provided, and carefully stored in different magazines in the metropolis, for an army of fifty thousand men, without the smallest interruption, let, or molestation from the rulers whom you left behind you. During the same period, similar preparations were made in many different parts of the country without the slightest notice or alarm. Several emissaries from France, composed of notorious inveterate Irish rebels, wisely spared and released from prison on the happy conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens, during this period resorted to this metropolis, and visited many different parts of the country without question or danger. They were employed for several months in various parts, but chiefly in the north, and in this city and its vicinage, in organizing, encou raging, and preparing the disaffected of all ranks and descriptions. They quietly and securely completed their preparations, prepared and printed their manifestoes and proclamations, employing a printing press within an hundred yards of the Castle, regularly and methodically. Large parties of veteran rebels from various parts, particularly from the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, and Wexford, (the last distinguished as the Marsellois of Ireland), were ordered to repair to the city, which they were to enter, in small divisions, and without arms, in order to avoid suspicion. On the night of the 23d of May, about nine o'clock, the bloody miscreants, so assembled, were regularly armed from their different magazines in the metropolis. The party, who first received their arms, and who were directed to wait for the assistance of their confederates, who were assembling and arming rapidly, impatient of inaction, prematurely commenced the horrible work of carnage and destruction. The unfortu nate Lord Kilwarden, accidentally passing through the streets on his return from his country house, is at this critical moment stopped, together with his nephew, a clergyman, dragged from the arms of his daughter, and murdered in a manner too savage for description. Colonel Brown repairing this regiment on hearing a disturbance in the streets, is first prevailed on to deliver up his sword on a promise of safety, and immediately afterwards is murdered by the treacherous and inhuman villains. Cornet Cole, about the same time, accidentally thrown in their way, on refusing to join them, is instantly pierced with pikes. Several soldiers, passing through the streets, are surprised and murdered. Miss Wolfe, flying from the murderers of her father, brings to the Castle guard the first intelligence of

these bloody outrages, which were committed without their knowledge, in the adjacent streets. On the same night a skirmish, under the auspices of Mr. Russel, formerly an officer in the 36th regiment, one of the French emissaries, ushered in by an elaborate proclamation, was attempted in Belfast, but was effectually prevented and suppressed by the vigilance and energy of the military and yeomanry. Different movements were, at the same time, made in other parts; numerous bodies rose in arms in the counties of Dublin and Kildare, different houses were robbed of arms, and the mailcoach passing through Maynooth, was fired upon by a party of rebels near the Roman Catholic College. But as the attack on the Castle and City, had, through the interposition of Providence, been frustrated, the capture of which, was waited for in the country as a signal, the rebels in the morning of the 24th, rapidly dispersed without attempting further outrages.--Such has been the conduct and fortune of the rebels; allow me now, without disguise, to inform you what the conduct of the domestic Irish government has been on this critical and momentous occasion. Do not start with surprise and horror, when I tell you, that authentic, satisfactory, and particular information was given to Mr. Marsden, by different persons of character and respectability in sufficient time to take the most effectual precautions for the general safety. Aylmer, from the county of Kildare, a gentleman of rank and fortune, Mr. Going, a barrister, Mr. Clarke, an eminent manufacturer, in the morning of the 23d of July, absolutely forced their way into the awful presence of Mr. Marsden, and fully informed him of the insurrection which was to commence the following night. Shudder not with horror, when I tell you, that this information was received by Mr. Marsden with the most supercilious contempt. and the persons of these gentlemen insulted by the most contumelious arrogance. Mr. Finlay gave similar information to Mr. Marsden, and was received and treated in the same manner. The fate of Mr. Clarke is singular, and deserves to be particularly mentioned. Sinking under terror and confusion from the treatment of Mr. Marsden, he returned to his house at Palmerston, where he found a considerable number of the tradesmen, employed by him, actually prepared to march out to join the rebels. He expostulated with them in vain, they treated his advice and remonstrance with contempt and derision. He immediately returned to the Castle, and communicated to Mr. Marsden

