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may have been in its commencement, became altogether a reli gious one; that the army, with the exception of a few leaders, was no other than a horde of furious sanguinary fanatics; and that, had it succeeded in its atrocious designs, not a protestant would have survived, not even those who were the nominal leaders of these savage bands. Here again we must bear our testimony to the frame of mind in which this narrative has been drawn up; it does justice to worth and excellence, on which ever side they present themselves; it reprobates inhumanity and pillage as much in the partizans of the royal cause as among the insurgents; it even admits that excuses may be urged in favour of the latter, of which the former cannot avail themselves; in fine, it contains nothing to irritate, nothing to awaken dormant hate, nor to rouse latent resentment, but on the contrary is calculated to soothe, to allay, and to extinguish animosities. Would to God that the temper of the author were that of his countrymen of all parties!

Mr. Gordon very justly censures the unmingled and unqualified severities exercised from the time of the rebellion being quashed, till Lord Cornwallis became settled in the government; while he highly extols the measures of that nobleman, and blames the British Cabinet for not having sooner appointed a Viceroy of his description. We are happy to find the suffrage of this very sensible writer on the side of that illustrious character, and of the mild measures which he adopted.-Mr. G.'s sentiments respecting the two parties will be best learnt from his own: words:

Why a military chief governor of well known abilities and judg ment, when a military government was an inevitable expedient, was not appointed by the British ministry, I cannot pretend to know. Such a man would have arranged the army to the best advantage for the protection of the innocent, the coercion of the guilty, and consequently the prevention of armed rebellion, with its horrible concatenation of evils.

That, when once insurrection took place, it was attended with devastation and massacre, was naturally to be expected from the previous exasperation of men's minds, and the deep-smothered sense of severities, inflicted on some by authority, and in that case often justly; but on many others wantonly, by individuals vested with no other authority than what the affectation of a violent zeal confers on the most worthless in such a state of affairs. If I were asked, whether I thought that the rebellion would have been less bloody, if no unnecessary or wanton cruelties had been previously practised, I should answer, that if it had taken place under such circumstances, I should suppose it would have been attended with much less cruelty in its commencement; but that in case of continued success on the side of the insurgents, and confidence of being finally victorious, it would in its progress have become completely sanguinary and cruel, from causes operating in all successful insurrections of the populace, combined

with nefarious prejudices of religion, diametrically opposite to the genuine spirit of Christianity. Designing villains, by the affectation of a flaming zeal for their cause and religion, would raise themselves into the notice and estimation of the ignorant multitude; and having no other means of self-promotion, would indulge at once their ambi tion and malignity, by instigating the rabble to acts of atrocity against all whom they should think fit to denounce as concealed enemies, or obstacles, to the grand scheme of revolution. Thus would the protestant leaders, and protestants in general, have been first put to death; next after these, any Roman catholic chiefs of moderation and spirit who might vainly endeavour to promote a liberal plan of revolution; and afterwards all others who should prove obnoxious to the reigning demagogues. In the local and short-lived insurrection in the county of Wexford, this tendency of affairs was so evident to Bagenal Harvey, and other protestant leaders, that they considered their doom as inevitable, and even some Romish commanders expressed apprehensions. Thus Esmond Kyan, one of the most brave and ge nerous among them, declared to Richard Dowse a protestant gentleman of the county of Wicklow, whom he had rescued from assassins, that his own life was irredeemably forfeited; for if the rebellion should succeed, his own party would murder him; and if it should not succeed, his fate must be death by martial law; which happened according to his prediction. Even Philip Roach, whose character, as a priest, might be supposed to insure his safety with his own followers, made a similar declaration to Walter Greene, a protestant gentleman of the county of Wexford, whose life he had protected.

