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most to 6 or 7000 men, was attacked and totally defeated at Ballynahinch. A party of the rebels also were repulsed at. Carrick-fergus; and, in a short time, the generality of the insurgents laid down their arms, and the tranquillity of the province of Ulster was restored.

The state of Ireland was, at this period, the grand topic of debate in both the English and Irish houses of parliament. At an early period of the session, the Earl of Moira, whose property, influence, and popularity, were very great, renewed a motion formerly made by him, for an address to the king respecting the situation of Ireland. He said, that he had unavailingly " called the attention of the house last year to the state of that country, and had in vain predicted the consequences which the system of government established there must inevitably produce. The necessity of interposition was now become more urgent. All confidence, all security, were taken away. No one could say who would be the next victim of the oppression and cruelty which he saw others endure. The greatest and most wanton barbarities had been committed; but he wished, from prudential motives, to draw a veil over these aggravated enormities. He entreated the house to take into serious consideration the tendency of the present measures, which, instead of removing discontents, had increased the number of the discontented. The moment of conciliation was not yet past; but if the system were not changed, he feared that Ireland would be lost to this country for ever."

BOOK III. they were performing a duty to heaven. Murphy, one of the most popular and profligate of CRAP. III, this class, in a sermon delivered by him after the defeat at Ross, declared, "that those who were killed in that battle had fallen in consequence of their want of faith; that this general rising of the catholics was visibly the work of the Almighty, who had determined that the heretics, after having reigned so many years, should be now extirpated, and the true catholic religion established." At the successful attack at Three-Rocks, previous to the surrender of Wexford, the same Murphy marched at their head, telling them "not to fear, for, if they took up the dust from the reads, and threw it at the king's troops, they would fall dead before them." Many of the priests pretended to give charms to prevent the balls of the soldiery from doing hurt; and Father Roche, one of the number, did (as was believed by these poor credulous wretches) constantly catch the bullets that came from his majesty's army in his hand. Such were the base materials with which the rash and presumptuous leaders of this rebellion hoped to construct, in the room of the existing government, a pure and perfect fabric of uncontaminated democracy! Certainly, a more crude, wild, and visionary project, never entered into the head or heart of man. It must not, however, be supposed, that the higher descriptions of catholics, whether ecclesiastical or civil, were in any degree implicated in this atrocious revolt, and much less that they approved of the mode of conducting it. On the contrary, the whole body of the catholic prelacy, comprehending the twenty-two titular bishops and archbishops, with the Lords Fingal, Southwell, Gormanstown, and Kenmare, Sir Edward Bellew, Sir Thomas Burk, &c. &c., signed and published a paper, containing a very strong dissuasive from joining in the rebellion, and exhortation to all who were concerned in it to return to their allegiance, declaring, "that, by refusing to relinquish the treasonable plans in which they are engaged, they will not only subject themselves to the loss of life and property, but throw on the religion, of which they profess to be advocates, the most indelible

stain.

After the great defeat at Enniscorthy, the rebels were never able to rally, or to appear again in any considerable force in the southern parts of the kingdom. In the north, where General Nugent commanded, the insurrection became general throughout the counties of Down and Antrim. The town of Antrim was, for a short time, in the possession of the rebels; but they were, on the 7th of June, driven out of that place, after a sharp engagement and cannonade. In this action Lord O'Neil received a dangerous wound, of which he afterwards died. On the 12th of the same month, their main force, amounting at

66

Though this benevolent motion was opposed by Lord Grenville, in the house of peers, yet the af fairs of Ireland became so truly alarming, as to force themselves on the notice of parliament before the termination of the session. The Earl of Moira once more drew the attention of the house, March 26, by stating, " that he had the affidavits of a hundred persons in his possession, to prove that torture had been employed in forcing con fessions from individuals, against themselves and against their neighbours; that horrible devastations had been made on the houses and property of persons accused of disaffection. The deponents were ready to come forward at the bar of the house with their testimonies; but he wished to avoid whatever might tend to exasperate; he should therefore content himself with placing his affidavits in the hands of the noble lord on the wool-sack."