Mr.

this further intelligence, with all the eagerness and sensibility of a loyal man exposed to the pikes of assassins. His warning voice was again disregarded, and his intelligence again spurned with contempt, by the sagacious and magnanimous guardian of the Irish nation. Mr Clarke, returning home at a late hour in the evening, was way-laid and shot, as it is believed, by some of his own workmen. You now, with demonstration of the act before you, can scarcely believe that no one measure of precaution, of any kind was taken for the safety of the Castle and City of Dublin, though there was ample time for this purpose after the information was given --The Castle was I ft to its ordinary guard, about 100 men, with the usual quantity of ammunition to each man. No supply of bail cartridges was in readiness. The yeomanry were totally unapprized of their danger, and left without any supply whatever of ball-cartridges. When the lawyer's corp, between ten and eleven at night, rushed to the Castle, alarmed by the cries of murder and rebellion in the streets, the stores were opened, and no cartridges were to be found, except a few made up for carbines and pistols, and which were entirely unfit for musquets. In the Castle, all was terror, confusion, and dismay. The garrison in the barrack were in a smilar state, without information, without preparation, and without orders. The principal officers, who, in the full security of peace, had been that day amusing themselves at a grand cricket match in the Park, afterwards dined at a Tavern in Earl Street, remote from their quarters, and remained there until a late hour of the night, having narrowly escaped assassination. Other offcers walking through the streets on their different engagements, were told by some who had escaped, that the rebels were actually, at that instant, armed and in great force in Thomas Street, committing the most cruel outrages. They did not believe the intelligence, thinking it impossible that government should be so destitute of information, far less, that they should have received and neglected it. General Dunn, amidst this carnage and confusion, at length made his way from the barrack to the head-quarters at Kilmainham, through streets beset by armed rebels; and narrowly escaped assassination. There he received the first orders, which were issued to the military for the suppression of the rebels. They were promptly and gallantly executed. In short, so complete was the surprize, that the rebels advanced without opposition within two short streets of the castle, and nothing but

their brutal ferocity, in attacking Lord Kilwarden, prevented them from taking it. Here let me pause, and ask how it was possible that a conspiracy, of this extent, so long in agitation, so diffused in its opera tion, could so long have been concealed from the Irish government? The people will ask, why no measures were taken for the apprehending Russell and Emmett, who were seen by many, and were long and pretty openly employed in maturing the conspiracy? The people will ask, why no proclamation has been issued, offering suitable rewards for apprehending these desperate miscreants, and the other leaders who are known, while rewards have been offered by a puny proclamation for bringing to punishment the deluded rabble who were but the instruments of their atrocity? The peo ple well know the leaders are few, but their followers are numerous, and spring up like the soldiers of Cadmus. The punishment of these persons would cut up the conspiracy by the roots, the cutting off thousands of the latter would scarcely diminish the danger. Another measure appears to the people a little extraordinary. Many copies of the rebel proclamation have been taken while the rebels were in the very act of printing it, but are attempted to be most carefully suppressed by the Irish government. A printer of known loyalty applied at the Castle, for liberty to print and publish the Dublin proclamation from the provisionary government, with notes explanatory of its mischievous tendency, but was strictly enjoined on no account to attempt it. This reminds me of the school-boy who turns his face to the wall and thinks that nobody can see him. It is obvious that these proclamations cannot be kept concealed from rebels or enemies, why hen keep them secret from the loyal part of the community, who, to a man, are mercilessly proscribed by them? For my part, so little do I think, that secrecy, as to any thing that has passed here for the last six months, can contribute to the public safety, that I am determined, by a deliberate sense of imperious duty, to make known, as far as I possibly can, to the Irish and British Public, the whole of what has been done and left undone during that period. My only objeet is the public safety, and my only means a strict adherence to truth. If a single position in this detail can be controverted, I am ready to expunge it. But I cannot compromise the safety of all for the paltry purpose of rescuing the guilty from public execration and the arms of justice. It is an awful question to be put by the people to those who have

