipline seemed wanting to the accomplishment of their objects ; and when we consider the description of men of whom the mass was composed, we cannot contemplate without surprise the spirit of ardour and secrecy that they displayed, and the enthusiastic patience with which they submitted to the irksomeness of the delay, and to the la- bours and dangers by which alone any degree of discipline could be acquired. In the neighbourhood of the capital and the principal towns, where large bodies could not have assembled without discovery, they separated into very small parties, each of which appointed the most skilful to direct its manoeuvres. The most active search was made for per- sons who had ever been in the military profession, to whom ©very motive of reward, and rank, and expected glory, were held out, and generally with success, to allure them into the Association. Under these they met, night after night, to be instructed in the use of arms ; sometimes in obscui'c cellars, hired for the purpose ; sometimes in houses, where every inhabitant was in the secret ; it even sometimes hap- pened that, in the metropolis, these nocturnal exercises took place in the habitations of the more opulent and ar- dent of the conspirators. In the interior, their evolutions were performed upon a more extensive scale. There, every evening that the moon, the signal of rendezvous, was to be seen in the heavens, the peasant, without reposing from the toils of the day, stole forth with his rude implement of war. *rHE RISING OF ’ 98 . 93 to pass the night upon the nearest unfrequented heath, with tlie thousands of their comrades, who were assembled at that place and hour, as for the celebration of some unright - eons mysteries. It was also a frequent custom at this time, among the lower orders, to collect in large bodies, under the pretext of indulging in some of the national games of force ; but for the secret purpose of inspiring mutual confi- dence, by the display of their numbers, and their athletic forms, and of exercising in those mimic contests the alert- ness and vigour which they were so soon to employ in the real conflict. The general enthusiasm was kept alive by the distribution of songs in praise of freedom, arranged to popular native airs. Green, the old distinguishing colour of the island, and in itself, from its connexion with the face and restorative energies of nature, an excitant to the ima- ginations of men, who conceived themselves engaged in a struggle for the recovery of their natural rights, was adopted as their emblem. Their passion for spirituous liquors, a propensity that seems in some degree peculiar to those with Vvdiom it is the only luxury, and to those who have ex- hausted every other, was restrained, by explaining to them the embarrassment in which the sudden non-consumption of such a source of revenue would involve the government. And so intense was the ardour for the general cause, that this inveterate indulgence was sacrificed to such a motive, and the populace became for a while distinguished by ha- bits of unaccustomed, and it might be said, impassioned gobriety.” 94 THE RISING OF *98. CHAPTER XII. Old national conspiracy of the English against the Irish nation— -CathO' lie English murderers— Protestant English murderers— Proposed rising in ’97 — English plans. All historians of all nations now agree that the English nation have for above 600 years, carried on a great con- spiracy to calumniate, divide, injure, murder, rob, ravish, and even exteraiinate an innocent, social, hospitable, Celtic nation, renowned through all antiquity, and celebrated in all nations for their valour, generosity, wit, music, eloquence, and love of glory, with only one vice — disunion. In every change of religion, in eveiy political revolution, the Eng- lishman has been only consistent in this — that he never stops plotting against his superior — the Irishman. Sometime after the English rob^bers, ravishers, and mur- derers first landed in Ireland in ifOQ, we find that a party of those invaders were attacked near Waterford by a party of the citizens, who were at first successful, but falling into disorder, were defeated by the invaders, who after murder- ing as many of the Irish as they could, took 70 prisoners. The English now held a consultation on the fate of these men, who w^ere the very best citizens of Waterford. Rey- mond, one of the council, according to an English annalist, said, ‘ ‘ Understand you, these are no enemies now but men ; no rebels but such as be vanquished and clean over- thrown, and standing in defence of their country by evil fortune and hard destiny, are subdued ; their adventures were honest, and their attempts commendable, and there- fore they are not to be reputed for thieves, factious persons, traitors, nor yet murderers.” The voices of the majority of the council however went the other w'ay ; “ Whereupon,., TtlE RtSING OF ’98. 95 continues the English writer, “the captains, as men con- demned, were brought to the rocks, and after their limbs were broken, they were cast headlong into the sea, and drowned every mother’s son.” This atrocious act illustrates the entire policy of the Enghsh towards the Irish for centuries. Many prejudiced or ignorant persons have attributed the injuries inflicted on the Irish, to the fact of the English professing the Protest- ant religion. But this is not the case. During four hun- dred years, before the time of Luther, although the Enghsh professed the Catholic religion, we find that they behaved just as cruelly to the Irish as they did afterwards. This is proved beyond aU doubt by a passage in the letter of Donald O’Neill, king of Ulster, already quoted in the preface, which letter was written in the beginning of the 14th cen- tury, and addressed to “John, Pope.” The passage is as follows : — “ The English who have dwelt among us for many years, and are styled men of mixed race, are not for that reason less cruel to us than others. Sometimes they invite to their tables the first men of our nation, and trea- cherously kill them in the midst of the banquet, or during their sleep. Thus it was that Thomas de Clare, having allured to his house Brien the Red, of Thomond, his brother - in-law, put him to death by surprise, after partaking of the holy communion with him, the same consecrated host being divided into two parts. These crimes appear to them ho- nourable and praiseworthy ; and it is the belief of all their la)rmen, and many of their churchmen, that there is no more sin in killing an Irishman, than in killing a dog. Their monks say with assurance, ‘ that after killing a man of our nation (which but too often happens), they should not think themselves bound to abstain from saying mass fora single day.’ As a proof of this, the Cistercian THE RtSING OF ’93. monks established at Granard, in the diocese of Armagh, and those of the same order at Innis, in Ulster, are daily attacking us with arms, wounding and killing the Irish, yet say their masses as usual. Brother Simon, of the order of Friars Minors, a relative of the bishop of Coventry, has publicly preached, ‘ that there is not the smallest harm in killing or robbing an Irishman.’ In short they all maintain that it is allowable for them to take from us whatsoever they can of our lands and goods ; nor are their consciences at all burthened in consequence, not even in the hour of death.” From the above conduct of the English Catholic invaders and settlers, to the Irish Catholic natives, it plainly appears that the long war carried on by the cunning English against the Irish, must be regarded as a war of races or nations, and not a war of sects or religions. Towards the latter half of the sixteenth century, it is calculated that the blood - thirsty English cut off or murdered by the sword and famine fully half a million of the Irish race. After the war ended in 1603, there was only 800,000 Irish remaining. In the wars of Charles II. and Cromwell, from 1641 to 1653, it is calculated that the English murdered or cut off by the word or famine above 300,000 of the Irish. In the war of King William, from 1688 to 1691, it is calculated that the English murdered or cut off by the sword or famine above 100,000 of the Irish. Up to this period, we must do them the justice to admit that they had one horrible object in view, which they seem to have regarded as a sort of excuse for their whole- sale massacres. They wished to exterminate the entire Irish nation, and destroy the last remains of the sacred Celtic race ; and those inhuman monsters were near effect- ing their villanous design. But a wise Creator ordained TH^: RISING OF ’98. 97 otherwise. We can now muster two millions of Irish males capable of carrying out the principles of Brien Boru. The spreading branches of the sons of Milesius haye extended far and wide, “ And true men, like you, men, Are plenty here to-day.” Of course, countless millions of the Irish have been put to death or murdered in every way by the English during 600 years. Of late, however, things are mending with Paddy, so let the Sassenagh look about him, and remember that a “ good retreat is better than a bad battle.” We now come to the last English slaughter of the Irish in ’98. About the spring of 1797, when the organization of Ulster was completed, the Executive of that province proposed to commence a war on the English without wait- ing for French assistance at all. At that time there were at least 100,000 United Irishmen armed and regimented. A plan of insurrection was dra^vn up and agreed upon, and what was far more important, some of the regiments then on duty in Dublin, having received intimation of the in- tended design of getting rid of the English, sent a deputa- tion of Serjeants from the Clare, Kilkenny, and Kildare militias, who waited on the Provincial Committee at Dub- lin, offering to seize and hold the English Royal Barracks, and the Castle of Dublin, in Ship-street, in the name of the National Association of United Irishmen ; and the serjeants promised to effect this public object, without re- quiring the aid or presence of a single citizen. This pro- posal of the brave Irish militia was immediately laid before the Executive Directory, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald strongly urged their acceptance of it. The majority how- ever rejected the offer, as they expected that there might be som.e risk in commencing a war on the English before 98 THE RISING OF '98. their organization was yet sufficiently advanced As soon as the Union was more extended, and the French allies landed, the Directory intended to have begun the tussle, but not sooner. They naturally supposed that they should then achieve all their desires with very little bloodshed. However commendable their motives, their refusal on that occasion ruined the whole cause. Had Lord Edward’s advice been taken, the Irish might be now a glorious inde- pendent nation. Tlie English government had early infor- mation of the danger that v/as impending over them, and became seriously alarmed. The English wanted to con- spire against the Irish nation, to rob, murder, and divide them — to corrupt and rim away with the Irish constitution. The English pretended to think that it was just for them to act in this way, in order to rob and murder the Irish ; and that it was unjust in the Irish — who thought themselves as good, if not better than the English — .to stand up in their O'vvn self-defence in their own country. As early as April 1797, Magin, of Saintfield, in the county Down, a United Irishman, was in the pay of the English, whose plan of conspiracy wns long formed. In March 1797, General Lake having begun to plunder the Protestants of their arms, proceeded so actively in liis searches, that it