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XLII.

CHAP. Co-operate with a third, by whom the castle was to be surprised. The stoppage of the mail coaches, on the northern, western, and southern roads, was to be the signal to the members of the union in other parts of the kingdom to rise in arms. As the whole was known to government, the plot was announced on the twenty-first by a letter to Thomas Fleming, lord mayor of Dublin, from lord Castlereagh the secretary; and on the twentysecond to both houses of parliament, by a message from the chief governor. To prevent its execution, the troops of the line, militia, and yeomanry, were disposed under arms in what were supposed to be the most advantageous positions. But the brave and accomplished Abercrombie had resigned the command, disgusted with an army, which the plans of administration permitted him not to reduce under salutary discipline, and whose licentiousness was completed by living at free quarter.

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Proceedings The new parliament had been assembled this year of parlia- on the ninth of January, and the commons had

ment.

1799.

re-elected Foster, their former speaker. Grattan had, according to his declaration, declined the acceptance of a seat, and the oppositionists had dwindled to a quite inconsiderable number. Yet some unavailing efforts had been made to repress or moderate the system of coercion, and to persuade the adoption of conciliatory measures. To this purpose the earl of Bective had spoken on the fifteenth of January; and on the fifth of March, Sir Laurence Parsons, seconded by lord Caulfield, had made a

XLII.

motion that a committee should be appointed "to CHAP. enquire into the state of the country, and to suggest such measures as were likely to conciliate the popular mind." But when the chief governor's message was received on the twenty-second of May, an address was voted without opposition "to assure his excellency, that the intelligence filled them with horror and indignation, while it raised in them a spirit of determined resolution and energy; that they relied on the vigilance and vigour of his excellency's government, which, they trusted, would continue unabated, until the conspiracy, which so fatally existed, should be utterly dissolved." To present this address in a manner the most solemn, the commons went on foot in procession to the castle, in two files, attended by all the officers of their house, and preceded by the speaker,

VOL. II.

СНАР.

СНА Р.

XLIII.

Commence

rebellion.

1798.

CHAP. XLIII.

Commencement of the rebellion-Surprize of Pros perous-Engagement at Naas and Kilcullen—-Proclamations-Attack of Carlow -Death of Sir Edward Crosbie-Various operations—Surrendry at the Curragh-State of the county of Wexford -Insurrection—Actions at Kilthomas and Oulart Attack of Enniscorthy-Capture of WexfordProceedings at Gorey-Attack of Bunclody-Proceedings at Gorey-Battle of Clough-Attack of Ross-Massacre of Scullabogue-Proceedings of the rebels at Slyeeve-Keelter and Lacken-Their proceedings at Gorey-Conduct at Arklow-Retreat of the garrison—Battle of Arklow-Conduct of Skerrett.

THE prime conductors of the conspiracy were in prison; the metropolis proclaimed as in a state of ment of the insurrection, and so guarded at every post as to prevent a possibility of surprize; the troops throughout the country stationed for like purpose; the companies of yeomen strengthened by the addition of new levies without uniform, called supplementaries; and the system of the Irish union so disorganized, that rebellion seemed to be stifled in its birth. Yet

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XLIII.

so deeply laid had been the plan of insurrection, CHAP. that its fires, though generally extinguished or smothered, could not easily be prevented from partial explosion. The peasants in the districts around the city of Dublin, without leaders, with scarcely any ammunition, or other arms than clumsy pikes and a few guns in bad order, rose at the time appointed, the night of the twenty-third of May, and so far acted on the original scheme as to attempt, by simultaneous onsets, the surprizal of the military posts, and the preclusion of the capital from external succour.

The mail coaches were destroyed in

their progress from Dublin, at a few miles distance, to give notice to their confederates of hostilities commenced; and in that night and the following day several skirmishes had place with small parties of the royal troops, and several towns were attacked near the seat of government. That assassination had not been a part of the original system of the Irish union has been observed in Mr. Plowden's historical view of Ireland. Otherwise murders in families by servants and labourers, previously to the departure of these to their places of assembly, would have been the first acts of the long intended rebellion. Acts enough of this kind were afterwards committed by the ferocity of a mob, or individual malignity.

Surprize of

In all the skirmishes the insurgents were defeated, except at Dunboyne and Barretstown, where small Prosperous. escorts were surprized, of the Reay fencibles at the former, of the Suffolk fencibles at the latter. They were also repulsed in their attempts on the several

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XLIII.

CHA P. towns except Prosperous, a lately improved village in the county of Kildare, intended for a seat of cotton manufactory, seventeen miles from Dublin. Here, on the night of the twenty-third, or morning of the twenty-fourth, about an hour after midnight, the garrison was surprised, the barrack fired, thirtyseven soldiers perished in the flames or by the pikes of the assailants, together with their commander, captain Swayne of the North Cork militia, who is said to have been killed in revenge by one of those men whose houses he had burned. In the severity indeed of military execution this officer is affirmed to have been exceeded by few. Found guilty by a court martial of having conducted this attack, John Esmond, a doctor of physic, a catholic gentleman of large property, first lieutenant in the yeoman troop of Richard Griffith, esquire, was some days after executed. Of an uncommon polish of address, and of an ancient family dignified with the title of baronet, Esmond had been highly respected, but he had been so misled by the prevailing ideas of revolution, as to accept the rank of colonel in the system of united Irishmen. But as if the deprivation of life were not sufficient, a story was invented to blacken his memory, that he had dined with Swayne, and made him drunk, to favour the surprize. That the story is destitute of all foundation I am fully convinced by proofs, and is admitted by Mr. Griffith his captain and prosecutor. Between Swayne and Esmond mutual hatred had subsisted, and not the least intercourse of conviviality.

At

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