History of the Irish Rebellion of 1798

safe; and that, under the influence of intimidation, liquor, and the physical exhaustion of thirteen hours' deliberation, their verdict of Guilty had been given. Abundant proof was adduced, likewise, that the informer Wheatly was a man of infamous life and reputation; and subsequently he declared on oath his compunction for this and other perjuries. The recommendation to mercy, and the confessions of the jurors, were laid before the Lord Lieutenant not without result; for the prisoner was respited-respited three successive times, and executed at last. Mercy was offered him on the sole condition of his declaring himself guilty: but truth was dearer to Orr than life. He died protesting his innocence.

"The story of his last moments, as I have heard it told by those who witnessed them, was thus:

"Upon the scaffold, nearest to him, and by his side, stood a Roman Catholic domestic, faithful and attached to him. Manacled and pinioned, he directed him to take from his pocket the watch whieh he had worn till now; that time had ceased for him, and his hours and minutes were no longer to be measures of his existence. You, my friend, and I must now part. Our stations here on earth have been a little different, and our modes of worshipping that Almighty Being whom we both adore-before his presence we shall stand both equal. Farewell-remember Orr.'"*

"Remember Orr!-Remember Orr!"-the words were written everywhere, spoken everywhere. The last farewell of individual regard to a faithful servant became a patriotic watchword, a battle-cry of vengeance to an exasperated people: and in the stir and strife of the months that followed, with the maddening memory of the wrongs of centuries was mingled the fresh recollection of this crowning infamy, prompting all honest men to REMEMBER ORR.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE YEAR 1798-PREPARING FOR THE WAR-MORE DISAPPOINTMENTS FROM FRANCE-TRIAL OF FINNEY-O'BRIEN AND THE BATTALION OF TESTIMONY-MILITARY COMMITTEE-AN ARMY FORMIDABLE TO EVERY ONE BUT THE ENEMY-THOMAS REYNOLDS-ARRESTS OF THE TWELFTH OF MARCH-THE NEW DIRECTORY-PROCLAMATION OF THE THIRTIETH OF MARCH-" WELL-TIMED MEASURES TO MAKE THE REBELLION EXPLODE". -PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN-THE DAY FIXED.

WITH the year 1797 the patriots lost all reasonable prospect of timely and efficient aid from France. The summer and autumn of that year brought a second disappointment to the hopes of Ireland, yet more tantalising than that of Bantry Bay, and a second deliverance to Great Britain, even more remote from the range of ordinary probabilities. Early in July all was ready at the Texel for a second expedition to Ireland, on a scale of efficiency and formidableness about equal to Hoche's in the previous winter. The statesmen and generals of the young Batavian Republic, eager to emulate the glories of their fathers and re-assert their rank as a great

*Speech of William Sampson, at Philadelphia, in 1831 (given by Dr. Madden).

European power, had staked in the cause of liberty "their last ship and their last shilling." Fifteen sail of the line, ten frigates, and twenty-seven transports, with fourteen thousand soldiers and the best of their generals and admirals, were the force destined to emancipate Ireland and dismember the empire of Britain. Again the good genius of England-or the evil genius of Ireland-prevailed. If that Texel armament could only have been got ready a month or two sooner!-the British fleet was then up in mutiny, the wind fair, the coast clear, and the rebel army in Ireland ready waiting. It was now too late. The mutineer admiral, Parker, had been hanged at Sheerness on the last day of June, the mutiny was at an end, the wind had changed, and the mouth of the Texel was blockaded by Admiral Duncan and a south-wester. For five weeks together this double blockade lasted (the disarming of Ulster going on the while); and at length, by the middle of August, provisions ran short, the troops had to be disembarked, and the expedition was relinquished. The end of this Texel business was on the 11th of October, when Admiral Duncan annihilated the navy of Holland at Camperdown. Thus, by a combination and recurrence of casualties which no statesmanship could have anticipated or averted, was the British empire again saved from dismemberment, for the second time within eight months. About the same period, the death of Hoche and the political proscription of Carnot-the only two men in France who thoroughly understood the interest France had in Ireland-precluded for the present all possibility of a third attempt. The French Directory kept on promising, and the Irish Directory kept on hoping, the best they could; a magnificent Armée d'Angleterre was got up on paper; but nothing was done-Ireland was left to fight her battle alone.

