390 MANIA FOR CRUELTY. [CHAP. XI. Such are the extremes into which, in times of civil commotion, men suffer themselves to be hurried! it is then only that they are tried, and that they show their disposition-too often appearing very different from what they really are; but these sanguinary sentiments, delivered in the senate, were the natural and necessary result of the system that had been introduced by its rulers. The mind grew habituated to torture out-of-doors, and the ear became familiarized to what the eye beheld; and hence, cruelty was not merely practised, but recommended. Another very remarkable case which occurred was that of the Archbishop of Dublin (Agar). A question arose in the Privy Council respecting these state-prisoners,— whether they should be executed or transported? The majority decided on the latter course; but one of the impediments to this was the Archbishop, whom the Council found very difficult to bring over to the side of mercy, for he insisted on having them all put to death. Feelings of this description are not peculiar to that Archbishop alone-for, unfortunately, it may be observed, that clergymen, when they become politicians, are by far the most violent; and theirs is the worst species of rage, for their profession protects them, and they can indulge their passions without fear, as they are out of the way of danger. formation." Adverse to the religious opinions of the people, he sought to correct them to what in his conscience he believed to be the True Faith. His imagination was overheated, his understanding bewildered; both perhaps occasioned by the violent proceedings that occurred at this period. Another case of penitence I have heard related by Colonel Thompson, whose son was at that time in an English regiment in Ireland. Some prisoners, "rebels," he said, " as they chose to call them," were taken and hung on the arms of a windmill. On turning round the mill, one appeared loosely put up, when the military called out to him to sing God save the King! This so shocked the young soldier, that he could never divest his mind of the painful recollection, and he was so haunted by it, that he left the army, turned methodist, and assigned as a cause, this revolting exhibition. CHAP. XI.] PARLIAMENTARY PROCeedings. 391 Colonel Maxwell's proposition was not generally approved of, and even Lord Castlereagh here interposed, and "implored that his administration might not be branded with the imputation of cruelty; and he besought gentlemen not to press a general and indiscriminate system of unnecessary vengeance!!" The progress from bloodshed to rapine is natural, customary, and almost instantaneous ;-it was found so in Ireland before-it was attempted here again. Hence, in a few weeks after the first suggestion of Mr. John Claudius Beresford, he very gravely rose to submit another, and moved to bring in a bill to confiscate the property of persons convicted of high treason by courts martial. Mr. Isaac Corry said he wished to extend the object, and apply it to persons who held leasehold interests as well as estates in fee. This savoured rather too much of olden times, and it seemed injudicious to revive this short and ancient method of acquiring property in Ireland. Accordingly, Lord Castlereagh once more interfered, and conjured Mr. Beresford not to urge such a measure, as it would be time enough when called for by necessity. Thus the proposal of extermination as well as confiscation was abandoned; but when sentiments such as these could be uttered in Parliament, how could it be expected that a licentious soldiery should act in any other but in the most cruel manner?* Prior indeed to the outbreak on the The following appeared in the Dublin papers :-"A number of inhabitants, many of them very decent persons, were taken up yesterday (the 21st of May) on information or suspicion of being United Irishmen. Several, against whom strong informations were received, underwent whipping to extort confession: in some instances we learn this was attended with the desired effect!!" A dispatch from a military officer to the government, from Naas, on the 24th of May, states, "that three men with green cockades were brought in yesterday, all of whom were hanged in the public streets!". 392 BAD EFFECTS OF SEVERITY. [CHAP. XI 23rd of May, the military in the county of Kildare had proceeded to carry into execution, in the severest way, the orders of the Generals, by burning the peasants' houses in order to procure arms. Thus the innocent and the guilty were confounded together, and on the 21st of May parts of the villages of Maynooth, Kilcock, and Celbridge, were consumed. A Scotch regiment was on free quarters in the latter, and threatened every day to burn the entire place. This conduct is described by an eye-witness; and in Moore's Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald will be found the letters of Lady Louisa Conolly, who then resided at Castletown, close to Celbridge; and in giving the melancholy detail, she states, The peasants say they may as well die with a pike in their hands as be shot at their work in the fields !" These calamities were not peculiar to the county of Kildare, and a relation of mine who resided in the county of Wicklow, (John Blachford,* of Altadore,) who was then in the yeomanry, assured