Whigs to conciliate the hostile Parties. Miserable State of Ireland at this Crisis. Troops embarked on board the Dutch Fleet for the In,asion of Ireland. Wretched Policy of the French. Disturbances in Ireland. Town of Cahir ransacked by the Insurgents. Proclamation. New Attempt to conciliate made by the Whig-Party-Ill received by the United Irishmen• Mr. Arthur O'Conn:r. Trial of O'Connor, Binns, &c. Execution of O'Coighly. Destruction of "The Press." Discovery of the grand Conspiracy. Leinster Delegates, and some of the Directory, apprehended. Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Plot for a general Insurrection-Discovered and defeated. The Rebellion breaks out in several Places-Rebels repulsed › at Naas—Take the Town of Prosperous-Defeated at Kilcullen-At Rathfarnham-at Tallagh-hill-At Carlow-At Kildare. Progress of the Rebellion in the South. Cork Militia defeated. Battle of Enniscorthy. Rebels advance and take Wexford. Mr. B. B. Harvey appointed Commander in Chief of the Wexford Rebels. Battle of Ross. Horrid Massacres by the Rebels. Rebels repulsed at Gorey and Newtown Barry. Col. Walpole defeated and killed by the Rebels. Rebels repulsed at Arklow. Battle of Vinegar-hill. Wexford retaken. Execution of Rebels there. Ill Conduct and Cruelty of Rebels. Rebellion in the North Antrim taken by Rebels, and retaken by General Nugent. Battle of Ballinahinch. Lord Cornwallis appointed Lord Lieutenant. Conciliatory Measures. General Amnesty. Trial of I. and H. Sheares, and other Conspirators. Submi sion and voluntary Confession of Arthur O'Connor, and other State-prisoners. Justice and Equity of Lord Cornwallis's Administration. Bill of Attainder. Final Dispersion of the Rebels. Invasion of Ireland by General Humbert. General Lake defeated. Lord Cornwallis advances to attack the French-And defeats them at Balliunamuck. Napper Tandy lands in Ireland-Returns, Defeat of the Grand Expedition for the Invasion by Sir J, B. Warren. Capture, Trial, and Death, of Mr. Theobald Wolfe Tone. Entire Suppression of the Irish Rebellion. Reflections. to England, this island was the constant theatre of bloody and destructive wars between the petty sovereigns, who exercised a precarious, but tyrannical authority over the different provinces; and from that period few and fleeting were the intervals in which the country was not agitated by inveterate and cruel struggles to regain that imaginary independence, which the natives never failed to lament they have had lost. It has been a matter of dispute between the historians of the two countries, whether the sovereignty of Ireland was acquired by Henry II. by conquest or by cession. The dispute is little interesting in itself, L 2 and and is not easy to be determined. Ireland, distracted by intestine divisions and contests, saw a foreign force introduced by one of its native princes, who had been expelled from his sovereignty for his licentiousness and tyranny. Supported by the party of the exiled prince, the English found but a feeble resistance to their arms; and the king of Leinster was reinstated, partly by their assistance, but more by the weakness and disunion of his aversaries. Henry found the road made plain and easy to him by the vaJour and ability of Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, the first adventurer who undertook the restoration of the exiled prince; and the monarch of Ireland was happy to purchase for himself the peaceful enjoyment of his dignity and dominions by a compact; in consequence of which, he was to be invested with all the rights of sovereignty, as the vassal of Henry; for which he consented to do him homage, and to pay, as an acknowledgment of his dependence, a small annual tribute. A certain part of the kingdom was ceded to the English adventurers: this part was governed by the English usages; and an officer of the king of England presided over its government, under the title of lord deputy, while the rest of the country remained under its native princes, and subject to its original (Brehon) laws. Not content with the boundary, which by the first treaty, was as signed them, the English settlers gradually extended their territories, by encroachments and conquests, on their less warlike neighbours; but it was not till the reign of Elizabeth that the country could be said to be completely subjected to the English yoke. In the course of these transactions, however, many of the native Irish were dispossessed of the inheritance of their ancestors; they, consequently, regarded the new settlers as intruders and plunderers insurrections were frequent; and each iusurrection produced new forfeitures: and the causes of animosity were multiplied, in proportion to the efforts which were made for the recovery of their lost rights. At the celebrated period of the reformation, a new cause of disunion was generated from that strong attachment to their ancient religion, which forms a striking feature in the character of the native Irish. The