It would have been better for Ireland if her patriots had prepared themselves for this from the beginning. Dependence on French aid was their ruin.* The question, whether to wait for the French or to act without them, divided and perplexed their counsels, and was fruitful of jealousies and dissensions; the "rashness" of the one party, and the “ timidity" of the other, were tempting topics of mutual recrimination whenever anything went wrong. The hope of foreign assistance prevented them from acting at a time (the spring of 1797) when action might, not very improbably, have been attended with success; the delay wearied and disheartened them; the final disappointment hurried them into desperate and unprepared exertion. The following extracts from their papers show how mischievously this French alliance operated; alternately elating them with illusory hopes, and depressing them with vexing and wasting disappointments:

"Provincial Meeting, October 14th, 1797, Armagh.

Reported, that there had not been any information from our delegates "in France, further than that one of them had drawn a bill for £160 on a "member of the Executive. The opinion of the Executive was, that the "French should have been here by this time; but they thought that the "British government had got into possession of the plan of the Executive, "which has frustrated them for some time; but they were sure the "French never would make peace until they had fulfilled their engagements with Ireland."

*This was the opinion of one of the best and wisest men among them-Thomas Addis Emmet. See Madden, Second Series, vol. ii., p. 38.

"Provincial Meeting, November 14th, Armagh.

"The secretary said, we all knew the expedition which was at the Texel, destined for this country, had been put off, owing to the defeat of "the Batavian fleet; but the Directory were now preparing a more "formidable expedition for us, which we might depend upon.”

"Provincial Meeting, December 14th, Randalstown.

Reports delivered, that the Executive Committee had not got any "information from France since the last meeting, but that they every day "expected the arrival of a delegate. They were sure the expedition was "still preparing for Ireland."

"Provincial Meeting, January 14th, 1798, Armagh. "The reporter said there had been a meeting of the National Committee, "and it was found, notwithstanding all the depredations committed by the "military, that the upper provinces were in a tolerable state of organisa"tion. He said that one of our delegates had arrived from France. "told the meeting that it had been an intention of the French to invade "Ireland only, and that they were to have put that into execution in this “month, but that the Directory had come to a second resolution that they "would now fit out a more formidable expedition, and that they would "invade the whole three kingdoms at once. Therefore, from the mag"nitude of such a great business, we need not expect them as soon as we "did. He thought they could not come until it would be far on in the spring."

"Provincial Meeting, February 1st, Shane's Castle. "The person who reported said, he would, by heavens, speak his "mind openly, for he was not afraid, as our delivery was now "certain. He said the National Committee had met in Dublin that week, "and that the upper provinces were all ready to act in a moment; two regiments in one province had offered to deliver it. He said we had "three delegates arrived from France, and that the French were going on "with the expedition, and that it was in a greater state of forwardness than was expected; but, what was more flattering, three delegates "had been sent from the United Britons to our National Committee, and "that from this very moment we were to consider England, Scotland, and "Ireland all as one people, acting for one common cause. There were

legislators now chosen from the three kingdoms to act as an executive for the whole. He then produced an address which the delegates of "Britain brought with them to our National Committee, and that was the 66 reason, he said, which made him so violent, as he was certain we could now obtain liberty, although the French never should come here. He "told the delegates to cause the ment to hold themselves in readiness, as "the hour of action could not be far distant."

"Provincial Meeting, February 27th, Armagh.

"The reporter said, we had a delegate arrived from France, and that "the French were using every endeavour to have the expedition for "this country completed, and that our delegate came home to cause us to put ourselves into a state of organisation to join them, as the Directory

positively assured our delegates that the expedition would set out for this country in the latter end of April or beginning of May."*

Well might Theobald Wolfe Tone say, unhappy is the nation whose liberty depends on the will of another." In this want of self-reliance, this fond and credulous leaning on other people's promises, this vacillating to and fro with every breath of rumour from abroad, we see the failure of the whole scheme foredoomed and foreshown.

