BOOK X.

BOOK
X.

1798.

May.

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 realisation. The country

population of Ulster became, year after year, more and more Orange, the party of insurrection 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The hand had been withdrawn.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

CHAP.

I.

1798.

May.

BOOK

X.

1798. May.

minute particulars, with Lord Edward's plan for 1798. In 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 Britons-a 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 Yeo

as

manry, most of them, though not all, well-disposed, but untrained as soldiers, and no better than armed volunteers. The Orangemen Lord Camden was still afraid to employ. But taking the men 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 re-combine, 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 neighbourhood 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

CHAP.

I.

1798. May 23.

BOOK

X.

1798. May 23.

at Rathcool, a town ten miles distant, on the Southwestern Road. Captain Ormsby had been stationed there with twenty loyal Armagh militia. Mr. Clinch, a Catholic gentleman in the district, in apparent loyalty had raised a company of local infantry to support him. These men were all traitors. Their intention was to destroy Ormsby and his Protestants on the appointed day, and then march into Dublin, with Clinch at their head. The Catholic corps attended their own chapels. To throw Ormsby the more off his guard, the Rathcool priest addressed them on the 20th of May, the Sunday after Lord Edward's arrest, in two eminently loyal sermons, in Ormsby's presence, although he discovered afterwards that this priest had been the instigator of the plot.

Notice happily had been sent to all the officers in the environs of Dublin to be on the alert. A secret friend told Ormsby what was prepared for him. The corps was paraded and disarmed. Clinch and the priest were sent to Dublin, where the former was a few days later tried and hanged; the latter was transported to Botany Bay. As at Rathcool so everywhere such of the troops as were known to be loyal were marked for destruction; but the warning placed them on the alert; and the people finding the surprise fail, waited for the issue of the expected rising in Dublin. Would Dublin venture to rise?—that was the question. On the night of the 23rd patrols went round the country within a radius of twelve miles to gather arms and warn the people to stay at home. The week preceding, Sir Richard Musgrave had watched the beacon-fires night after night on the 1 Musgrave's History of the Irish Rebellion.