carry arms, but soldiers enlisted into the French service. It was still a painful thing to be stripped of the means of defence at the time continual depredations are carrying on. Lord Tyrawly's magnificent house (Deal Castle) has been made a complete wreck; the very stairs and flooring are torn up. All our security seems to rest in the presence of the commandant (Monsieur Charost), a man of temper and discretion, who does me the honour to place confidence in me. He has gone so far as to impart to me an order he has received from General Humbert, to bury all the powder left here, amounting to two hundred and eighty barrels, containing one hundred pounds each. They are in my court-yard, and quite sufficient to blow up the whole town, which was near happening the other day, by the kitchen chimney taking fire; but providentially the wind blew in a contrary direction to the powder, and it was put out after giving us a hearty fright.

4th. I greatly fear we shall shortly lose the protection of M. Charost, as an officer is just come in with the news that my son Arthur has been discharged by the French general, with liberty to return home, so that the commandant will probably join his countrymen. He is so good as to say, if I choose to bring my family to Castlebar, I may go under his protection. But, alas! how can I move such a family without horse or carriage? No, here I will remain, as it is the will of God. 5th. Another night has passed without disturbance from the mob, so that we begin to think things will not go amiss, till some civil rule is established here, as they say there is in Castlebar. The principal employment I have at present is endeavouring to hide the gunpowder, lest it should be fired by some mischance. The hole in the garden would hold the greatest part, but we are in doubts of its remaining there long concealed. What I most fear is, that in case of an insurrection, I might be compelled by the mob to discover it; for, although they have arms, they have no ammunition. A secret expedition was sent against Sligo last night, which is said to be defenceless, the military having marched to join the army at Athlone. It consists of the Irish levies, under an old French officer, a droll fellow, who said, in my hearing, to the commandant: "Do you know what I would do with those Irish devils, if I had a body to form out of them? I would pick out one-third of them, and, by the Lord! I would shoot the rest." The same officer, the other day, remarking the religious zeal of the Irish Catholics, said to myself: "God help those simpletons. If they knew how little we care about the Pope, or his religion, they would not be so hot in expecting help from us."- "We have just sent Mr. Pope away from Italy, and who knows but that we may find him in this country?" A poor opinion they have of our poor countrymen. The commandant messes with our family, together with two other officers, one an Irishman, called O'Kean, who it seems was formerly a parish priest in France, but, since the revolution, has betaken himself to the trade of arms. I have just returned from establishing, by the desire of the commandant, a kind of police for the protection of the town and environs. We have luckily one substantial tradesman, who is a Roman Catholic and a man of sense, who is to be justice of the peace, with two Roman Catholic assistants, having power to call on the commandant for a guard to enforce their authority.

6th. This day has passed like the preceding, with the exception of no small danger from one Toby Flanigan, a drunken, daring fellow, who kept an alehouse in this town, and was a prisoner in Castlebar for treason. This man gave himself out to be a major in the Irish army, lived at free quarters like an officer, and rode about the town armed, sending all he chose to prison, by virtue of authority derived only from himself. Word came to us, when we were at dinner, that Mr. Goodwin had been sent to prison by Major Flanigan, without a shadow of reason, and that he must remain in durance, unless the commandant would interpose his authority. Colonel Charost went away immediately to Mr. Manison's house, where this fellow was making a riot, asked him his authority to commit any man to prison, and commanded him to go and discharge the prisoner. Flanigan answered saucily, that he would not let him go till morning, let who would order it. The Irish General Bellew was for letting Flanigan have his way, but the commandant stood firm, took his horse and arms from him, and is determined never to trust him with them again. I am glad of this, for the fellow seems to have marked me out as his personal

enemy.

7th.-News this morning that the French are pursued by a force of twenty-one

thousand English, which, after recovering Castlebar, are in full march to attack the French before they can reach Sligo. Report says that Lord Cornwallis commands the troops in person. Now is our moment of danger. The Roman Catholics here are mad with apprehension from the Protestants, on whom they have the greatest mind to fall, and pillage, if not murder. I now think we are in real danger.

8th. Our dismal suspense still continues. Not a syllable of news has reached us from either army, only that a report runs that we have experienced another check at Colloony, on the banks of a river about four miles from Sligo. The French have given out all the arms they brought with them (five thousand stand), and the peasants are now clamorous for iron to forge pikes, with which they say they can do more execution than with the French fusils. I shall be more in fear than ever of those banditti, if they fabricate such arms. We have four French officers now with

us, one of whom-a tall Norman, about six feet high-stuns me with vain-glorious boasts of his exploits. He says that he took Newport with his own hand, and fought singly against four English troopers.

