XLIII. Naas. Kilcullen. At Naas and Kilcullen engagements had place in CHAP. the same morning. On the garrison of the former, where lord Gosford commanded, with three hundred Attack of of the Armagh militia and some detachments of cavalry, a surprize was attempted before day, by about a thousand rebels led by one Michael Reynolds but the commander had been apprised by anonymous letters; his troops were under arms; the assailants were quickly repulsed, and pursued with someslaughter; many were taken prisoners and immediately hanged. With much probability many are asserted to have, on this occasion, lost their lives, who had not taken any part in the business. The Action at action at Kilcullen, at seven o'clock, was remarkable only for an early proof of the total unfitness of cavalry for combat with embattled pikemen. Three hundred of the latter were three times furiously charged, without the least impression, by a body of cavalry, consisting of light dragoons and Romney fencibles, who lost two captains and thirty privates by the pikes of the enemy. Yet these victorious pikemen were, a few minutes after, totally routed by twenty-two fencible infantry, led against them by general Dundas. The town was however abandoned, as untenable, by the troops; and the fugitive loyalists, from this and other parts of the country, filled Naas with such a crowd, that the majority of them, from want of house-room, were obliged to remain all night in the street, As hostilities were now openly commenced against Proclamathe king's government, proclamations were issued, 1798, tions. XLIII. CHAP. on the twenty-fourth of May, by general Lake, the successor of Abercrombie, by the lord mayor of Dublin, and by the lord lieutenant. In the first, was notified that the general was determined to exert, in the most summary and vigorous manner, the powers with which he was entrusted, to suppress the rebellion; and that all persons not in military uniform, with exception of magisterial and legislative men, were commanded to remain within their houses from nine o'clock at night till five in the morning. In the second all persons in Dublin, possessing registered arms, were required immediately to furnish exact lists of these; all, who had not registered, to surrender whatever arms and ammunition they possessed; and every house-keeper to fix on the outside of his door a list of the names of all persons resident in his house, distinguishing strangers from those who made actually a part of his family. The third gave notice, that orders were conveyed to all his Majesty's general officers in Ireland to punish according to martial law, by death, or otherwise, as their judgment should approve, all persons, acting, or in any manner assisting, in the rebellion. When, by a message from the chief governor, his proclamation was, on the same day, communicated to the house of commons, a member submitted a question to the wisdom of the house, whether the execution of martial law on the great fomenters of rebellion, then in prison, would not be expedient, that the rebels might no longer derive encouragement from a hope of finding means to effect their rescue. XLIII. rescue. In reply, lord Castlereagh, with dignified hu- CHAP. manity, besought the members, in pathetic terms, not to suffer their zeal so far to outrun their judgment, as to press on his excellency, the lord-lieutenant, a measure of unnecessary vengeance, which would brand his administration with cruelty, and close the door of mercy against repentant rebels. Having voted an address of thanks, and full approbation of his decisive measure, to the chief governor, the house adjourned for a week, on the motion of lord Castlereagh. Attack of Carlow. If a sense of humanity and justice, similar to that of this able senator, had actuated the military1798. officers, to whom a discretionary power was thus dangerously, perhaps unavoidably, delegated, the calamities of the rebellion, at this time in Ireland, would have been far less lamentable. Of the abuse of this power instances were innumerable. One of the earliest, and most atrocious occurred after the attack of Carlow, which took place on the twentyfifth of May, at two o'clock in the morning. The garrison, consisting of four hundred and fifty men, under colonel Mahon of the ninth dragoons, was fully prepared for the enemy's reception, as intelligence had arrived of the hostile design. Different parties of rebels had been directed to assail the town from different quarters at once; but the plan was not executed in concert, so that only one column, which had assembled in front of Sir Edward Crosbie's house, a mile and a half distant, attempted an entrance. Rushing in confusion, with vain confidence XLIII. CHAP. fidence and tumultuous noise, into Tullow-street, the assailants received so destructive a fire, that they recoiled and attempted a retreat; but, finding their flight intercepted, they attempted to take refuge in the houses, where numbers miserably perished, as these were immediately fired by the soldiery. Eighty houses were consumed, and the number of rebels burned and slaughtered, probably fell not short of four hundred, while not a man was even wounded on the side of the loyalists. Other parties, whose approach was too late for co-operation, dispersed without attempting an attack on the town. Death of Sir Edward After the defeat, executions commenced, as elsewhere in this calamitous period, and about two hundred were in a short time put to death by martial law. Among the earliest victims was Sir Edward Crosbie, a gentleman highly accomplished, and sincerely beloved and esteemed by men of cultivated minds for his humanity and other amiable qualities; but offensive to some by frequently expressing his pity for the poor peasantry of Ireland oppressed by enormous rents. As his sentiments were in favour of a reform in parliament, he had been, on no other grounds, denounced by his enemies as a republican. His misfortune, in the present case, consisted in his having been surrounded by the rebels, before he had notice of the insurrection, and thereby prevented from escaping to Carlow. Yet even such escape might not have served him in this perturbed state of things, as he might have been denounced to a licentious soldiery and assassinated, or have undergone the the same kind of trial and execution which he after- CHA P. wards suffered. In the trial of this baronet, protestant loyalists, witnesses in favour of the accused, were forcibly prevented by the bayonets of the military from entering the court. Catholic prisoners had been tortured by repeated floggings to force them to give evidence against him, and appear to have been promised their lives upon no other condition than that of his condemnation. Notwithstanding these, and other violent measures, no charge was proved, of which the members of the court-martial, who sentenced him to death, were so sensible, that, in defiance of an act of parliament, the register of the proceedings was withheld, as a secret, from his wife and family. The court was irregularly constituted and illegal, destitute of a judge-advocate. The execution of the sentence was precipitate, at an unusual hour, and attended with atrocious circumstances not warranted even by the sentence. After he was hanged, his body was abused, his head severed from it, and exposed on a spike. These proceedings, which reflect indelible disgrace on the persons concerned, are detailed in a pamphlet styled, "A Narrative of the Apprehension, Trial, and Execution of Sir Edward-William Crosbie, Baronet." The president of the court was an illiterate man, unable to write the most common words of English without mis-spelling. But what numbers have fallen victims to ignorance in power, whose wrongs have been unnoticed and are unknown! XLIII. The |