CHAP. rare. XLV. the French ment. 1798. The commiffioners acted their part throughout, with dignified integrity; though they could not always escape deception. Neglect of I have fomewhat anticipated in marking the evil govern- confequences of rebellion in the fouth of Ireland. A small part of the claims of compenfation came from the weft, where commotion had been excited by a small invading force. That the government of France was at this time very feebly adminiftered appears from the neglect of attempting to fend af fiftance to the Irish rebels, while they were in ftrength. If, according to the advice of lord Edward Fitzgerald, a number of fwift veffels had been fent to different parts of the coaft with officers, troops, arms, and ammunition, fome of them might have eluded the vigilance of the British cruisers. Such fupplies, what they most of all wanted, might have infpirited the infurgents to dangerous enterprizes. What effects might What effects might thus have been produced we may in fome degree conjecture from the impreffion made on the kingdom by a contemptibly fmall body of French troops, landed after the complete fuppreffion of the rebels, in a part quite remote from the fcene of rebellion, among a people who had not exhibited figns of difaffection, and at a time when, by the unremitting attention of Cornwallis, the minds of the difaffected had been every where conciliated in a confiderable meafure, and the royal troops, who had before too much refembled an armed mob, were reduced into the form of a regular army. XLV. ments for This viceroy had completely planned, and, after CHAP. unavoidable delays from the fituation in which he had found affairs, was on the point of putting into Arrange execution fuch an arrangement of the troops, as to defenfe. enable him to affemble, with great expedition, a respectable force in any part of the kingdom where expediency should require, when intelligence arrived of a French invafion. The chief account of the transactions confequent to that enterprife is a narrative given by Doctor Stock, bishop of Killala, who, with his family, was thirty-two days in the hands of the invaders and their auxiliars. This narrative is valuable and interefting, calculated for the prevention of those errors which, from the want of fuch authentic and impartial documents, are apt to creep into history, and become established by time. It is extremely honourable to the learned prelate, fince it evinces a genuine goodness of heart, and a mind fo cultivated, so candid, so elevated above mean prejudices and the fervile fear of party, as to difcern and publicly acknowlege the virtues of an enemy. curacy is confirmed, if it could require fuch confirmation, by the teftimony of the French officers employed in this expedition, with whom fome gentlemen from Ireland have since converfed in France. CHAP. XLVI. XLVI. French invafion at Killala. 1798. French invafion at Killala--Character of Humbert CHAP, A FRENCH fquadron of three frigates, two of forty-four guns each, and one of thirty-eight, which had failed from Rochelle on the fourth of Auguft, arrived on the twenty-fecond of the fame month in the bay of Killala in the county of Mayo, prevented by contrary winds from reaching the coaft of Donegal, their place of deftination. The troops were immediately debarked, confifting of eleven hundred men, of whom seventy were officers. Humbert, their XLVI. chief commander, had, according to the military CHAP. inftitutions of the French republicans, rifen from the ranks to the dignity of a general officer, had rendered himself confpicuous in fighting against the infurgents of La Vendeé, and had been second in command to general Hoche in the abortive expedition to the bay of Bantry. So illiterate as to be fcarcely able to write his own name, he was. yet an excellent officer; of a fierce demeanour, the effect of art, to extort quick obedience by terror; in the full vigour of life, prompt in decifion, and quick in execution. The garrifon of Killala, only fifty in number, yeomen and fencibles of the Prince of Wales' regiment, fled, after a vain attempt to oppose the entrance of the French vanguard, leaving two of their party dead, and twentyone prifoners, among whom were their officers. To compenfate as far as poffible, by the vigour of his operations for the fmallness of his force, appears to have been an object with the French commander. A detachment, advancing on the following day toward Balliná, feven miles to the fouth of Killala, defeated the picket guards, and took poffeffion of that town on the night of the twenty-fourth, the garrifon of which retired to Foxford, ten miles farther to the fouth. In the defeat of the pickets, the Reverend George Fortefcue, nephew to lord Clermont, and rector of Ballina, who had volunteered, was flain. Though the military arrangements of the viceroy Battle of could not yet be completed, a force more than fuf. Calebar. ficient 1798 XLVI. CHAP ficient in appearance was quickly affembled to the point of attack. With great expedition general Hutchinfon arrived from Galway on the twenty-fifth at Castlebar, where he was joined in the following night by general Lake, the chief commander in the west. The habits of diforder, inveterate in the troops, could not poffibly in two months have been eradicated by Cornwallis. Of this the army here affembled furnished full proof in the whole of their conduct. The gun of a foldier by accident or defign exploded from a window. A cry was raised that a fhot had been fired at the Longford militia, and a tumult was excited which threatened the town with conflagration and maffacre, with great difficulty prevented by the extraordinary exertions of Hutchinfon and other officers. Intelligence foon after arrived of the enemy's approach, and the army was drawn to an advantageous pofition between the town and the advancing French, who appeared at the distance of two miles from Caftlebar, at feven o'clock in the morn ing of the twenty-feventh. With defign to attack this poft as foon as poffible, before the affemblage of more troops at that point, Humbert had moved from Ballina in the morning of the twenty-fixth with the greater part of his army, re. folved to atchieve his utmoft for the excitement of rebellion by an early and deep impreffion. Instead of the road through Foxford, where general Taylor was pofted to obferve his motions, he chofe a way through the mountains, deemed impracticable to an army, and thence unfufpected. He could bring no other |