could. That he did not do more was the consequence of his situation. The common law of England was not calculated for the Irish meridian. The existence of a country where juries would not convict, where witnesses were afraid to give evidence and magistrates to commit, where laws had no terror, because the general sentiment combined to shield a criminal, had not been allowed for when the Constitution was framed which the connection with Great Britain extended to the Sister Island. Until acts had been perpetrated which no art could conceal or palliate, until the ordinary laws were suspended by open and undisguised rebellion, the Government did but expose itself by interference to defeat in the courts of justice and to reproach for unjust prosecutions; and thus sat spell-bound, while the catastrophe was approaching, surrounded by a ring of traitors, whom only at the last extremity it was able to touch. The Executive Committee were finally disabled by the loss of Lord Edward, the two Sheareses, and Neilson. On them, after the arrest of the 12th of March, the general direction had devolved, and the rebel bodies in the capital and the provinces were left to their local chiefs. The last act of the central authority had been to fix the day for the game to begin. The match had been lighted, and the explosion was certain. How serious it might now be, the result only could show. Dublin at least was secured. "If there is a rising in the city," Lord Camden wrote, on the 21st, "the insurgents will be annihilated." 1 1 "To Portland, May 21."-S. P. O. BOOK X. CHAPTER I. THE REBELLION. SECTION I. THE conspiracy of the United Irishmen had departed almost wholly from its original character before it assumed the shape of rebellion. The first lodges had been formed to spread the principles of the French Revolution. The founders of the society were believers in what is now called the religion of humanity. The belief in God they regarded as a worn-out and vanishing superstition, and their dream had been of uniting Catholics and Protestants, to establish a Republic, in which the petty quarrels of the Christian sects would disappear in the light of a more sublime philosophy. The opinions of Tone and MacNeven were alien to the Irish character, and could never gain permanent influence over it. The Catholic of the South and the Presbyterian of the North have this in common that each believes firmly, and even passionately, in the form of Christianity which he professes. The alliance so ardently aimed at proved incapable of realization. The country population of Ulster became, year after year, more and more Orange, the party of insurrec tion more and more Catholic. The Protestant politicians of Dublin and the Northern towns adhered to the cause with as much sincerity as they were capable of feeling. But the Irish politician is usually made of weak material. Belfast was disarmed, Dublin was overawed. The Protestant leaders were in Newgate. The Catholics remained alone in the field. But the Catholics were four fifths of the population, and they were sworn into the confederacy nearly to a man. The patriots of the Parliament had stirred them out of their desponding sleep. Pitt had forced the franchise upon them, that they might help him against the revolution. Powers were immediately after held almost within their grasp which would have made them masters of Ireland, and enabled them, without striking a blow, to undo the Reformation and overthrow the Protestant settlement. The hand had been withdrawn. Protestant ascendency was again riveted upon their necks. But the fierce Irish spirit, which had lain asleep since Aghrim, was awake again; and whatever became of his republican Protestant allies, the Catholic Celt intended to try conclusions with sword and pike before he would consent to sink down once more into his bondage. The Irish are the most unchanging people on the globe. The phenomena of 1641 were repeating themselves. In 1641 Puritans and Catholics had combined to demand political concessions. In 1641 they found themselves ill-yoked and ill-mated, and the unnatural coalition was dissolved. The plot for the rising of Sir Phelim O'Neil was identical, even in minute particulars, with Lord Edward's plan for 1798. the latter, as in the former, the rising was to be simultaneous throughout the island. Dublin Castle was to be surprised, the Privy Council were to be killed or captured. In both instances the intention of massacre was disavowed, but in both it was rendered inevitable by reports ingeniously spread that the Protestants meditated the destruction of the Catholics. In both there was a settled purpose of eliminating the Protestants out of the country. In both was evidenced the infernal element which lies concealed in the Irish nature, and the vindictive ferocity to which it will descend. In this only there was a difference between the two periods, that in 1798 there was no surprise. Lord Clare understood Ireland too well to mistake the effect which the conciliation policy of Pitt must produce. He knew that it must end at last in demands which could not be conceded, and that rebellion was then certain. He had watched the conspiracy step by step. He was aware of the coming explosion, and all had been done that the circumstances would allow to limit the extent of its destructiveness. Numerically, and on paper, the troops in the island might have seemed sufficient. Of one kind or another the Government had under its command nearly 40,000 men, but they were of doubtful quality. Of British regiments there were scarcely any, the Ancient Britonsa Welsh Fencible regiment, under Sir Watkin Wynn-a Durham regiment, and a regiment or two of Scotch militia, being nearly the whole. The Irish militia, eighteen thousand strong, were all Catholics, and the utmost uncertainty was felt as to their probable conduct. The rest were Irish Yeomanry, most of them, though not all, well-dis posed, but untrained as soldiers, and no better than armed volunteers. The Orangemen Lord Camden was still afraid to employ. But taking the men as they were, his force disposable for service was not in proportion to the apparent numbers. A large part of the army was required in the North. Several thousand men were kept in and about Dublin. Quiet could only be secured in Belfast, Cork, Limerick, and Galway by garrisons of overpowering strength. The regiments who were employed by Lake in the disarmament were scattered in sections over Leinster and Munster, many miles apart. For better security, and to prevent combinations, the companies had been broken up. Each party consisted of a score or two of men from one regiment, as many from another, and perhaps as many more dragoons. They were more like divisions of police than parts of an army; and being thus split in handfuls, with some seditious elements less or greater in every detachment, they were dangerously liable to be overwhelmed. United Irelanders had enlisted in the Yeomanry with the purpose of betraying them. To surprise these parties separately, by simultaneous attacks in overpowering force, and destroy them before they could recombine, was the rebel plan for the opening of the campaign. The Irish are credited for passionate impetuosity of temperament. Nothing is more remarkable in the present instance than the cool, deliberate treachery of their proceedings. The neighborhood of Dublin was relied on to prevent any of the troops in the environs from going to the assistance of their comrades in the city. An illustration of their position may be seen in an account of the garrison at Rathcool, a town ten miles distant, on the Southwestern |