mens could I have given, and could now give, if I should find an adequate inducement for the reading of his quarto again, for that purpose; but I have long been employed in a study vastly more agreeable to me than that of the Irish rebellion; and it is not without painful reluctance that I am at any time drawn from it to this gloomy subject, of which I rid my hands with as much dispatch as possible.

Sir Richard says that I abuse the military and yeomen. I cannot hinder him to use whatever terms he finds most agreeable. I have praised such regiments as I found to deserve it—as the Marquis of Huntley's, and the Prince of Wales's fensibles. I should have most heartily wished that I could with truth have praised all; but most unfortunately for my temporal prosperity, truth has been to me an insurmountable impediment. If I ardently wished the destruction of the British empire, and, among other causes of this destruction, should wish the most wretched discipline of its troops, with the most dishonourable sentiments and ignorance of its officers; or if I courageously preferred my temporal interest to all other considerations, I should boldly, in defiance of the Searcher of Hearts, who sees my thoughts, declare that the army of his Britannic majesty is so perfectly modeled and admirably officered, that it neither requires, nor could admit any improvement. General Needham

could procure addresses enough signed by officers, of their own excellent conduct, and consequently of that of the men under their command. If in a fensible regiment, on the point of being disbanded, some captains should be found who had been tailors and pedlars, and were on their return to these occupations, and some lieutenants who had been common drummers, fifers, and common soldiers, in other regiments, such officers might be extremely happy to gratify a general officer of high interest, by the signature of any declaration, however diametrically opposite to their former frequently repeated oral declarations, well known to hundreds of persons.*

say

Sir Richard says thus: "I am authorised to that the bishop of Ferns, Doctor Cleaver, very much censures Mr. Gordon's history, and "that the magistrates and clergy of the county "of Wexford, and many of the most respectable officers, who campaigned there in the year

1798, unanimously declare that it contains many gross misstatements, and that its ten"dency in general is to palliate the horrors of "the late rebellion." To this objection of his magistrates, clergy, and officers, an answer has been already given in the foregoing part of this pamphlet. The horrors committed by the armed

See Appendix, No. IX.

saints must not be merely palliated; they must be totally concealed: but those committed by the rebels must, if possible, be exaggerated. I can tell his baronetship, however, (and I have at least as good an opportunity as he can have of knowing) that not all the magistrates and clergy of the county of Wexford, nor all the officers who campaigned there, think as he says.

Those whom I have always considered in a superior light, as to intellect and candour, certainly approve of my history. Some avow their approbation. Others to avoid argumentation with the ignorant, with the really or affectedly violent, pretend to such worthy geniuses that they have not read it. And I can assure the mighty man that, if he knew what some of the violent railors against my book expressed concerning his understanding before the publication of his quarto, and afterwards concerning his mode of compilation, he would be extremely unwilling to admit their opinion as a criterion of merit. Many pretend to disapprove of my book far more than they really do, as to rail against it is the popular* cant, in some particular places among the grossly ignorant, who pretend to judge of it without having seen it.

The baronet has a Good God! (is this the taking of a sacred name in vain ?) at any miti

gating truth being told concering Father Roche. The baronet has no idea of such folly as barren veracity concerning a dead rebel. He thinks that something of a different nature in favour of living heroes is more prudent. The hero of Vinegar-Hill is alive to thank him at the very least. I believe the best apology that can be made for him is, that he was used as a tool by general Lake. If so, it was a high compliment from one general to another. Of this I shall say more in another publication. Of the battle of WhiteHeaps, where there was no battle, or rather of Ballygullen, where there was a something of the kind, my account was received from several officers engaged in the affair, not indeed from General Needham. My account of this, as well as of other actions with which colonel Bainbridge had been acquainted, I shewed in manuscript to him, and he said it was accurate, but too short. The fact of the lateness of a certain †

Sir Richard has given in his pamphlet an instance of Roche's humanity in the protection sent to the Rev. Samuel Francis. Oh, fie! to be betrayed into such acknowledgement in favour of a monster! Roche, however, is now acknowledged, by some in this country who before denied it, to have been humane. It will be acknowledged by all, when the system of terror shall have ceased to exist.

+ The objection of too short has been made to my account of any particular transaction, generally by persons concerned in that transaction. If I had gratified every individual in pro

hero was admitted by all. Colonel Bainbridge in his letter to Sir Richard says, "I am con"vinced there were not above thirty rebels

killed," where Sir Richard states the number of the slain at three hundred. Here is a proof, unintentionally produced by Sir Richard himself, of the truth of my assertion in my history, that the number of slain on the side of the rebels was in general vastly exaggerated. Thus the truth of my history will gradually be established, and, as I have been given to expect by the best judges, will triumph in the end. As to the affair of Father Murphy's body, an affair known to many, I shall say nothing here, and shall be extremely glad to see the declaration of Sir Richard's five officers of the Cavan militia. Surely that regiment cannot have contained any tailor, pedlar, or drummer officers,*

I shall, for the present, take leave of my friend Sir Richard. When I first heard of his intention to write from a great collection of authentic documents, I thought it very laubable, and I felt an inclination (and had also some

lixity, my book might have rivalled in bulk the ephemeral production of our literary Don Quixote, the knight of the venal quil.

These officers are to swear, that no officer or soldier of the Ancient British regiment was within a mile of Father Murphy's body when it was burned at Arklow. Such an oath will merit the best commissions. Durham promotion will certainly be proverbial. I should be sorry (for the honour of the North of Ireland) that Cavan promotion should accompany it.

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