agreement in religious sentiment formed a bond of attachment between such of the English settlers as refused to conform to the religion of the court, and their Irish brethren. National prejudices were forgotten in those of religion. The catholic descendants of the first adventurers now intermixed, more freely than they had done before, with a people whom they had treated as their vassals. Their origin was forgotten; they became naturalized to the soil, to the manners and customs of its inhabitants. The character of protestant, or of papist, formed at length the great line of distinction : these terms were equivalent to those of English and Irish; and even the principal marks to distinguish the alisa from the native. Hence, in every struggle that occurred for the recovery of their national independence, and the property of their ancestors, religion was deeply blended with civil claims; and the re-establishment of the catholic faith was equally an object with the restoration of thei estates. A connexion with the Catholi powers of the continent was a ne cessary effect of this harmony in re A ous sentiment. Thus, when Hugh earl of Tyrone, in the reign of Elizabeth, formed the daring ct of erecting reland into an pendent sovereignty, he was at secretly, and afterwards openly, by Spain. The insurrecdescribed, by a declarathe privy council, as “an versal Irish rebellion, to shake English government."years had scarcely elapsed, a the period in which this rea was suppressed, before it s succeeded by another, more ge, if possible, and more dread The insurrection of 1641 is than in characters of blood, and ed ont for the horror and azement of posterity. Religion was not only a motive, but the avowed pretext of the insurgents. Even the catholics of the pale, the descendants of the first English adventurers, took an active part in the insurrection: and that they acted in concert with the catholic powers oa the continent can scarcely be doubted. The leaders of the rebellion were publicly assisted by money from the papal treasury; and an accredited legate from his holiness occupied a seat in the convention of Kilkenny. On the suppression of this rebellion, the forfeitures were many, and were confirmed by the act of settlement, passed in the reign of Charles II.; these were succeeded by others, which took place after the memo rable stand made by the catholics of Ireland, in favour of a popish moarch, in the year 1690; and while ther religious prejudices continued to be invaded, a large proportion of the natives were deprived of their inheritances; and, to the zeal of bigotry, the sense of supposed injusfice was added, to stimulate the passions of indignation and revenge, and the hope of retaliation. In the Irish, these passions, with respect to what is termed the protestant ascendancy, are hereditary. The protestants are still considered as intruders, who have plundered the natives of their property, and overturned their religious establishment. Many causes have co-operated with this sentiment, to render the lower classes untractable and desperate; and an occasion or excuse has seldom presented itself, without an evident inclination on their parts to throw off the British dominion. The peasantry of Ireland are ignorant, savage, extremely poor, and, we must in candour add, in some measure oppressed. The grazing system, and the monopoly of farms, have precluded many families from a decent and independent subsistence, and reduced them to a precarious and dependent situation. The outrages of the Whiteboys, in the year 1762, and for about ten years succeeding, have been attributed to this circumstance. But when it is remembered, that the exaction of tythes was the alleged plea of the insurgents, and that all of them who suffered were of the Catholic persuasion, we shall not be accused of partiality in saying, that religion must have been at least one of the principal motives. The repeal of Poyning's law, which established the independence of the Irish parliament, and the concession of a free trade, which were granted to the Irish in the year 1782, it was hoped, would have satisfied the inhabitants at large, and would have established the island in peace and prosperity. In that arrangement, however, which was principally effected by L 3 the 166 the protestant interest, the catholics were not invested with the full rights and privileges to which they conceived themselves entitled, though the peral statutes against them were repealed, and though they were placed upon an equal footing with protestants, with respect to the tenure of their landed property.. In a former volume we gave a distinct account of the further concessions which were made to the catholics of Ireland in the year 1793. By that arrangement, they were inves with the same privileges as his majesty's protestant subjects, except only the being eligible to the great offices in the state, about 32 in number, and the right of sitting and voting in both houses