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males of the military age constitute in European countries a fifth part only of the whole population. He supposes the county of Wexford to contain a thirty-fourth part of the number of people in the whole island: hence we are to infer the number of people in the whole island to be eleven millions and seven hundred and thirty thousand! I know of no rational estimate of the population of Ireland, except that of Chalmers.

In page 370 he plainly insinuates, that all those among the rebels who were above the rank of the vulgar, some of whom he particularizes by name, were guilty of, or consenting to, the massacre of protestants. John Hay, however, who, to the infamy of his memory, murdered a man called Grey Thomas, on Vinegar-hill, was the only Romish gentleman whom I consider, from what I have heard, as guilty of murder, from motives of religious hatred; yet I am informed, that even this murder arose from a private pique in Hay. Some, whose names I have already mentioned, were certainly men of active humanity; and some were never near any scene of massacre at the time of its perpetration. Of this piece of fortune several have since good cause to be glad, since their successful interference to prevent murder might have been brought against them as a proof of their having a command among the rebels, and might have

brought them to the gallows. I know of no religious murders committed at the camps of Three-rocks, Carrickburn, Slyeevekeelter, or Lacken, where men of education and property presided. I know many protestants, whose names I could mention, who were in the hands of the rebels in these camps, none of whom ever heard of any murders of protestants committed in them. The places of butchery were Vinegarhill and Wexford; besides that many murders were committed here and there in the country. Concerning one person mentioned, in the above-quoted page, Jeremiah Fitzhenry, from whom I took a lease of the place where I now reside, I have made a very particular inquiry. Whether he had any command among the rebels, may be a matter of doubt; my opinion is, that he had none; but I have not a shadow of reason to suspect that he was near any place of murder at the time of its commission, or that he ever approved of the perpetration of such acts.† Mr.

Scullabogue lies at the foot of Carrickburn mountain ;. but at the time of the massacre no encampment existed there. + To prevent misconception, I here copy Sir Richard's own words.

"Unwilling to disgust the reader, I will give him a circum"stantial account of but a few of the various cruelties practised "on the victims who were immolated on Vinegar-hill by these "ferocious fanatics; had they been perpetrated by the dregs of "the people, some allowance might have been made for the "force of religious bigotry on the minds of the vulgar herd;

Dd

Thomas Townsend, barrister at law, and member of the last Irish parliament, intimately acquainted with political affairs at Cork, as being counsel to the general, commanding in the southern district, in the time of the rebellion, and resident

"but we have to lament that many persons whose birth, edu"cation, or opulence, raised them far above that description,

were present at, or were consenting to, the perpetration of "these atrocities; for we find that they were constantly in the "rebel camps, where they daily took place, and that they "could have prevented them is unquestionable for no instance "that I could discover ever occurred, that the personal inter"ference, or the written protection of a rebel officer, or one of "their priests, did not save the life of a person destined to "destruction.

"Mr. William Barker, a brewer and a merchant of Ennis"corthy, was a general in the camp. Mr. Patrick Sutton, 66 formerly a merchant, and well educated, held that rank; and "his two sons, one of whom was educated for the bar, were "officers there: one Kelly, an opulent farmer near that town, a rebel officer, who has been hanged: the bloody Luke

Byrne, a malster, and his two sons, in opulent circumstances: "Messrs. Codd and Walsh, shop-keepers, and reputed rich: "Marineth, a farmer, was wealthy; Andrew Farrel was in good "circumstances, and yet he was active in promoting the massa

cres: Jeremiah Fitzhenry, married to John Colclough's sister, "was of the ancient family of the Fitzhenrys, in the county "of Wexford: John Colclough, of a family highly respectable, "who had often represented the county, was well educated, "and in good circumstances, disgraced himself by yielding to "the influence of fanaticism. He was the only papist that E "could learn of his family. Messrs. Garret and William

"Byrne were rebel chieftains, and attended the camps."

*"Francis, Codd, another person, of the same name, was very loyal.” ›

there, positively contradicts, from his own knowledge, the following statement of Sir Richard, contained in No. XI. of his appendix, “The con“spiracy was infinitely more terrific in the city of Cork than in Dublin, because the protestants of the established church, whose destruction was meditated, were much fewer in proportion to the Roman catholics, and the conspirators were better armed and organized, as the vigilance and exertions of the executive power were not so active and vigorous as in the metropolis, the seat of government. There was great disaffection among the popish yeomen, particularly in the Cork legion. Sweeny and Donovan, two leaders in the conspiracy, and Drinnane, continued members of it until they were arrested. Some of them owned to persons who became approvers, that they entered into it merely to obtain arms, and a knowledge of military discipline." Mr. Townsend, among other assertions, affirms in reply, that, "One of the most sudden and diligent searches for arms, which perhaps ever took place, was made at Cork; and such was the prudent rigour with which it had been directed, that even the supernumerary weapons of the yeomanry of the city were all seized, and deposited in proper places; and notwithstanding the suddenness, .extent, and zeal of the search, not above four hundred stand of arms (if the term will apply) could be

he says,

found in that great city; and those were almost entirely fowling-pieces, pistols, swords, and even sword-canes." With respect to the organization, "If the most consistent and credible testimony be unquestioned, the organized sections in the three districts, into which the city was divided, had not proceeded beyond the section No. 83, amounting, in a population computed to be near one hundred thousand, to one thousand and seventy-nine." Of the three men arrested belonging to the Cork legion, which consisted of eight hundred, Sweeny had been expelled a considerable time before his arrest, and had never been again admitted; Donovan, though prosecuted with great acrimony, was acquitted and restored to his place in the legion; and Drinnane was arrested unaccused, and enlarged, without any other examination than what he himself had solicited, from a court of inquiry after his liberation. The most abandoned of all the informers, and they were in general the most degraded, infamous, and sanguinary of mankind, never, to my knowledge, blew the lightest breath of suspicion upon that gentleman."

The chief part of Sir Richard's reply is, that Mr. Townsend's pamphlet is "scouted and condemned by all the loyal citizens of Cork." As I am not acquainted with these citizens, I cannot pretend to judge between the baronet and the lawyer; but I know that Sir R. sometimes

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