may be said the Ulster organization was broken up. Many surrendered up their arms and accepted the terms offered ; some began to tire of the struggle; and others lost their self-reliance, and waited for the French to come to their assistance. The English for a long time had been suspiciously in- creasing the military, militia, 3'eomanry, and all sorts of man- butchers. They did this with the view of getting up an insurrection of the disarmed people, of whom tliere was to be a general massacre, as it afterwards came to pass THE RISING OF 'OS. 99 The truth of It is, the English never could liave brought about the union or subjection of Ireland without a mas- sacre. If the National Association of United Irishmen con- tinued to advance, they should consent to a reform of the Irish Parliament and Catholic Emancipation. If those measures passed all would have become United Irishmen. If this event took place the impudent interference of the English in the affairs of Ireland would have been no longer suffered. The English now seeing that if the Irish became all equal and united their usui’ped power was gone, deter- mined to do something to enable them to rob and oppress the Irish for a few years longer. A new conquest was im - possible, as their faction had all the land of Ireland. They therefore bought the Irish Parliament, stopped all wise measures of legislation, made new oppressive unheard-of laws, in order to increase popular discontent, got up reli- gious quarrels, frightened the rich, and turned everything into confusion ; reminding one of those clever London pickpockets, some of whom are well hnown to get up street quarrels, and others to pass off as strolling preachers, in order to collect crowds, while their fellows ply away at the pockets and fobs of the sincere and wondering victims. CHAPTER XIII. Arrest of United Irish Leaders — Bloody martial law proclaimed — Reflections — John Sheares» In Eebruary 1798, the English, through the aid of Tho- mas Reynolds, became acquainted with all the plans of the United Irishmen of Leinster. Having learned that a pri- 100 THE RISING OF ’98. vate committee or privy council of the National Associa^ t'on of United Irishmen were to assemble on Monday the 12th of March 1798, at 13 Bridge-street, Dublin, the house of a respectable Irish merchant, named Oliver Bond, the English formed a plot to seize or cut otf those Irishmen. Accordingly, one Swan, a fellow in the pay of the English, undertook to attack and seize the private com- mittee or pilvy council which was to assemble at Oliver Bond’s. Cope and Beynolds having sworn enough to satisfy the English, a piece of paper, or warrant, was, as a matter of form, prepared at the English Castle of Dublin^ Ship-street. It is very singular that as tar as arresting or surprising goes, the English were the first aggressors ; for it does not appear that the United Irishmen ever issued any orders, or formed any plan to arrest any of the secret committees or English privy councils, although they must have known that such private meetings took place. On the 12th of March, Swan, accompanied by a gang of 13 mercenaries, called serjeants, all disguised in plain clothes, so that they might be mistaken for honest citizens, stealthily emerged from the English Castle of Dublin, in Ship -street. Having obtained the password from the vile traitor Reynolds, Swan, pretending to be a United Irish- man, pronounced the words, “ Where’s M‘Cann ; is Ivers from Carlow come ?” and thus under a false pretence meanly got into Mr Bond’s private room. The gang who accompanied Swan, being afraid of those Irish gentlemen, Avere all armed ; rushing into the room where the unsuspecting and unarmed Irish gentlemen were assembled, they aiTested them all; and one serjeant of the gang even tlireatened to blow the brains out of a respect- able member of the committee or privy council, if he at- 101 THE RISING OF ’96. tempted to stir one of the papers on the table ; while at the same time those very serjeants, with their comrade Swan, afterwards tumbled about and made off with those papers, although they neither were members of the committee, nor had obtained the leave of the committee to touch the papers at all. The names of the Irish secret provincial committee or privy council, arrested at Bond’s, were as follows : Oliver Bond, John M‘Cann, Peter Ivers, Michael William Byrne, Bawrence Kelly, Lawrence Orifliin, John Lynch, Patrick Devine, Edward Hudson, George Cummins, Peter Ban- nan, Christopher Martin, James Eose, Thomas Traynor, and Thomas Reynolds of Calmuttin, Kilkenny. On the same day Messrs Emmet, Sweetman, and the two Jacksons, were seized by the English faction. Pieces of paper, or warrants, were sent out against Lord Edward Eitzgerald, Richard M‘Cormick, and William Sampson, but those three escaped. In the blood money list, which may be seen in Vol V. of the National Library, there is an item referring to the arrests at Bond’s. It runs thus March 16, Mr Swan, expenses of coach mid guards, &c, at Mr Bond’s, £23 13s 6d. ^ The fifteen Irish gentlemen arrested at Mr Bonds, were hauled off to the English Castle of Dublin, m Ship- street, a place where in cld times bloody work lias been done. Indeed it is probable that this gloomy ugly heap of stone and mortar will be sometime or otbei* pulled about the ears of the cunning old rats, which, ’tis said, huiiow there, and devour all the Irish provisions they can get. Would it not be well to found an hospital for wounded Iiisb soldiers or sailors on the site of that old pile ; and as we can do nothing ourselves, why not petition or beg the English people, and the English queen, to remove that 102 THE RISING OF *98. old English building? One thing is certain, that the dis- interested English who reside in our Irish Castle, don’t get their health half so well as in England. Surely we ought to pity those poor fellows who have been “doing ©ur business” for this last 600 years. Would it not be well for us to try our hands at governing ourselves, and order these poor English to breathe their native aii* ? Per- haps they might aU meet with sudden deaths some day or other, and then we’d be blamed. On the same day that the arrests took place at Bond’s , other members of the committee were taken. Lord Edward Eitzgerald, however, as he was coming to the meeting, saw some suspicious fellows hanging about Bond’s door, and by returning, escaped, perhaps, from being murdered. On the 30th of March 1798, the English paid militaiy viceroy over the Irish, and the English secret committee or privy council, sent out a paper notice or printed proclama- tion, which announced to the Irish that the English had given them the benefits of martial law. Under this English law any Irishman may be shot like a bird, and the bloody villain who shoots most of the Irish is generally rewarded best ! It may be aU very well to kill magpies, rabbits, or rats in this way ; but to say that sacred human beings — whom the Scriptures say are made after the Creator’s likeness — should be shot like dogs, is a monstrous piece of blasphemy I A pretty piece of business it is that some jabbering cut-throat Hessian is to be tlnust into the virtuous family of an Irish farmer, with a licence or English indulgence in his pocket, to shoot Irish pea- santry I Why, some of those Hessian murderers were, it’s well known, taken out of German jails, and pardoned their villanous crimes, on condition of volunteering to cut the throats of the Irish .at tenpence a-day each! What right THE RISING OF ’98. 103 has any foreign ruffian to come on Irish soil to kill the lawful owners of that soil ? We hope to see the day when all such monsters will meet with their deserts, and be treated as Brien Bom treated the Danes at Clontarf. After the arrests at Bond’s, the National Association of United Irishmen, who might he called the Irish people, being deprived of those tmsted leaders whom they had elected, and regarded as tlieir chosen representatives and natural protectors, were left completely at the mercy of the English ; and eveiy Irishman knows what English mercy is. “English mercy wars not with the dead,” says Dr Johnson ; but to this the North American Review, an able publication of the United Americans, keenly replied, “We should be glad to know when has English mercy spared the living ?” If the English Catholic invaders, by seizing the best citizens of Waterford, smashing their bones with axes, and then dashing the groaning and mutilated victims do'wn their own mid cliffs, intended to be merciful ? — If the English Catholic settlers, by trapping and butchering the gallant unsuspecting chiefs of the O’Connor’s and O’More’s, at Mullaghmast, intended to be merciful? — K the English Protestant invaders, by mshing on the women of Wexford, and murdering them around their o'wn cross, intended to be merciful ? — then we must do the English the justice to say that the Irish nation have experienced many kindnesses from the hands of English swordsmen, and been loaded with favours by English musketeers, all which obli- gations it must be allowed that the Irish acknowledge with gratitude, if they are not willing to return them with interest. When the Irish leaders had been arrested in March, John Sheares took an active share in the management of the m THE RISING OF W. Irish Dii'cctory. No Englishman, when humanely giving tip his whole time to plan conspiracies, to rob and murder Americans, Irishmen, Frenchmen, Hindoos, Chinese, &c, could be more assiduous than John Sheares was, when he attended at the secret committees or privy councils of the United Irishmen. If being a moral man and a republican constitutes an immoral or criminal man, as the English said it did, John Sheares, George Washington, Socrates, Plato, General Jackson, La Fayette, and Bolivar, will go down to posterity loaded with infamy ; for what signifies principle, if English or foreign ascendancy is propped up. CHAPTER XIV. Arrests of the Sheares — Lord Edward Fitzgerald cut off by the English — The two great historical lies about the Irish. On the 21st of May John and Henry Sheares were ar- rested by the English connection men. On the 19th of May the English, who have always raised their trade and manufactures by granting bounties and premiums, adver- tised, stating that £1000 would be given to any fellow who would waylay and seize an Irish Protestant nobleman, Lord Edward Fitzgerald. This patriot, although not of the most ancient Irish race, was still of a far more ancient and honourable family than George Guelphs, the poor old king of the upstart English. This true-blooded Irishman was descended of an old Tuscan or Italian family. One of his ancestors leaving Italy, passed into France, and joined the French conquerors when they invaded the English under William, Duke of Normandy, in li66. The Fitz- geralds came over to Ireland in the twelfth century, and find- mg the Irish a chivalric, stout, social, good-humoured sort THE RISING OF ’98. 