French general and his officers were prisoners, and on their road to Dublin. Mr. Fortescue further says, that, as far as he could learn, two bodies of troops were on the road to relieve us.

14th.-The work of devastation still continues. I fear when our friends arrive they will find this country a second Vendée. It is shocking to see families accustomed to ease and affluence arriving here with nothing left but the clothes on their backs, as was the case with Sir J. Palmer's agent, Mr. Waldron, whose losses amount to £4,000. We have not as yet learnt what way the pikemen have bent their course. Nixon and Ponson are gone to Ballina, to see how matters go on there.

15th. They returned yesterday evening, bringing with them a great treat to us, a Dublin Evening Post. It luckily contains the whole report of the Lords, concerning the United Irishmen, but we were surprised that you were still without intelligence of what passed between our fleet and the French in the Mediterranean.

Here the bishop's diary ends abruptly.

CHAPTER XXVI.

REVIEW OF THE WESTERN INSURRECTION-PARTIAL OUTBREAKS-THEIR SUP.. PRESSION-DESCENT ON RUTLAND ISLAND.

THE excessive caution with which Lord Cornwallis directed the movements of the royal army-and the singular fact, that the presence of a small body of republican troops, not superior in number to an English regiment at its full establishment, attended by an undisciplined and inefficient mob of armed peasants, could hold a footing for three weeks in a country occupied by 100,000 armed men, at the time gave rise to much criticism and inquiry. Lord Cornwallis held a high military reputation-he had ample means to crush a handful of invaders he was admitted to be an intelligent statesman-and the necessity of extinguishing the flame of rebellion, so suddenly and unexpectedly rekindled, was strikingly apparent to him; and yet, against a body which the wing of a militia regiment had checked at Colooney, he moved thirty thousand men, with all the deliberation and attention to tactique that might have been expected, had the whole of the French troops destined for the invasion of Ireland been actually disembarked and in the field. If the Fabian system of his movements were questioned at that day, were it examined at the present, certain condemnation must ensue. At the zenith of the insurrection, a Peninsular division, with one of Wellington's lieutenants, would have crossed the kingdom from St. George's Channel to the Atlantic-and the wonder now is, that the military array of Ireland did not crush the rebellion in its rising outbreak.

But on a calm investigation of the political and military state of the kingdom, much will appear to account for the partial successes of the insurgents in the commencement, as well as the caution evinced by the commander-in-chief at the close of the rebellion. The number of the troops in the country was imposing, but their composition was any thing but satisfactory, or such as would warrant reliance to be placed upon them as an army in the field. The regular troops were disciplined according to exploded systems-their movements crippled by obsolete evolutions the inferior officers were inexperienced-the superior ones, either wedded to antiquated notions of military science, from which the slightest deviation would have been heresy in their sight, or men unduly elevated to rank to which, professionally, they could advance no claim, and, like that unhappy court attaché, Walpole, more likely to commit ruinous mistakes through the arrogance allied to ignorance, than the old-school commander, whose moves were made selon la règle, and with all the precision of a chess-player.

To the next arm of the military body, the militia, the same defects, but in a much more extensive degree, might be imputed. Serving for

a limited time, and many serving from compulsion, the general spirit would be indifferent. Their officers were unpractised gentlemen, and, from their own want of military knowledge, badly calculated to discipline the raw levies that were intrusted to them, and which experience in the art of war alone could render effective in the field. Of course, there were many exceptions to this general character of the body. Regiments might be selected-and not a few-equal in every respect to those of the line. Whatever their defects might be in discipline, braver and better affected troops than the British and Scotch legions could not be found. But, unhappily, the Irish regiments had been a great object of corruption with the disaffected, and in many cases they had succeeded too well, and sapped the loyalty of the soldiery.* Scarcely an Irish corps had escaped the contagious influence exercised by rebel emissaries-hundreds of United Irishmen were actually in the ranks and one dragoon regiment was so radically disloyal, that it was disarmed and disbanded; and to stamp its memory with eternal infamy, by order of the King, its number was eradicated from the British army list.

The fatal, and even yet inexplicable defeat at Castlebar, gave a formidable character to the French invaders, which the paucity of their numbers could not remove. Rumours were general that Humbert's was but a military experiment, which would be far more extensively followed up. The extraordinary success of this handful of men was

* "The United Irishmen and Defenders were years before very active, and, in many instances, successful, in seducing the military from their allegiance, and in attaching them to their cause. They occasioned a mutiny in the 104th and 111th regiments, quartered in Dublin, and endeavoured to procure their co-operation and assistance in an insurrection and massacre, which they meditated, on the 24th of August, 1795. Many of the soldiers deserted from their regiments to join the rebels; and on that day a mob of traitors, who met the castle guard on Essex-bridge, were so confident of being joined by them, that one of their leaders attempted to wrench the colours from the officer who bore them, as a signal for a general insurrection; and another of them mounted on the bridge, began to exhort the populace to rise, in an inflammatory harangue; but he was silenced by a dragoon, who drew his sword, and gave him a desperate wound.

"Another dragoon, who was sent with intelligence of this event to the Lord Lieutenant, who resided in the park, was seized by the rebels, cruelly beaten, and narrowly escaped assassination."

*

*

"The practice of seducing the military still continued so much, that in the space of one month, the following soldiers were shot for treasonable plots: four of the Monaghan, at Blaris camp; two of the Wexford regiment, at Cork; two of the Kildare, in the Phoenix park, near Dublin; and two of the Louth, near Limerick. "It was discovered that houses of entertainment were kept open in Dublin, Cork, and Athlone, at a considerable expense, for the seduction of the soldiers. They were regaled there gratis, with the most delicious fare, and even prostitutes were kept to work on their affections.

