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OF THE

REBELLION IN IRELAND,
IN THE YEAR 1798, &C.ORK
PUBLIC

CONTAINING

AN IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS

OF

The Irish Revolutionists,

From the Year 1782, till the Suppression of the Rebellion.

WITH AN

APPENDIX

TO ILLUSTRATE SOME FACTS.

By the REV. JAMES GORDON,

RECTOR OF KILLEGNY, IN THE DIOCESE OF FERNS, AND OF CANNAWAY,

IN THE DIOCESE OF CORK.

AUTHOR OF TERRAQUEA OR A NEW SYSTEM OF GEOGRAPHY

AND MODERN HISTORY.

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AN INHABITANT OF THE COUNTY OF WEXFORD.

Truth's would you teach, and save a sinking land,

All fear, none aid you, and few understand.

Pope

London:

Printed by J. D. Dewick, Aldersgate Street,

FOR T. HURST, 32, PATERNOSTER-ROW;

And Sold by C. CHAPPLE, Pall Mall; E. KIRBY, Stafford Street, Bond
Street; J. BOOTH, 14, Duke Street, Portland Place; T. GIBBONS,
Bath; EMERY and ADAMS, and W. SHEPPARD, Bristol;

T. RICHARDS, Plymouth; T. COOMBE Leicester;
and J. DINGLE, Bury.

1803.

115

PREFACE

ORK

How far I may be justifiable in devoting any portion of my time to the writing of a preface, on account of puerile and unfounded objections, I know not precisely, but such may be expected by some readers.

That my history of the rebellion would be an object of reprobation to the irrational zealots of two opposite and mutually hostile parties, who distract this unfortunate island, and that it would be offensive to some individuals independently of party, since truth is odious to the guilty, I was completely aware, and my expectations have been as completely fulfilled. That it should be so much approved by the discerning few, particularly by some who are eminent in literature, was indeed beyond my expectation. Of these, part were prepossessed in its favour, even before they saw it, from the contradictory censures of opposite zealots. Thus a gentleman of great literary knowledge told a friend of mine,

a short time after its publication, that he had not seen my book, but had formed a favourable opinion of on finding that it had given equal and high offence to the violent blockheads on both sides.........

To form a statement of the inconsistent objections made to this little work by counterfeit, and even by some real, but ignorant and unreflecting, loyalists, would be to fill a volume as large as the work itself, with a heterogeneous mass of absurd matter. So far as any consistent meaning can be collected from such a mass, the substance appears to be this, that I have not described all those who, by inclination, or accidental circumstances, were arranged on the side of loyalism, as free from every infirmity of human nature, and endued with every virtue, particularly those of clemency and courage. That I have not depicted all those who, by previous design, or by accident, were found on the opposite side, as destitute of every virtue, and though cowards; yet, by some strange fatality, exposing themselves in such manner to the swords and bullets of the armed saints, as to have been slaughtered in thousands in every encounter; while, among the saints, notwithstanding the intrepid exposure of their persons to the guns and pikes of the immensely more numerous rebels, very few were killed or wounded.

By suppressing all information inconsistent

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