commencement of the infurrection, the fum of a CHAP. hundred thousand pounds was voted, by the house XLV. of commons, for the immediate relief of fuch refu gees as fhould appear deftitute of the means of fubfiftence; and for its diftribution a most respectable body of commiffioners was appointed, who gave according to circumftances fums not exceeding fifty pounds to each. After their temporary relief, government extended its views to the compenfation of loyalifts. The estimates of their loffes were authenticated by their own affidavits, together with those of the clergy and landlords. The two latter were required to fwear that they fincerely believed the eftimates to be true and the claimants loyal. The fum total of the claims amounted to a million and twenty-three thoufand pounds; of which five hundred and fifteen thoufand belonged to the county of Wexford. The estimates, in fome inftances far above, in fome much below the truth, were on the whole amount, in my opinion, fo moderate as not to exceed two-thirds of the reality. A million may be moderate for the loffes of people, who, barred from compenfation, fent no estimates. Thus the whole detriment may not have fallen far fhort of even three millions.

tion of mo

rals.

The deftruction of property was not the only Depravafpecies of damage refulting to the community from this ill-fated combination. To this may be added 1799. the lofs of lives, the fufpenfion of industry, the obftruction of commerce, the interruption of credit in pecuniary tranfactions, and, above all, the de

pravation

СВАР.

CHAP. pravation of morals in the feats of civil violence. XLV. The mind of man feemed brutalized in many in

ftances. The worst of the fpecies had room to difplay a malignity of nature, whofe exiftence might be doubted without the evidence of facts. To fome the tortures of their fellow-creatures were manifeftly an amusement. Numbers were flogged without even a pretence of information given against them. To raise the pain to extremity pepper and falt were fometimes thrown into the cuts during the operation. Prifoners without trial were ftrangled to death by fufpenfion from the fhoulders of tall men, who were thence denominated walking gallows. To the debasement of the military character a commiffioned officer was distinguished by this title. By fuch exhibitions the fenfe of moral turpitude was blunted. To dwell on the fad propenfity to extortion, cheating, pilfering, and robbing, encouraged by a temporary diffolution of civil government; on the practice of perjury and fubornation in trials; and of perjury in claims of loffes, even by perfors who might well be fuppofed fuperior to fuch meanness, without confideration of religious obligations, would be attended with more pain than utility. It was a harvest for the wicked, fome of whom made fortunes in various ways, while men of principle fuftained heavy loffes. Some acquired more by plunder than they had ever been worth, made afterwards exorbitant claims for loffes, and where the receipts for money, which had been formerly paid to them

in their private dealings were loft, payment was exacted a fecond time.

mous.

As the affidavits of the clergy, authenticating those of claimants, were indifpenfably required to be all in their own hand-writing, the labour of fome parish minifters was from various caufes enor The pleasure of procuring aid for the deserving compenfated the toil: but when cafes occurred, happily few in comparison, where a clergyman was required to fwear, that he fincerely believed an affidavit to be true, which appeared to him fufpicious, the business was perplexing. To know the real state of the claimant's property and loffes he could not pretend to refuse his fanction without being able to affign any reafon would be regarded as totally indefenfible: and to commit perjury would be intolerable. How far the confciences of fome clergymen might be quieted by a practice pursued I cannot pretend to fay. The clergyman figned his affidavit without fwearing, and the magistrate certified it as fworn before him. I believe that very few were capable of figning in this manner what they would not fwear, hardly any at all doubtless in the diocese of Ferns. But a clergyman might have written and figned affidavits to have them ready for the fanction of his oath after due confideration and enquiry; and these mean time might be brought by the claimants to a magiftrate, who would certify them without fufpicion, whence they might be tranfmitted to the commiffioners without farther enquiry. I hope that fuch frauds were very VOL. II. í h

rare.

CHAP.

XLV.

XLV.

CHAP. rare. The commiffioners acted their part through. with dignified integrity; though they could not always escape deception.

the French

government.

1798.

out,

Neglect of I have somewhat anticipated in making the evil confequences of rebellion in the fouth of Ireland. A fmall part of the claims of compenfation came from the weft, where commotion had been excited by a fmall invading force. That the government of France was at this time very feebly administered appears from the neglect of attempting to fend affillance to the Irish rebels, while they were in ftrength. If, according to the advice of lord Edward Fitzgerald, a number of fwift veffels had been fent to different parts of the coaft with officers, troops, arms, and ammunition, fome of them might have eluded the vigilance of the British cruisers. Such fupplies, what they most of all wanted, might have infpirited the infurgents to dangerous enterprizes. What effects might thus have been produced we may in fome degree conjecture from the impreffion made on the kingdom by a contemptibly final body of French troops, landed after the complete fuppreflion of the rebels, in a part quite remote from the fcene of rebellion, among a people who had not exhibited figns of difaffection, and at a time when, by the unremitting attention of Cornwallis, the minds of the difaffected had been every where conciliated in a confiderable measure, and the royal troops, who had before too much refembled an armed mob, were reduced into the form of a regular army.

XLV.

ments for

This viceroy had completely planned, and, after CHAP. unavoidable delays from the fituation in which he had found affairs, was on the point of putting into Arrange execution fuch an arrangement of the troops, as to defenfe. enable him to affemble, with great expedition, a respectable force in any part of the kingdom where expediency should require, when intelligence arrived of a French invafion. The chief account of the tranfactions confequent to that enterprise is a narrative given by Doctor Stock, bishop of Killala, who, with his family, was thirty-two days in the hands of the invaders and their auxiliars. This narrative is valuable and interefting, calculated for the prevention of those errors which, from the want of fuch authentic and impartial documents, are apt to creep into history, and become established by time. It is extremely honourable to the learned prelate, fince it evinces a genuine goodness of heart, and a mind fo cultivated, fo candid, fo elevated above mean prejudices and the fervile fear of party, as to difcern and publicly acknowlege the virtues of an enemy. Its accuracy is confirmed, if it could require fuch confirmation, by the teftimony of the French officers employed in this expedition, with whom fome gentlemen from Ireland have fince converfed in France.