105 of people, fond of love, war, wit, music, and literature* they very properly preferred them to all other nations, and settled down good-humouredly amongst the Irish from that day to this. Although many of Lord Edward’s ancestors had been robbed and murdered by foreign usurpers or Englishmen, still, this nobleman not only never felt the least gratitude to the English, but, on the contrary, thought it would be good to drive them entirely out of this country, as Brien Boru did some other chaps who would not keep at a civil distance. An Lish judas, or traitor, in the pay of the English, named John Hughes, having betrayed Lord Edward’s place of retirement, a plot was formed to waylay or assassinate that Protestant nobleman. Accordingly three desperate fellows, named Sirr, and Swan, with one By an, took a gang of English mercenaries along with them, and on Sa- turday the 19th of May 1798, surprised Lord Edward about seven o’ clock in the evening, at 153 Thomas-^street, where he was residing with an honest feather merchant, named Mui’phy. Binding the hall door open, the three mercenary conspirators sneaked in, and on getting up stairs, discovered Lord Edward lying on his bed, no doubt thinking of some good for poor Ireland. Never was there such infamous cowardice : such foul play would not be sutfered in a com- mon boxing ring. On seeing three suspicious-looking fel- lows come into the room. Lord Edward bounced from the bed, and grappling with Swan, wounded him ; but perceiv- ing Ryan rushing in, he flew at him like a tiger, and with one cut of his dagger he ripped up the belly of Ryan, and left his bowels on the floor. Swan having retreated, the cow- ardly Sirr, keeping at a distance, took deliberate aim with a pistol at Lord Edward, and wounded him in the shoulder- blade j the rest of the gang coming up, Lord Edward was 1D6 THE RISING OF ’98. overpowered, forced into a sedan chair, and hurried off to the English Castle of Dublin, Ship-street. When Lord Edward was thus waylaid, wounded, and smuggled off, there was found on his person “ a plan of the intended line of advance of the United Irishmen upon Dublin from the county Kildare.” The capture of Lord Edward, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the United Irishmen, was an ir- reparable loss. Let the reader only imagine that General AYashington, with his plan of campaign in his pocket, was waylaid or assassinated in 1776, by the English. Would not that have been a great blow to the United Americans? Lord Edward never got out of the clutches of the English. He was not treated as a prisoner of war; he was not al- lowed to see any friend or relative. One thing is certain that though his wound was not mortal, he died. There are various opinions of his fate. His own brother Lord Henry Eitzgerald, in a letter to that bloody villain the pa^^ English military viceroy Jeffreys (nicknamed Cambdenand Excellency), said, “that amongst you, your ill treatment has MURDERED MY BROTHER, as mucli as if you had put a pistol to his head.” What a monstrous thing it is for a Eitzgerald to be honouring those wretches with letters I The worst feature of the case remains to be told. It is a positive fact that Lord Edward never issued any procla- mation from the secret committee or privy council of the United Irishmen against any of the English, Suppose he had ordered the United Irishmen to cut off the paid English military viceroy, could he have been treated more treacher- ously or brutally than he was ? On referring to the blood-money list of ’98, we find, be- sides other items, the following: — “June 13, Swan, by Cooke’s desire, XlOO; Dennis, for Ryan’s widow, by ditto, TKE RISING OF ’98. 107 £i00.” Sirr of course got more tliau either of these. Ryan died of his ’VYCunds on the 23d of May, and Lord Edward expired on the 5th of June. Meantime the rising of ’98 commenced on the appointed day, the 23d of May. Thus the people were without lead- ers, or arms, or indeed confidence, for the treason of Rey- nolds had almost destroyed the entire society. Had they chosen their own time, they would have certainly suc- ceeded ; hut the English foxes had been taking their mea- sures for a whole year ; and after all, the peasantry of Wex- ford were very near foiling all their plans. We must now offer a few observations upon ‘‘ the Rising of ’98,” for it was only a partial or local rising, and not a national war — a unanimous and simultaneous insurrection —a putting forth of all the strength, moral and physical, of the entire Irish nation. The fate of the Irish nation for the last 150 years, has been in a great measure regulated by two great lies. One of these was “dhe lie of the Revolution of 1688;” the other, “ the lie of the Rebellion of ’98.” By the lying accounts industriously circulated concerning the Irish wars of J ames Stuart (the Englishman), and William of Orange (the Dutchman), the mind of Ireland was depressed for 150 years. In every English book, in evciy history, pamphlet, novel, speech, or conversation, the Irish learned “that their ancestors always fought badly at home.” Erom hearing this constantly, the Irish at last began to believe it, although nothing can be more absurd than such an assertion. Eor if men won’t fight for their own country, properties, religion, wives, and children, what will they fight for ? The whole object of the English in inventing this lie, was to persuade the Irish that if they would fight again, they w^ould be certainly beaten. 108 THE RISING OF ’08, To do the English foxes justice, they showed great cun- ning in discovering the above stratagem; and for this reason : the mind of man is naturally inclined to receive certain hereditary ideas, handed down from generation to generation. In a primitive or agricultural nation, almost all our ideas are transmitted down from father to son, from one generation to another. This is not the case in a com- mercial state of society, where new ideas and "fashions are readily received, and rapidly adopted, just as any new ar- ticle of commerce or manufacture would be. But if any nation were ever addicted to love of ancestry, it was the Irish. The English laying hold of this national trait of character, saw plainly that if the national calumny, “the Irish always fought badly at home,” could be industriously circulated, and once worked into the popular belief, it would have the effect of subduing the Irish mind through the means of the past. Only once get an Irishman to believe that his grand- father was thrashed by the English, that his father was thrashed by the English, and if he w'^as the bravest and strongest man that ever walked, he’ll still have some here- ditary idea in his head, that although he would be able to thrash any Englishman himself, still the English as a nation, might be able to master the Irish as a nation. Now while the English got the Irish to believe the great lie, “that they always fought badly at home,” those English never had the folly to deny that there was such a thing as Irish bravery. To make the Irish believe the great lie the better, the English constantly asserted that the Irish were the bravest soldiers in the world, out of their own native country, or wdien fighting abroad. No greater proof of the force of what we say can be given than this : from the year 1690, THE RISING OF ‘98. 109 down to the year 1790 (according to the returns of the Trench War-office), 600,000 Irish soldiers died in the ser- Tice of Trance alone. During this period there were four Irish regiments maintained in the Spanish service; and many Irish also served in the Austrian, Sardinian, and other Continental services. The main part also of the American army, from 1775 to 1783, was composed of Irish. Thousands of Irish also served in the English army and navy dmlng the latter half of the last century. Here, in one hundred years, we find that near one million of Irish soldiers shed their blood for other lands, and yet during all that dreary period, the Irish never made as much as one effort to drive the English tyrants out of their native land. They heard when young, that “ the Irish always fought badly at home,” but were the bravest soldiers in the world abroad ; so, being fond of military glory, they hurried from their native land, and with the swords that might have been well employed at home, they carved out a way to glory abroad, and aspired to and maintained the bloody and undisputed position of being the first mercenary soldiers in the world. Mr O’Callaghan, author of the “Green Book,” has undoubtedly placed all Irishmen under lasting obligations to him, by first upsetting all the English lies, and recovering the lost glory of a rising nation. To him belongs the merit of proving beyond a doubt that the Irish had always supe- rior numbers opposed to them in the wars of James and William, and that the Irish have always fought well at home ; from which it may be readily surmised that they will be ready and able to do so again and again. So much for the great lie of the Devolution of 1688, which was allowed to thrive and fiourish for 150 years without any Irishman ever once attempting to disprove it. Another no THE RISING OF '98. great lie remams to be snuffed out, that is, “ the lie of the rebellion of ’98.” This lie has made and kept the Irish potato-eating slaves for 48 long years. This lie has enabled cowardly word-jugglers, empty speech-mongers, and mo- ney-worshipping impostors, to job, fob, deceive, or depress; it has allowed the English fox to pilfer and to bully ; it has filled the emigrant ship with our best people ; sent half a million of the flower of our Irish youth to the Saxon re- cruiting serjeant; and stained the character, subdued the hopes or spirit, and kept back the energies of as warlike a nation as the world can produce. But above aU, the lie of ’98, has laid the foundation of as unnatural, unmanly, and contemptible a doctrine as was ever invented by any rogue or fool, namely, that the Irish nation have no higher destiny than to be either starved slaves or bloody mercenary soldiers ; men who are bom to toil for foreign robbers in peace, and bleed for foreign rob- bers in war. Men who are to be tame beasts of burthen at home, and wild beasts abroad. Men whose lives or blood are alike useless; since, though it may be justifiable for Irishmen to fall in thousands for a shilling a-day, and to shed their blood in tuns, fighting the battles of their English enemies, against New Zealanders, Chinese, Hin- doos, Sikhs, Erenchmen, or Americans, nevertheless, not one drop of blood is to be shed in the cause of old Ireland. No wonder General Arthur O’Connor obseiwed “ that the mind of Ireland was shockingly degraded.” Just let any honest Irishman put his hand to his heart, and ask himself is he afraid or ashamed of the principles of Brien Boru ? Is not any Irishman who attacks the prin- ciples of the hero of Clontarf, a knave, a villain, and a coward ? THE RISING OF ’98. Ill CHAPTER XV. Wisdom of the United Irish leaders — English plot to massacre the Irish — Force hired hy the English in ’98 to keep down the Irish. The mucli-noised-of rebellion of ’98, was certainly neither universal nor national ; it was a premature explosion, a partial outbreak, pui-posely produced by the English con- spirators for their own villanous purposes. So true is this, that it was even boastingly admitted to have been so by the perpetrators themselves. In fact this premature explosion was hastened by th6 arrest of the leaders who “ bided their own time,” and were determined not to suffer the Irish nation to stir till their success was certain. They knew what the English wanted ; they saw the people disarmed, and an immense foreign military force pouring into their country. It is well known that the grand object of the Irish Directory was to increase and extend the organization, and at the same time to restriiin the impatience of the people, and prevent a general rising till the Erench alhes arrived. In the report of the secret committee of the Irish House of Commons, it is freely admitted that “until the middle of March 1798, the disaffected entertained no serious in- tention of hazarding a general engagement independent of foreign assistance ; indeed the opinion of the most cautiou& of their body was always adverse to premature exertion.” And further on the report states, “that it appears from a variety of evidence laid before your committee, that the rebellion would not have broken out as soon as it did, had it not been for the well-timed measures adopted by govern- ment subsequent to the proclamation of the Lord-Lieute- 112 THE RISING OF nant and Council, bearing date the 30th of March 1798,'' It is necessary to know what these well-timed measures were. At the examination of the Irish state prisoners before this committee, in August 1798, the Speaker ad- dressing Dr M‘Nevin, said: — ‘ Pray, sir, what do you think occasioned the insurrection?” Dr M‘Nevin — “ The insurrection was occasioned by the house -burnings, the whippings to extort confessions, the torture of various kinds, the free-quarters, and the murders committed upon the people by the magistrates and thearmy.” Speaker — “ Tliis only took place since the insurrection.” Dr M‘Nevin — “It is more than 12 months (looking at Mr Corry), since these^hon’ors were perpetrated by the ancient Britons about Isiewry ; and long before the insurrection they were quite common through the counties of Kildare and Carlow, and began to be practised with very great activity in the counties of Wicklow and Wexford.” Corry and Latouche — “Yes, a few houses were burned.” M‘Nevin — “ Gentle- men, there were a great deal more than a few houses burned.” Speaker — “ Would not the organization have gone on, and the Union become much stronger, but that the insurrection was brought forward too soon ?” M ‘N e vin — “ The organization would have proceeded, and the Union have acquired that strength which arises from order ; orga- nization 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.” M ‘Kevin — “ It would ever}" 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 object on the con- THE RISING OF ’98. 