time. But the victors, determined to follow up the successful blow they had struck, though they were conscious they could not force the strong and narrow pass of Kilcullen-bridge, took a circuitous route, in which their number was increased to several thousands, and took a position between Kilcullen and Naas, in order to intercept the general in his retreat. In this extremity he resolutely put himself at the head of twenty-seven of the suffolk fencible infantry, with his cavalry in the rear, and boldly marched up to the rebels, by whom the attack was vigorously begun; but who were broken by three destructive and well directed vollies from the infantry; after which the cavalry charged, put them completely to the route, and pursued them with so terrible a slaughter, that their loss is stated to have amounted to about three hundred men. After this decided advantage, the general marched to Naas, in order to concentrate his forces as near as possible to the metropolis, being justly apprehensive that the enemy meditated to make an attack upon it in great force.

About two o'clock on the twenty-third, general Wilford, who commanded at Kildare, received an order from general Dundas to march with his whole force to his assistance at Kilcullen, On leaving the town, he sent orders to captain Wilson at Monastereven, to follow him; and, on his arrival at Kildare, to set fire to the camp equipage lodged there. From the execution of this mandate, however, he was diverted by the solicitations of Mr. O'Reilly, who represented to him the danger of setting fire to the town by such a step. No sooner had the military left the town, than the market bell was rung by the inhabitants as a signal for a general rising; and about two thousand rebels, led by one Roger M'Garry, marched into the town, and seized all the officer's baggage, the camp equipage, and an immense quantity of pikes, fire-arms, &c. which had been surrendered a few days before. Most of the protestant inhabitants, apprehensive of being massacred, fled with precipitation to Naas and Monastereven, leaving behind them their property, which, together with their houses, was destroyed and plundered by the rebels.

Early in the succeeding morning, M'Garry, with about twelve hundred insurgents, marched against Monastereven, the

garrison of which consisted of about one hundred men composed of yeomanry infantry and cavalry. As soon as intelligence was received of the approach of the enemy, the garrison made circuits through the circumjacent country, that the inhabitants might have an opportunity of retreating into the town. During these excursions they met with numerous parties of rebels, hastening to join their leaders, with whom they had frequent skirmishes. In one of these conflicts they liberated a small party of the Ancient Britons, who had been taken prisoners one of their own troop was wounded in the action. About four o'clock in the morning of the twenty-fourth, the garrison was attacked by the rebels, who, however, were re pulsed with slaughter, carrying with them their dead and wounded, though not before they had set fire to the town. Nine loyalists, two of whom were volunteers, were slain.

The neighbourhood of Rathangan, on the twenty-fourth was in a state of insurrection, and the town itself was taken possession of on the twenty-sixth by the rebels. They retained it until the twenty-ninth, when they were dislodged with slaughter by colonel Longfield, with the city of Cork militia, a detachment of dragoons, and two field-pieces.

Of the intended surprise of Carlow, the garrison was apprised, both by an intercepted letter, and by the intelligence of lieutenant Roe, of the North Cork militia, who had seen the peasants assemble in the evening of the 24th of May. The garrison, consisting of a body of the 9th dragoons, the light company of the North Cork militia, under captain Heard, some of the Louth militia, under lieutenant Ogle, the yeomen infantry of Carlow, under captains Burton and Eustace, sir Charles Burton's yeomen cavalry, and about forty volunteers; the whole about four hundred and fifty in number, under the command of colonel Mahone of the 9th dragoons, was judiciously placed at various posts for the reception of the assailants. The plan of assault was ill-contrived or ill-executed. Different parties were appointed to enter the town at different avenues; but only one attempted an entrance; the rest being deterred by the incessant firing of the troops. This body of rebels, amounting to a thousand or fifteen hundred, assembled at the house of sir Edward Crosbie, a mile and a half from Carlow, and

marched into the town about two o'clock in the morning of the 25th of May, with so little precaution as to alarm the garrison at a quarter of a mile's distance, by the discharge of a gun, in the execution of one of their own deserters. Shouting, as they rushed into Tullow-street, with that vain, confidence which is generally followed by disappointment, that the town was their own, they received so destructive a fire from the garrison, that they recoiled and endeavoured to retreat; but finding their flight intercepted, numbers rushed into the houses, where they found a miserable exit, these being immediately set fire to be by the soldiery. About eight houses were consumed in this conflagration, and for some days the roasted remains of the rebels were falling down the chimnies in which they had perished. Their loss is estimated at upwards of four hundred; while not a man was even wounded on the side of the loyalists.