When Ireland became a scene of carnage and horror, the Duke of Leinster delivered a speech, June 15, during which he appeared to be very much agitated; and at the close of it he moved an address to his majesty, humbly requesting, "that his majesty would deign to direct the proper officer to lay before this house a full and ample statement of the facts and circumstances which

"A

had led to the disastrous affairs of Ireland, and of the measures which had hitherto been pursued for the purpose of averting such momentous evils: that, however alarming the discontents now prevailing in the sister kingdom were, we should not despair; but that the result of such discussion would enable us to assist his majesty, according to our constitutional duty, with some well-adapted remedy, such as might restore, in that distracted part of the British empire, confidence in the laws by the due administration of them, obedience to his majesty's government by a temperate use of its powers, and union amongst all descriptions of persons in that kingdom." This motion, though ably supported by the most distinguished members of the house, was finally rejected by a majority of 33; but a strong protest was signed by the dissentient peers.

Lord George Cavendish, in the house of commons, on the same day introduced a series of admirable resolutions relative to the distracted state of Ireland, and was ably supported by Lord John Russell; but these were destined to share the same fate as the motion of the Earl of Moira in the upper house. This nobleman, while in Ireland, moved, in the Irish house of peers, on the 19th of February, an address to the lord-lieutenant, beseeching his excellency" to pursue such con"to pursue such conciliatory measures as might allay the apprehensions, and extinguish the discontents unhappily prevalent in the country." The Lord Chancellor Fitzgibbon, afterwards Earl of Clare, boldly as serted, "that the system of government had been a system of conciliation; that in no place had the experiment been so fairly tried as in Ireland, and in none had it so completely failed. The object of the United Society of Irishmen was to overthrow the government and dissolve the British He did not justify the proceedings of the Orange-men, but he asserted that they were not enemies to their country. He did not approve the tortures, burnings, assassinations, and murderings, of which the noble lord had spoken; but he was compelled to observe, that when treason and rebellion made it necessary to call out the military, it is not always possible to restrain their resentments."

Though government, in many respects, was regarded as rather severe in its measures respecting Ireland, it must be confessed, that there were many in that country who looked much farther than to a reform in parliament and catholic emancipation. And though no dissatisfaction was expressed at the couduct of Lord Camden, it was deemed proper by the English cabinet, that, in the existing circumstances, Ireland should be placed under the government of a military lordlieutenant, who might, nevertheless, be of a temper less obdurate than the present viceroy; and a happy choice was made in the person of the

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Marquis Cornwallis, who arrived in Dublin on BOOK III. the 20th of June; and under his auspices the general system of government immediately changed CRAP. HI. to that of moderation and lenity. Some severe examples were, however, deemed absolutely necessary; and a special commission was, in a short time, opened in Dublin, for the trial of the prin cipal delinquents. At the bar of this court the brothers, John and Henry Sheares; M'Cau, secretary to the provincial meeting; and O'Byrne, a noted member of the United Association, were all tried, and soon after executed. Mr. Oliver Bond was likewise tried, on the 23d of July, convicted and condemned; and in his fate the other conspirators now began to read and foresee their

own.

By this time the rebellion was apparently quelled; the people were everywhere returning to their allegiance, and delivering up their arms. Their hopes from France had been miserably disappointed, and nothing appeared before their eyes but individual destruction, without having effected any one purpose for which they had associated. In these circumstances, it was intimated on the part of government, that if Mr. Bond would consent to give to administration all the information of which he was possessed, relative to the late conspiracy and rebellion, his sentence might be commuted for that of banishment. This proposition was nobly rejected by Bond, if his information or evidence should endanger the life of any man with whom he was connected. The mercy of government was then extended to all the state prisoners, including O'Connor, Emmet, and M.Nevin; who acceded to the terms offered, on condition they should be at liberty voluntarily to transport themselves to any country not at war with his majesty, and that no further prosecution should be carried on, except against actual murderers, or such rebels as should be hereafter taken in arms. A general amnesty, with a few exceptions, was soon after granted by the chief governor, and confirmed in parliament. The system of moderation and mercy adopted by this respectable nobleman was peculiarly seasonable, and attended with the happiest effects. Most of the rebel corps, who had retreated to the mountainous parts of Wexford and Wicklow, took the benefit of the amnesty, and laid down their arms. Those who still resisted were rather banditti, who confined themselves to nocturnal depredations, than troops in arms against the government. - Contrary to the spirit of moderation lately adopted, a bill was brought into parliament, late in the summer of 1798, for the confiscation of the property of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Bagnal Harvey, and Cornelius Grojan, a man of great estates, who had suffered in this rebellion, and it finally passed into an act. The case of Lord Edward, who had neither been tried nor con