To suppose that the insurgents were all alike sanguinary or prone to cruel deeds, would be as little conformable to truth as to probabi. lity. Many of even the lowest were men of humanity; but amid so wild an agitation, so furious a commotion, the modest and feeble voice of compassion was drowned by the loud and arrogant clamour of destruction to enemies! revenge on the bloody orange dogs! Among the loyalists, whoever attempted to moderate the fury of his associates, or prevent the commission of wanton cruelties on defenceless prisoners, or other helpless objects, was generally browbeaten and silenced by the cry of croppy-a term very liberally bestowed by zealots, on men who manifested a wish that loyalists should act in a manner most honorable to themselves, and most promising of ultinate success to their cause. Even some officers of the army, who reprobated in their hearts unnecessary insults on defenceless objects, were shy to restrain the serjeants, and others under their command, from the commission of such, lest they should be charged with croppyism. When this was the case under a regular government and established military discipline, what was to be expected from tumultuary bands of ignorant peasantry, suddenly starting into action without order or subordination? Among these the charge of orangeism was much more formidable than that of croppyism among the loyalists, siace in the former case it might be much more easily followed by tumultuary assassination, where no controlling power existed to repreus acts of violence, particularly such as would seem to result from zeal for the cause.'

Mr.

Mr. Gordon's liberality and candour appear in the sketches which he gives of the leaders of the rebellion:

A brief account of Anthony Perry, one of the rebel generals above-mentioned, may serve to shew what difficulty a man may find, who endeavours to extricate himself from the effects of a conspiracy against government, when he has once engaged in it. This gentleman, a man of amiable manners, and a well informed understanding, was yet weak enough to be seduced into the conspiracy; and having acted so as to cause much suspicion, was arrested and confined in Gorey a little before the insurrection. He repented heartily of his misconduct, and gave information useful to government; but such was the state of things, that he was treated in prison with the utmost harshness and indignity. Among other acts of severity, a serjeant of the North-Cork militia, nicknamed from his habitual behaviour Tom the devil, cut away all his hair quite close to the head, and then burned all the roots of it with a candle. Being liberated by the ma. gistrates on the morning of the 28th of May, he returned to his house, four miles from Gorey, where he hoped to be permitted to remain unconcerned for the future in plots and conspiracies. But he was soon followed by some yeomen, who destroyed his effects, and obliged him to abscond for the preservation of his life.-Finding no alternative, he disguised himself in the habit of a beggar, and thus crossing the country, threw himself into the arms of the rebels. In the course of the war he exerted himself to restrain the cruelty of his followers and as he disapproved both of their cause and conduct, he was always meditating an elopement from them. In an attempt, some time after the assault at Hacketstown, to penetrate into the northern parts of the kingdom, where he hoped to abscond from the rebels, and conceal himself from the partisans of government, he was taken and hanged at Edenderry, in the King's County, a little before the end of the rebellion.'-

Among the persons who suffered for treason on Wexford bridge, were Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, Cornelius Grogan, and John Henry Colclough,-Grogan, a man of a large estate in land and much ac cumulated wealth, but of a timid epirit, and no great depth of understanding, had unfortunately fallen into the hands of the insurgents, and so far misconceived the state of affairs as to imagine his property more secure under the protection of the United Irish than of the existing government: unhappy misconception! the success of the rebels would have involved the destruction of both his property, and life. He, however, through fear of the loss at least of the former, had consented to take the United oath, and to act as commissary to the rebel army. Yet, such is the inconsistency of human nature, this man, whose only guilt, with regard to treason, had been caused by his timidity, met his fate with courage, when he found death inevitable. Harvey betrayed more fear of death at the place of execu tion, though he was well known to have been a man of personal courage, having exposed his life with intrepidity in duels. This gentle man was possessed of a large landed property, and had in many respects borne an amiable character, particularly that of a most hu

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mane landlord-a character unfortunately not very common in Ireland! Seduced, like some other men of benevolent hearts, by the fallacious hope that such a revolution might be effected in Ireland by a popular insurrection, as would cure the defects of the political system, and prodigiously augment the prosperity of the island, he had entered into the united conspiracy; but soon convinced, after the insurrection had taken place, of the utter impracticability of such a revolution by such instruments, and of the certain destruction of himself and other protestant chiefs, in case of success on the side of the rebels, he would most gladly have renounced all connection with them; but, as no alternative was allowed, he was obliged to remain among them while they were able to retain the post of Wexford.

