CHAPTER X.

1741-1745.

War on the Continent.-Dr. Lucas.-Primate Stone.
-Battle of Dettingen.-Lally.-Fontenoy.-The
Irish Brigade.

on the sovereign right of the Irish Parliament. This attracted attention and excited alarm; for, "to make any man popular in Ireland," as the primate bitterly remarks, "it is only necessary to set up the Irish against the English interest." Henceforward Dr. Lucas pursued, in his own way, an active career of patriotism, as he understood patriotism: and the reader will hear of him again.

honesty; fully imbued with the opinions of Swift on the rights and wrongs of his country, that is of the English colony. He was even more offensively intolerant than Swift towards the Catholics; but within the sacred limits of the "Pro-testant interest " he supported the principles of freedom; and if he fell very far short of his great model in genius, he perKING GEORGE II., like his predecessor, haps equalled him in courage. Charles felt much more personal interest in Lucas was born in 1713, and his family German politics and the "balance of was of the farming class in Clare county. power" on the Continent, than in any He established himself as an apothecary domestic affairs of the English nation. in Dublin, where he was elected a member He had adhered to the "Pragmatic sanc- of the Common Council. He there found tion," that favourite measure of the abuses to correct. The appointment of Austrian Emperor Charles VI., for se- aldermen had been a privilege usurped by curing the succession of the possessions the board of aldermen, while the right of the House of Austria to the Arch-appertained to the whole corporate body. duchess Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary. Having agitated this subject for a while, On the 20th of October, 1740, the Emperor he grew bolder with his increasing popuCharles died, and all Europe was almost larity, and published some political tracts immediately plunged into general war. King Frederick, styled the Great, was then king of Prussia; and as the Austrian army and finances were then in great disorder, and he could expect no very serious opposition, he suddenly set up his claim to the Austrian duchy of Silesia, and marched an army into it, in pursuance of that usual policy of Prussia, which elaborately prepares and carefully conceals plans of aggression until the moment of putting them in execution, and then makes the stealthy spring of a tiger. France embraced the cause of the Elector of Bavaria and candidate for the imperial throne; sent an army into Germany under Marshal Broglie, and after some successes over the Austrians, caused the elector to be proclaimed emperor at Prague. In April, 1741, King George II., delivered a speech to both Houses of his Parliament, informing them that the Queen of Hungary had made a requisition for the aid of England in asserting her title to the throne, pursuant to the Pragmatic sanction; and thereupon he demanded war supplies. Some honest and uncorrupted members of Parliament protested against this new Continental war; but Sir Robert Walpole still ruled the country with almost absolute sway; and to hold his place he supported the policy of the king. So began that long and bloody war: a war in which Ireland had no concern, save in so far as it was an occasion for larger exactions from the Irish Parliament; and also gave to her exiled sons some further opportunities of meeting their enemies in battle.

It was in 1741 that the famous Dr. Lucas first appeared in the political arena. | He was a man of great energy and

In 1742 the primacy of the Irish Church being vacant, by the Death of Dr. Boulter, Hoadley was the first appointed to the See of Armagh, but was soon after succeeded by that extraordinary prelate, George Stone, bishop of Derry. It had long been Sir Robert Walpole's policy to govern Ireland mainly through the chief of the Irish Established Church, and Stone was a man altogether after his own heart. He was English by birth, and the son of a keeper of a jail; was never remarkable for learning, and his character was the worst possible; but he had qualities which, in the minister's judgment, peculiarly fitted him to hold that wealthy and powerful seethat is to say, he would scruple at no corruption, would revolt at no infamy, to gain adherents "for the court against the nation;" and would make it the single aim of his life to maintain the English interest in Ireland; and this not only by careful distribution of the immense patronage of Government, but by still baser acts. of seduction. Memoirs and satires of that time have made but too notorious the mysteries of his house near Dublin, where wine in profusion and bevies of beautifiul harlots baited the trap to catch the light youth of the metropolis. Primate Stone was a very handsome man, of very dignified presence and demeanour and with such a

man for lord-justice and privy councillor, Queen, allied with England, and Frederick the Duke of Dorset was able to prevent of Prussia, allied with France. The first any dangerous assertion of independence considerable battle after the king took during his viceroyalty. There were, however, continual debates over the question of supplies, the rapidly increased expenses of the public establishments, and the notorious corruption practised by Government.

