often ignorant of the persons' names whom they were to destroy, but also strangers to those who formed the general committee. They however generally executed their commission to the full, slaughtering the wives, children, and domestics of the parties proscribed.

"The rebels had a system of laws the most severe, and most promptly executed. This was by far more efficient than the civil code, and could only be counteracted by martial law. If this bill were not renewed, scenes would be exhibited in Ireland, to which nothing had borne resemblance since the year 1641. He said, let noble lords who opposed the bill take a journey to Ireland. He engaged to give any of them a villa, and a farm each, if they would reside in it. After they had tasted the luxuries of an Irish life for a twelvemonth, let them come over (if they survived) and declaim for the rights of the Irish."

In the following June, a Bill of Indemnity passed both houses, with immense majorities. As might be imagined, an act which debarred the injured from redress met with a warm opposition. No doubt the extraordinary powers given to individuals in those alarming days were at times abused abominably,* but protection was required for others, who in perfect honesty of purpose laid themselves open to penalties incurred in the execution of their duty, generally painful to their better feelings, unsanctioned by statutory law, but nevertheless rendered imperative by the sad circumstances of the times.

The short peacet which succeeded was but a lull, while the tempest rests itself to collect fresh elements to feed its exhausted fury. To those who calmly looked at the existing state of things, a permanent repose seemed utterly impossible-Napoleon's character was sufficiently developed to shew that such an expectation must be fallacious. Little hope of tranquillity, indeed, could be expected for Europe from a military chieftain whose renown and character had been acquired by war-who had manifested such striking proofs of an unbounded ambition; and little faith could be placed on the professions of one who had bent every principle to his personal views, who had usurped, equally at the expense of monarchy and democracy, a mighty empire, and who, in every treaty which he framed, had evinced the most

* Of all the infamous and corrupt acts perpetrated by the Irish parliament-and their name was Legion-probably the indemnity given to Judkin Fitzgerald was the worst.-Vide Appendix.

+ By the preliminary articles which were signed at London on the 1st of October, 1801, by M. Otto on the part of the French republic, and Lord Hawkesbury on the part of his Britannic Majesty, Great Britain agreed to the restoration of all her conquests, the island of Trinidad and the Dutch possessions in Ceylon excepted. The Cape of Good Hope was to remain a free port to all the contracting parties, who were to enjoy the same advantages. The island of Malta was to be evacuated by the British troops, and restored to the order of St. John of Jerusalem. Egypt was restored to the Ottoman Porte. The territory of Portugal was to be maintained in its integrity, and the French troops were to evacuate the territory of Rome and Naples. The republic of the seven islands was recognized by France. The fishery at Newfoundland was established on its former footing; and finally, plenipotentiaries were to be named by the contracting parties, to repair to Amiens, to proceed with the formation of a definitive treaty in concert with allies of the contracting parties.

anxious solicitude to extend his territories and enlarge his power. England alone, of all the civilized world, presented a barrier to his vast and aspiring views; and to remove that barrier, either by conquest or by fraud, was naturally the object nearest to the heart of the

usurper.

But the breathing-time allowed to Britain, though brief, was highly serviceable. The Addington administration was popular. The people of England, characteristically honest, placed unbounded confidence in a minister whose integrity was congenial to their own— while his financial arrangements were so judicious, that instead of feeling an increase of burdens, they anticipated the time when they should look for a diminution of them. Yet in this view the task of the minister was Herculean; and it will hereafter be barely credited, even on the stubborn evidence of figures, that the first year after the war Mr. Addington funded no less a sum than ninety-seven millions sterling.*

That friendly professions on the part of the French government to that of England were false and hollow, a strange and unexpected occurrence told. It was long understood, though it could not, in some instances, be legally proved, that the disaffected party in England held a secret correspondence with the French government. Among the active and distinguished confederates of this party was Colonel Despard, a gentleman who had in his military career performed some brilliant exploits, and had been regarded as a meritorious officer. "His success was not equal to his ambition; and disappointment at first, aided afterwards by the pernicious principles sanctioned by the French revolution, seems to have produced in him an inveterate hatred for the constitution of his country, and to have induced him to enter into the most profligate designs for its destruction."

As long back as '97, it had been communicated to government that Despard held a treasonable connection with the French Republic, and, consequently, he had been arrested and imprisoned. In 1802, he was liberated-and so far from having been deterred by long confinement from entering anew into treasonable practices, "the first use he made of freedom was to hatch a plot, so desperate in design, but so absurdly impracticable, that it seemed rather the emanation of diseased intellect than the plot of a sane conspirator."

