cessary in Ireland. Unwilling, therefore, to tarnish his military fame, or risk the loss of humane and manly character by leading troops to scenes of coldblood slaughter and civil desolation; sooner than sanction by his presence proceedings so abhorrent from his nature, he resigned the chief command of the army in Ireland, on the 29th of April, 1798. His departure has, indeed, been a sore misfortune to this unhappy nation; and had any casualty detained him here but one month longer, it would have been providential, for when the insurrection had actually broken out, he could not so well have resigned the command; and his dignified authority would have restrained the soldiery from the horrid excesses they afterwards committed. He was too good and too great a blessing for this ill-fated land to possess at that time; he did all in his power to prevent the woful calamities that followed; his splendid exploits in Egypt have rendered his fame immortal; and his death, though glorious, has left an aching pang in the bosom of every true lover of this distracted country. May the olive-branch which he waved in Ireland be never forgotten among his unfading laurels !

A strong confirmation, if further proof were at all necessary, of the great discrimination of General Abercromby's comprehensive mind, is his marked selection of a dignified character with whom to share his confidence, as second in command, when going on the expedition to Egypt. His choice could not have fallen more judiciously than on Lord Hutchinson, whose brilliant achievements and splendid triumphs have since so largely added to Irish fame, and adorned himself with merited honors. nobleman appears to have rivalled his great friend as well in humanity as glory. Their opinions respecting Ireland strictly coincided. Witness hist

This

lordship's well-known sentiment of "I ABOMINATE THE TORTURE," delivered in the winter of 1798, in the Irish parliament, in the debate on the bill of indemnity, for screening the violent proceedings of the sheriff of the county of Tipperary; and it is happy such sentiment did not deprive him of command. The opposition of the entire Hutchinson family to oppressive measures was conspicuous on this occasion; and their exertions were indefatigable for the maintenance of peace and order throughout the whole of the arduous period of disturbance. They all breathed the same sentiment of benevolence and humanity. The Earl of Donoughmore exerted all his power and influence to throw open the gates of mercy to the wretched people; and his brother, the Hon. Francis Hely Hutchinson, who succeeded Mr. Judkin Fitzgerald as sheriff of the county of Tipperary, was eminent in support of abhorrence of the torture. In short, the affable demeanor, the kind and conciliating manners of this entire family, fascinated the minds of the people, and thus prevented shocking scenes of dreadful devastation, wherever they possessed influence or had command, particularly in the counties of Tipperary, Cork, and Galway, much more effectually than any measures of violence or coercion could ever accomplish. I hope, at a future period, to be enabled to do more justice to the great merits of this family, by faithfully recording their generous actions in Munster in 1798, a task that must be grateful to every lover of humanity, and of Ireland, and those of other celebrated characters, that the limits of my present publication permits me only to glance at.

Immediately on the departure of General Abercromby, the military were sent out at free quarters in the county of Kildare and parts of the counties

of Carlow and Wicklow. What hardships, what calamity, what misery must not the wretched people suffer, on whom were let loose such a body as the soldiery then in Ireland are described to be in the general orders before alluded to of the 26th of April, 1798! They became masters of every house in the country; the real owners were obliged to procure them every necessary they thought proper to demand; and, as their will was then the only lawand a very imperious and tyrannical law it was-the people dare not, except at the risk of their lives, complain of any outrage or brutality of which their savage disposition prompted them to be guilty. The inevitable consequence was, that such horrid acts were perpetrated, such shocking scenes were exhibited, as must rouse the indignation and provoke the abhorrence of all not dead to humane feeling, or not barbarized by unnatural hatred of their fellow-creatures!

At this period of confusion, the first public intimation of disturbance in the county of Wexford was from a meeting of magistrates held at Gorey, on the 28th of November, 1797. There the proclaiming of sixteen parishes out of one hundred and forty-two, of which the county consists, was voted by a majority, of which my information does not afford me the number; but the measure was strongly opposed by eight of the magistrates present, including Lord Mountnorris, who must be naturally supposed to feel substantial reasons for his opposition to have the part of the county proclaimed wherein his property principally lay; and it is to be fairly presumed, (whatever ground may be had by some reflecting people for thinking otherwise,) that his lordship was not influenced, on this occasion at least, by motives of opposition to Lord Ely, his successful rival in the

patronage of the county. Shortly after this meeting at Gorey, I spent some days at Camolin-park, the seat of Lord Mountnorris, while he was soliciting the people from parish to parish to take the oath of allegiance. His lordship requested I would use what influence I might possess with the priests in my neighborhood, to induce them and their flocks to join in this general test of loyalty, in order, as he said, to put the Catholic interest in the county of Wexford on the most respectable footing; suggesting at the same time, that from his "great consequence and influence, his representation of facts must counteract and outweigh the misrepresentations of others." He also showed me the oaths he usually administered on these occasions, and which he stated himself to have improved from time to time by several alterations; he produced one, in particular, which he conceived to be wrought up to the highest perfection of loyalty. Although I agreed with his lordship so far as really to think the county was then in a state of perfect peace and tranquillity, (and therefore thought this overweening parade unnecessary,) yet I never believed him, notwithstanding all his lordship's strong professions to that effect, a sincere friend to Catholics: I was rather strongly of opinion, that he affected a show of concern for their interests at this critical period in mere opposition to the noble lord his competitor for influence.

I therefore took the most civil means in my power of declining the interference to which his lordship would have directed my exertions. Lord Mountnorris, however, was not singular in courting Catholic popularity at that time, for all the newspapers of the day teemed with addresses from the Catholics throughout the island, published, not at the desire or at the expense of the subscribers, but by the political

manœuvrers who took the trouble of procuring them, to answer their private purposes, by playing them off against the schemes of other opponents.

Previous to the spring assizes of 1798, several prisoners were transmitted from Wexford to abide their trials at Wicklow, on the prosecution of an informer, whose real name was Morgan, and who had been transported some years before for robbery, but had returned to the country under the assumed name of Cooper. This miscreant was encouraged by some magistrates of the county of Wicklow, to swear informations against United Irishmen; and this he did most copiously. On producing him, however, at Wicklow, his character appeared so infamous, that the gentlemen of the bar were unreserved in declaring that the baseness of such a nefarious villain reflected not a little on those magistrates that encouraged him to come forward. All the prisoners were consequently acquitted, and it was therefore not deemed expedient to bring him on to prosecute at Wexford, where there were also some prisoners confined on his information.

At this assizes, also, one man of the name of Collins, otherwise M'Quillen, was brought to trial for spreading false news and alarming the country; it was clearly proved, that this man circulated a report of the arrival of the French off Bantry, and that the yeomen or Orangemen (indifferently supposed by the people to be the same) were to march to resist the invasion; and that it was designed by them previously to commit a massacre upon the Catholics of the country. Such implicit belief did the report gain, that every person from Bray to Arklow, between four and five and twenty miles extent, abandoned their habitations and slept in the open fields; and some women were even delivered in that exposed condi