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BOOK III. victed, was justly deemed hard in the extreme. That great ornament of the Irish bar, Mr. Curran, pleaded with consummate eloquence against the bill of attainder, at the bar of the house, when he made use of these memorable expressions: "Often have I, of late years, gone to the dungeon of the captive, but never yet to the grave of the deceased, to receive instructions for his defence: Never have I, till now, been called upon to plead at the trial of the dead! What might, perhaps, have admitted of easy explanation, during the life-time of the accused, must now be for ever buried with him in silence. The present bill convicts where proof is impossible, and punishes where guilt cannot exist; it confiscates the property of the widow, and robs the orphan's cradle. A state must be reduced to the lowest degradation, when it is driven to seek protection in the abandonment of the law, in that melancholy avowal of its weakness and its fears." Notwithstanding France had pledged herself to assist the Irish insurgents, they were left to the fatal consequences of their temerity; and only a trifling portion of that aid, which the directory had promised them in the month of May, reached the coast of Connaught not before the 22d of August, when, lo! only 1100 men left the bay of Killala, and marched for Castlebar, which General Humbert reached on the 27th, being joined by numbers of disaffected Irish, who could scarcely be restrained from the commission of the most dreadful excesses. The real strength, or rather weakness, of the enemy being not as yet ascertained, the British forces were attacked by surprise, and, after a feeble resistance, were obliged to retreat, with the loss of 800 men and ten pieces of cannon. Castlebar instantly surrendered, and the French were very much strength ened by numerous deserters from the different regiments of militia. Cornwallis baving taken the field in person, with a large army, resolved to surround the French, which obliged General Humbert to retreat; and, as that officer from the beginning entertained no hopes of ultimate success, he humanely took a circuitous route, that the natives who had joined him might thus have an opportunity of effecting their escape. On the 8th of September the van-guard of the British army came up with the rear of the French, at Ballinamuck, and, after a short resistance, the French being summoned to lay down their arms, surrendered at discretion.

Another expedition, equally ridiculous, was soon after undertaken by France against Ireland; the squadron then employed consisted of the

Hoche, of eighty guns, and eight frigates, six of the latter being captured by Sir John Borlase Warren, then on the station; the Hoche struck her flag, in which ship was found the celebrated Theobald Wolfe Tone. When brought to Dublin and tried, he most heroically avowed the part which he had acted, and gloried in the treason for which he was condemned. "Into the service of the French republic I originally entered with the view of serving my country. From that motive I have encountered the toils and terrors of the field of battle; I have braved the dangers of the sea, covered with the triumphant fleets of the power I opposed; I have sacrificed my prospects in life; I have courted poverty; I have left my wife unprotected, and my children fatherless. After doing this, for what I thought a good cause, it is but little that I die for it. In such a cause as this success is every thing. I have attempted that in which Washington succeeded, and Kosciusko failed. What awaits me I am aware of, but I scorn to supplicate or to complain. Whatever I have written, spoken, or acted, in relation to this country, and its connection with Great Britain, which I conceived to be the bane of its prosperity, I bere avow; I am now ready to meet the consequence. Having attained a high rank in the French service, I only wish, if the court possesses such a discretionary power, that they will award me the death of a soldier." Being informed, after a long pause, that this was entirely at the option of his excellency, and dreading that there was no probability of success in such an application, he finished his career in prison by an act of suicide. Being justly regarded as the original author, his trial appeared to be the concluding scene of this short but bloody rebellion, in which at least 20,000 lives were lost.

We have already stated that no one in Dublin, during these disturbances, was suffered to be abroad after a certain hour. This consequently occasioned a suspension of public amusements; and, when the theatre was allowed to be open, it was only in the day-time. Many persons in England had also imbibed the dangerous princi ples of French republicanism, and were no doubt ready to join their friends in Ireland, had their endeavors been attended with any promising degree of success. The tumultuous applause which, at this period, certain speeches in Otway's play of " Venice Preserved" excited in London, was the occasion of a temporary prohibition of that tragedy, by the lord-chamberlain-a circumstance not noticed by any modern historian.

1798.

