wounds he had received while defending himself from his captors. The Sheareses, through means of an infamous scoundrel called Armstrong, an officer of the King's county militia, who passed himself off as a person of republican principles,* were arrested on the 21st, and not a single leader or tactician of influence was now free. Meanwhile Military Law had been proclaimed by the government, and the entire kingdom declared in a state of rebellion. An order was passed, at the same time that this proclamation was issued, authorising the troops to act without waiting for the authority of the civil magistrate. Sir Ralph Abercromby, then commander-inchief, disgusted with the conduct of the government, wrote immediately to request that he might be recalled from his command. He was succeeded by General Lake, who, like the army under him, was troubled by no such impolitic scruples.

The country was now delivered up to a reign of horror. The army which, according to General Abercrombie, was "in a state of licentiousness that rendered it formidable to every one but the enemy," were let loose upon an already tortured and desperate population. The huts and houses of suspected persons were burned; their families were tortured and frequently murdered, and women were often subjected to the outrages of lust and brutal passion. The Orange yeomanry and militia especially distinguished themselves by their monstrous cruelties. Sir John Moore, in reporting the state of Wicklow, stated to the Lord Lieutenant that the presence of the troops was necessary, "more to check the Yeomen and Protestants than the people in general.”

"FREE-QUARTERS," that term of dread in Ireland, were introduced, enabling the licentious soldiery to make themselves the despotic masters of the houses, food, property, and of the families of the peasantry. Tortures were also inflicted under the pretence of forcing confessions: whipping, picketting, half-hanging, and the pitch-cap, were the means of torture most usually practiced. Sir

*

Captain Armstrong, of the King's County Militia, was the infamous instrument employed by the government to worm himself into the confidence of the brothers Sheares, with the inten tion of afterwards sacrificing them. Armstrong was a much worse man than any employed in the "conspiracy:" he was treacherous, cruel, profligate, and by his own account an atheist and a murderer. On the information of this vile wretch, the brothers Sheareses were apprehended on the 21st of May, and continued to be visited by Armstrong, who still pretended to be their friend. The Sheareses were by profession barristers, of excellent talents and unsullied reputation. They had been appointed members of the Executive Directory on the apprehension of the original members at Bond's, and they had planned an attack on Kilmainham for the liberation of the prisoners on the night that they were apprehended. They were afterwards tried and convicted, almost exclusively on the evidence of this Captain Armstrong. Curran was their advocate, and delivered one of his most powerful speeches in their behalf. But the government prosecutors were relentless---Lord Clare was especially inveterate (in consequence, it is said, of once having been thwarted in a love affair by one of the brothers)---they were found guilty, and were shortly after hanged and beheaded in front of Newgate.

It is said that the North Cork regiment were the inventors-but they certainly were the introducers of pitch-cap torture into the county of Wexford. Any person having his hair cut short, and therefore called a Croppy (by which the soldiery designated an United Irishman), on being pointed out by some loyal neighbour, was immediately seized and brought into a guard-house, where caps, either of coarse linen or strong brown paper, besmeared inside with pitch, were always kept ready for service. The unfortunate victim had one of these, well heated, compressed on his head, and when judged of a proper degree of coolness, so that it could not be easily pulled off, the sufferer was turned out, amidst the horrid acclamations of the merciless torturers.-HAY's Insurrection of the County of Wexford, p. 57.

*

John Moore states, that on the march from Fermoy, he entered the town of Clogheen, where in the street he saw a man tied up, and under the lash, while the street itself was lined with country people on their knees, with their hats off. He was informed that the High Sheriff, Mr. Fitzgerald, was making great discoveries, and he had already "flogged the truth out of many respectable perHis rule was, "to flog each person till he told the truth," that is, until he confessed himself a rebel, "and gave the names of other rebels; and then the persons, so accused, were sent for and flogged until they also confessed, and thus swelled the list of the proscribed !"

sons."