command was at Dettingen, the 27th of June, 1743. This place is on the Mein or Mayn river, and very near the city of Frankfort. The French were commanded by the Maréchal de Noailles; the allies by King George ostensibly, but really by the Earl of Stair. The day went against the French, and ended in almost a rout of their army, which would have become a total rout but for the exertions of the Count de Lally, then acting as aide-majorgeneral to Noailles. The maréchal himself gives him this very high testimony:

So long as the common interest of the Protestants was kept secure against the mass of the people, all was well; but during the Devonshire administration alarm was taken about that vital point, on account of a bill to reverse an attainder which Lord Clancarty had succeeded in having presented to the Irish Parliament" He three several times rallied the army in during the preceding viceroyalty, and its rout, and saved it in its retreat by his which there seemed to be some danger advice given to the council of war after might be passed. The Clancarty estate, the action."* As this celebrated soldier which would have been restored by this will reappear in the narrative, and espeattainder, was valued at £60,000 per cially on one far greater and more terrible annum; and it was then in the hands of day, it may be well to give some account many new proprietors who had purchassed of him. His father was Sir Gerard Lally under the confiscation titles, and who now, (properly O'Mullally), of Tullindal; and of course, besieged and threatened Parlia- had been one of the defenders of Limerick, ment with their claims and outcries. It and one of those who volunteered for was also found that other persons, whose France with Sarsfield. Sir Gerard belands had been confiscated (unjustly, as came immediately an officer in the French they said they were ready to prove), had service, and his son, the Count Lally, was instituted proceedings for the recovery born at Romans, in Dauphine, when his of certain pieces of land or houses. In father was there in garrison. He first short, there were eighty-seven suits com- mounted a trench at the siege of Barcelona, menced; and the House felt that it was in Spain, when he was twelve years of age, time to set at least that affair at rest. If but already a captain in Dillon's regiment. Papists were to be allowed to disquiet This was in 1714. We next hear of him Protestant possessors by alleging injustice planning a new descent upon some poin and illegality in the proceedings by which of England or Scotland, in order to retrieve they had been despoiled, it was clearly the fortunes of "the Pretender," and had perceived that there would be an end of actually a commission for this purpose the Protestant interest, which, in fact, from King James III. To conceal his reposed upon injustice and illegality from plans, he announced that he was prethe beginning. Therefore, a series of very paring to make a campaign as volunteer violent resolutions was passed by the under his near relative Maréchal de Lascy Commons, denouncing all these proceed- (De Lacy), who then commanded the ings as a disturbance of the public weal, and Russian army against the Turks. Cardinal declaring all those who instituted any such Fleury induced him to lay aside every suits, or acted in them as lawyer or other design and to go to Rnssia, not in a attorney, to be public enemies. It may military but in a civil capacity; in short, be remembered that not only were Catho- as a diplomatist with special mission. As lic barristers debarred from practice, this mission was to endeavour to detach but, by a late act, Catholic solicitors Russia from English alliance, and so too; so that after these resolutions weaken England in the war, he gladly acthere could not be much chance of cepted, for the great object of Lally's life, success in any lawsuit for a Catholic. to the very last, was to strike a mortal Thus the Protestant interest was quieted for that time.

Meanwhile, war was raging over the Continent, and King George II., with his son, the Duke of Cumberland, had gone over to take command of the British and Hanoverian troops, operating on the French frontier, while Central Germany was fiercely debated between the Empress

blow at England in any part of the earth or sea. He did not succeed in his Russian embassy, and left St. Petersburg in a fit of impatience, for which the cardinal rebuked him; then served under Noailles in the Netherlands, who particularly requested him to act as the chief of his staff.

*Letter of Marechal de Noailles, quoted in Biog. Univ., art., Lally.