"In the month of June, the pay of the military was increased, which, at this critical time, was a very politic measure, as the United Irishmen were endeavouring to seduce them with unceasing sedulity.

"One Murtagh McCanwell, sent from the north to the south for that purpose, was known to be so expert, and had done so much mischief in that way, that a general court-martial, sitting at Limerick, offered one hundred and twenty-five guineas for discovering and apprehending him."—Musgrave.

calculated to confirm the French Directory in their determination of making Ireland the theatre of war-and by transferring the contest from the continent to her own soil, compel Britain, in self-defence, to secure her safety by a peace. Hence, the descent of an invading army was an event that might hourly be expected-and, unfortunately, the state of the country was most favourable for foreign efforts to disturb, if not dismember the empire.

*

From secret but certain information, Lord Cornwallis was wellinformed that the midland counties were rife for revolt, and that they were only waiting a French demonstration to rise in arms. Meath, Longford, Leitrim, Westmeath, Roscommon,† Carlow, and Monaghan were tolerably organized and ready for an outbreak. On the news reaching the disaffected that the French army were marching rapidly towards Granard, on the 5th of September, the rebels rose en masse, and with a force exceeding five thousand men they advanced to seize that town.

The invaluable services of the Irish yeomanry in the suppression of the insurrection of '98 has never been questioned and even their fiercest political opponents have generally contented themselves with charges of cruelty and excesses, and, by a tacit admission, left their gallantry and devotion to the existing government unchallenged, and indeed unquestionable. When the insurrection, broke out, Captain Cottingham, without a single regular soldier or militia man, marched rapidly from Cavan on hearing that Granard was the first object of the rebels.

"Cottingham's force, composed wholly of yeomen, consisted of only

* "Many Roman Catholics of consideration urged on and headed the insurgents in the county of Longford, and a well-digested plan of co-operation had been concerted with the Monaghan chiefs; but the latter were not to move unless the operations of their Longford brethren proved successful. At the head of these were the two Dennistons, the O'Haras, O'Connells, Farrell, and one O'Reilly, who appeared in arms on the 5th of September, 1798, and led on the attack on Granard. But the issue of that affair disconcerted the plan of the Monaghan chiefs, and prevented the Cavan leaders from attacking the different garrisons in their county, which they had meditated. The two Dennistons and Farrell were members of the Mastrim yeomen cavalry, several of whom fought with the rebels on that day. The elder Denniston was first lieutenant of it."-Musgrave.

"The popish multitude in the county of Roscommon, universally disaffected, were on the point of rising, and waited for nothing but a hint from certain leaders in their respective districts.

"A respectable magistrate of my acquaintance, who had a strong regard for a popish gentleman who meant to have headed a numerous body of rebels, obtained a private interview with him for the purpose of dissuading him from so rash an attempt, which he assured him would terminate in the ruin of him and his family. This chieftain spurned at the advice of his friend, and expressed a downright conviction that his party must succeed, as the mass of the people in every part of Ireland were engaged in it; that as they would rise at the same time, the government must be overturned, and that such persons as resisted them would lose their lives and property: and he even went so far as to advise this magistrate to be very moderate in the part he took, lest his intemperate zeal might mark him for the vengeance of the insurgents-so sure were the disaffected that their party must succeed, though with the aid of but one thousand French!"—Ibid.

a hundred and fifty-seven infantry and forty-nine cavalry. He chose a strong position between the assailants and the town, on the hill on which Granard is built; but observing that the rebels, who had at first advanced in one column, divided into three to surround his little army, he retreated to another position still nearer to the town. Here, protected by a bank and other fences, the yeomen awaited the onset of the enemy, who, driving before them a multitude of cattle, which the defensive party turned aside without falling into confusion, advanced very close to their line, and received a destructive discharge of musketry. They persevered, however, in their attempt, with long intervals of pause, during five hours, from between nine and ten in the morning till between two and three in the afternoon, when they fled and were pursued with slaughter. The number of their slain is, in the captain's official account, said to have exceeded four hundred, and in an anonymous account, nearly twice as many are asserted to have fallen; while of the royal party not one was killed, and only two slightly wounded."*

The first attempt of the Westmeath rebels was on a Protestant establishment, called Wilson's Hospital, where twenty old men and one hundred boys were maintained. On the first attack they were repulsed, but on the following day they succeeded.† Lord Longford having hastily collected a force of three hundred men and one gun, proceeded to dislodge them-but with an audacity not easily understood, the insurgents declined waiting an attack, and themselves became assailants.

"A large body of the rebels, of whom about five hundred are said to have been armed with firelocks, marched from the hospital to meet these troops near the village of Bunbrusna. After an abortive attempt of some of their party to seize the field-piece by an impetuous onset, in which, by a discharge of grape-shot, many of them suffered, the insurgents maintained not the combat long. In their flight a party took shelter in a farm-house and offices, which were in consequence burned; and probably many wretches perished in the flames. The troops, as daylight failed, lay on their arms all night, with intention to attack the hospital in the morning; but they found it evacuated by the insurgents, whose loss of men is reported, by very doubtful authority, to have been nearly two hundred in killed and wounded; while that of the royal troops was only two artillerymen, shot by a rebel from behind a hedge."

It was said, but with what truth is doubtful, that the Westmeath rebels were as sanguinary in intention, as the Wexford had proved in act.

* Gordon.

"Next day they returned to the hospital, converted it into a barrack, seized the cows and sheep, and killed most of them. In short, they left the hospital a perfect wreck. After committing all these atrocities, they had mass celebrated."

"They had twenty-seven Protestant prisoners in an office belonging to the hospital, whom they intended to have put to death by the most cruel torture, had