me that on going out one morning from Lord Powerscourt's, where they were stationed, he saw the houses of the peasantry burning in all directions; and in a circuit of eight miles from thence, towards the village of Roundwood, not a human being was to be seen; he found some countrymen shot, and he asked the yeomen why they were killed. The yeomen could assign no reason, but that they had set their houses on fire, and shot them as they were running away! On one occasion, the yeomen had shot two of the country people, and three men of his corps had ill-used an unfortunate female in the neighbourhood; upon which he com* Vol. ii. p. 95-100. + Brother to Mrs. Henry Tighe, authoress of Pysche and other beautiful poems. He was one of the best of the Irish country gentlemen; he was an independent, a humane, and public-spirited character, possessed an accomplished mind, and a classical taste. CHAP. XI.] SIR J. MOORE.—THE INSURRECTION. 393 plained, in very strong terms, to the captain, and insisted on having the offenders made examples of, and punished as they deserved; but the reply he got was remarkable :-" The crime is great; but consider the times, my dear sir;-it would be dangerous to punish the yeomanry!" This was the error throughout. However, a remarkable opinion, very different from this, and worthy of being recorded, was given shortly after by high and unquestionable authority, the gallant and ever-tobe-lamented General Sir John Moore.* He was at this period serving in Ireland, and in the report which he then gave to the Lord Lieutenant on the county of Wicklow, and on the quiet state to which he had brought it towards the end of the year, adds, "That the presence of troops may be necessary for some time longer, but it would be more to check the yeomanry and the Protestants than the people." The insurrection broke out on the 23d of May,† at Kildare, on the 25th at Carlow, on the 26th at Wexford, and on the 29th in the North, in the county of Down; and it may be said to have been suppressed about the end of June, when Government issued a proclamation of pardon. It is to be observed that the West, the province of Connaught, remained comparatively tranquil. In the North, the insurgents did not come forward with the activity that it might be supposed they would have done, when it is considered they had originated and ex * Such effect did these scenes produce on the mind of Sir John Moore, that in a conversation he had upon the subject with Mr. Grattan, he said, "If I were an Irishman, I should be a rebel." + Lord Castlereagh thought very lightly of the disturbances in the South; but when those in the North broke out, he sent for his private secretary, (Mr. Knox) and told him "that heavy business would come on,— that as his health was delicate, he might suffer in consequence, and that he was at liberty to leave him." Mr. Knox did so; the fact was, that he was a humane and merciful man, quite averse to the system pursued by the Government. He resided afterwards for a long time at Mr. Peter La Touche's, at Bellvue, in the county of Wicklow. 394 ACTIONS WITH THE INSURGENTS. [CHAP. XI. tended this insurrection. Numbers had been disarmed, several had been arrested, and others, now finding that a good deal of religious prejudice was prevalent among the insurgents in the South, were disinclined to the cause, and relaxed their efforts; and after two inconsiderable actions on the 9th and 15th of June, at Saintfield and Ballynahinch,* they withdrew from the struggle, and left to their fate the insurgents of the South, whom they had inveigled, and whom Tone and Neilson stated they had reluctantly induced to join the Confederation. The principal actions were those of Prosperous and Kilcullen, in the county of Kildare; Hackettstown, Arklow, in the county of Wicklow; Gorey, New Ross, Vinegar Hill, in the county of Wexford; the storming of Enniscorthy; the capture of the town of Wexford; and the action at Tara Hill, in the county of Meath. Wexford was the only place where the insurgents had a temporary success, and the town remained in their possession for a considerable time. At Carlow and New Ross they were unsuccessful, and at Vinegar Hill they were defeated with very great loss. There were several inconsiderable battles, but few regular engagements. The insurgents fought in general bravely, but without concert or discipline, or any systematic plan of operations. They had no practised generals, and on neither side was any military skill or tactics displayed. Among the insur * General Nugent commanded the troops in the North, and in the month of June he issued a proclamation calling upon the insurgents to lay down their arms, which he concludes in the following sanguinary and savage manner:-"Should the above injunctions not be complied with, Major-General Nugent will proceed to set fire to and totally destroy the town of Killaleagh, Ballynahinch, Saintfield, Killinchy, and every cottage and farm-house in the vicinity of these places, and put every one to the sword who may be found in arms: it behoves all well-affected persons to exert themselves to have these terms complied with, as it is the only opportunity there will be of rescuing themselves and properties from the indiscriminate vengeance of an army necessarily let loose upon them." |