After the defeat, executions commenced as elsewhere in this calamitous period, and about two hundred were in a short time hanged or shot, according to martial law. Among the earliest victims were sir Edward William Crosbie, and one Heydon, a yeoman. The latter is believed to have been the leader of the rebel column; to have conducted them into the town, and on their ill success to have abandoned them. He had certainly in that crisis taken his place as a yeoman, and joined in the slaughter of the assailants.

A pamphlet has since appeared, intitled, "A Narrative of "the Apprehension, Trial, and Execution of sir Edward "William Crosbie, Bart.; in which the Innocence of sir Ed"ward, and the Iniquity of the Proceedings against him are "indubitably and clearly proved."

The tyranny and injustice too frequently exercised by those intrusted with power by the administration in this lamentable struggle was never more fully exemplified than in the proceedings which this publication narrates. Witnesses in favour of sir Edward, though protestants, and well known to be loyal subjects, were forcibly deterred from entering the court by military terror. Tortures and flogging were mercilessly inflicted on Roman catholic prisoners, to compel them to give perjured evidence against him; and they were even promised their own

lives if he should be convicted by their means. Still, notwithstanding these infamous and arbitrary measures, adopted with evident intention to overwhelm an innocent man, no charge could be proved against him; but yet, to the indelible disgrace of those concerned in this iniquitous procedure, he was condemned and executed with circumstances of particular atrocity. The court by which he was tried was moreover irregularly constituted and illegal, being destitute of a judgeadvocate. The sentence was executed at an unusual hour, and so sensible were his judges of their own injustice, that in defiance of a special act of parliament, a copy of the proceedings was refused to his widow and family. After perusing actions such as these, we view with indignation the shameful accounts of atrocities committed by the rebels, written by men who support the proceedings of another party, and basely prostitute their talents to exalt every action of the loyal troops and subjects, however reprehensible their conduct; whilst the proceedings of their opponents are painted with every eppearance of brutal ferocity that rancour and prejudice can suggest.

It is not our intention to specify individually all the atrocities and murders committed by the inferior actors in the rebellion. Many of these were undoubtedly the result of private antipathies; others dictated by the ferocity of ungovernable mobs; and are all of them, perhaps, what would have taken place in similar circumstances amongst the most enlightened and humane people on earth. Of this the revolution in France affords a melancholy example. Popular resentment, once roused, cannot be restrained within due bounds, or directed only against proper objects; and such is the want of subordination in tumultuary assemblies of armed men, that even their leaders are often compelled to yield to the torrent, and to suffer themselves to be hurried away by the impetuous passions of the mass.

Mr. Elliot, going from Carlow, after the repulse of the rebels, to visit his house three miles from town, saw a number of peasants assembled in the road at the end of his avenue. He was advancing without apprehension of danger, when observing two guns levelled at him, he gallopped away and escap

ed both shots. On his returning soon after with a body of yeomen, the peasants fled to places of concealment. When this gentleman, however, quite contrary to their expectations, rested satisfied with dispersing the insurgents, instead of burn. ing their cabins and inflicting on them any severe punishment, as was usual, they returned to their habitations, and continued to remain perfectly quiet instead of being driven by desperation to join the rebel armies.

The Queen's County rebels were to have joined those of the county of Carlow at Graigue-bridge; but having heard that there were two pieces of cannon posted there, they changed their route; and, headed by two leaders of the names of Redmond and Brennan, who had been yeomen, they burned several houses, belonging to protestants, in the village of Ballyckmoi. ler; and attacked the house of the Rev. John Witty, a protestant clergyman, near Arles, about five miles from Carlow; but it was bravely defended by himself and eleven friends, who kept up a constant fire, killed twenty-one rebels, and baffled all their attempts to storm or to burn it. The conflict continued from three till six o'clock in the morning.

On the 30th of May, a number of rebels, headed by one Casey, attacked and burned the charter-school at Castlecarberry, after having plundered all the property of Mr. Sparks, the master, which was considerable. The school had been defended by a party of fencibles till the 24th of May; but when they were withdrawn, Mr. Sparks and his family were obliged to abandon it; and the children took refuge in the Bog of Allen, and in some neighbouring cabins.

On the same day that the charter-school was attacked, a great number of rebels encamped on an island in the bog of Timahoe, and at Mucklin and Drihid; and for some time continued to plunder the houses of protestants, and carried off all the horses and cattle they could find. Government having received intelligence of these proceedings, sent General Champagne, on the 5th of June, to attack the enemy with the following forces a detachment of the Limerick militia, commanded by colonel Gough; the Canal Legion, by lieutenant Williams; the Coolestown Cavalry, by captain Wakely; the Clo