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CHAP. XI.]

MOVEMENT AGAINST DUBLIN.

395

gents there were numerous cases of individual valour and devoted courage. The persons of distinction who fell on the side of the loyalists were Colonel Walpole and Lord Mountjoy ;-the former lost his life through his own imprudence and want of military skill. The official reports announced the numbers slain :* at Tara there were 400; at Ross, 130; at Stratford on Slany, 200; Kilcullen, 130, no prisoners; Hackettstown, 500; Dunlavin, 300. The proceedings at Wexford were sanguinary and barbarous; in that county, however, the contest was best maintained, owing, in some degree, to the knowledge of fire-arms and a peculiarly long gun which the peasantry used in their sporting excursions.

Although the operations of the insurgents were desultory, and their plans ill-arranged, it so happened that the city of Dublin was nearly surprised and taken by them, and their project was discovered and baffled in the following singular and fortuitous manner :-Two of the chiefs had rode early one morning to a respectable and wealthy farmer in the county of Wexford, in order to induce him to join them. During their conversation they disclosed their plan of advance along the coast to Dublin; except at Arklow, there was scarce any stronghold on the line; the way lay open along the sea, and the march upon Dublin would have been easily accomplished, as the military were mostly in a distant part of the country, and the insurgent force coming from Wexford exceeded 30,000 men. The brother of the person from whom I got the anecdote, happening to be present, concealed himself in the farmer's house, through fear of detection, and overheard the con

* It is not easy to ascertain the numbers that perished. Some writers state the loss during these civil commotions at 20,000 on the Government side, and 50,000 on that of the people. Many were killed who were not insurgents.

396

TINNEHINCH.

[CHAP. XI.

versation. On the departure of the chiefs and their party, he wrote out a statement of the occurrence, secured it inside his shoe, and proceeded with every expedition across the country, till he delivered it to the next military commander. Upon the receipt of this intelligence in Dublin, every possible exertion was made, and every sort of soldier on every sort of vehicle was dispatched from the metropolis. The battle of Arklow, however, arrested the progress of the insurgents, and probably saved the city.

On the return of the military from this expedition, part of them passed Tinnehinch, and halted on the bridge in front of the house. Some of the party proposed to destroy it; the cannon was planted, and they debated whether the house should be blown down; however, they first put it to the vote, and fortunately the majority was against the measure, so the artillery was ordered to pass on. The officer who commanded it, and who related the anecdote, very candidly admitted that he had voted for the proposal.

*

In times of such commotion, generous as well as ignoble actions are to be found on both sides; but it were natural to expect that the former class would have been practised and recommended by the loyalist party, who were better educated and better informed than their opponents, and more capable, therefore, of keeping their passions under control, and able to show a better example. There were some fine traits of character displayed by the insurgents, that are worthy of being mentioned; and among others, by the two Wicklow

*Several years afterwards this individual waited upon Mr. Grattan with an address of congratulation on his escape at an election riot that occurred in Dublin, where he had received some slight injury. So very easy it has been in all times in Ireland for Government to halloo one man and one party against the other, and so much more wise it is to effect their reconciliation.

CHAP. XI.] CONDUCT OF HOLT AND DWYER.

397

chieftains, Holt and Dwyer. The former had made prisoners on one occasion of some soldiers and their wives; he spared their lives, protected their persons, and sent them safe back to their quarters. On another occasion some of his men strongly pressed him to plunder a house in the vicinity where they lay encamped; Holt not only refused, but prevented others from attempting it;* his words were remarkable :"I have been driven," said he, "into this business; my house was burned, and my property destroyed-I may be a rebel, but will never be a robber!" Dwyer was a handsome, intelligent man, and a person of considerable influence among the peasantry; his men having committed some devastation on the woods of a gentleman near Wicklow, Dwyer sent to him requesting an interview; when they met, this person addressed Dwyer, saying, "I suppose you want me to intercede for you with Government. I'll do all I can for you, as I find you have not been sanguinary.” Dwyer said, No!-if I were to get a crown of gold, I would not supplicate for pardon; but I wish to let you know, that the depredations that my men committed on your property were without my knowledge, and shall not occur again." Some time after, they were renewed, when Dwyer seized the men that committed them, sent them off to Government, and they were immediately hanged. Mr. Peter Burrowes was the prosecuting counsel against him, and in addition to these anecdotes, he stated, that when Dwyer was tried, such was the respect entertained for him, that a soldier walked all the way from Cork to Wicklow in order to give evidence in his favour. It appeared that some of

66

*Holt surrendered himself to Lord Powerscourt; through the interest of Mrs. La Touche he was kindly treated and was banished to New South Wales. After many years' absence he returned to Ireland, and set up in business at Kingstown, near Dublin, where he died. His Memoirs are not without some degree of interest.