*Political Returns.

"The plan was to ingratiate himself with the lowest and most profligate of the soldiery, particularly of the guards; and by forming a strong and compart party in this body, to have at his disposal a select corps, accustomed and trained to discipline and command, whom he could bring into immediate action, and prepared for any desperate undertaking. The active operations of the conspirators commenced as early as the spring of 1802. About the month of March a society was established, professedly for what they most absurdly termed the extension of liberty;' and at the head of this society two soldiers in the guards were ostensibly placed, of the names of Wood and Francis. They began by administering an oath to every person who was admitted a member of the association, and it was chiefly among the soldiery that they sought for proselytes: Their success appears not to have borne any proportion to their diligence; for the association seems never to have extended

It would not be relevant to this work to enter into its details, nor would we have alluded to it, had it not been the immediate precursor of an insurrectionary outbreak in Ireland, as visionary as the wild project of Colonel Despard. We shall merely observe, that aware of the treasonable proceedings in the English metropolis, government permitted the conspiracy to become matured; and on the 16th of November, 1802, the unhappy men were arrested at the Oakley Arms, in South Lambeth, committed to prison, tried on the 7th and 9th of the following February, convicted, and six of the ringleaders executed on the 21st of the same month, mercy being extended to the remainder.

Before the British capital had ceased to wonder at the mad attempt of Despard, a pendent to it was presented in the metropolis of the sister island. Both these revolutionary movements were curiously alike-wild in conception-unmethodized-hopeless of success-confined to a handful of conspirators, and these in grade and character utterly contemptible-the only leader of the one, a moody malcontentthose of the second, two mad enthusiasts, in whom, touching the amount of mental aberration, it would be a puzzle to determine.

The unfortunate men who acted the most conspicuous parts in the fatal scenes we have now to relate were two of those who experienced the clemency of government after the rebellion of 1798, and had retired to France. The one, Mr. Thomas Russell, had, like Colonel Despard, been a military officer of some reputation in his profession, but whose advancement not bearing a proportion to his ambition, had probably been soured by envy and disappointment. He was a man of a singular turn of mind. Unlike the majority of those who had imbibed the principles of Jacobinism, he was religious even to enthusiasm. He had, it is said, applied himself particularly to the reading of the prophetical writings; and possibly his visionary speculations in this course of study might be applied to the confirmation of those wild and fantastical notions which he had formed on political topics. He had been deeply engaged in the conspiracy of 1798, had been confined with the rest of the disaffected in Kilmainham jail,

beyond the number of thirty or forty obscure individuals, and even some of these became speedily disaffected to the cause.

"The plan was altogether conceived upon military principles, and was not illdigested. The conspirators were divided into companies of ten men each, to whom was added an eleventh, under the character of captain; these again were united into larger divisions, under officers with still superior titles; and in case of a revolution, all the conspirators were to be invested with high military rank. Their principal object was to secure or murder the king as he returned from parliament, at the opening of the session; and for this purpose it was proposed to load the great gun in the park with long ball or chain shot, and fire at the king's carriage as it passed. In the meantime, another party was to seize the Tower, and afterwards the Bank, to destroy the telegraph, and stop the mail-coaches, which last was to be a signal to the disaffected in the country to march to their assistance. Plausible as was this plan in speculation, we must remark that the numbers of the conspirators such as to furnish any hope of success; and it reflects honour on the loyalty of Britons, that so few could be found even among the lowest and most depraved classes of society to enter into a direct plot for overturning the constitution of their country, or attempting the life of their sovereign."-Annual Register.

were not

and had been afterwards removed to Fort George in Scotland. It is well known that they were pardoned on condition of transporting themselves out of his Majesty's dominions, and Russell remained till the spring of the year 1803, when he returned with the commission of general-in-chief, but remained in obscurity till after the fatal emeute of the 23rd of July.

The second was the son of a respectable physician in Dublin, and was the younger brother of a barrister of that name, Mr. Thomas Adis Emmet, who had been one of the rebel directory in the year 1798. He was a young man of fine talents rather than solidity of judgment, possessing uncommon eloquence, and no inconsiderable portion of courage and activity.* He was not unqualified for the part he had undertaken-and for a service so pregnant with difficulty and danger, his sanguine temperament was a necessary adjunct. He had quitted Ireland shortly after the unfortunate termination of the former conspiracy, and resided in different parts of the Continent, but principally in France, till Christmas 1802, when he returned to his native country.

