purity of early intention became tainted by the spread of doctrines alike opposed to monarchy and religion-and enmity to the throne, and contempt for the altar, were the natural effects resulting from the pernicious imitation of Jacobin example. Indeed, as the conspiracy grew to maturity in the North, infidelity progressed, pari passu, with disaffection and faith and allegiance were equally abandoned.

That very wise law, the Convention Bill, having prevented the clubs from assembling publicly, the leaders of the conspiracy had recourse to another, and fully as effectual a mode of disseminating their doctrines of liberty and equality, by instituting reading-societies, which the lowest classes of the people attended after the labour of their daily occupations was over. This institution was almost exclusively confined to the counties of Down and Antrim, where the mass of the people are Presbyterians, can read and write, and are fond of speculating on religion and politics. These meetings, formed after the model of the Jacobin clubs in France, were usually held in barns and schoolhouses, and were liberally furnished with inflammatory publications, composed by the literati of the United Irishmen, or extracted from larger treatises of a similar tendency in both kingdoms, and published in the form of pamphlets for more general circulation.

The pretext of reading for mutual information and improvement was considered as a plausible motive for the lower class of people to assemble. Subjects of a delicate nature and dangerous tendency were frequently discussed in them; such as, "Under what circumstances are the people justifiable in resisting and uniting against the existing government? From what source is all just government derived, and what is its proper object? Is the majesty of the king or the people most to be respected? On these and similar topics the rustic orators declaimed, with much vociferation and zeal, to the great edification of admiring audiences. The most fluent speakers went usually from one society to another to display their talents, and make proselytes to the new philosophy. Every opportunity was embraced to represent the Christian religion as a system of superstition, calculated to enslave mankind and obstruct the progress of improvement of reason.

The doctrines of a future state, of rewards and punishments, were openly ridiculed and discredited, and public worship despised and discouraged, which materially promoted the designs of the conspirators by extinguishing all moral principle.

Labourers, tradesmen, and even apprentice-boys, enlightened by attending the reading-societies, were taught to decide, dogmatically, concerning the fundamental principles of government and religion; to detect the supposed corruption of the one and the priestcraft of the other; to think themselves amply qualified to dethrone kings and regulate states and empires.*

It was a subject of some surprise that, with infinitely better organization, the northern rebels allowed their brethren in the South to take the initiative and that circumstance was fortunate as strange. The

* Musgrave.

cause of the standard of rebellion having remained furled in Ulster, while Leinster and Wexford were in a blaze, may be, in the first instance, traced to the want of leaders to direct the movement; in the second, to religious suspicions, which unsettled confidence, and severed a union whose elements were of sand. The chiefs of the northern conspiracy most influential from talent or position, were incarcerated or voluntary exiles-while the purely religious character which the Wexford insurrection had assumed alarmed the Presbyterians, deterring the more timid, and disheartening the most determined. "At a period so critical, it was difficult to trace, in an extended range of nearly fifteen square miles, a resident leader, possessing popular influence and talents for command, who was willing, on the moment, to run the hazards of the field." "*

While the Ulster insurgents hesitated to make any open demonstration, the game of rebellion was nearly played in the South, while in the North it had not yet begun-and had severities at the moment been discontinued, it is doubtful but the flickering flame might have expired altogether. "The conciliatory measures used by government had detached numbers from the union; and the salutary coercion used by general officers in disarming the multitude, abated the spirit of the disaffected, by diminishing their hopes of success."

But the system pursued towards the malcontents was discouraging and absurd. Much was promised-nothing effectually carried out; and the proclamation, which commenced by offering an amnesty, merged into sanguinary denunciations, and concluded by devoting whole towns to plunder and conflagration. The system of free quarters brought terror alike to the innocent and the guilty. It was an infernal visitation, without doubt-and although, from party prejudice, over-coloured by a partisan,† still the outline of the picture is unhappily too true:

"The army, now distributed through the country in free quarters, gave loose to all the excesses of which a licentious soldiery are capable; formidable,' in the language of the gallant Abercrombie, to all but the enemy. From the humble cot to the stately mansion, no property -no person was secure. Numbers perished under the lash, many were strangled in the fruitless attempt of extorting confessions, and hundreds were shot at their peaceful avocations, in the very bosom of their families, for the wanton amusement of a brutal soldiery. The torture of the pitch-cap was a subject of amusement both to officers and men, and the agonies of the unfortunate victim, writhing under the blaze of the combustible material, were increased by the yells of the soldiery and the pricking of their bayonets, until his sufferings were often terminated by death. The torture practised in those days of Ireland's misery has not been equalled in the annals of the most barbarous nation, and the world has been astonished, at the close of the eighteenth century, with acts which the eye views with horror, and the heart sickens to record. Torture was resorted to, not only on the † Ibid.

*Charles Teeling.

most trivial, but groundless occasions. It was inflicted without mercy on every age and every condition: the child, to betray the safety of the parent; the wife, the partner of her conjugal affection; and the friend and brother have expired under the lash, when the generous heart scorned to betray the defenceless brother or friend."

Whether it might have been dreaded by the Northerns, that the suppression of the insurrection in the South would leave the government perfectly unembarrassed, and then, that their well-known disaffection would be visited with sweeping penalties-or, that the decision of the few overcame the disinclination of the many, the Down and Antrim rebels resolved to take the field, and a local occurrence precipitated the rising.