Harvey and Grogan suffered execution together on the 28th; Colclough alone in the evening of the same day. Colclough was a man of very amiable character, of a naturally good understanding, enlarged by culture, and of engaging manners. By education and profession a Romanist, he was a protestant in principle. Influenced in his matrimonial speculation solely by the personal merit of the object, he married a lady of a congenial soul, whose endowments of mind and amiable qualities fully justified the wisdom of his choice.. So void was he of religious bigotry, that he recommended to his wife not to conform to his mode of worship, since to follow the dictates of her conscience in adhering to the protestant religion (in which she had been educated) would be more pleasing to him. This will be attributed to a deistical indifference in religious matters, by those who allow liberality to deism and deny it to Christian charity, of which I cannot suppose any Romanist of a cultivated and discerning mind to be divested, be the adventitious rules of his religion what they may. Seduced by the like fallacious idea as Harvey, he had embarked on that tempestuous ocean, whence was so seldom permitted a return; and made too late the horrible discovery, that the instruments of political reform were an ungovernable mob of outrageous bigots, among whom none, except the instigators of sanguinary violence, could have effective influence.'

In the flight of the chiefs from the unbridied host which they had vainly hoped to command, he retired with his wife and child to one of the Saltee islands, of which he was landlord, nine miles from the coast of the county of Wexford, and chose for his temporary abode a cave, which he furnished with provisions, and where he hoped to remain concealed until the fervor of prosecution should abate. But Harvey, knowing his place of retreat, and wishing to avail himself of the same opportunity of concealment, embarked so incautiously to follow him, as to afford a foundation for conjecture and discovery.

* I mean not to say that he preferred the forms and ceremonies of the protestant to those of the Romish religion, to which he had been habituated. I believe the contrary to have been the case. But he was so far a protestant as to reject all those persecuting doctrines, of the Romish church, adverse alike to reason and Christianity, which have caused so much bloodshed and calamity among mankind,'

He

He and Harvey surrendered without resistance; though from the nature of the place they might have made for some time a defence.At his trial and execution he displayed a calm intrepidity of spirit, and a dignity of deportment attempered witli mildness, which commanded the admiration and esteem of the spectators; and died so strongly impressed with the horror of atrocities attendant on revolu tionary attempts in Ireland, that doubtless, if he had been pardoned, he would have become as loyal a subject as, with exception of his political conduct, he had always been an excellent member of society.'

In the remainder of this volume, the author partakes too much of the temper and views of the excellent narrator of Killala, to differ materially from him in statements.

Mr. Gordon estimates the losses occasioned to Ireland by the rebellion at about two millions. Great as these are, yet we firmly believe that the grand measure which has been adopted since they took place, if it be properly followed up, will more than repair them; and that it will raise that suffering country to the state of opulence and prosperity, of which her soil and position render her so eminently capable. Nothing has for ages stood in the way of this important event, but a nominal independance, in fact a most injurious dependance, now happily exchanged for the substantial blessings of the British constitution. The administration of this great and powerful empire needs not regard with a jealous eye the Irish catholics, if they experience from it a magnanimous, generous, and paternal treatment;-a seminary has been erected for them at home;-let salaries be allowed to their ministers at the public expence ;-and then nothing can be dreaded from their emancipation.

ART. VI. Sermons sur le Culte Public, &c. i. e. Sermons on Public Worship. By Louis Mercier, Pastor of the French Church in London. 8vo. 2 Vols. Cadell juu. and Davies, &c. 1801.

THE

HE first of these volumes contains nine discourses in defence of public quorship; the expe diency and utility of which have been questioned by some late writers, and more particularly by an anonymous author who signed himself Apeleutherus, in a tract intitled An Effort to attain intellectual Freedom. In sermon 1st. M. Mercier inquires into the original intention of that part of the Mosaic law, which enjoins the sanctification of a day of repose, commonly called the Sabbath; and he considers it in two points of view; viz. as a religi ous and as a civil institution. In the second sermon, the author applies the principles which he had laid down in

* See M. R. vol. xxxi. N. S. p. 309.

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