It is thus we find him at the disastrous which, in this place, runs nearly from battle of Dettingen; but for the repulse south to north. King Louis, with the that day both Lally and the French were young dauphin," not to speak of mistresses, soon to have a choice revenge. After the play-actors, and cookery-apparatus (in battle, a regiment of Irish infantry was waggons innumerable) hastens to be there," created for him, and attached to the Irish says Carlyle.* Tournay was very strongly brigade. The brigade consisted now of fortified, and defended by a Dutch garriseven regiments, and it saw much service son of nine thousand men, and Saxe apthat year and the next under the Count de peared before it with an army of about Saxe, who took the various towns of seventy thousand men. The allies deMenin, Ypres, and Furnes, in the Nether-termined at all hazards to raise the siege, lands, all which the Duke of Cumberland and King George's son, the Duke of Cumendeavoured to prevent without avail, berland, hastened over from England to and without coming to a battle. take command of the allied forces-Eng

In this year, 1744, however, great pre-lish, Dutch, Hanoverian, and Austrianparation was made on both sides for a de-destined for that service. Count Konigcisive campaign. The French army was seck commanded the Austrian quota, increased in the Netherlands, and on the other side the English court had at length prevailed on the States-General of HolÎand to join the alliance against France. In September of that year, the allies, then in camp at Spire, were reinforced by 20,000 Dutch, who were in time enough, unluckily for them, to take a share in the great and crowning battle of Fontenoy.

It might be supposed that the incidents of this famous battle have been sufficiently discussed and described to make them generally known; but in fact, the plain truth of that affair (especially as it affects the Irish engaged) is very difficult to ascertain with precision, and for the very reason that there are so many accounts of it handed down to us by French, Irish, and English authorities, all with different national prejudices and predilections. Reading the usual English accounts of the battle, one is surprised to find in general no mention of Irishmen having been at Fontenoy at all; the English naturally dislike to acknowledge that they owed that mortal disaster in great part to the Irish exiles whom the faithlessness and oppression of their own Government had driven from their homes and filled with the most intense passion of vengeance: the French, with a sentiment of national pride equally natural, wish to appropriate to French soldiers, as far as possible, the honour of one of their proudest victories; but if we read certain enthusiastic Irish narratives of Fontenoy, we might be led to suppose that it was the Irish brigade alone which saved the French army, and ruined the redoubtable column of English and Hanoverians. It is well, then, to endeavour to establish the simple facts by reference to such authorities as are beyond suspicion.

In the end of April, 1745, the Maréchal de Saxe, now famous for his successful sieges in the Netherlands, opened trenches before Tournay, on the Scheldt river,

and the Prince of Waldeck the Dutch. The army was mustered near Brussels on the 4th of May, and thence set forth, sixty thousand strong, for Tournay, passing near the field of Steinkirk-a name remembered in the English army. On Sunday, the 9th of May (new style), the Duke reached the village of Vazon, six or seven miles from Tournay, in a low, undulating country, with some wood and a few streams and peaceable villages. The ground which was to be the field of battle lies all between the Brussels road and the river Scheldt. Tournay lay to the north-west, closely beleagured by the French, and the Maréchal de Saxe, aware of the approach of the allies, had thrown up some works, to bar their line of advance, with strong batteries in the villages of Antoine and Fontenoy, and on the edge of a small wood, called Bois de Barri, which spreads out towards the east, but narrows nearly to a point in the direction of Tourney. In these works, connected by redans and abatis, and mounted with probably a hundred guns, the Maréchal took his position with fifty-five thousand men, leaving part of his force around Tournay and in neighbouring garrisons. Near the point of the wood is a redoubt called "redoubt of Eu," so called from the title of the Norman reigment which occupied it that day. On a hill a little farther within the French lines the king and the dauphin took their post.

And now Saxe only feared that the allies might not venture to assail him in so strong a place; and the old Austrian, Königseck, was strongly of opinion that the attempt ought not to be made; but the Duke of Cumberland and waldeck, the Dutch commander, were of a different

Life of Frederick. Mr. Carlyle, who devotes many pages to a minute account of the battle of Fontenoy, does not seem to have been made aware, in the course of his reading, of the presence of any Irish troops at all on that field.