The governor of the county, Lord O'Neil, having received information that the northern insurrection was postponed, but not abandoned, determined to counteract the plans of the rebel leaders, and for that purpose convened a meeting of the magistrates to be holden at Antrim, on the 7th of June. His lordship, en route from Dublin, slept at Hillsborough on the night of the 6th, and reached the appointed place, at noon, next day. The meeting being called by public notice, was, of course, a matter of notoriety-and the seizure of the magistrates, and possession of the arms which had been surrendered from time to time, and had not been removed to Belfast, at once struck the rebel leaders as expedient. Orders were accordingly issued to the disaffected-and the long-dreaded rising took place.

CHAPTER XX.

OUTBREAK IN ULSTER-BATTLES OF ANTRIM, SAINTFIEld, and balLYNAHINCH.

THE sudden determination of the northern leaders to unfurl the banner of rebellion and risk an appeal to arms, was attended with the usual results consequent upon hasty and inconsiderate decisions. The order for rising was obeyed-but when the disaffected were actually in the field, it was found that Down was without a leader. Russell, on whom that dangerous distinction had been conferred, some time before, had been arrested and imprisoned-and Steele Dickson, a presbyterian minister, and a fierce and uncompromising revolutionist, was elected to the chief command; but before he could assume it, he too, was arrested and lodged in prison. Finally, the leading of the insurrection was intrusted to a cotton-manufacturer, named McCracken.

The folly of precipitating into action tumultuary masses of men, under chiefs incompetent to direct their movements, will be best understood from the narrative of Charles Teeling; and the detail of the northern rising proves, that although the insurrectionary elements were abundant, the power of direction was imbecile beyond contempt: "Antrim had determined to act in conjunction with Down, and by dividing the attention of the enemy, these counties would have been an overmatch for the British troops which garrisoned both. The period of action had been previously arranged, and the respective duties assigned; but Antrim being prepared for the field, could not be induced to wait the appointment of a new commander for Down. To supply the place of Dickson was not an easy task, nor to restore that confidence to the minds of his countrymen which his arrest had sensibly weakened. Down urged the necessity of delay, but Antrim was resolved was already committed. Her military chiefs had assembled in council; numbers had quitted their homes for the field; they had bidden an affectionate, and some an eternal adieu to the objects of their tenderest regard. All waited orders from the first in command, when, to their inexpressible astonishment, his formal resignation was announced.

"There was now no safety in return-no encouraging hope in advance; the secession of the chief communicated doubt and alarm to others; mutual suspicion and mutual fears were excited in the breasts of all the council wavered in their decisions, they ordered and counter-ordered, and eventually retired to deliberate anew. In the meantime, intelligence arrived that the British troops were on their march, and their advanced guard of cavalry within one mile of the seat of deliberation."

The possession of Antrim was certainly an important object with the conspirators. Equidistant from the two great military stations

Belfast, and the camp at Blaris-it opened a communication with Derry and Donegal, both counties, seriously disaffected, and from which extensive assistance might be expected. Antrim, was consequently selected as the first object of insurgent operation, and on the 7th of June, the rebel columns directed their march upon the town.

The decision of their ill-directed councils had immediately transpired-and General Nugent, who commanded the north-east district, promptly adopted measures to defeat the intended attack. The second light brigade was directed to make a forced march from Blaris camp on Antrim-and two hundred and fifty of the Monaghan, a troop of the 22nd light dragoons, the Belfast yeomanry cavalry, under the command of Colonel Durham, marched to support the garrison by the line of Carmony and Templepatrick. Major Seddon, the commandant at Antrim, had been made acquainted with the intended movement,† and assured that he should be reinforced, and enabled to repel the attack of the insurgents.

It is hard to determine whether Antrim offered to the assailants or defenders the greater advantage. The town is nearly a mile long, and that space from the Scots' quarter to the market-house, about twothirds of its length, and nearly a straight line. The main street is a continuation of the Scots' quarter, and at right angles with the wall of Lord Massareen's garden, which is about forty yards from the markethouse, and lies nearly in the centre of the street. The wall of the garden completely commands the street, and the entrance to the market-house, which is a square building, supported by stone pillars, and very difficult to set fire to. The guard-house was there, and a number of prisoners confined in it. There was a second wall at right angles with the garden, which flanks it, and commands Bow-lane. The two walls are joined with each other by one part of an old fortification. The wall is about fifteen feet high towards the street-and being but four feet high on the garden side, it forms an excellent breast-work. The church is about half-way between the market-house and the end of Scots' quarter, built on a rising ground, and surrounded by a wall, which is about eight feet high towards the street and four on the inside. The church is nearly in a line with the houses on one side of

* It comprised the 64th regiment light companies of the Armagh, Monaghan, Dublin, Kerry, and Tipperary militia; one hundred and fifty 22nd light dragoons, two light six-pounders and two howitzers, the whole under the command of Colonel Clavering.

↑ "The orderlies arrived at Antrim at nine o'clock, but did not perceive any extraordinary movement in the country, or any indication of insurrection. However, the drums immediately beat to arms, the yeomanry assembled in a short time, and the inhabitants of the town were called on to turn out in its defence. In sending the summonses through the town, it was discovered that all the notorious United Irishmen had left it early in the morning, which convinced Major Seddon that General Nugent's information was well founded. Of four hundred men capable of bearing arms, two hundred turned out on the occasion; but they could be supplied with no more than eighty stand of arms, as there were no more serviceable; and there was so great a scarcity of ammunition, that after borrowing eight hundred rounds from Major Seddon, the yeomanry had but twelve rounds a man, and those who volunteered but five.”—Musgrave.