In the attempts of these unfortunate men to produce an outbreak, Emmet succeeded, and Russell failed. The field the latter had selected for his treasonable experiment was the north, and the effort was totally abortive.

"We do not find, by the evidence on his trial, that he ever was able to collect more than twelve associates of the lowest rank and most desperate character. The principal scenes of his exertions were the counties of Down and Antrim; and that he acted in concert with Emmet and the other conspirators is evident from the same night, the 23rd of July, being appointed for the insurrection in the north. His connection with the French government was also proved by several expressions, particularly a declaration which he made on the 22nd of July, at Annedorn, while exhorting his associates to take arms- that he doubted not but the French were fighting in Scotland at that mo

* "He entered the Dublin University at sixteen, and made an early exhibition of the republican principles in which he had been schooled. Moore, in a notice of him, says, that when he joined a debating society of very questionable character, he found Emmet in full reputation, not only for his learning and eloquence, but also for the blamelessness of his life, and the grave suavity of his manners. Of the political tone of this minor school of oratory, which was held weekly at the rooms of different resident members, some notion may be formed from the nature of the questions proposed for discussion, one of which I recollect was, 'Whether an aristocracy or a democracy is most favourable to the advancement of science and literature?' while another, bearing even more pointedly on the relative position of the government and people of this crisis, was thus significantly propounded, Whether a soldier was bound on all occasions to obey the orders of his commanding officer?' A quotation from one of his speeches proves the political bias of his mind. After a brilliant eulogy on the French republic, he concluded with a remark sufficiently expressive ::-' When a people, advancing rapidly in knowledge and power, perceive, at last, how far their government is lagging behind them, what then, I ask, is to be done in such a case? Why, pull the government up to the people! The consequence of indulging in such language at such a time may be imagined-Emmet was struck off the college roll."-Memoir of Robert Emmet.

ment.' Disappointed and discouraged at the cool reception he everywhere experienced, he returned to Dublin, almost immediately after the 23rd of July, where he remained concealed in the house of Mr. Mulet, a gun-maker in Parliament-street, till the 9th of September, when he was apprehended, and on the following day committed to prison."

The story of this ill-judging gentleman is briefly told—his trial came on at Carrickfergus, on the 20th of October, and the evidence produced against him was conclusive. The fact of endeavouring to excite insurrection was decisively proved. He does not appear to have made any defence, but previously to the passing of sentence addressed the court with the impassioned eloquence of enthusiasm, pleading conscience in extenuation of all he had done, but adducing no arguments to prove that it was right. He was executed at Downpatrick, on Friday, the 21st of October.

Emmet's proceedings, when he returned to Ireland, are only required to be noticed, the secret history of his conspiracy being amply detailed in the judicial proceedings which brought him deservedly to the

scaffold.

"On his arrival in Ireland, he at first went into a state of the most perfect obscurity, at the house of a Mrs. Palmer, at Harold's Cross, where he assumed the name of Hewitt. The nature of his mission did not admit of his remaining in this retreat longer than was necessary to mature his plans and form his connections. On the 24th of March, in company with Mr. Dowdall, who had been formerly secretary to the Whig Club, he contracted for a house near Rathfarnham, in a place called Butterfield-lane; but their continuance in this situation had excited some suspicion, nor was the place found in all respects commodious for their purposes. About the end of April, a house and premises of some extent, formerly a malt-house, and which had been long unoccupied, were taken in Marshall's-alley, Thomasstreet, sufficiently obscure to escape detection, and yet near enough to the heart of the city to effect the most desperate purposes. In this place Emmet lodged for nearly two months, with no better accommodation than a paillasse, and surrounded by from fourteen to twenty associates. A depôt of arms was here formed on a large scale; muskets and other weapons were procured from time to time to a considerable amount, and a large manufacture of pikes was secretly carried The conspirators occasionally pressed not only horses but men into their service, and forced the latter to work at different employ

on.*

* "One of these depôts was set apart for the manufacture of gunpowder and the construction of weapons. Some idea of the industry with which Emmet accumulated these implements of deadly vengeance, and his sanguine reliance upon thousands responding to the tocsin of insurrection, may be formed from the catalogue of the contents of his magazine: It comprised forty-five pounds of cannon powder, in bundles; eleven boxes of fine powder; one hundred bottles filled with powder, enveloped with musket-balls and covered with canvas; two hundred and forty-six hand-grenades, formed of ink-bottles filled with powder and encircled with buckshot; sixty-two thousand rounds of musket-ball cartridge; three bushels of musketballs! a quantity of tow, mixed with tar and gunpowder, and other combustible