leader, and all was over.* Yet the name of Robert Emmet is still dear among his fellowcountrymen, to whom he really did no practical benefit, while that of the judge, Lord Kilwarden, the murdered victim of men whom Emmet's enthusiasm had roused to rebellion, is forgotten or ignored.† Yet he had long faithfully and humanely served his country throughout a life of toil and usefulness, while Emmet had lived in Ireland a comparatively short time. No real benefit to his countrymen had ever resulted from those brilliant talents, which poets have celebrated and thousands admired. But of these two gifted and ill-fated Irishmen, old and young, the power of a wonderful eloquence, has immortalised the baffled conspirator, while the * "It was but the last wave of the Rebellion of 1798, and originated in the over-heated brain of an amiable and gifted, but most unpractical, enthusiast."-Lecky's Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland. "When Attorney-General, the mildest discharge of his duty had raised enmities against his person, which the duties of chief judge in a criminal court were not likely to diminish."-Wills's Lives of Illustrious Irish men. virtuous life of the worthy judge has been almost unnoticed. Yet both his life and death well merit the admiration of his fellow-countrymen. At the last moment he exclaimed to some friends who eagerly desired the speedy punishment of his murderers, "Let no man suffer for my death, save by the laws of his country. 66 It is remarked by Edmund Spenser that during and before his time Irish poets usually celebrated the lives and deeds of Irish rebels as examples to follow." In this respect, as in some others, the lapse of centuries has made little difference in Ireland, for the poet Moore, who never extolled Lord Kilwarden in verse, wrote beautiful lines upon Robert Emmet * Maxwell's Irish Rebellion. "These Irish bards seldom use to choose for themselves the doings of good men for the arguments of their poems; but whomsoever they find to be most lawless in his doings, most dangerous and desperate in all parts of disobedience and rebellious disposition, him they set up and glorify in their rhymes, him they praise to the people and to young men make an example to follow."-View of Ireland. which are to this day admired in England and popular in Ireland.* Posterity, however, cannot doubt which of these men best deserved the praise and honour of consistent patriotism. This rare quality, so often falsely assumed, was proved by Lord Kilwarden in a long life of arduous public duty nobly discharged. It was only shown by Emmet in attractive theory-in splendid eloquence, and in a heroic death. Yet the talents and fate of the latter are still extolled and lamented, while respecting the former, whose useful life was cut short by wanton murder, Irish posterity remains comparatively silent and uninterested. In reflecting upon these Irish revolts of '98 and 1803, which may be considered one movement, having precisely the same object, and being quelled by similar means, the historical student may instructively compare them with "Oh, breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade, -Moore's Irish Melodies. the previous Jacobite rebellions in Scotland and the north of England during 1715 and '45.* These Scottish and Irish revolts, though so different in their objects, were alike directed against a strong, established Government, and were headed by rash, enthusiastic men. But the British insurgents, striving to restore the banished House of Stuart, though displaying far more valour than the Irish Republicans, were comparatively devoid of that remarkable eloquence which distinguished the latter, and, indeed, invested their fate with an interest and even glory quite undeserved by their previous career. "The whole history of Irish insurrections and Union forms not a parallel but a contrast to the Jacobite conspiracies and the Union between England and Scotland. In Scotland the Tory principles of a few great families, and national pride, united some powerful interests, even in a country where the people were Presbyterian, in favour of a Roman Catholic prince. In Ireland a sense of suffering and deep resentment for the persecution of ages connected the great mass of Catholics with a democratical republic [France], yet reeking with the spoils of a popish establishment."-Lord Holland's Memoirs of the Whig Party, vol. i. p. 105. Shakespeare's account of a famous rebel in Macbeth" Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it "-well describes many "United Irish" leaders. Imprudence, ignorance, both of their fellow-countrymen and of the science of war, together with a dreamy enthusiasm, marked both their conduct and language till the last moment came. Then and not till then were displayed their highest qualities and mental powers. The brave British Jacobites executed in 1715 and '45, despite their self-devotion, and the romantic interest of their cause, aroused little sympathy at their trials, and most, if not all, died without any display of eloquence. The few last words which Walter Scott ascribes to the Highland chief, M'Ivor, are, indeed, worthy of his historical prototypes, Lords Balmerino and Derwentwater, but they evince no oratorical talent.* They are merely the brief expressions of brave men far more fitted to use the sword than either pen or tongue in behalf of political views. The United Irish leaders, except Lord Edward Fitzgerald, * Waverley. |