113 trary, if I am rightly informed, the trial of force must tend to give the people confidence in their own power — as I un. derstand it is now admitted, that if the insurrection was general and well-conducted, it would have been successful.” The same appears on Thomas Addis Emmet’s examina- tion befofe the secret committee of the Irish House o Lords, when the Lord Chancellor said, “ Pray, Mr Em- met, what caused the late insurrection ?” Emmet — “ The free quarters, the house-burnings, the tortures, and the military executions, in the counties of Kildare, Carlow, and Wicklow.” Lord Chancellor — ** Dont’t you think the arrests of the 12th of March caused it?” Emmet — “ Ko ; but I believe if it had not been for these aiTests, it would not have taken place ; for the people, irritated by what they suffered, had been long pressing the Executive to consent to an insurrection, hut they had resisted or eluded it, and even determined to persevere in the same line ; after these arrests, however, other persons came for- ward, who were irritated, and thought differently, who consented to let that partial insurrection take place.” Such were the real causes of the Rising of ’98, and such causes would produce a rising at any time. Let us now look to the strength of military force brought to massacre the disarmed Irish peasantry. We believe that there is no document published which gives the ex mt amount of the military force employed to overawe, torture, murder, and plunder the people of Ireland in the year ’98. However, we do not think there is the least exaggeration in fixing the numbers of armed men in IrePmd in ’98, including re>- gulars, Irish, English, and Scotch militia, yeomanry, fenci- hies, &c, at 150,000. Our basis for ti^e calculation is left to the reader’s judgment. In a report of the Irish parliamentary proceedings of the 114 THE RISING OF ’98. 18tli of February 1799, we find Lord Castlereagh stated the military force employed in Ireland as follows : — ^Irish yeomanry, 51,274; militia, 26,634; regulars, 32,281; English militia, 24,201; artillery, 1,500; commisseriat, 1,700. Total — 137,590. Of these Lord Castlereagh stated that not one man could be spared out of Ireland. As this was said in February 1799, eight months after the rebellion, as they call it, was crushed, and the massacres over, it seems natural to suppose that in June ’98 a much larger force than 137,500 was employed in Ireland. Sup- posing that only 12,500 more be added, it will form our moderate calculation of 150,000 men. When the bloody work began, we know that a great deal of Scotch, Welsh, and English fencibles, militia, &c, were hurried over to Ireland, who, after the “ shooting season ” was over, re- tmmed back to their homes, where, no doubt, they chuckled when they related to their people how they murdered the “bloody Irish rebels.” The teiTor which those cow ardly foreign cut-throats felt at the partial rising of a few unarmed Irish peasants, may be guessed at by this : a bill w'as brought into the English Parliament to enable George Guelphs, the English king, to accept of the offers of the English militia, who were de- sirous to come over and kill the Irish, which they have no more right to do than the Danes had. This bill was brought in on the 19th of June 1798, read a first and second time, hurried through a committee, and on the 20th of June read a third time, and passed. Talking it for granted that our estimate of the enemy’s forces at 150,000 is within the mark, it might be w^ell to be more explicit, and enable the Irish reader to judge by comparison and calculation what w'ould be the probable force necessary to keep down, or tyrannize over, this fine THE RlSIJ^a OF '93. 115 strong country, if a tussle was forced on the nation by the usurping English. The population of Ireland is now twice as great as in ’98; therefore, on that score alone, 300,000 men would be the proportion required to bully the Irish at pre - sent. Napoleon said that the moral is to the physical as three to one in war. Now, according to this principle, “we take it,” as the United Americans say, that one edu- cated man if not equal to three, is at least equal to two ig- norant men; therefore one Irishman of this age is fully equal to two of the last; so that if this be the case, it would require 600,000 soldiers to oppress the Irish at pre- sent, that is about 150,000 for each of the four provinces. Striking off one- third of those 600,000, we shall have 400,000, or 100,000 to each of the provinces of Ireland, which contain, on an average, above two millions of peo- ple each. Now, as one-fifth of every population can bear arms, of course Ireland has 1,600,000 males capable of self-defence, or 400,000 for each province. According to our notions of military or manly matters, a force of 100,000 men, by the very lowest cut, would be necessary for con trolling each province of Ireland. If it be true that the Duke of WelHngton said, as far back as the year 1829, that it would require 100,000 to keep down Munster alone, if in a proper state of insurrection, then our calculation must appear moderate. Nothing can be more elevating and instructive than those calculations. Having settled the amount of forces neces- sary to keep down the Irish, if in a proper state of insur- rection, we must just inquire where such an amount of force could be procured for love or money ? England is a commercial and manufacturing country; her people are unfitted by their rearing and pursuits for soldiers ; she, therefore, like Carthage and all other trading 116 THE RISING OF '98. states, has been compelled to hire out ignorant mercenaries, who foolishly shed their precious blood to maintain traders in their ill-gotten possessions, which have been cunningly obtained by the exertions of others. England formerly depended entirely on Germany for mercenaries. In 1762 England maintained an army of 40,000 Germans in Ger- many, and had at the same time 26,000 of the same nation serving in various parts of the world. In the war against the United Americans the chief part of the English force was composed of Germans. Hanover is now separated trom England, and the military connection with Germany has long ceased. England’s great supplies of soldiers have been for the last fifty years made up of Irishmen. CHAPTER XTI. Irish array — English dependency on Ireland — Rising commences—Stata of the Capital — Sketch of the Dublin yeomen — Skirmishes near Dublin. In 1830 there were 43,000 Irishmen in the English army. There are about 10,000 Irish police; and a great part of the Eiu'opeans serving in the East Indies are Irishmen. In fact even in time of peace, the English could not hold their empire together without the alliance of the Irish. But when a war takes place, the English could not do without the Irish at ail. Nothing can prove the feebleness of the English as a military power more than this one fact, during the arrest of the several popular speakers in 1843, the utmost force England could muster in Ireland was 28,000 men, which would barely keep down one Irish county in case of a tussle. Erom the above facts it is clear that England could not even muster force enough to master one THE RISING OF ’98,, 11 province of Ireland. Even as far back as ’98, two-thirda of the force in Ireland were Irishmen ; and all admitted at the time that it was the Irish yeomanry and militia who put down the rebellion and killed their countrymen, for the benefit of England. W e believe no Irish could now be found so foolish, ignorant, inhuman, bigoted, or loyal, as to wade in the blood of each other for any foreign villains, Danes, or English. Hence those are in the right who argue the absolute de- pendency of England on Irish assistance or protection, to enable her to keep her immense possessions ; and all those who argue that natural Ireland depends on artificial Eng- land, are wrong. The reader will easily perceive that Ireland has no longer anything to dread on the score of conquest, whatsoever England may. Therefore if Ireland continues much longer without enjoying her just rights, the fault must be somewhere either in the Irish people or the present Lish leaders. That the Irish have naturally plenty of moral force or courage is admitted by all ; that they have plenty of physical force is also proved beyond any doubt. Then why is the whole Irish nation paralyzed ? The ancient Greeks had a proverb, ‘ ‘ that an army of stags led by a lion was more formidable than an army of lions led by a stag.” Whether this proverb tends to throw any light on the present degraded, debased, and despairing condition of the Irish, we do not undertake to say. Let the reader solve the proverb as he wills. This much, ho.^- ever, is certain, that neither Brien Boru nor his army could be mistaken for stags, whoever else may. The rising of ’98 commenced on the 23d of May. It was intended or supposed that the people of universal Ire- land would have risen en masse” on the grand French or Celtic principle, for a partial or prematm-e outbreak is ua* 118 THE RISING OF ’98. worthy of a great nation. “ England,” says the illustrious Irish soldier, Arthur Wellesley, “ cannot engage in a little war,” and this Irish saying applies to all countries. The leaders of the insurrection of ’98 had agreed to turn the English government to account in a negative sort of way. It was determined that all the mail coaches should be destroyed after leaving the Irish capital on their route for the provinces. By this means a universal signal would be given to the people of the country, who, not seeing the usual daily mails arrive, would at once learn that there was something doing in Dublin. Accordingly ‘on the 23d of May, the Belfast Northern Mail was stopped and burnt at Santry, near Dublin, the Connaught or Western Mail at Lucan, and the Cork or Southern Mail at Naas. “Actual hostilities,” says an eminent writer, “now commenced by skirmishes round the city of Dublin, and several simultaneous attacks were made by the insurgents upon various posts and garrisons, with surprising pertina- city. They had neither officers, regular arms, nor discip- line ; their plans, therefore, though acutely devised, could have no certainty of regular or punctual execution ; yet a masterly system of tactics, of combinations, and of offen- sive warfare, had been originally determined upon. Though these, in a great measure, had been frustrated by the death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and the arrest of the Dii-ectory, they were executed sufficiently to prove that there had been the plan of an effectual resistance to the government. “ The insurgents were unpaid — many of them nearly unclothed, few of them well armed, all of them undiscip- lined, with scarcely any artillery, no cavahy, their powder and ammunition mostly prepared by themselves, no tents or covering, no money, no certainty of provisions ; obedience to their chiefs, and adherence to their ca.ise, were altoge- THE RISING OF ’98. 