History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798

endangered at times, must follow of necessity, from his employmentbut the major, tempering valour with discretion, always pushed others forward, and continued to escape unscathed himself. Thus Swan and Ryan rendered the capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald an easy taskall three being wounded and exhausted before Sirr entered the apartment—and, in a subsequent affair, the major, in the arrest of a desperado, allowed a satellite to take the post of honour, and the unfortunate scoundrel was shot dead.*

Times changed-the reign of terror ended-the informer establishment at the castle was broken up-some were assassinated, others transported and a chief functionary, who had hanged many by his agency, was executed himself, for murdert-and, "Othello's occupation gone," the major sank into the humble sphere of a police magis

trate.

The last portion of the major's history is as remarkable as the former. The power of the ascendancy party ended-emancipation passed—and Major Sirr became a patron of the fine arts, and a radical reformer. When the removal of the Catholic disabilities rendered Mr. O'Connell admissible to a seat in Parliament, he was supported in his election by the gallant major-and when he (the major) died, one of the most extraordinary collections of articles of virtu was submitted to the public that ever fell beneath the hammer of an auctioneer.

One posthumous reminiscence of the major is remarkable :—

"In the same place of interment, in one of the vaults of Werburgh's church, the remains of Lord Edward Fitzgerald are deposited, immediately under the chancel. There are two leaden coffins here, laid side by side; the shorter of the two is that which contains the remains of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. The upper part of the leaden coffin, in many places, has become decayed, and encrusted with a white powder— and, in such places, the woollen cloth that lines the inner part of the coffin is visible, and still remains in a perfect state.

"The entrance to the vault where the remains of Lord Edward Fitzgerald are interred, is within a few paces of the grave of Charles Edward Sirr, by whose hand the former perished. The desperate struggle which took place between them, the one survived fifteen days, the other forty-three years. Few who visit the place where they are interred will recall the history of both, without lamenting the errors which proved fatal to the life of Fitzgerald, and deploring the evils of

*"John Hanlon, in 1796, swore against three men at Athy assizes, who were condemned on his evidence on a charge of defenderism. Immediately after the trial Hanlon lodged sworn informations against twelve men (including John Ratigan), with conspiring to murder him. In the indictment he is described as a soldier of artillery. Hanlon held a subordinate office in the Tower; he was one of the persons on the Major's permanent list. In 1803 he accompanied the Major to a house in the Liberty, where information had been received of one of Robert Emmet's principal accomplices, Henry Howley, being concealed. The Major, with his ordinary prudence, put Hanlon forward to arrest a man known to be of a most determined character, and the result of his discretion was, that Hanlon was shot by Howley."

†The celebrated Jemmy O'Brien.

the calamitous times which called the services of such a man as Sirr into action."*

In civil war, when the dominant party assumes and maintains itself by an extended power, which in happier times dare not be resorted to, the tyranny of the employé is invariably more intolerable than that of the employer. This insolence of office was often painfully felt in the conduct of Sirr and his myrmidons, who were, without exception, ruffians of the worst description. On the slightest suspicion, and often through a wanton display of arbitrary power, domiciliary visits were inflicted upon families not in the remotest degree implicated in the conspiracy, and sometimes under circumstances which rendered the intrusion painfully distressing.

A gentleman, some years deceased, who had been an active leader of the disaffected, and consequently obliged to expatriate himself for several years, was, for a long time after his return to Ireland, on very intimate terms with the author, and in convivial hours disclosed many curious particulars connected with these troubled times, in most of which himself had been personally concerned, or the actors had been intimately known to him. In speaking of the outrageous insolence of the detective police then employed by the executive, he related the following anecdote:

Among his most intimate acquaintances was an extensive merchant, who lived on one of the quays, and who, from sedulous attention to business, had acquired a handsome independence. No man was less fitted for a conspirator; his whole thoughts were engrossed in trade, and his heart centred in a young and beautiful wife, to whom he had been united the preceding year. Although frequently urged to become a member of the Union, he had always steadily declined it; and when the rebellion broke out, so anxious was he to avoid being even a lookeron at the struggle which was about to take place, that he determined to repair to England until social order should be re-established. One circumstance alone prevented him from carrying his determination into effect. His lady expected daily to become a mother, and he was obliged to postpone the voyage until her accouchement had taken place.