A new grievance must soon fall upon this town; the commandant has just informed me that he must make a requisition of money, as he has expended what he had of his own in the public service, and has no resource but in a forced loan from the inhabitants. He has sent me a letter to translate, politely inviting the citizen magistrate to instruct the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood to shew by their contributions their zeal for the glorious cause. "Some have come forward already," says the letter, "with money ;" and he doubts not but many will follow the good example. An exact registry is to be kept of the names and sums subscribed, and the French government ask it only as a loan. What can we do? If the commandant decamps we shall have nothing left the day after. The citizens seem ready to produce fifty guineas. I must borrow or coin the fifth part, at least, of this sum, for I have no cash at all of my own.

9th.-Sunday calls us poor prisoners to prayers in the house, where we make a considerable congregation. But the inhabitants of the town, the richest of whom are all Protestants, have no place of worship at all. The commandant has been obliged to go to Ballina this day, to discharge a number of prisoners, taken up on no other pretext than that of being Orangemen; and as he takes one officer with him, we are to be under the protection of the tall Norman, which is the less satisfactory, as there is generally a crowd in the town of a Sunday. The Catholics ventured to use our bell this morning, to call them to prayers in Mr. Morrison's house, a Protestant merchant. After prayers, we listened to an account brought by Mr. Marshall (a Presbyterian minister), that the people of Sligo had attacked the French and driven them from their town, on Thursday last. They went off towards the county of Leitrim, and it was supposed they would push on to Enniskillen, if not met by our army. A priest has brought another account: that three large ships had appeared off Westport and landed some troops. They were Spanish, French, or English, according to the different wishes of the reporters. But it seems probable they are English frigates, come to the relief of Lord Altamount's family, his lady being daughter to Lord Howe. We count it a mercy that our invaders are French rather than Spaniards, which last would have seconded the intolerance of the rebels against the Protestants. The thing to be dreaded by us is, that if the French push on to some great distance and are defeated, the Irish may fall on us long before our own government could afford us any assistance. The commandant is gone to Ballina, leaving, as a security for his return, thirty guineas (part of the contribution) in our hands, and we shall have news this evening when he returns. We do not know what is become of poor Arthur; whether he has been left at Castlebar, or carried on by the French.

The commandant returned at five o'clock this evening, after discharging above sixty people, confined for being Orangemen. A woman from Castlebar reports that she saw Arthur at large in Castlebar, and that he had got a horse to return home, and had travelled alone about seven miles, but had returned on hearing that a body of pikemen were on the road, marching to that town.

10th. I have been busy this morning with the commandant, forming a plan for preventing the exorbitant waste of provisions by the marauders, who would soon strip the country, if not checked by authority. Our town-major (O'Donnel) is to

inform the civil magistrate what fresh meat is wanting for the troops. He is to issue a requisition for the quantity wanting, sending out a guard to take so much only from the farmers. Any other person caught driving in or killing any beasts, without a written order from the magistrate, is to be shot. Tolerable obedience is shewn to the magistrate and town-major, so that we hope to repose soon in safety. There is no news to-day from either army, only that it seems certain that the French have been obliged to turn away from Sligo, and have taken the road to Manor Hamilton, where, if ever they arrive, they will stand a chance of being defeated. The country round about Sligo has been so stripped of provisions and inhabitants, that a party sent there were forced to return after two days, without being able to get food, or even fire to dress what they took with them. Some cowardly people from Ballina came galloping in this evening, with news that the English had taken that town, and might be expected here immediately. All became confusion and uproar. In a moment a crowd came to my gate, to demand ammunition to go out and beat them back, under their new town-major, who, notwithstanding his vaunted bravery, shewed his evident trepidation. A French officer was despatched to ascertain the truth, and in the meantime the commandant, with some difficulty, got the people to compose themselves. The officer returned about ten, with a certain account that all was quiet as usual at Ballina; yet the murmurs about ammunition continued so long, that the commandant and his officers thought it prudent to remain up all night.

11th. This day closes the third week of our captivity. What can Lord Cornwallis be doing? We know no more of what is going on in the rest of Ireland than if we were in Calcutta. Four English frigates, cruising in our seas, serve to inform us that some notice has been taken by our government of the arrival of the French; but those frigates make no attempt at hostilities, although fired on by the Irish, when landing to get water. A great crowd of clowns came in this day, armed with pikes, to offer their services to the commandant. They mustered seven hundred and fifty men, great population in this part of the country to afford such numbers after the French had distributed arms to upwards of 5,500. Such of them as came without pike-handles compelled me to give up three ash trees, and forced my carpenters to work for them. They marched off in the evening, to the great satisfaction of the French officers and ourselves.