had the guidance of public measures: who are responsible for the murder of Lord Kilwarden, the much lamented head of Irish jurisprudence? The blood of this unfortu nate nobleman, of the hapless Colonel Brown, and the other ill-fated victims of rebellion, who were exposed to the pikes of merciless savages, by criminal supineness and the most obdurate obstinacy, cries aloud for vengeance. Small will be the atonement to their manes, that those who exposed them to the most ferocious of mankind should meet with the punishment they have richly merited. Had the measure of their crimes been completed, there would not, at this day, have been a loyal hand left in Ireland to hold a pen to detail to you, Sir, who were absent in a foreign realm, the dismal catastrophe of the annihilation of IreJand. As far as their guilt is concerned, they are answerable to the fullest extent for the destruction of the very name, character, and stamp of loyalty in this wretched and most neglected country. Ministers did no one act; they took no one measure to discover, prevent, resist, or suppress the mischief. If they did, let them name it, and so far diminish the load of their guilt. You may, Sir, readily conceive the feelings under which I write this horrid and detestable history of treason, audacious, active, and highexerted treason; opposed to supercilious folly and wavering imbecility.Let me advert, for a moment, to our present forlorn condition. In common with the rest of my countrymen, who feel and think, not a morning do I rise from my bed, but I expect to hear of a landing of the enemy in force on some part of the coasts of this kingdom. Mention to Mr. Marsden this general sentiment of the nation; nay, if one should come from the dead to announce it, be will receive it with the same supercilious grimace as he did the 'intelligence of Mr. Aylmer, Mr. Clarke, Mr. Going, Mr. Finlay, and many others, on the fatal 23d of July. The only measure I have heard of taken for our defence, is, that redoubtable act of policy, the reembodying the Irish militia, a measure reprobated and deprecated by every thinking nan in the nation. Ask Lord Hutchinson, whether the Irish militia can be relied on against French veteran troops. In short, the folly and temerity of this measure is next to madness, when their service is confined by law to the country where they have been already tried, and have been found fit only to fill the enemy's ranks. But, militia regiments were agreeable douceurs to the meritorious body of Irish gentry resorting to St. James's-and to that we are to be

sacrificed paltry, wretched, witless, infatuated men?

"Haud tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis tempus eget.".

I hope; from the bottom of my soul I hope, that I may not be ominous, but I cannot help reflecting; it presses, it forces itself on my mind, that in every country, overwhelmed, during the latter period of French continental hostilities, you, Sir, were the British harbinger of their dismal overthrow and subjugation-witness Switzerland, Tuscany, and Austria. May God! that God, who has recently rescued us from the deadly lethargy of ministerial pride, ignorance, and presumption, avert the omen! Regular troops, tried veteran troops can alone adequately defend us, powerfully reinforced by a numerous, gallant, and loyal yeomanry. Such troops alone can repel the first attacks of the French. In this country, reverses at the out-set may be fatal, as they would be the means of bringing, instantaneously, myriads of armed rebels into the field. And yet, the present plan is to oppose French veteran troops with a raw, unofficered, incomplete Irish militia. Great Britain is fortifying her capital-read this letter, and say, what have the Irish ministers been doing?

Your indignant observer,

AN IRISHMAN.

ON INVASION.