Other methods were adopted to make the miserable victims of oppression "confess" to crimes which they had never imagined. Men were half strangulated, and then taken down and tortured till they "confessed"-they knew not what. Some bodies of Orange yeomen had regularly in their train a professed hangman, completely appointed with his implements, a hanging-rope, and cat-o -ninetails. It may be imagined to what a dreadful state the country was now reduced. "From the humble cot to the stately mansion," says Teeling, "no property, no person was secure. Numbers perished under the lash, many were strangled in the fruitless attempt of extorting confessions, and hundreds were shot at their peaceful avocations, in the very bosom of their families, for the wanton amusement of a brutal soldiery. The torture of the pitch cap was a subject of amusement both to officers and men, and the agonies of the unfortunate victim, writhing under the blaze of the combustible material, were increased by the yells of the soldiery and the pricking of their bayonets, until his sufferings were often terminated by death. The torture practised in those days of Ireland's misery has not been equalled in the annals of the most barbarous nation, and the world. has been astonished, at the close of the eighteenth century, with acts which the eye views with horror, and the heart sickens to record. Torture was resorted to, not only on the most trivial, but groundless occasions. It was inflicted without mercy on every age and every condition: the child, to betray the safety of the parent; the wife, the partner of her conjugal affection; and the friend and brother have expired under the lash, when the generous heart scorned to betray the defenceless brother or friend. The barbarous system of torture practised at Beresford's riding-house,* Sandy's Provot, the old Custom House, and other depôts of human misery in the capital, under the very eye of the executive, makes the blood recoil with horror, while we blush for the depravity of man under

During the Rebellion of 1798, Mr. John Beresford had built a riding-house for his yeomanry troop, which had been also much used as a place for whipping suspected persons in, to make them discover what in all probability they never knew;-a practice equally just and humane, and liberally resorted to (perhaps for sport) by military officers, pending that troublesome era. In Mr. Beresford's Riding-house this infernal system was carried to a greater extent than in any of the similar slaughter-houses then tolerated in the metropolis: to such an extent, indeed, that some Irish wags (who never fail even upon the most melancholy occasions to exercise their native humour) had one night the words "Mangling done here by J. Beresford & Co." painted upon a sign board and fixed over the entrance.-Sir JONAH BARRINGTON'S Personal Sketches, vol. i. p. 295.

the execrable feelings of his perverted nature.

In the centre of the city, the heart-rending exhibition was presented of a human being, endowed with all the faculties of a rational soul, rushing from the infernal depôt of torture and death, his person besmeared with a burning preparation of turpentine and pitch, plunging in his distraction into the Liffey, and terminating at once his sufferings and his life*."

These measures at length took effect. The people were driven to madness; and on the twenty-third of May, an insurrection of the peasantry broke out in the counties of Carlow and Kildare. Pitt had thus far succeeded; and another step towards the Union was accomplished.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

The INSURRECTION-the People and their Opponents-Military propensities of the Irish Peasantry-The Pike-The rising of Kildare-Threatened attack on Dublin-Defeated by Lord Roden's "Foxhunters"-Barbarous treatment of the Prisoners-Progress of the War-The Battle of Ballyellis-The Rising of Wexford-The Battle of Oulard-Advance of the Peasantry upon Wexford-Defeat of General Fawcett-Retreat of the British troops-Wexford occupied by the insurgents-Mr. Bagenal Harvey chosen Commander-in-Chief-The defeat of Colonel Walpole and capture of Gorey-The attack on New Ross and defeat of the insurgents-Scene of horror-Harvey deposed from the chief commandBattle of Arklow-Death of Father Murphy and defeat of the Peasantry-The insurrection in Carlow, Meath, and Kildare-Slaughter of Kilcomney-Battle of Tara-General Dundas's heavy Cavalry defeated by Pikemen-Slaughter at the Gibbet Rath of Kildare-The insurrection in Ulster-The battle of Antrim, and defeat of the insurgents-Rising in Down-Successes of the insurgents-Battle of Ballynahinch, and defeat of the United Troops-The insurgents of Wexford concentrate their forces-Battle of Vinegar Hill-Ferocious cruelties of the Royalists-Arrest and execution of Leaders---Cornelius Grogan, esq.-Desultory warfare protracted-Lord Cornwallis appointed Lord Lieutenant-Convention of United Irish Leaders with the government-Landing of a French Army under General Humbert-" Luck" of the English government-The French take Killala-The British totally defeated-The "races of Castlebar"-Lord Cornwallis collects an immense army-Capture of the French forces-Renewed cruelties of the Royalists-The last French armament-Desperate engagement-The Hoche captured with Wolfe Tone on board-His arrest, trial, and death-Napper Tandy's arrest and liberation-Entire suppression of the Insurrection-Number of lives lost during the struggle-The Royalist forces employed-Cost of suppressing the Rebellion of 1798.

THE insurrection broke out on the 23rd, and hostilities between the peasantry and the King's troops commenced on the 24th of May. The people were badly armed and clothed, undisciplined, without leaders, without cavalry or artillery, without commissariat, without money or provisions, without plan or system of any kind; and they

*TEELING'S Personal Narrative of the Irish Rebellion, pp. 132-3.

were opposed to a government which had at its command a completely appointed, well disciplined army, amounting to upwards of 100,000 men, having at their disposal immense military magazines, with the coast open to them at all points, and all the strong places throughout the country in their possession. The attempt at resistance seems almost to have savoured of madness; and yet there is little doubt but had the rebels possessed arms, officers, and discipline, they would have made themselves masters of the kingdom, and instead of a disastrous rebellion, the Irish Civil War of 1798 would have taken rank in history with the struggles for National Independence, of Switzerland, Scotland, and the United States of America. As it was, the half-armed and undisciplined peasants had nearly succeeded in effecting their object, and in baffling the combined power of the British forces.

