give your support: for unless you please, they "vanish; without your protection these despots "fall-these desolators, that each day refine on "such bloody deeds, would perish, and your

country be free. My brave countrymen! do "not let the world call us dastards: no, let us "shew the world we are men, and, above all, "that we are Irishmen. Let every man among

you feel the injuries your country, yourselves "have suffered; the insults you have received, "the stripes that have been dealt with an un"merciful hand on those brave comrades who "dared to think and feel for their country"If you do, the glorious work will be complete, "and in the union of the citizen and his brave "fellow-soldier, the world (hitherto taught to "look down upon us with contempt) will see "that we can emancipate our country; we will "convince surrounding nations that Irish sol"diers have avowed and adopted a maxim they "will maintain, or perish-namely, that every "man should be a soldier in defence of his liberty, "but none to take away the liberty of others. "*

While every engine of internal opposition against government was put in motion, the Irish directory maintained a constant intercourse with the French, whose aid for the accomplishment of the revolution was earnestly solicited. After several more early communications between the

Appendix to the report, &c. No. 30.

leading members of the union and those of the French government, by the medium of some Irish fugitives at Paris, a formal intimation in 1796, as I have already mentioned, was given by one of those fugitives, supposed to be Theobald Wolfe Tone, that, on a representation of the state affairs, the French directory had come to a resolution to send a force into Ireland, for the purpose of co-operating with that of the conspirators. Acquiescing in this proposal, after an extraordinary meeting for its consideration, the chiefs of the conspiracy sent with this advice a messenger, said to be Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who, accompanied by Arthur O'Connor, went by Hamburgh to Switzerland, where near the French frontier, he met Hoche, the French general, and is thought to have there concerted with him the plan of operation. In the October of the same year an accredited messenger arrived in Ireland from France, announcing the design of invasion with an army of fifteen thousand men, which was attempted near the end of the following December, in the abortive expedition to the bay of Bantry. To solicit the assistance of another armament from France, which had been expected after the failure of the first, a confidential agent, named Lewins, was deputed, who, leaving London in March, 1797, and passing through Hamburgh, arrived about the end of May, in Paris, where

he afterwards remained as the ambassador of the Irish Union to the French directory.

From a fear that a premature insurrection, unaided from abroad, the suppression of which might ruin their scheme, should be forced by the vigorous measures, already related, adopted by government in the province of Ulster-a most confidential member of the directory, Doctor William James M'Nevin, who had acted as the secretary of this ruling committee, was, at the end of June, in the same year, sent with orders to press the French government, with redoubled earnestness for immediate aid. Meeting at Hamburgh with an agent of the French republic, and finding some difficulty in the procuring of a passport, M'Nevin transmitted a memorial by this agent to Paris, where he himself afterwards delivered a second, having obtained permission to proceed on his journey. In the former of these memoirs were made a statement of the condition of the United Irish, and of the kingdom in general, for the recep tion of the French auxiliaries; a promise of reimbursement to the French government of its expences in the emancipation of Ireland, and a demand of a body of troops not exceeding ten thousand men, nor falling short of five thousand, with artillery, ammunition, and arms for the supply of the insurgents. In the latter was adduced every argument which the writer con

ceived, for the hastening of the expedition. A request, which entirely failed, was also made by the Irish negociators, of a loan of half a million, or at least three hundred thousand pounds, from France and Spain, successively, on the security of the ecclesiastical and other lands destined for confiscation by the revolutionists.* The assistance, however, of a military force was conceded, and an army much greater than had been requested, consisting of fifteen thousand men, was embarked for this purpose in a Dutch fleet at the Texel, under the command of General Daendells; but the fear of the British navy, superior in strength, occasioned a sudden debarkation of these troops; and when, contrary to the judgment of its admiral, this armament was obliged to sail, at the instance of the French directory, it was totally defeated on the eleventh of October, 1797, by a squadron of British vessels under the command of Lord Viscount Duncan.

Still after this disappointment, hopes of new succours from France were sedulously encouraged, and the members of the union admonished to be in a state of preparation to receive them. In February, 1798, instructions in detail were issued from the military committee to the adjutant-generals, concerning the modes of preparing for open warfare against government,

* Appendix to the report, &c. No. 31.

and to the several regiments concerning their arms and appointments.-To extend the organization, to augment the military stores, and to add in every way to the strength of the conspiracy, continued to be the immediate object of its partisans till the arrival of their allies; and the system of terror, by nocturnal plundering of arms, individual assassination, and other kinds of outrage, which had been adopted in the north, was put in practice in the south. To give a catalogue of all the particular acts of atrocity which have come within my knowledge, committed on obnoxious persons, would trespass on the reader's patience, and add very little to his information. I shall mention one, as an instance, which happened not many miles from my place of abode. The stacks of corn and the offices of a gentlewoman named Sherwood, near Carnew, in the county of Wicklow, whose family were in the habit of speaking in very intemperate language against the Romanists, were set on fire at once in the night by persons unknown, and wholly consumed, with twenty cows, beside horses and other cattle, the bellowings of which, amid the flames, were truly horrible. The dwelling-house, with its inhabitants, would have probably shared the same fate, if the fire could have communicated to it on the outside, from which it was protected by the slated roof.