12th. I was groaning in bed this morning, with a sharp fit of the rheumatism, and counting up the persons now under my roof (who are seventy-eight in number), when a faithful domestic of Castlereagh* came to tell me, that all endeavours to protect that house had proved ineffectual, for that yesterday, at noon, a mob broke in and demolished every thing that was valuable, except the wine, which he had concealed; but as there was no chance of its remaining long so, he thought it best that the commandant should take it. Accordingly, as we were preparing to send for it, another messenger comes from Mr. Bourke's, Summerhill, with news that he was threatened with pillage and murder, and begging for a guard and ammunition. My only remaining horse was despatched to Castlereagh, with a French officer, for the wine; another officer, with my son Edwin, was sent to Summerhill, who returned in the evening.

13th.-More depredations are announced this morning. Sir Roger Palmer's house at Castle Lacker has been destroyed. Something must have happened to the French arms, for an express arrived last night from Ballina, and was sent back, in all the rain and darkness. Almost immediately the countenances of our gaolers fell, and they still seem very dejected.

A prisoner has been just brought in, and I am sent for to his examination. It is Mr. Fortescue, member for the county of Louth (the late Lord Clermont), and brother to the clergyman who lost his life at Ballina. He was taken coming to look after his brother, and has been sent here to be tried for a spy. After his examination the commandant took me aside, and gave me a further proof of his confidence in my honour, by trusting me with a sight of two letters, announcing the capture of the whole French army, near the iron mines, county Leitrim, together with the defeat and dispersion of their Irish allies, on Saturday last; and mentioned that the

*The mansion of the Knox family.

French general and his officers were prisoners, and on their road to Dublin. Mr. Fortescue further says, that, as far as he could learn, two bodies of troops were on the road to relieve us.

14th. The work of devastation still continues. I fear when our friends arrive they will find this country a second Vendée. It is shocking to see families accustomed to ease and affluence arriving here with nothing left but the clothes on their backs, as was the case with Sir J. Palmer's agent, Mr. Waldron, whose losses amount to £4,000. We have not as yet learnt what way the pikemen have bent their course. Nixon and Ponson are gone to Ballina, to see how matters go on there.

15th. They returned yesterday evening, bringing with them a great treat to us, a Dublin Evening Post. It luckily contains the whole report of the Lords, concerning the United Irishmen, but we were surprised that you were still without intelligence of what passed between our fleet and the French in the Mediterranean.

Here the bishop's diary ends abruptly.

CHAPTER XXVI.

REVIEW OF THE WESTERN INSURRECTION-PARTIAL OUTBREAKS-THEIR SUPPRESSION-DESCENT ON RUTLAND ISLAND.

THE excessive caution with which Lord Cornwallis directed the movements of the royal army-and the singular fact, that the presence of a small body of republican troops, not superior in number to an English regiment at its full establishment, attended by an undisciplined and inefficient mob of armed peasants, could hold a footing for three weeks in a country occupied by 100,000 armed men, at the time gave rise to much criticism and inquiry. Lord Cornwallis held a high military reputation-he had ample means to crush a handful of invaders he was admitted to be an intelligent statesman-and the necessity of extinguishing the flame of rebellion, so suddenly and unexpectedly rekindled, was strikingly apparent to him; and yet, against a body which the wing of a militia regiment had checked at Colooney, he moved thirty thousand men, with all the deliberation and attention to tactique that might have been expected, had the whole of the French troops destined for the invasion of Ireland been actually disembarked and in the field. If the Fabian system of his movements were questioned at that day, were it examined at the present, certain condemnation must ensue. At the zenith of the insurrection, a Peninsular division, with one of Wellington's lieutenants, would have crossed the kingdom from St. George's Channel to the Atlantic-and the wonder now is, that the military array of Ireland did not crush the rebellion in its rising outbreak.

But on a calm investigation of the political and military state of the kingdom, much will appear to account for the partial successes of the insurgents in the commencement, as well as the caution evinced by the commander-in-chief at the close of the rebellion. The number of the troops in the country was imposing, but their composition was any thing but satisfactory, or such as would warrant reliance to be placed upon them as an army in the field. The regular troops were disciplined according to exploded systems-their movements crippled by obsolete evolutions the inferior officers were inexperienced the superior ones, either wedded to antiquated notions of military science, from which the slightest deviation would have been heresy in their sight, or men unduly elevated to rank to which, professionally, they could advance no claim, and, like that unhappy court attaché, Walpole, more likely to commit ruinous mistakes through the arrogance allied to ignorance, than the old-school commander, whose moves were made selon la règle, and with all the precision of a chess-player.

To the next arm of the military body, the militia, the same defects, but in a much more extensive degree, might be imputed. Serving for