The Irish peasantry have naturally strong military propensities: they have, at almost all times, displayed a liking for desultory warfare, and when all other causes of quarrel have failed, they have made a pastime of battle. They contemn danger and have no fear of death. No peasantry in the world make better soldiers than the Irish, or are more easily reconciled to the toils and perils of a soldier's life. Accustomed from infancy to the severest hardship and toil, campaigning seems almost a luxury to them. Their spirit never flags, their gaiety and good humour never desert them. All history bears testimony to the impetuous bravery of the Irish soldiers. Less persevering than the English or Scotch, they are far more enthusiastic and impulsive. Their onsets are furious-'swift as thought and fatal as flame.' Disciplined or undisciplined, they are ever the same: their impetuous nature gives them a power, which, when acting in numbers, proves almost irresistible.

Greatly deficient in all kinds of arms and ammunition, the peasantry resorted to the pike,-one of the most formidable defensive weapons which has ever been invented, and as effective now as in the days of the Macedonian phalanx. In the use of this weapon the Irish were exceedingly expert, shortening it at one time to little more than a dagger's length, and then darting it out to its full extent with amazing rapidity. By means of this formidable weapon alone, they were enabled occasionally to repel the attacks of heavy cavalry, and often of the regular infantry. They always succeeded with it against the yeomanry in their pitched battles. They could only be effectually broken by artillery or a heavy fire of musketry.

On the night of the 23rd of May, all the mail coaches throughout the kingdom were stopt and destroyed. This was the signal for a general rising. The peasantry of Kildare were the first in the field. Their noble leader was now no more; but they were headed by Mr. Aylmer, a young man of good family, and of great courage and enterprize. The counties of Wexford and Wicklow were generally up about the same time; and those of Carlow, Meath, Down, Derry, and Antrim, were preparing to rise.

A general and almost simultaneous attack was first made upon the military positions throughout the country. In most cases the peasantry were repulsed with loss; but they succeeded at Dunboyne and Barretstown, where the military were unable to resist them. The city of Dublin was in a state of great alarm on the night of the 23rd, when an attack was expected, the insurgents collecting in two large bodies-one on the north, about Swords and Santry, and another on the south under the Rathfarnham mountains. The night passed without attack, and on the following day Lord Roden, at the head of his infuriate body of yeomen, the "Foxhunters," supported by a detachment of light infantry, marched rapidly upon the Santry men, surprised the body that had collected and put many of them to the sword. Several prisoners were made, which, together with some of the dead bodies of those who had fallen, were carried back to Dublin as trophies of the victory. The carcases, all gashed and gory, were laid out in the castle yard, in full view of the Secretary's windows-one of the most frightful spectacles that ever disgraced a royal residence; the prisoners taken in the encounter were hanged from the lamp irons in the principal streets and on the bridges. The Royalists had now tasted blood and their appetite was whetted for more. Martial law was more enforced. Suspected persons were seized and hanged without so much as the form of trial. The most hideous deeds of the French Revolution were now more than rivalled by men of rank and influence, bearing the King's commission, and wielding the powers and authorities of the government.

The war advanced rapidly with varying success. Sometimes the peasantry succeeded, as at Prosperous, where they took the town and put the entire garrison to the sword, and at Balleyellis, where a body of Royalists were put completely to the rout by the Irish pikemen under Father Taafe and Joseph Holt, one of the rebel leaders. On other occasions, the King's troops were successful, as at Naas and Kilcullen, where Lord Gosford completely routed and dispersed the insurgent force. No prisoners were taken: they were all put to death-hanged or sabred on the spot. In these engagements the Royalists lost many men, and several officers; for, on all occasions, the peasantry fought with desperate courage and intrepidity.

The affair at Balleyellis is worthy of a passing notice, resembling, as it did, engagements at other places, where the Irish fought in ambuscades, and were almost invariably successful. Had they confined themselves to this guerilla kind of warfare, and avoided pitched battles, they would soon have destroyed the local bodies of Royalists, and wearied out the regular troops. But they concentrated their forces, and, without generals, without discipline, without arms and artillery, they openly encountered the Royal armies, and were on most occasions defeated with great slaughter. The success of the peasantry at Ballyellis, was mainly due to the well-concerted plan