opinion, and, in short, it was determined to silence the redoubt of Eu, on the edge to go in. Early in the morning of the 11th the dispositions were made. The Dutch and Austrians were on the enemy's left, opposite the French right, and destined to carry St. Antoine and its works: the English and Hanoverians in the centre, with their infantry in front and cavalry in the rear, close by the wood of Barri. The map contained in the "Memoirs of Maréchal Saxe" gives the disposition of the various corps on the French side; and we there find the place of the Irish brigade marked on the left of the French line, but not the extreme left, and nearly opposite the salient point of the wood of Barri. The brigade was not at its full strength; and we know not on what authority Mr. Davis* states that all the the seven regiments were on the ground. There were probably four regiments; certainly three-Clare's, Dillon's, and Lally's-Lord Clare being in chief command. Neither Clare, nor Dillon, nor Lally were Irish by birth, but all were sons of Limerick exiles. Of their troops ranked that day under the green flag, probably not one had fought at Limerick fifty-four years before. They were either the sons of the original Wildgeese," or Irishmen who had migrated since, to fly from the degradation of the penal laws, and seek revenge upon their country's enemies. Judging from the space which the brigade is made to occupy on the map, it appears likely that its effective force at Fontenoy did not exceed five thousand men, or the tenth part of the French army.

of the wood, which seriously incommoded
the English right. Ingoldsby tried, but
could not do it (on which account he under-
went a court-martial in England after-
wards). So the duke had to make his
attack on Fontenoy with the guns of that
redoubt hammering his right flank. The
attack was made, however, and made with
gallantry and persistency, three times, but
completely repulsed each time with con-
siderable loss. Nothing but repulse every-
where-right, left and centre.
But now
the Duke of Cumberland perceived that
between Fontenoy and the wood of Barri,
with its redoubt of Eu, there was a pass-
age practicable, though with great peril
and loss from the crossfire. "Sire," said
Saxe to the king on the evening of that
triumphant day, "I have one fault to
reproach myself with-I ought to have put
one more redoubt between the wood and
Fontenoy; but I thought there was no
general bold enough to hazard a passage
in that place."* In fact, no general ought
to have done so. However, as Carlyle de-
scribes this advance, "His Royal Highness
blazes into resplendent Platt-Deutsch rage,
what we may call spiritual white heat, a
man sans peur at any rate, and pretty much
sans avis-decides that he must and will
be through those lines, if it please God;
that he will not be repulsed at his part of
the attack-not he, for one; but will
plunge through by what gap there is (nine
hundred yards, Voltaire measures it), be-
tween Fentenoy and that redoubt, with
its laggard Ingoldsby, and see what the
French interior is like." In fact, he did
come through the lines and saw the inte-
rior.

He retired for a space, re-arranged his English and Hanoverians in three thin columns, which, in the advance, under heavy fire from both sides, were gradually crowded into one column of great depth, full sixteen thousand strong. They had with them twelve field-pieces-six in front and six in the middle of their lines.§ The column had to pass through a kind of hollow, where they were somewhat sheltered from the fire on each flank, dragging their cannon by hand, and then mounted a rising ground and found themselves nearly_out of direct range from the guns both of Fon

The various attacks ordered by the Duke of Cumberland on the several parts of the French line were made in due form, after some preliminary cannonading. None of them succeeded. The Dutch and Austrians were to have stormed St. Antoine, their right wing at the same time joining hands with the English and Hanoverians opposite Fontenoy. But they found the fire from Antoine too heavy, and, besides, a battery they were not aware of opened upon them from the opposite bank of the Scheldt, and cut them up so effectually that, after two gallant assaults, they were fain to retire to their original position. Of course, the English have complained ever since that it was the Dutch and Austrians who lost them Fontenoy. In the meantime the English and Hanoverians were furiously attacking the village of Fontenoy itself, but had no better success. Before the attack a certain Brigadier-General Ingoldsby had been detached with a Highland Regiment, "Semple's Highlanders," and some other force, battle, by some unaccountable oversight, states it

*Note to his splendid ballad of "Fontenoy."

*Voltaire. Louis XV. His account of the battle

is in general very clear and precise; but Voltaire, both in this work and in his poem of Fontenoy, though he cannot altogether avoid all mention of the Irish troops, takes care to say as little about them as

possible.

+ Life of Frederick.

Davis, both in his ballad and his note on this

at six thousand.
§ Voltaire.