BOOK III. ral, transmitted instructions to General Berthier, to march to the Roman capital. This general CHAP. IV. had collected a body of French troops; and, being joined by a column of Cisalpines, advanced to Ancona. His further progress was retarded for a while by the shows of the Appenines; but on the 10th of February the French army entered Rome, and the castle of St. Angelo, containing the pope and the greater part of his cardinals, surrendered on the first summons.

The inhabitants, freed from restraint by the captivity of their rulers, and encouraged by the presence of the French army, assembled in the Campo Vaccino, the ancient Roman Forum, and at the instigation of two of the nobles, and an advocate of some reputation, planted the tree of liberty in the front of the capitol, proclaimed their independence, and instituted the Roman republic.

A manifesto was issued on the 15th, detailing the reasons that induced them to change the form of their government. Berthier, who had just refused to receive a deputation from his holiness, under pretence that the ancient government no longer existed, announced to the pope, by means of General Cervoni, that the people had resumed the sovereignty. He then entered the city, preceded by the music and grenadiers of his army, and pronounced an harangue, in which he invoked the manes of the Catos, the Pompeys, the Ciceros, and all the great men of antiquity, to attest the solemn scene exhibited in that spot. "The descendants of the Gauls," said he," have come with the olive of peace in their hands, to rebuild the altars of liberty erected by the first Brutus. And you, people of Rome, who have recovered your ancient rights, recollect that blood which flows in your veins; survey these monuments of glory by which you are surrounded; resume your pristine greatness, and emulate the virtues of your ancestors!"

All the splendor and magnificence of which the catholic worship is susceptible were employed to celebrate this memorable victory over the head of its faith; every church in Rome resounded with thanks to the supreme disposer of events, for the glorious revolution that had taken place; and while the dome of St. Peter was illuminated without, fourteen cardinals, dressed in the gorgeous apparel appertaining to functions they were fated soon after to abdicate, presided at a solemn Te Deum within the walls of that superb basilic. The deposed pontiff, exiled from his country, was conveyed, by order of the directory, first to Brainçon, and afterwards to Valence in France.

At the very moment when the French plenipotentiaries at Radstadt were giving the most solemn assurances that their government panted for tranquillity, a war was suddenly declared against Switzerland, the thirteen federal repub

lics of which, after a peace that had lasted for ages, were now condemned to experience all the horrors of the most rancorous hostility. The Swiss, attached from habit and interest to monarchical, were decidedly averse to republican France; and some of the cautons, Berne in particular, had not only refused, during a considerable interval, to recognize the French republic, but had countenanced the assembling of the emigrant army; obliged the French minister to quit Soleure; and notoriously violated the principles of neutrality. Towards the latter end of the year 1797, certain menacing demands had been made by the French directory on the Swiss cantons in general, but for the cause just stated, it was expected that the thunder would spend its rage on Berne; and the Helvetic diet, chiefly at the instance of that state, immediately determined on a levy of 26,000 men, while the armed force of two cantons, under the command of Colonel de Weiss, was sent, on the 14th of January, into the Pays de Vaud, to suppress a popular tumult, which had for its object the establishment of a democratic government. No sooner did the French executive learn that Berne and Friburg had dispatched a body of soldiers, and a train of artillery into the Pays de Vaud, than a division of French troops, which had just returned from Italy, was put in motion; and General Menard sent an aidde-camp to the head-quarters at Yverdun, with an intimation," that the inhabitants of the bailiwick must be permitted to organize a government for themselves; and in case any violence was offered to them, force would be repelled by force." But this officer and his escort, being probably mistaken for an advanced guard, were either killed or wounded, and the minds of both armies became more inflamed against each other.

The Vaudois in the mean time adopted a democratical form of government, and assumed the appellation of the republic of Leman. The can tons of Basle, Zurich, and Soleure, wisely determining to yield to necessity, restored to their subjects all their rights and franchises, and thus insured the continuance of their fidelity; but the senates of Berne and Friburg, imagining themselves still able to maintain their ancient tyranny did not think fit to exhibit an equal degree of condescension. The management of the war being now confided to the French general Brune, he entered the territories of Berne on the 25th of February, and published a proclamation, containing professions but too little attended to in the sequel.

Citizens," said the general," the French sol diers, who penetrate into your valleys, are your friends and brethren; they carry arms for no other purpose than to annihilate than to annihilate tyranny; their sole aim is, to restore that liberty which you cherish.