119 tber voluntaiy. Under these circumstances their condition must have been precarious, and their numbers variable. No one leader amongst them had sufficient power to con- trol or counteract their propensities, yet they fought with wonderful perseverance, address, and intrepidity. “A night attack on the metropolis had been long medi- tated by the United Lishmen, but its early execution had not been anticipated by the government. The Lord Lieu- tenant ascertained that such an attempt was to be made on the 23d of May 1798, by a large body of insurgents then collecting on the north of Swords and Santry, and on the south under the Kathfarnham mountains, less than five miles from the city. Of their numbers, leaders, arms, or tactics, eveiy^ body was ignorant, all was confusion, and every report was extravagantly exaggerated. The regu- lar garrison, and the yeomanry, ^prepared themselves with the utmost animation, but nobody knew his station, or could ascertain his duty. Orders were issued, and imme- diately revoked, positions were assigned and countermanded, more confused, indecisive, and unintelligible arrangements of a military nature never appeared. “ No probable point of attack was signified, and the only principle of defence appeared to be comprised in one sen- tence, “ every man for himself, and God for us all.” Lord Clare appeared the most busy and active, as far as his tongue extended. Confidence and bravery were recom- mended in all quarters ; but a very serious uneasiness was perceptible throughout the metropolis ; his Lordship’s ac- tivity was confined to the council chamber, and to the up- per court of the castle.” The following graphic sketch of the state of affairs in and about Dublin, on the “first night of the rising,” is from tb pen of that talented writer. Sir Jonah Barrington. 120 THE RISING OF ’ 98 . His description of 'the Dublin yeomen is humorous and strik- ing. In that body there were several celebrated lawyers, who afterwards rose to high positions, such as the bigoted Saurin, afterwards English Attorney- General against the Irish ; the treacherous Plimket, since made English Chan- cellor over the Irish ; and though last not least, Daniel O’Connell, the favourite lawyer and leader of the Irish people. As night approached, orders were given that the yeo- men, cavahy, and infantry, should occupy Smithfield, which was at length considered as the probable point of attack from Santry, where the peasantry w^ere reported to have collected in great numbers. The yeomanry, amongst w’^hom were nearly eight hundred attorneys, horse and foot, turned out. Their infantry was effective, and their cavalry excellent. The gradiations of their discipline and enthu- siasm were, however, extremely amusing ; those who had imbibed their full quantum of generous fluids, were the most fierce and enthusiastic ; others, who had dined on substantial matters, were as steady as posts. But those who had been paraded before dinner, after standing under arms for some hours, could stand it no longer, and a forced loan of cheese, tongue, and bottled porter, from a Mr Murray, of Great George’s-street, was unanimously decided upon, and immediately carried into execution. The bar- risters, commanded by Captain Saurin, were from their position, likely to sustain the first onset of the pikemen ; and as night closed, such a scene of militaiy array never w^as, and probably never will, be witnessed. Smithfield is a long and very wide street, open at both sides, one of which is terminated by the quays and river. It is inter- sected by narrow streets, and formed altogether one of the most disagreeable positions in Avhich an immense body of THE RISING OF ’ 98 . 121 demi-disciplined men and horses ever were stationed in solid mass, without any other order than, ‘ if you are attack ed, defend yourself to the last extremity.’ “ The cavalry and infantry were, in some places, so completely interwoven, that a dragoon could not wield his sword vdthout cutting down a foot soldier, nor a foot soldier discharge his musket without knocking down a trooper. The cavalry being elevated, could breathe freely in the crowd ; but the infantry could scarcely avoid suffocation. A few hundred insurgents with long pikes coining rapidly in the dark, might, without difficulty, have assailed' th# yeomen at once from five different points. The barristers’ and attorneys’ corps occupied three of the points. So much for General Craig’s tactics. “ The danger was considered imminent, the defence impracticable ; yet there was a cheerful thoughtless jocu- larity with which the English nation, under grave circum- stances, are totally unacquainted ; and plain matter-of-fact men can scarcely conceive that renovating levity which carries an Irish heart buoyantly over every wave which would swamp, or at least water-log, their more steady fel- low-subjects. All the barristers, attorneys, merchants, bankers, revenue -officers, shopkeepers, students of the Um- versity, doctors, apothecaries, and corporators, of an im- mense metropolis, in red coats, with a sprinkling of parsons, all doubled up together, awaiting in profound darkness, (not with impatience,) for invisible executioners to despatch them without mercy, was not (abstractedly) a situation to engender much hilarity. Scouts now and then came, only to report then ignorance, a running buzz occasionally went round, that the videts were driven in — and the reports of distant musketry like a twitch of electricity, gave a slight but perceptible movement to men’s muscles. A few faintly 122 THE RISING OF '98. heard shots on the north side, also seemed to announce that the vanguard of the Santry men was approaching. In the mean time, no further orders came from the general, and if there had, no orders could have been obeyed. It appeared, at break of day, that both the Santry and Kath. famham men had adjourned their main assault till some other opportunity. ** The different corps now got more regular, the bands struck up “ God save the King” — the danger of the night, in all its ramifications, re -occupied the tongue of every sol- dier in Smithfield; and at length an order came from ^ General Craig, (Lord Eoden being victorious in a skirmish) to dismiss the troops, and to parade again in the evening. Kever was an order obeyed with more alacrity, and never did insurgents loose so favom'able an opportunity of covering a field of battle with more distinguished carcases. “ The insurgents on the south intended to take the castle by surprise, whilst the Santry men assailed the bari-acks; but their plan was disconcerted by Lord Roden, at the head of his dragoons, called the fox-hunters, from their noble horses. His lordship marched rapidly upon them, and surprised the few who had collected ; and being supported by a small number of fight infantry, the attack completely succeeded. A few were sabred, and some few made pri- soners ; but the body dispersed with little resistance. Lord Roden received a ball on his helmet, but was only bruised, and some dragoons were wounded ; the other (county of Dublin) men retreated to join the Kildare men ; the south- em marched to unite themselves with those of Wicklow. Their plan had been excellent, had they acted steadily on it success was not improbable — however, the metropolis for some time had no further dread of molestation. “ A new, disgusting, and hoivid scene was next morning THE RISING OF ’98. 123 publicly exhibited ; after which military executions com- menced, and continued with unabating activity. 8ome dead bodies of insurgents, sabred the night before by Lord Koden’s dragoons, were brought in a cart to Dublin, with some prisoners tied together ; the carcases were stretched out in the Castle Yard, where the Viceroy then resided, and in full view of the Secretary’s windows ; they lay on the pavement as trophies of the first skirmish, during a hot day, cut and gashed in every part, covered with clotted blood and dust, the most frightful spectacle which ever dis- graced a royal residence, save the seraglio. After several hours’ exposure, some ap*pearance of life was perceived in one of the mutilated carcases. The man had been stabbed and gashed in various parts; his body was removed into the guard-room, and means were taken to restore anima- tion ; the efforts succeeded, he entirely recovered, and was pardoned by Lord Camden ; he was an extraordinary fine young man, above six feet high, the son of a Mr Keough, an opulent landholder of Rathfarnham ; he did not, how- ever change his principles, and was ultimately sent out of the country. “ That morning, the yeomanry corps were called upon to attend the execution of Lord Roden’s prisoners, who were ordered to be hanged from the lamp irons, or on the bridges. It was a service the respectable corps dechned, several, however, went individually as spectators. The first victim to that arbitrary and ill-judged execution, was a Mr Ledwitch, of Rathfarnham, the brother of a Catholic clergyman.* * He was a remarkatdy large and heavy person, and was hanged on one of the bridges. By the inexperience of the executioner, Mr Ledwitch Butfered a prolonged and cruel death ; the rope frequently slipped, and gave way; at length, his legs were tied up behind his back, and after much straggling and dragging, he was dispatched with veiy consider- able difficulty. It^was a honid sight. 124 THE RISING OF ’ 98 . “ Others were executed at the satne time; some of the lamplighters also paid with their lives for their former night’s omission, and blood began to flow mth but little mercy. Bacon (a Major of the old Volunteers) was caught in a female garb, endeavouring to quit the city; and under a general order to execute, forthwith, all persons foimd in disguise, he was led to Carlisle-bridge, and hanged from the scaffolding. These species of executions became com- mon, and habit soon reconciled men to what was not only disgusting, but horrible. “Martial law was now proclaimed, and the courts of justice closed, except upon civil subjects. The barristers pleading in their uniform, with their side-arms. One of the judges (Baron Medge) appeared on the bench in the same unifonn ; the names of the inmates of every house were pasted on every door; fabricated reports of the mas- sacres and poisonings were daily propagated ; the city as- sumed, altogether, the appearance of one monstrous barrack or slaughter-house.” CHAPTER XYII. Skirmishes in the Counties Dublin, Meath, and Kildare — Affrays at Naas, Baiting-lass, and Prosperous — Bloody Caiiow Massacre — Skirmish at Tara, and its results. Me anwhile the Irish peasantry of Leinster rose up against their tyrants, actuated by the very same principles as their ancestors, when they fell upon Turgesius and his Danish cut-throats in the ninth century The insurrection was chiefly confined to the counties of Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Carlow, and Wicklow. It aftemards extended itself to Wexford, and a partial rising took place in Antrim and THi' RISING OF "QS. 125 Down ; so that the movement never included more than one-tenth of the whole Irish population, and w^as really only carried on wdth vigour in one of the tliiity-two counties — Wexford. In the several skirmishes which occurred after the breaking out of the distinbanccs at Kathfarnliam, Tal- laght, Lucan, Lusk, CoUou, and Barretstown, the people were defeated. “ In these and other conflicts in the rebel- lion,” says Gordon, an Anglo-Irish writer, ‘‘ the nuinbers of the killed and wounded of the rebels is extremely uncer- tain, and almost always exaggerated in the public prints.” At Dunboyne, in the county Meath, eight miles from Dublin, the people surprised and captured a party of Scotch mercenaries, called Reay Fencibles, and seized the baggage of two companies of the English king’s troops, w^hich they w'ere dragging through the comitry. Near Barretstown also the people fell upon a body of English mercenaries, called Suflblk Eencibles, who lost all their baggage, and escaped into Kildare. Those Suflblk Eencibles appear to have been cannibals. On one occasion they eat the heart of a respectable Irish fanner named Patrick Walsh. “ The execution of Walsh,” says Mr O’KeUy, “ was accompanied with a degree of savage ferocity. After half-banging him, he was taken down, his body cut open, his heart taken out, and a part of it eaten by three of the Suflblk Eencibles.” On the 23rd of May an attack was made upon Naas, the capital town of Kildare, about 15 miles from Dublin. The garrison was commanded by Colonel Lord Gosford, and Lieutenant- Colonel Acheson, and consisted of 225 men (with two pieces of cannon), viz, 150 Irish mercenaries, called Armagh militia, 35 Welsh mercenaries, called ancient Britons, and 40 mercenary horse. Early on the morning of the 24th of May, a body of the peasantry, stated at 1000 men, approached Naas. They were led on by Michaej 126 THE RISING or ’98. Reynolds, of J ohnstown, who was well mounted, and was dressed in yeoman uniform. Entering the town at four different places, they penetrated as far as the jail, where they made a most desperate attack, which lasted for forty minutes, when at length the peasantry yielded to the supe- rior fire of the enemy. Reynolds made every effort to rally his men, but failed. Of the English king’s soldiers, two officers and several privates were slain, and the peasantry left thirty men dead. Only for the information conveyed to the ganison by two anonymous letters a few hours before the attack on the town, it is very probable that Mick Reynolds would have killed them all, and taken the tovTi. It deserves to be recorded, that in this skirmish an Irish gunner, not wishing to kill his own brother -Irishmen, fired his cannon over their heads. At Baltinglass, in the county Wicklow, on the morning of the 24th of May, about 400 of the peasantiy were surprised by the English king’s troops. Being attacked at both sides, the peasantry were defeated with the loss of near 100 men. One Captain Swanye, who commanded the garrison of Prosperous, in the county Kildare, had rendered himself odious to the poor people by his horrid cruelties, so they entered the towm on the morning of the 24th of May, buiued the barracks, with Captain Swayne and 28 Irish mercen- aries, called Cork Militia. Of fourteen Welsh mercenaries — called ancient Britons — in the town, the peasantiy killed nine, and took the other five prisoners. On the morning of the 24th of May, a body of peasantry having entrenched themselves in the old churchyard of Kilcullen, in Kildare, General Dundas ordered forty mercenary cavaliy, called light di’agoons and Romneys, to charge and disperse them. They did charge thi’ee times, but were repulsed by the THE RISING OF *98. 12T peasantry, with the loss of their two captains (Erskine and Cooke), and thirty privates, w'hom the stout peasants ski- vered with their pikes. Mr O’Kelly states, ‘ ‘ that the pike- men and cavaliy were equal in numbers on this occasion.’* The attack on Carlow, which is forty miles from Dublin took place on the morning of the 25th of May. The people of the neighbourhood finding that the mail coach did not arrive as usual on the morning of the 24th, prepared to assault the town on the morning of the 25th. But the garrison got information of the intended surprise of the place, through an intercepted letter, and the advice of one Roe, a lieutenant of the North Cork mercenary militia, who had observed the peasants assembling in the vicinity late in the evening of the 24th of May. The garrison of Carlow,, stated at 450 men, was commanded by one Colonel Mahon„ and consisted of companies of Irish and English mercen- aides, called 9th dragoons, North Cork and Louth militias, along with the “bloody yeomen’* of Carlow, and forty loyalist volunteers. About 1200 peasants moved towards Carlow at two o’clock on the morning of the 25th, but so little caution did they observe, that when within a short distance of the town, they alarmed the garrison by discharg- ing a gun in executing a man who refused to accompany them. When the peasants entered the town shouting, everything was prepared before hand by the garrison, and the people were completely surprised. So severe and sudden was the fire of the garrison of the town, that the peasantiy fled without making the least resistance. Binding their flight intercepted, they retreated into some houses, to which the savage gamson set fire. Some rushed out through the flames, and were shot and bayoneted ; others remained in the houses and were broiled alive, for no quarter was given. “ About eighty houses,” says Gordon, “ were consumed in m THE RISING OF '98. this conflagration ; and for some days the roasted remains of unhappy men were falling down the chimneys in which they had perished.” “The other miscreants,” says the monster Musgi'ave, “who had taken different routes, were shot by the loyal inhabitants from their windows, and such of them as escaped, were pursued and killed by the soldiers and yeomanry, so that the streets, the roads, and the fields contiguous to the to^vn, were strewed with carcases. That evening and all next day, nineteen carts were constantly employed in conveying the dead bodies to the other side of the Graigue-Bridge, where 417 bodies were buried in three gravel pits, and covered with quick lime. On the whole it was believed that no less than 600 of the unfortunate wretches perished, including those who were in the houses and those who fell in the roads and fields, and were secretly interred by their friends.” Gordon, who estimates those slaughtered at 400, says, “After the defeat, executions commenced as elsewhere in this calamitous period, and about 200 in a short time were hanged or shot according to martial law.” Such was the “bloody Carlow massacre,” which nothing could justify, since, as Gordon acknowledges, “Not a man was even wounded on the side of the loyalists. ” No wonder the villains on the other side who always got up massacres of the Irish whenever it was “ expedient,” are called by the Irish peasant, the “bloody English.” If that cruel and acquisitive people are destined to lose as much blood as they have caused to be shed, what on earth shall become of them ? Even their worst enemies could hardly wish them such a fate. On the 26th of May, a number of peasantry having as^ sembled at the hill of Tara, in the county of Meath, a »kirmish ensued, which is foolishly called the battle of Tara. THE RISING OF ’98. 129 The English king’s troops amounted to about 400 men, consisting of three companies of Scotch mercenaries, called Eeay Fencibles, and the rest Irish mercenaries called Meath Yeomanry, commanded by Lord Eingal, a Catholic loyal- ist, and Captains Preston and MoUoy. The peasants, not having proper leaders, came down from their strong posi- tioD, and advanced against the English king’s troops, firing at the same time, but in an irregular manner. “ Our line of infantry,” says the bigot Musgrave, “ advanced with the greatest coolness, and did not fii’e a shot until they were within 150 yards of them. One part of the cavahy com- manded by Lord Eingal, was ordered to the right, the other to the left, to prevent our line from being outflanked, which the enemy endeavoured to accomplish. The rebels made three desperate onsets, and in the last laid hold of the cannon, but the officer who commanded the gun, having laid the match to it before they could completely surround it, prostrated ten or twelve of the assailants, and dispersed the remainder.” “We are told,” says Gordon, “of 350 of their men being found dead on the field of battle, toge- ther with their leader in his uniffinn, aud the loss of nine killed and sixteen wounded of the victorious party. That the results of the skirmish at Tara was of the most vital importance to the foreign-connexion or English-as- cendancy party is confessed by their own historian Mus- grave. “We,” says that writer, “took 300 horses, all their provisions, arms, ammunition, and baggage, and eight of the Reay Fencibles, whom they had taken prisoners two days before, and whom they employed to drill them.” He then “lets the cat out of the bag,” and gives a striking picture of the weakness of the English pow'^er at that time. “The king’s troops,” says Musgrave, “would have re- mained on the field all night, hut they had not a single ISO THE RISING OF ’98. cartridge left, either for the gun or the small arms. The prisoners, of whom they took a good many, informed our officers, that their intention was to have proceeded that night to plunder Navan, and then Kells, where there was a great quantity of ammunition, and little or no force to protect it ; and that when they had succeeded, they ex- pected, according to a preconcerted plan, to have been joined by a great number of insurgents from Meath, West- meath, Louth, Monaghan, and Cavan, and to have re- leased all the prisoners confined in Trim, where they would not have met with any opposition. So general an insurrection might have been fatal to the kingdom, for the rebellion in Wexford and Kildare was raging with inextinguishable fury ; it was still destructive in Wicklow and Carlow, and the mass of the people, in many parts of Leinster and Munster, were on the point of rising. The garrison of Dublin was so weak, and so much ex- hausted by fatigue in the severe duty which they under- went, in endeavouring to prevent its disaffected inhabit- ants from rising, that they could not send any troops to the adjacent countiy. CHAPTER XYIII. ColcVblooded Massacre at the Carragh — Rising in Wexford — Affrays at Oulart-hill, Enniscorthy, Eunclody — Walpole defeated — State the countiy. Ai- the CuiTagh of Kildare, on the 28th of May, Gene- ral Diindas having sent to Dublin for leave, and obtained it, received one Perkins, along with 2CC0 peasants, intoa THE RIbTNG OF ’98. 