The following calculation of the inhabitants of the County of Wexford, will in a great measure fhew the reader their number, and the proportion of those who were in actual rebellion against the best of kings, and the only conftitution in Europe that affords its fubjects any degree of rational liberty. It will alfo prove, by induction, that the population of Ireland is much lefs than is generally imagined.

A hearthmoney collector, well verfed in calculation, made an exact cenfus of the people in three baronies and a half, fo late as the month of March, 1800; and he included in it the populous town of Wexford. These baronies contain at least one-third of the population of the county, and they were less depopulated than any other parts of it; befides, this calculation has been made fince the rebellion.

I confider the county of Wexford, which is very populous, a good average from which to deduce the number of inhabitants in Ireland, according to the quantity of fquare acres which it contains, in proportion to thofe in the kingdom at large; and I conceive that it is nearly a thirty-fourth part of it. The following table will in a great measure establish the positions which I have made:

Total of the population of Ireland 2,548,958

On the trial of Mr. William Byrne, of Ballymanus, at Wicklow, on the twenty-fourth of July, 1799, it was proved, that he, Perry and Redmond, who were

leaders,

leaders, made a regular muftèr of the rebel army before they marched from Gorey to attack Arklow, and that they amounted to thirty-one thousand. The inhabitants of the county of

Wexford*

The army that attacked Arklow, There were three large rebel camps befides, one at the mountain of Forth, one on Vinegar-hill, one on Car

31,000

69,087

rickbyrne, and allowing 5000

for each,

Allow for fmall rebel pofts

3,000

49,000

20,087

On the fame trial it was proved, that when the rebel army under William Byrne went to burn Tinahely in the night, they ordered fuch of the in-. habitants as were Roman catholicks to put up lights in their houfes, which they did; and none of them, in confequence of it, were burnt, but that all thofe of the protestants were. It was proved also, that father Toole, a prieft, faid mafs near the town, while it was in a state of conflagration.

It is aftonishing how fuccefsful the rebels were in their endeavours to feduce the king's troops, and they never failed to exert themfelves for that purpofe, though they might have been quartered ever fo fhort a time in one place.

Lord Blayney aflured me, that there was a dreadful mutiny in the 4th light brigade of militia under his command, at Ferns, in the month of August, 1798: That he difcovered one morning, that they were to have rifen that night, and to have murdered him and all the proteftant officers and privates in the brigade;

A great number of the rebels in the county of Wexford came not only from the adjacent counties, but even from the metropolis and parts of Munster, Plate II. 6, 7.

brigade; but he seasonably defeated their defign, by fuddenly marching them off to another camp at Scarawalfh-bridge. † It appeared that they had been plentifully fupplied with money, and had a conftant and unremitting intercourfe with a neighbouring prieft, who lord Blaney had the strongest reafon to think was active in feducing them.

The following proofs appeared of the mutinous ftate in which they were, by the examinations of ferjeant Mc. Man, and other foldiers of the Antrim regiment, fworn before Cornelius Wallace and William Moore, efquires, both magiftrates, on the thirteenth of August, 1798; that there was a confpiracy in the 4th light brigade of infantry quartered at Ferns, to murder their officers and all orangemen, and that lord Blaney was to be the first murdered.

By informations fworn before colonel Hugh Clinton, it appeared, that they were to have attacked and formed the camp at Ferns, and then to have proceeded to that of Scarawalsh; and that part of the Clare, Kildare, Queen's county, Antrim, Kilkenny, and Donegal regiments, were engaged in it; and that one Doherty, a foldier in the latter, faid he must go and confult the priest about it.

Patrick Mc. Mahon, of the Clare militia, ftated in his examinations, fworn before William Moore, efquire, the thirteenth of Auguft, 1798, that Murray and Gallagher, privates in the fame regiment, afked him, in the church yard of Ferns, to be sworn to be true to them and their caufe, meaning an infurrection; but added at the fame time, that if he had any understanding of his religion, there would be no occafion to fwear him.

By a court-martial, held at Waterford, the thirteenth of November, 1798, by order of general Johnfon, the mutiny of the 4th light battalion was proved in the cleareft manner: That it was to have taken place the night they marched from Ferns; and that they were to have murdered their officers, and all the orangemen and proteftants of the regiment.

VOL. II.

F

It

Plate II. 8.

It is furprifing how fimilar the rebellions in Ireland have been in their origin and progrefs, and how uniformly deftructive in their effects.

The county of Wexford was defolated in the year 1641; and the houses of the bishop of Ferns and Mr. Ram of Ramsford, were deftroyed as well in the rebellion of that period as in the late one; which appears by an affidavit, fworn by Mr. Ram the twelfth of January, 1641, and lodged in Birmingham

tower.

The rebels, who escaped from our troops after the battle of White-heaps, fled into the county of Kildare, under the command of Garret and William Byrne, Edward Fitzgerald, general Perry, and Kearns, a popish priest, having been induced to join their fellowtraitors there by Michael Reynolds, who being reinforced by them, was encouraged to undertake, what he had long meditated, an attack on the little garrifon of Clonard,§ defended by a few yeomen, commanded by lieutenant Tyrrell, of Kilreny, high fheriff of the county, and of whom I made mention before.

A report having prevailed, that they had this in contemplation, lieutenant Tyrrell acted for fome time on the defenfive. At last, about eleven o'clock on the morning of the eleventh of July, his nephew, Mr. Richard Allen, who was a member of his corps, galloped into the yard, and announced that he had been closely pursued by a large party of rebels, that he narrowly escaped being taken, and that he was fure they were advancing to Clonard.

It unfortunately happened that fome of the guardswere abfent, not having the moft remote fufpicion that the garrifon would be attacked. Lieutenant Tyrrell, notwithstanding his utmost exertions, could mufter but twenty-feven men, three of whom were. his own fons, the eldest not seventeen years old, the youngest but twelve. He had no fooner closed the gate of the court-yard, than the firing began.

See it in Appendix, No. XXI.

Though

Plate I. 6, 7.

Though lieutenant Tyrrell had never acted in any military capacity, the coolness, the skill, the good fense, and energy of mind, which he fhewed in this critical and perilous fituation, would have done honour to a veteran. He ftationed in a turret in the garden, which commanded the road by which the rebels were expected to advance, fix of his corps, including Mr. Allen and his fon, only fifteen years old. After fixing fome other out-pofts, he retired into the barrack, with the main body, of whom he felected the best marksmen, placed them at those windows from which they were most likely to annoy the enemy, and defired them not to fire without taking good aim.

The advanced guard of the rebels, confifting of about three hundred cavalry, approached towards the turret, in a full trot, without apprehending any danger. Their leader, one Farrell, was mortally wounded by the first shot fired by young Mr. Tyrrell; and the main body having been thrown into confufion by a general volley, fled out of the reach of their fire. The rebel infantry then coming up, paffed by the turret under cover of a wall, and part of them having taken poft behind a hedge, maintained a conftant fire on it, but without effect. The remainder joined another party, who came by a crofs road from a different quarter, for their object was to have furrounded the town. They then ftationed a guard on the bridge, to prevent any reinforcement from arriving in that direction. The marksmen from the windows foon difperfed and put to flight that guard, after having killed about a dozen of them. This proved afterwards to be of the utmost confequence to the little garrifon, as it preferved a communication with the western road.

The rebels, difappointed in their attack both on the house and the turret, refolved to make one desperate effort to storm the latter. A party of them having penetrated into the garden, rufhed into the turret. The yeomen ftationed there had the precaution to

F 2

draw