of parliament. Whether these few points were worth a contest on either side, it is not our parts to determine. It was said, on the one part, that to admit the Roman catholics to the principal offices of the executive government, and to seats in the legislature, would be to lay the foundation of a revolution not only in the ecclesiastical establishment, but even in the government; that not only the property of the church, but all which was derived from the authority of Great Britain; every thing possessed by the protestants, as the inheritance of their ancestors, would be forfeited. The proceedings of the catholic convention in 1645, and the still more violent and tyrannical acts of the catholic parliament in 1689, were triumphantly referred to, and the inveterate and unsubdued spirit of the Irish papists were alleged as reasons against investing them with too much power. It was answered to these reasons, that the appointment of the executive officers of the state rested entirely with his In the year 1795, earl Fitzwil- Thus were the minds of the Irish peasantry prepared by ancient prejudice, and what they considered as recent injury, for a state of insubordination; and, in such a state of things, it was natural to expect that Ireland should be in some degree affected by the momentous changes A consiwhich were taking place on the continent of Europe. derable faction had existed almost from the first dawn of the French revolution, secretly attached to republican principles, and who impatiently desired a participation of that equal liberty, which they erroneously believed was to be the fruits fruits of the contest in which the Gallic reformers were engaged. Besides these, there were many ambitious and disappointed men, who are ever ready to join the standard of revolt; and there was a still larger body, who saw defects in their constitution, which they persuaded themselves a little virtue and energy in the people would lead the government to reform. The catholics were still the most numerous; and, on that account, the most powerful part of the nation: these it was necessary to conciliate; and the party contrived to implicate their own claims with those of a people, who were to be their principal agents in effecting their de signs. The project of a parliamentary reform, and what they chose to term catholic emancipation, or a full restoration to the catholics of all the privileges of Irish subjects, were the ostensible principles upon which the society, since become so famous under the name of UNITED IRISHMEN, was formed. It was instituted in the year 1791; anda code of laws for its regulation was drawn up by a man as much distinguished by his talents as by his unfortunate and premature death-Mr. Theobald Wolfe Tone. This gentleman was but little indebted to the adventitious circumstances of birth or fortune for his celebrity and influence. He was the son of a tradesman in Dublin: he was educated in Trinity-college, and brought up to the bar. From inclination, and probably from principle, he attached himself to the popular party, and was the leading person in the establishment of the society in question. The constitution of this society evinced much ability and political knowledge; and it certainly was well calculated to effect, not merely its ostensible objects, but even a separation from the British connexion; which, there is reason to think, was meditated by some of the leading members, latterly at last; though it is but just to acquit the great majority of the members of any treasonable design in the first institution of the society. The first and principal article expressed, that "the society was constituted for the purpose of forwarding a brotherhood of affection, a community of rights, and a union of power among Irishmen of every religious persuasion; and thereby to obtain a complete reform in the legislature, founded on the. principles of civil, political, and religious liberty." Each particular society, or division, was originally to consist of thirty-six members, which number was afterwards reduced to twelve. Each of these elected their own treasurer and secretary; and also appointed delegates to what was called the baronial committee: to which function of delegates, by a subsequent regulation, the secretaries succeeded ex officio. And the lower baronial committee consisted of five secretaries, who were invested with the sole direction and superintendence of the five societies which they represented. From each lower baronial committee one member was delegated to an upper baronial committee, which also su perintended all the lower baronial committees within the county or district. One or more delegates from each upper baronial committee formed a county committee; and two or three from each county committee formed the provincial committee. An executive directory was chosen for the whole kingdom by the provincial committees, and consisted of five persons, who were only known to the L4 secretaries |