131 surrender, who delivered up 13 cart-loads of pikes. On the 31st of May, Major-General Sir James Duff having made a rapid march from Limerick with 600 men, to open the communication of the metropolis with that quarter, received intelligence of a large body of men assembled at a place called Gibbet Eath, on the CuiTagh, for the purpose of surrendering, to which they had been admitted by Gene- ral Dundas. ‘ ‘ Unfortunately, ” says Gordon, ‘ ‘ as the troops advanced near the insui’gents to receive their surrendered weapons, one of the latter foolishly swearing that he would not deliver his gun otherwise than empty, discharged it with the muzzle upwards. The soldiers instantly pretend- ing to consider this as an act of hostility, fired on the un- resisting multitude, who fled with the utmost precipitation, and were pursued with slaughter by a company of fencible cavaliy, denominated ‘Lord Jocelyn’s foxhunters;’ but for a dispatch wliich arrived from General Dundas, recall- ing the cowardly soldiers, a far greater number of the un- happy people would have been butchered.” To justify this slaughter the corrupt newspapers gave out that the peasantry had fired on the troops. “ But the truth,” says Gordon, “ought to be related without respect of persons or party. The affair is well known to have been otherwise ; and the rebels were crowded in a place neither fit for defence nor escape — a wide plain, without hedge, ditch, or bog, quite contrary to their established modes o! W'ar.” According to Mr O’Kelly, Duff ordered the credu- lous peasants to throw their pikes in a heap, then to kneel down, and beg the English king’s pardon ; all which orders were complied with, though quite contrary to the terms granted. A dead silence having then ensued. Duff in- stantly thundered out, “ Charge, and spare no rebel.” Havoc, consternation, and death now spread themselves on 132 THE RISING OF ’98. all sides. Tlie horror of the scene was indescribable. Mr O’Kelly afterwards adds: “The number of victims who fell beneath these mnrdereirs murdering swords was 325. In one street alone of Kildare town, distant from the scene of slaughter about two English miles, there were reckoned 85 widows the following morning. This carnage outweighs in enormity every act committed on either side by the army or the people throughout the disasters of ’98. The memory of it should never be effaced — it should in- struct the warrior to spare, and the vanquished not to confide.” On the 27th of May, the insurrection broke out in the county Wexford. The case of this county proves clearly that the Irish peasantry were goaded into insurrection, and the massacres of ’98 were got up purposely by the English government of that day from motives of policy and expe- diency; for all writers agree that the United Irish system had scarcely made any advances in that county. It is singular that the people of one of the thirty- two Irish counties — Wexford, without organization, or arms, or omcers, and lying over against England, should have fought more gallantly than any others. Indeed, but for their drunkenness at Koss, all writers admit that the English power was at an end. On Sunday the 27 th of May, a body of peasantry assem- bled on the hill of Oulart, about six miles from Ennis- corthy, and ten from the town of Wexford. They were commanded by Eather John Murphy, who had resided in Spain, where he had been ordained. One Colonel Foote advanced to attack Oulart hill with a body of Irish mer- cenaries, consisting of 110 North Cork militia, and two troops of yeomanry cavalry. The cavaliy proceeded round lie hill to cut oil the rere, while Foote marched up the hill I'HE RISING OF ’98. 133 ^l\e success of the insurgents was partly attributed to the address (u a servaut-boy, who advised the people to lie down, anawait the close approach of the military till they came witlik a few yards. Father John now exclaiming that they must either conquer or die, the peasantry rushed forward with their pikes and destroyed Foote’s force in an instant. Out of 1 10 men, Foote and only hnir others es- caped. So close and sudden was the attack, that the pea- sants only lost tw'o killed and five wounded. ‘ ‘ The num- ber of the peasantry who shared in this victory,” says Cloney, ‘ ‘ scarcely exceeded the number of the slain militia : no doubt that the advantageous ground, the close quarters, and the formidable weapon, of which they made so good a use, contributed to their victory.” Having taken possession of Camolin, Father Murphy proceeded with increasing numbers next day to Enniscorthy, which the people attacked and stormed after a lively action, which lasted four hours. “The force of all arms,” says Cloney, “ which defended the town, consisted of about 500 men, of which they lost in killed 3 officers and 80 men, and many wounded. The insurgents lost in the contest about 100 in killed and wounded.” The people now moved on to the Three Kocks, two miles and a-half from Wexford, where they encamped. The garrison of W exford consisted of about 1,200 men, aU Irish mercenaiies, either militia, yeomamy, or loyal volunteers. General Faw^cet now ad- vanced from Duncannon Fort to reinforce Wexford, and arrived at Taghmon, seven miles from Wexford. Having sent forward, on the 29th of May, a detachment of 88 men and 2 howitzers, these were intercepted on the morning of the 30th by the people at the Three Rocks. After a smart tussle of a few minutes, the peasants killed, wounded, or took the whole lot, except five who escaped. Fawcet 134 THE RISING OF ’98. hearing of this when he was in bed, made off to Duncan- non again, and sent his family to England, having pur- posely detained the packet-boat two hours. The garrison of Wexford now retreated from that town, and set off for Duncannon Fort, committing great cruelties on their route. The people entered and took possession of Wexford on the 30th of May. On the morning of the 1st of June an independent body of insurgents proceeded on a secret expedition to Bunclody or Newtown-Barry. The Anglo-Irish government, having received information of the intended attack on this town, had sent lorw'ard Colonel L’Estrange on the 30th of May to defend it. The garrison amounted to about 500 Irish mercenaries, of which 300 were King’s County militia, and the rest yeomen and volunteer loyalists. The insurgents having divided into two parties, attacked the town, and were soon left in possession of it by the retreat of the mili- tary. Instead of pursuing the retreating garrison, the people proceeded to plunder the town, and having drank freely of that damned whiskey, the military returned back again, and killed near 200 of them. “ This victory,” says Gordon, “was of no small importance, as their conquest of Bunclody would have opened a way for the Wexfordian rebels into the county of Carlow ; the rising of whose in- habitants, to co-operate with those of Wicklow and Kil- dare, already in anns, must, in the state of the country as it was then circumstanced, have given gi’eat embarrassment to administration.” Meantime General Loftus having set out from Dubhn through Wicklow, arrived at Gorey with 1500 men, which being divided into two divisions, Loftus took the command of one, and Colonel Walpole, a vain boasting Enghshman, led the other by a different road. The insurgents, on Jure THE RISING OF ’98. 135 the 4th, as they were marching on Gorey, fell in with Wal- pole’s division, and in a few minutes shot Walpole through the head, seized 3 pieces of cannon, and after killing and wounding several, took some prisoners, and routed the whole party. Loftus hearing the firing, pushed forward, and when he arrived on the field, finding Walpole and many of iiis soldiers lying dead and naked, he retreated to Carlow. Tlie peasants were now in possession of all the county of Wexford, except Duncannon Fort, and the towns of Ross and Bunclody, or hi ewtowui-Barry. ‘ ‘ While these alarming events were passing,” says an eminent English writer, Wakefield, “ the lady of the viceroy had fled to England, and her departure acting like an electric shock, diffused a sensation of terror and dismay throughout the whole country. The consolatory accounts of successes that were spread by the adherents of the Castle, were not believed. Lady Cambden’s quitting Ireland was considered as an unanswerable proof that government, wdiatever com- placency they had assumed, considered the issue as doubt- ful. After the defeat of Colonel Walpole,” says the same author, “ had the rebels directed their course northw-ards, Carlow, Wicklow, and Bray must necessarily have fallen into their hands, and the capital would have been thrown into a most critical situation. The effects of whis- key, AND THE WANT OF A LEADER ACQUAINTED WITH MILITARY TACTICS, ON THIS OCCASION SAVED THE GOVERNMENT.” 136 THE RISING OF ’98. CHAPTER XIX^ Assault on Ross — Assault on Arklow — Tumults in Ulster— Afirays at Antrim and Ballyiialiinch — Battle of Fook's-mill — Battle of Vine- gar-hill — Summaiy. On the 4th of June, the Wexfordians advanced to Ross, and encamped at Corbet-hill, \^ithin one mile of that town, which borders on the county Kilkenny and Wexford, lies on the river Barrow, and is within twelve miles of the city of Waterford. Ross might have been taken without any opposition on the 29th of May, the day after Enniscorthy had fallen into the hands of the people. Such a measure had been ve- hemently urged by a chief named Hay, and a great num- ber of people had agreed to march with him for that pur- pose ; but a quarrel and duel having occurred between Hay and Eitzgerald, this plan was for a time laid aside. Meantime Ross had been strongly reinforced and pre- pared against an attack. The garrison was commanded by an Irishman, General J ohnson. It consisted chiefly of Irish mercenaiies, called Donegal, Clare, and Meath mi- litia, with a detachment of English and Irish artillery, and a band of Scotch mercenaries named Mid Lotbians, in all 1200 men. Besides these there were large gangs of yeo- men and volunteer loyalists, which made, according to Cloney, an entire force of 2,000 men, with several pieces of cannon. About four o’clock on the morning of the 5th of June, General Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey sent Mr Eurlong towards the town, canning a flag of truce, and a WTitten summons to give up Ross to the Wexford people, in order THE RI6ING OT ’98. to save bloodshed. Mr Furlong on approaching the tovTi galloping on horseback, and waving the flag of tmce, waa shot dead by a sentinel, who had orders from his cmel and cowardly employers to do so. On the mm’der of Mr Fur • long the people rushed forward to the attack, led on by a true-blooded Irishman, John Kelly, of Killan, who put himself at the head of 500 men. “The stout peasants now,” says Gordon, “rushed headlong into the town, drove back the cavalry with slaughter on the infantry, seized the cannon, and being followed in their successful career by crov/ds from the hill, seemed some time masters of the to^vn. From a full persuasion of a decided victory In favour of the rebel army, some officers of the garrison fled to Waterford, twelve miles distant \\ ith this alarming intelligence.” Thus the people would have recovered their own town with very little loss, hut for that miserable vice of drunken- ness, which now, thank God, is scarce heard of. ‘ ‘ When the insurgents,” says Hay, “had thus got possession of the town, they fell to plundering and drinking, on w'hich they became so intent, that they could not be brought to follow up their advantage. In the meantime the army rallied on the Kilkenny side of the bridge, and although a retreat was before determined on, yet they were indu<^ to return upon perceiving that there was no pursuit.” The dispute continued with various fortune for about ten hours, and ended at two o’clock in the day. It is needless to say that both sides being composed of Irishmen shed each other’s blood bravely. What a wretched reflection to think that Irishmen in their own native land should be shedding one another’s blood like gladiators, forthebeneflt or amuse- ment of Englishmen, who are only actuated by views of policy and expediency, and have long since got rid of those 138 THE ilStSlNG OF ’98. prejudices that make Irishmen think it a duty to watch and kill each other like beasts of prey ! During the tussle in Boss, General Johnson had two horses killed under him. “He often exclaimed,” says Musgrave,. “ to the fugitives whom he rallied, ‘Will you desert your General?’ without any effect; but when he added, ‘ and your Countryman,’ they gave three cheers and followed him.” How the English minister Pitt must have despised such men, though he found it expedient to use them? Eternal honour to the English, who although they differ on all sub- jects, agree in this — ^that it is not their duty to murder each other for the benefit of Frenchmen. Of the action at Ross, Cloney says, “Had a reinforcement of fifty or sixty fresh and bold fellows arrived in the evening, the day was eertaiiily ours.” Of the intended evening attack, Musgrave says, “It is to be feared that it would have been fatal to the garrison, who were overcome with hunger and fatigue, and many of them had sunk into a state of ebriety and somnolency.” He then adds, “It is very singular that •the rebels never ventuiTd to send a force round to penetrate at the north -gate end of the towm, w'here they must have -succeeded, as the main body of our troops wx*re employed in defending it in the opposite direction.” Of the numbers and losses at Ross, Cloney thus speaks : “ The garrison, which consisted of about 2,000 men, of all arms, with several pieces of cannon, were opposed by not much more than 3,000 of our men, wdio were engaged after the first two hours in the morning. The loss on either side could never be accurately ascertained, but was sup- posed to have been about 300 killed on each side, and about 500 on each side wounded, including John Kelly, w'ho .was disabled early in the action. We lost a valuable offi- THK RI8ING OF ’98. 139 ce¥ in Mr John Boxwell, of Sarsliill, a Protestant gentle- man of great respectability, high character, and undoubted courage.” Had the peasants of Wexford remained sober, and held Ross, a universal rising would have taken place, and the whole province of Munster would have been in arms. “For,” says Miisgrave, “it has been discovered that the inhabitants of most parts of that province were to have risen by a preconcerted plan, if that town had fallen into the hands of the rebels ; and it was proved that messengers were on the point of being sent from Waterford by the treasurers of the United Irishmen to summon the people of the South to rise.” On the morning of the 9th of J ime, the Wexfordians", amounting, ’tis said, to about 20,000, marched along from Gorey to Arklow; 5,000 were armed with guns, the 'rest with pikes, which gave them the appearance of a moving forest, and they were furnished with three pieces of artil- leiy, but were deficient in gunpowder. “Each company had a green flag or colour, about two feet square, with a yellow harp in the centre. Some, however, were party- coloured, and equal in size to the king’s colours. Their leaders were observed riding through the ranks, marshalling them and giving orders. After Walpole’s defeat on the 4th of June, if the people had rushed forward; Arklow would have fallen into their power, as it was not capable of defence till tbe 9th, on which day Colonel Skerret ar- rived with 300 Durham Fencibles. These English mer- cenaries were conveyed to Arklow in carriages and cars, according to the French republican fashion, that they might arrive fresh at the scene of action. The garrison of Ark- low consisted of 1600 men, commanded by General Need- ham. The W exfordians having assailed both sides of the 140 THE RISING OF town, a smart tussle ensued, and the assailants rushed se- Teral times within a few yards of the cannons’ mouths. General Needham after some time proposed retreating, but was opposed by Colonel Skerret, whose resolution on that occasion,” says Gordon, “saved Arklow, and in my opinion the kingdom.” Finally the fire slackened, the ammunition of the English king’s army began to fail, that of the people was exhausted. At this period that true- blooded Irishman, Father Michael Murphy, while leading on his men, shouting, and waving in his hand a fine stand- ard with a cross and “ hberty or death” inscribed on it, fell by a cannon shot, which event spread dismay among his people, and turned the fortune of the day. About eight o’clock in the evening, just as the English king’s aimy were going to retreat, the people retired unpursued from Arklow, having only lost, by Gordon’s account, from 300 to 400 men. . Meantime the Protestants of the counties of Down and Antrim, in Ulster, began to stir themselves. The English foxes have asserted that the Ulster Protestants rose up, but on perceiving that the movement in the south was of a Popish nature, threw do^vn their arms and retired in dis- gust. Why one would think that those English thought any legend good enough for an Irish Protestant to swallow. The tussle in the south began on the 23d of May, and was decided on the 21st of June, at Vinegar-hiU. The Ulster men rose up on the 7th of June, a fortnight after the southerns, and their tussle was decided on the 13th of June, at Ballynahinch. So much for English lies and Irish Pro- testant credulity. On the 7th of June a true-blooded Irishman, Henry McCracken, led on 500 men to attack Antrim, where a sharp scuffile ensued, but the garrison receiving reinforce- TKE RISING or '96. 141 merits, the insta’gents were at last defeated with the loss of 150 men. ’Tis hard to write it, but we must. The Lord O’Neill, the degenerate descendant of Nial the Grand, king of all Ireland, invader of Britain and Gaul, fell de- servedly while fighting for the English conspirators against his brother-irishmen. The Protestants of Down, electing Henry Munro (a true- blooded Irisliman) for their leader, laid an ambuscade on the 9th of June for one Colonel Stapleton, who was march- ing through their country with some English mercenaries called York Eencibles, a lot of yeomen, and two pieces of cannon. The insurgents falling on those fellows killed or took sixty, including one Mortimer, Vicar of Portaferry, who had volunteered to shed the blood of his brother-irish- men. After this victory the Downmen assembled at Bally- nahinch on the 12th of June, to the number of about 4000, and General Nugent marching from Belfast, arrived at the same place with 1500 men. Too confident of success, Munro opposed the proposal of a night attack, when the licentious and defenceless state of the English king s army offered an easy conquest. Early on the 13th the conflict began ; the Down men were at first victorious, but w’ere finally defeated with the loss of 150 men, and the army lost about 40. Meantime an immense force concentrated in AVexford. On the 20th of June, Eather Philip Eoche, a true-blooded Lishman, attacked Brigadier- General Moore, who was at the head of 1500 men, with artillery. The action took place at Book’s mill, and the object of General Eoche was to get at Eoss, and seize the English supplies. , Erom the nature of the ground. General Eoche could not bring his pikemen into action, otherwise he would have destroyed Moore’s force. Eoche,, with only 650 gunsmen, maintained the 142 THE RISING OF ’98. fight for four hours, aud Moore was on the point of retreat- ing, when he received a reinforcement of two regiments, under Lord Dalhousie. Hearing of this, Eoche having expended all his powder, fell back in good order, carrying with him five out of his six small cannon. These had been tied on cars with ropes, and one falling into a ditch, he left it there. Cloney says, “ that Moore lost 200 killed, and a greater number wounded. The Wexfordians lost far less, and there were no prisoners taken at either side. This was the most honourable action in the whole war.” “In the short space of three weeks,” says Gordon, “ an undis- ciplined and unorganized mob had arrived at some degree of military skill, and acquired much resolution in battle.” The final engagement which decided the conflict between the Wexford peasantry and the English government, took place at Vinegar-hill, near Enniscorthy, and about ten miles from Wexford town. In this battle the peasantry had no powder, and General Eoche’s division was not up in time for the fight, but only arrived to cover the retreat of the Wexfordians. We have no account of the number killed and wounded at Vinegar-hill. The English list was wisely suppressed. Had the peasantry made night attacks, they must have succeeded. Such proposals were made to klunro at Ballynahinch, and Eoche at Eook’s-mill, andover- nded ; the same occurred at Vinegar-hill. “ On the summit of thishiU,” says an eminent writer, “ the insurgents had collected the remains of their Wexford army; the number maybe conjectured, from General Lake deciding that 20,000 regular troops were necessary for the attack. The peasantry had dug a slight ditch around a large extent of the base ; they had a veiy few pieces of small half-disabled cannon, some swivels, and not above two thousand fire-anus of all descriptions, but their situation was desperate ; and Gene- THE RISING OF ’98. 143 ral Lake considered that two thousand fire-arms, in the hands of infuriated and courageous men, supported by a multitude of pikemen, might be equal to ten times the number under other circumstances. A great many women mingled with their relatives, and fought with fury ; several were found dead amongst the men, who had fallen in crowds by the bursting of shells. “ General Lake, at the break of day, disposed his attack in four columns, whilst his cavalry were prepared to do execution on the fugitives. One of the columns (whether by accident or design is strongly debated) did not arrive in time at its station, by which the insurgents were enabled to retreat to W exford, through a country where they could not be pursued by cavalry or cannon. It was astonishing with what fortitude the peasantry, uncovered, stood the tremendous fire opened upon the four sides of their position ; a stream of shells and grape was poured on the multitude ; the leaders encouraged them by exhortations, the women by their cries, and every shell that broke amongst the crowd was followed by shouts of defiance. General Lake’s horse was shot, many officers wounded, some killed, and a few gentlemen became invisible during the heat of the battle. The troops advanced gradually but steadily up the hill ; the peasantry kept up their fire, and maintained their ground, their cannon was nearly useless, their powder de- ficient, but they died fighting at their post. At length, enveloped in a torrent of fire, they broke, and sought their safety through the space that General Needham had left by the non-arrival of his column. They were partially .charged by some cavalry, but with little execution ; they retreated to W exford, and that night occupied the tOANm.” “ The complete suppression of this short rebellion,” says Mr Ncwenham, “appears to have ultimately induced the 144 THE RISING OF ’98. necessity of employing more than 190,000 soldiers of differ-- ent descriptions, including upwards of 16,621 belonging to the domestic disposable force of England.” The number of peasants massacred in ’98 is stated at 50,000, and 20,000 mercenaries fell beneath the arms of a virtuous and indig- nant people. The expense of getting up and subduing this rebellion of a month, which at no time extended beyond the tenth part of Ireland, was enormous ; and is estimated (together with the cost of the Union) at twenty-one mil- lions. As we said before, if we were aU United Irishmen, no power on earth could stand against us; as it was, had the peasants of Wexford been sober, it . was all up with the English. Thus Avas that great English conspiracy against the Irish nation effected. The conspirators in 1 783 stopped refoim, they disbanded the Volunteers, opposed Catholic Emanci- pation, established despotism, drove the United Irishmen to attempt separation, massacred the people, bought the Irish parliament, and reduced Ireland to a degraded pro- vince. THE EISING OF ’98. WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE VOLUNTEERS, &c. (