Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAP. XLV.

State of Dublin-Cornwallis viceroy-Executious at Wexford-Grogan, Harvey, &c.-Fate of PerryBill of amnesty-Capitulation of leaders-O'Connor's pamphlet―Prosecutions- Banditti - Devastations of the rebellion-Compensations to suffering loyalists-Estimate of loss to the kingdom-Depravation of morals-Frauds in claims of compensationEmbarrassment of clergymen-Neglect of the French government-Arrangement of Cornwallis-Killala's narrative.

ITH the final dispersion of the Wexfordian in- CHAP.

[ocr errors]

Dublin

surgents the rebellion was terminated, and this had XLV. been but local. The whole kingdom had remained state of quiet, except the counties mentioned, and a small part 1798. of the county of Cork. In the last the few insurgents had been quickly suppressed, defeated at Ballynascarty, on the nineteenth of June, by colonel Sir Hugh O'Reily. All this time the capital, vigilantly guarded by a large military force, had enjoyed a peace not otherwise interrupted than by alarms of plots within and hostilities without. The chief part of this force *. VOL. II. consisted

G g

XLV.

CHAP. Consisted of its own citizens, formed into yeomen companies, whose conduct on this occasion merits much applause. The grand and royal canals, fifty feet broad and twelve deep, formed a defence round the city, in the nature of a wet ditch, the numerous bridges of which, fortified with palisades, were constantly guarded by yeomen. Trials and executions had early commenced. Among the executed were Henry and John Sheares, John Mac-Cann, who had been secretary to the provincial committee of Leinster, and Michael William Byrne, delegate from the county committee of Wicklow. Oliver Bond was condemned, but reprieved, as a judicious and necessary system of mercy was adopted after the arrival of a new chief governor.

Cornwallis

viceroy.

That a viceroy of military talents, of political 1798. knowledge and activity, vested with strong powers, had not been sent sooner into this kingdom, where a widely extended insurrection had been so long known to have been planned, seems an unaccountable conduct in the British cabinet. The consequence might have been fatal if the insurgents had been well conducted, and supplied with arms and ammunition from France. As if to make atonement for past inattention, one of the fittest persons was at length appointed to this most important office, the marquis Cornwallis, who had eminently displayed talents of a general and statesman; not less when inevitably overcome in America, than when victorious in the East. His earlier appointment might have saved the loss of some thousand lives, and of immense property. His

activity

XLV.

activity and wisdom, his easiness of access and at- CHAP. tention to business, displayed a new phenomenon, where the viceroyalty had been generally a sinecure, and the viceroy a pageant of state. His administration commenced on the twentieth of June, when he entered the metropolis in a very modest manner, from which lord Camden departed in a kind of triumphal parade.

Executions

1798.

His arrival could not immediately change the system. Trials, by court-martial, and executions in at Wexford. the usual manner, proceeded at Wexford, immediately after its surrendry, and several men suffered as leaders of rebellion. The bridge was the scene of execution, as it had been of massacre. The bodies after death by hanging, were commonly stripped, treated with indignity, and thrown into the river, and their heads placed aloft on spikes on the court-house. Philip Roche, a man of rough and boisterous demeanour, but humane, courageous, and seemingly of a military genius by nature, might with more regular troops and better arms have performed much. He seemed to have latterly despaired of success, and thence to have indulged almost perpetual intoxication. As his character has been foully misrepresented, I suspect that the actions of another priest, named Roche, who is said to have preached unchristian doctrines, have been through mistake attributed to him. Since many surviving protestants owed their lives to his exertions, his fate was secretly regretted; and that he had been treated with more decency previously to his execution, might

[blocks in formation]

XLV.

CHAP. be wished for the honour of the military character. Captain Mathew Keugh, a protestant, who had been formerly an officer in the royal service, made an excellent defence, which was then of no avail. He had been in great danger among the rebels, from whom he had unfortunately for himself accepted a commission, and had been signally serviceable in prevailing on them to evacuate the town.

Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey and Cornelius Grogan, protestants also, suffered together. The latter, possessed of an estate of eight thousands pounds a year, and of much accumulated wealth, had unfortunately been made a prisoner by the insurgents, who nominated him a commissary. Enfeebled with age, the gout, and a timid spirit, he had been as unable to execute a commission as to reject the title. He was seized at his house by the soldiery, which, with all his effects, was consigned to plunder. His great wealth might have been a strong temptation, and I am decidedly of opinion that of rebellion he was perfectly innocent. Such is the consistency of human nature, that this timid man met his fate with heroic fortitude, while Harvey, who in duels had displayed an intrepid spirit, shewed symptoms of fear at his execution. Harvey, not fortunate in his private connexions, had in some respects borne an amiable character, particularly that of a most humane landlord; a character every where valuable, in Ireland scarce. He had been carried by the tide of theoric politics into the system of United Irishmen; but I have good reason to believe that he was

determined

СНАР.

determined to renounce it previously to the insurrection. This was prevented by unfortunate circum- XLV. stances. He was imprisoned in Wexford; and, at the evacuation of that town by the royal army, would have been massacred in the jail by some cowardly soldiers, if their design had not been frustrated by the courage and conduct of the jailor, Joseph Gladwin, a man of generous fortitude and humanity, who advised him to attempt, in conjunction with himself, an escape to Duncannon, to the protection of the general commanding that post. The fear of assassination by disorderly troops operated, with other incidents, unhappily to frustrate this salutary counsel. On the surrendry of Wexford, he retired to his mansion of Bargy Castle, under confi, dence of lord Kingsborough's capitulation; but, on intelligence of its failure, he fled to a cave in the Saltee islands, where John Henry Colclough, from similar motives, had in vain taken refuge before, The estates of Grogan and Harvey were afterwards confiscated by an act of the Irish parliament, though the court-martial, which condemned them, was irregular, as its members were unsworn,

Many protestants lamented the fate of Colclough, a catholic of the most liberal sentiments and active benevolence. Conspicuous for courage and humanity were two other catholics, Esmond Kyan and John Kelly. The head of the latter, who had led the rebel column into Ross, was treated after execution with an indignity highly dishonorable to the actors. As these had been leaders, their humane

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »