314 Ch. 38. 1798 Apprehension of the Sheares. BETRAYAL OF THE CONSPIRATORS. the desperate outlaw, who would shrink from no deed of cruelty or blood, in his warfare against social order. His life being already forfeited for treason, the death which he provoked was little better than suicide; and, had he survived, his last act would have consigned him to the doom of a felon. Several other prisoners were made at the same time, in every case from information supplied by spies, who had procured admittance to the counsels of the conspirators. Two brothers, named Sheares, members of the Irish bar, and foremost leaders of the rebellion, were, in this manner, betrayed to the Government. Among their papers was found the draft of a proclamation, framed after the French fashion, denouncing death and confiscation against all their opponents. This paper was to have been promulgated on the day of the insurrection, which had been fixed for the 21st of May, the day following that on which the Sheares were arrested. The insurrection was to have commenced by the stoppage of the mails; Dublin was to have been the centre of action; and arrangements were completed for the seizure simultaneously of the Castle, the arsenal at Chapelizod, the magazine in the Phoenix Park, and the camp in the neighbourhood of the city. The houses of the principal persons were to be attacked, and the leading members of the Government were to have been put to death." a Lord Grenville to Marquis of Buckingham, May 25th, 1798. -Courts and Cabinets of George III., vol. ii. p. 394. A PARTIAL RISING. 315 Ch. 38. 1798 By this timely discovery, the capital was saved from massacre and pillage, and possibly from a temporary occupation by the insurgents. But the plans of the rebels, though seriously disconcerted, were not defeated. A partial rising took place on the appointed day throughout the island, and though the rebels were generally repulsed, yet, in some instances, the loyalists were overpowered, and horrible atrocities were perpetrated. One Dr. Esmonde. party, headed by Dr. Esmonde, a man of family and fortune, surprised a detachment of militia, at a place called Prosperous, seventeen miles from Dublin, and burnt the barracks in which they were quartered, murdering the men who escaped from the flames. Esmonde himself, at the time, held a commission in a corps of yeomanry; and, on the day following the attack on Prosperous, dined at the mess of his regiment. He was, however, immediately arrested, and his guilt being clearly proved, he was hanged on the 14th of June. Naas and On the same day, attacks were made by bands Attack on of pikemen on the towns of Naas and Kilcullen; Kilcullen. the first attempt was defeated with great slaughter; but the rebels succeeded in occupying Kilcullen, for a few days. On the 24th of May, martial law was proclaimed; and it may be mentioned, as a proof of the fierce vindictive spirit which actuated the Irish gentry, that when this proclamation was laid before the House of Commons, Colonel Maxwell, afterwards Lord Farnham, rose, in his place, and suggested that the proclamation should be 316 Ch. 38. 1798 MILITARY OUTRAGES. made retrospective, so as to reach the prisoners in custody before the rebellion, and awaiting their trial in due course of law. The terrible powers thus conferred on the military, were abused in the most shocking manner. The first example, in point of time, and the most conspicuous, on account of the rank and innocence of the victim, was that of Sir Edward Crosbie. At two o'clock on the morning after the proclamation, a tumultuous body of insurgents rushed into the town of Carlow. The garrison, consisting of about four hundred and fifty men, being prepared for their reception, they were driven back, routed, put to the sword, or burned in the houses to which they had fled for refuge. Eight houses were destroyed, and many hundreds of lives were taken without the loss of a single soldier. But this was not enough to satiate the fury of the loyalists. It unfortunately happened that the miserable rabble, before entering the town, had paraded in the grounds of Sir Edward Crosbie, who resided at the distance of a mile and a half from Carlow. There was not a tittle of proof that this gentleman was, in any way, connected with the rioters, or that he had invited them to assemble on his lawn, at midnight, preparatory to their lawless proceedings. He had not accompanied them, nor did it appear that he had held any communication with them. But Sir Edward was a friend to Parliamentary Reform, and hostile to the oppression of the tenantry by their landlords. To be friendly EXECUTION OF SIR EDWARD CROSBIE. to the poor and to reform, was presumptive evidence of disaffection; and presumptive evidence of disaffection was sufficient proof of complicity in the rebellion. The day after the attempt on Carlow, several persons were seized, tried by court martial, and hanged for this offence. Among others, Sir Edward Crosbie was dragged before a set of ignorant, bloodthirsty ruffians, who styled themselves a court martial. There was not a particle of evidence which could have had the least weight with a fairly constituted court, though Catholic prisoners had been, by torture and promises of pardon, converted into witnesses against the accused. Numerous loyalists came forward to state, what everybody in the neighbourhood knew, that Sir Edward was a good subject of his Majesty, as well as one of the few humane and accomplished gentlemen that Ireland possessed. But these witnesses were excluded from the place where the proceedings were held by the bayonets of the soldiery. A gentleman of rank and fortune, who thought that Parliament should be reformed, and that squireens should not be permitted to grind and insult the peasantry, was a dangerous member of society, and must be made an example of to deter others. Accordingly, Sir Edward Crosbie was doomed to death by a court-martial, the president of which was an illiterate fellow who could not spell. The sentence was immediately put in execution at the gallows; and the remains of the murdered gentleman were abused in a 317 Ch. 38. 1798 318 Ch 38. 1798 Duff's attack on the Rebels. SURRENDER OF THE REBELS. manner shocking to humanity. Such was the insolent malignity of the faction, in whose power the Government had placed the lives and liberties of the people of Ireland." At one moment, there seemed to have been an opportunity of bringing the rebellion to a close within a week of the first outbreak. General Dundas, having recovered the town of Kilcullen from the insurgents, two thousand of them, posted near the Curragh of Kildare, offered to lay down their arms, on condition of being allowed to return to their homes. This proposal having been accepted, another body of six hundred men offered to come in; but while these last were marching to the place appointed by the general, they were unfortunately met by a detachment of troops. The officer in command, ignorant of the capitulation, attacked the advancing rebels, who immediately fled, and were pursued, with great slaughter, by a corps of yeomanry called Lord Jocelyn's Foxhunters. A timely order from General Dundas, who had foreseen the possibility of such an accident, saved these people from utter extermination. Although the two thousand men, who first came in, had actually given up their arms and dispersed, it was still insisted, by the Orangemen, that the offer to surrender was only a treacherous feint to throw the Government and the military off their guard. With more shew e GORDON'S History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 392. |