398 WRIGHT V. SHERIFF FITZGERALD.

[CHAP. XI.

Dwyer's party were going to kill one of his companions, when Dwyer rushed up with his sword drawn, drove back his men, and saved the soldier's life. These traits of humanity preserved him he was sentenced to transportation, but he died on board, previous to the departure of the vessel.

When such noble traits as these are found among the undisciplined, the unlettered, and the middling class of men, how great must be the shame and indignation with which we read the wicked acts of the Government, and of those in authority under them?

Mr. Peter Burrowes,* who was well acquainted with the events of this period, often related the following circumstance. He was professionally called on to advise an action against Judkin Fitzgerald, High Sheriff of the county of Tipperary; he prepared the legal proceedings, and stated that Fitzgerald had ordered a gentleman of that county to bring him 10007., and unless it was forthcoming on a certain day, that he would be flogged. The man was obliged to procure the money, and thus avoided the threatened punishment. Fitzgerald was then called on to repay him; but not finding this very easy, he applied to Lord Castlereagh. The sum was then set down as a charge for arms, or accoutrements, (something which Mr. Burrowes said was wholly ludicrous,) and to his knowledge, the 1000l. was actually repaid by the Government. Part only of

* Mr. Burrowes' humanity and spirit exposed him on one occasion to some danger. Passing Stephen's Green, not far from the house of Lord Clare, he was attracted by cries proceeding from a quarter adjacent; he there saw an officer (brother of Arthur O'Connor) presiding over the flogging of two men. Burrowes remonstrated with him, and upbraided him severely. The soldiers were angry, passed round Burrowes, and began to threaten him : he was in uniform and armed, and remained firm, and succeeded. At length O'Connor, who had been reading some papers, exclaimed-" I have been deceived-the men are innocent; take that old villain the informer, and put him in their place!!"

CHAP. XI.] SHERIDAN'S MOTION FOR INQUIRY. 399

this case was on record; but that of Wright against Fitzgerald, in which the former recovered damages against the sheriff for flogging him, will ever remain in proof to show the character of those who were encouraged and protected by the Government. Wright was a French teacher, and a note written in that language, which the loyalist did not comprehend, was the cause of this savage punishment being inflicted on him.

Pending these great calamities that desolated and laid waste the country, not physically merely, but morally, the friends of Ireland in the British Parliament were not silent nor insensible, and, far from forgetting their duty, they brought forward once more her deplorable state; and on the 14th of June, Mr. Sheridan moved for an inquiry into the causes of the insurrection in Ireland; but it was rejected by a great majority-199 to 43; and the address * to His Majesty upon the subject,

* "That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, to submit our opinion to his Majesty, that the deplorable state of Ireland calls for an immediate and total change of councils and measures in that kingdom: that if the system of coercion, enforced in the manner it has been, should succeed to the full extent of the most sanguine expectations of those who have advised it, the conquest of a desert is all that can be obtained by it; and that Ireland, so reduced, and so desolated, can no way be preserved but by a continued waste of the wealth and strength of Great Britain, for which no other return from that country can be rationally expected but implacable hatred, waiting for revenge. That if these measures fail, the possibility of which no wise government would leave out of its calculation, Ireland will not merely be lost, but may become an accession to the power of France, and England be exposed to the issue of a contest, on English ground, not for acquisition or dominion, but probably for existence.

"We should fail in the duty we have undertaken, if we did not, at the same time, express to your Majesty our absolute conviction, that no change of system in Ireland would be effectual to its purposes, without a removal of those persons whose councils have produced the present calamities, and who cannot in reason be considered as capable of correcting their own errors, or of attempting it with sincerity; and whose past conduct, both in practice and profession, renders it impossible for them, even were they to act on a sincere conviction of past error, to raise an expectation in Ireland of such a Government, on temperate principles, as might dispose the people to submit to the regular and indispensable restraints of justice administered according to law, or

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