It was the evening of the same day on which Lord Edward Fitzgerald expired in Newgate, that, after a painful trial, his lady died in giving birth to a still-born child. To describe the phrenzied agony of the unhappy husband would be impossible; in despair, he rushed into the chamber of death, threw himself beside the corpse, and refused consolation. Midnight came-a loud knocking at the door alarmed the mourners, and a peremptory order was heard demanding instant admission. It was obeyed-and Major Sandys, one of Sirr's confederates, entered with a dozen followers. Ile rudely demanded why the household were not a-bed, and although informed of the calamity which had occurred, he swore that he would search the premises. The keys of the warehouses were given to him, and as nothing was concealed, of course the search was fruitless. The major next proceeded to examine

* Lives of the United Irishmen.

the dwelling-house, and when the sister of the deceased lady implored him to respect the chamber where the corpse lay, Sandys swore that that room should be searched particularly. While his cash-box and ware-rooms were at the mercy of these marauders, the poor husband betrayed not the slightest emotion; but when he overheard that the room which held the breathless remains of her he had idolized, was to be desecrated by the intrusion of the ruffian band, he sprang from the bed, rushed into an adjacent sitting-room, armed himself with a carving-knife, and returned to the chamber of the dead, determined to sacrifice the first man who should pollute the threshold with his foot. Up came Sandys and his followers-the door of the guarded chamber was rudely opened-but the boldest ruffian of the gang held back. There, before the bed wherein the cold corpse of his lady lay-there stood the bereaved husband-the knife glittering in his hand, while the desperate expression of his flashing eyes and convulsed features announced, in terrible silence, that it was death to enter. Not a word was spoken. Sandys desired his followers to withdraw, retired himself, and the house of mourning was freed from the loathsome presence of human bloodhounds.

What was the result? Two nights after the corpse had been interred, the narrator, who was on hiding in an obscure alley, was informed that Mr. was below, and anxious to speak with him. An order was given to shew him up, and his afflicted friend, habited in deep mourning, presented himself. Without waiting to be addressed, he thus proceeded :

"You have often pressed me to join the Union, Rand I determinately refused. I come now to offer myself a devoted revolutionist. On the night that my beloved one died, my house was entered by an authorized banditti, and the agony of soul a savage would respect, was disregarded by the myrmidons of government. With my wife's cold hand clasped in mine, I swore eternal enmity to an executive whose agents had violated the sacred sorrows of a broken heart,and I am here to follow where you will, and receive the obligations of

a United Irishman."

He did so, and from that hour the government had not a deadlier enemy, nor the Union a more active agent.

There is no doubt that for one of the disaffected reclaimed by a sense of fear induced by indiscriminating severity, one hundred became malcontent first, and rebels afterwards. Wakefield, generally a sound reasoner although a decided partisan, thus expresses his opinions on the subject:

Man, when armed with a little brief authority,' if the mind be not properly prepared for the trust, becomes a new being, and is seldom improved in his nature by the change. In the intoxication of vanity, he mistakes the dictates of passion for the suggestions of duty; and considers power unemployed as useless. Such seems to have been the case with too many of these defenders of the Protestant faith; supposing persecution to be a support to the law, and oppression a just criterion of loyalty, they exercised a culpable and unremitting severity

Nume

against the unfortunate victims who fell in their way. Exultation over a fallen enemy leads to insult and dastardly aggression. rous were the unjustifiable acts committed by these men, on persons not members of their society; but every instance of this kind, instead of proving a benefit to their cause, added new strength to their opponents. If they reduced a cabin to ashes, they might drive from their sight the miserable inhabitants, but they increased in a tenfold degree the enemies of that government which they pretended to defend. They exasperated those who had determined to remain neuter, and provoked many to take up arms who would otherwise never have quitted their houses."

CHAPTER XXXII. ˆ

PROSCRIPTIONS LISTS-MILITARY AND REBEL STATISTICS-INTRODUCTION OF THE LEGISLATIVE UNION-THE TEMPER OF THE TIMES FAVOURABLE FOR THE ATTEMPT-FIRST PARLIAMENTARY DIVISION-CHARACTERS OF THE MARQUIS CORNWALLIS-THE EARL OF CLARE-AND LORD CASTLEREAGH.

THE rebellion was virtually at an end, and, save deserters and desperados, excluded from the amnesty proclaimed by Lord Cornwallis, every individual of any note, connected with the revolutionary movements that preceded, and the overt acts which followed the outbreak of the 23rd of May, had either been pardoned or expatriated. Of the more timid, numbers, before the explosion took place, evaded the vengeance of the government by voluntary exile-and of the more prominent leaders, the following brief abstract, with the names included in the Fugitive and Banishment Acts,* will generally tell the fate of those not

* Under the Fugitive Act were included— Adair, Henry Bashford, Thomas