SIR,-Since you published in your Register of the 10th ult. that part of my letter which relates to St. Domingo, accounts have reached this country, both from France and America, respecting the state of affairs in that island. The French, as might be supposed, speak most favourably of the situation of their troops there, and describe them as enjoying a certain degree of tranquillity; and, indeed, so it may be, if being shut up in the sea-port towns and receiving only such supplies of produce from the interior of the country as the blacks might think fit to give them, in return for the articles of necessity of which they themselves may stand in need, can be so considered, The Americans, however, represent things in a much worse light; yet, no doubt, in a more correct point of view. They say, that the French are not only shut up in the seaport towns, but that they have failed in an attack which they made upon Tortue, and that a considerable number of French troops have deserted to the negro army. The case, however, appears to be simply this

if our government do but take immediate and proper steps to open a communication with the black chieftains, in the manner, and under the stipulations* I have before pointed out, and declare all the ports of St. Domingo, now in the possession of French troops, in a state of blockade, the whole of the military force of France, in that island, would be under the necessity of surrendering to the blockading squadrons, or to the black armies. The supplies of flour and salt provisions which the French obtain from America (and which are the only supplies they have hitherto obtained) would be immediately cut off, and, as it is fair to presume that they have but very little in store, necessity would, before the expiration of six months, oblige them to submit. By the arrival of the five ships at Ferrol, the French naval force at St. Domingo is reduced to about three ships of the line and a few frigates, but these have also very probably left the island for Europe, otherwise there is little doubt that they must soon fall into our hands. The Consul being aware of the danger to which his fleet was exposed in that part of the world, not only from our squadrons, but from the critical state of St. Domingo, has very prudently withdrawn the greater part of it, and the remainder will undoubtedly very shortly be withdrawn, if they are not destined to make a trip to America, for provisions for the troops, before they ultimately depart for Europe, and abandon the soldiers to their fate.- -The five French ships, which have lately arrived at Ferrol, are well situated to escort and protect any armaments that may be preparing, for the invasion of Ireland, in the Loire, the Charente, or the Garsone; and as Ireland is our vulnerable point, a strict and close blockade of Ferrol, Fordeaux, Rochfort, Rochelle, and Nantes is an object that claims our immediate and most particular attention; as any armaments that may be equipped for Ireland from those ports will unquestionably run 150 or 200 leagues to the westward before they attempt to steer a course for their real destination, as well with the view of avoiding our cruizers in the Bay of Biscay, as for the purpose of joining their ships, now at Ferrol, in a certain latitude, if they can put to sea and elude the vigilance of the squadron blockading that port.-The conquest of St. Lucia appears to have made no greater impression upon the minds of the people in this country than the capture of a single merchant vessel, although the strong post of Morne Fortunée was car

See Register, p. 33, et seq.

ried by our brave troops in the most gallant manner; it is, however, an evident proof of the decided superiority which our heroic countrymen have hitherto maintained, for ages, over the troops of our inveterate enemy, and shews what will be the fate of those who may have the temerity to invade our native land. But this success ought not to lead us to prosecute farther military operations against the colonies of France, for no good whatever is likely to result ultimately from such a system. Our ships should closely blockade all the ports of their islands, but our military operations should be confined entirely to Europe. In a former letter I detailed pretty fully my ideas upon this subject, and before I conclude this letter I shall make a few more remarks thereWe have now a sufficient military force in the West-Indies to hold St. Lucia and Tobago, and to secure all our own islands against any attack whatever.

on.

And

by proper arrangement, there might be found a disposable force sufficient, also, to garrison the Dutch colonies in South America until peace shall be restored. For if we do not possess ourselves of them, the French at Cayenne will, in all probability, take them under their protection; and when once France is in possession of them there is not the least probability of their being restored.The Cape of Good Hope having been so much the subject of conversation since the peace of Amiens, I cannot help expressing my apprehensions that it may be again an object of conquest in the contemplation of government. Should this be the case, not a man should be sent from Europe against it, but the whole military force for that particular service should be drawn from India.--I shall now revert to the observations I communicated to you upon the subject of invasion, which have not yet appeared in print; I shall, therefore, here repeat them in the expectation that you will give them a place in the ensuing Register. I have, in a former letter, shewn the state of that part of the navy allotted for the defence of the country, for the protection of our coasting trade and navigation, and for the annoyance of that of France and Hoiland, and the blockade of their ports at the signing of the preliminary treaty; the force I have there enumerated, you are, of course aware, did not include the ships in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Spain, these amounted to 42 sail of the line (includ ng troop-ships) 4 fitties, 62 frigates, and 39 sloops, in all, with the

* Set Register, p. 40.

ships armed en flute, 147 vessels of war. The naval force upon the more distant stations, I need not here mention, as that force cannot be considered at all connected with the subject of invasion, though the fleet in. the Mediterranean and on the coast of Spain may fairly be brought into view, in the discussion of this topic.--A few months before the preliminary treaty of London was signed, Mr. Dundas (Lord Melville) in his speech on the 25th of March, 1801, in answer to Mr. Grey on the subject of the military force then in Great Britain and Ireland, said, "There is at present of regular σε force in England, an establishment of "21,500 cavalry, and of 84,900 infantry : "and in Ireland a regular cavalry of 4,400 men, and 48,600 infantry. This is exclusive of the artillery, exclusive of marines to "the amount of about 10,000, serving on "board ships of war on the bome station; "exclusive of sea-fencibles amounting to near "7,000 men; and exclusive of the volunteer "force in both Islands. I am not possessed of an accurate statement of the volunteer force "in Ireland, but I am generally informed that "it amounts to about 40,000. In England,

according to an examination very recently "made of their effective strength, it amounts "to 20,685 cavalry, and 107,353 infantry." By this statement of Mr. Dundas's it appears, that there was a total of regular and volunteer cavalry of 42,185, and of infantry 199,253, (exclusive of the 10,000 marines, which certainly ought to be omitted while serving afloat) making a general total, for the defence of Great Britain, of 241,438 men. The cavalry in Ireland, except the regular force, cannot be distinguished, but the general total including infantry and cavalry amounted to 93,000. So that the whole force in the United Kingdom was no less than 334,438 men in arms!! All of whom would, upon the landing of the French, and upon proclaiming martial law, have been liable to be marched from one extreme of the Kingdom to the other; yet, notwithstanding all this immense force, and the complete protection afforded thereby, the Consul's threats of invasion were reechoed in the people's ears, instead of assaulting and destroying his towns upon the coast, and thereby rendering his government and his hostility to this country odious to his own people, who would then have soon been convinced that all his boasted threats against this country were vain, and that he was even incapable of securing them against our just revenge. My motive for going back to the period of which I have been speaking is, because every thing seems

The

as many more as possible, for offensive operations, as the season in which embarkations and debarkations can be effected with case and safety, will soon be past embarkation of such a force as I have here described, would of itself, agitate the whole of the sea-port towns of France, and would be the means of turning the troops which the Consul may have destined for the invasion of this country, to the defence of the French coast.--It was by such a system of proceeding in the years 1758 and 1759, as this I have here pointed out, that, that immortal statesman Mr. Pitt (Lord Chatham) raised this country to that pinnacle of glory and fame at which she arrived through his wisdom, assisted by the skill and conduct of our admirals and generals, and supported by the valour of our seamen and soldiers. At the period above-mentioned, the French held out threats similar to those of the present day, and preparations, upon the most extensive scale, were making in all the ports within the Channel to convey their troops to our shores. Shipping, flat-bottomed boats, and craft of all descriptions were collected for the purpose, and the whole of their men of war were ordered to assemble at Brest to protect and support the invading army, which amounted to near 70,000 men, who were put under the command of the Prince of Condé, aided by 40 other generals. This grand expedition was, however, entirely frustrated by the bombardment of some of the enemy's towns within the Channel, by the destruction of the shipping in their ports, and by attacking various points of their coast, by the defeat of the Toulon squadron by Admiral Boscawen on its way to Brest, for the purpose of strengthening the fleet there, and by the decisive victory obtained over M. Conflans by Sir Edward Hawke near Belleisle. These were amongst the glorious results of Mr. Pitt's profoundly wise and energetic administration. Yet when that great statesman resolved upon these vigorous measures, the whole military establishment of this country was

* Vide Register, Vol. IV. p. 41.