The first event which we have to note in the history of Ireland for the year 1798, is aptly illustrative of one of the influences that were then rising to the ascendency in the government of that fated land. On the 16th of January, PATRICK FINNEY-one of sixteen arrested at the same time, on the same charge and the same evidence—was tried in Dublin for high treason. The chief witness for the crown was one JAMES O'BRIEN, a worthy member and representative of that "Battalion of Testimony of which we have more than once made mention—a horde of wretches, infamous by life and reputation, retained in the service of Town-Major Sirr, regularly domiciled in Dublin Castle and its precincts to be ready on the shortest notice for every description of assize duty; housed, fed, and clothed at the public expense, and bountifully supplied with every luxury that the appetite of vulgar profligacy craves. We have already had one specimen of this gang in the person of Edward John Newell: James

* Report of Secret Committee of 1798, Appendix, xiv.

"From the year 1796 to 1800, a set of miscreants, steeped in crime, sunk in debauchery, prone to violence, and reckless of character, constituted what was called 'the Major's People.' A number of these wretches were domiciled within the gates of the Castle, where there were regular places of entertainment allotted for them, contiguous to the viceroy's palace; for another company of them, a house was allotted opposite Kilmainham gaol, familiarly known to the people by the name of the 'Stag House; ' and for one batch of them, who could not be trusted with liberty, there was one of the yards of that prison and the surrounding cells assigned to them; which is still called the 'Stag Yard.' These persons were considered under the immediate protection of Majors Sirr, Swan, and Sandys, and to interfere with them in the course of their duties as spies or witnesses was to incur the vengeance of their redoubtable patrons. * They were known to the people by the name of the Battalion of Testimony.'"-Madden's "United Irishmen," vol. ii., p. 379.

The case of Hevey v. Sirr (ibid, p. 380 et seq.) shows how serious a thing it was to incur the vengeance of the Major.

Curran's often-quoted description of the Battalion is not more terrible than true :— 'I speak of what your own eyes have seen, day after day, during the course of this commission, from the box where you are now sitting; the number of horrid miscreants who avowed upon their oaths that they had come from the very seat of governmentfrom the Castle, where they had been worked upon by the fear of death and the hopes of compensation to give evidence against their fellows; that the mild and wholesome councils of this government are holden over those catacombs of living death, where the wretch that is buried a man lies till his heart has time to fester and dissolve, and is then dug up a witness. Is this fancy, or is it fact? Have you not seen him after his resurrection from that tomb, after having been dug out of the region of death and corruption, make his appearance upon the table, the living image of life and of death, and the supreme arbiter of both? Have you not marked, when he entered, how the stormy wave of the multitude retired at his approach? Have you not seen how the human heart bowed to the supremacy of his power in the undissemoled homage of deferential horror? * * * Informers are worshipped in the temple of justice, even as the devil has been worshipped by pagans and savages: even so, in this wicked country, is the informer an object of judicial idolatry; even so is he soothed by the music of human groans; even so is he placated by the fumes and the blood of human sacrifices."-Speech in defence of Peter Finnerty, December 22, 1797.

O'Brien was another. This man O'Brien had in former years picked up a living as a hanger-on to the excise, in the mixed capacity of informer and (when he was drunk) impostor-personating the exciseman, and extorting bribes from delinquents. He had likewise dabbled in that branch of alchemy which supplies recipes for "making copper money look like silver money. The political events of 1797 opened a wider and more lucrative field for his talents. In April that year, O'Brien, having got himself sworn a United Irishman, gave information to a magistrate of the name of Higgins, was introduced by Mr. Higgins to Lord Portarlington, and by Lord Portarlington to Mr. Cooke and other members of the government. He was immediately put on full duty; was enlisted into a dragoon regiment quartered in Dublin (with a view, it would seem, to watch the * The following sample of an Irish crown witness of 1798 is too characteristic to be omitted. We quote from Howell's State Trials :—

'Q.-Did you ever give Purcell a recipe?

"A.-I did.

"Q.-Was it for money?

"A.-No.

"Q.-What was it?

"A. It was partly an order, where Hyland, he and I hoped to be together. It was a pass-word I gave him to go to Hyland to buy light gold that I knew was going to the country.

"Q.-Did you ever give him any other recipe ?

"A.-I do not know but I might; we had many dealings.

"Q.-Had you many dealings in recipes?

"A.-In recipes?

"Q.-I mean recipes to do a thing; as, to make a pudding, &c. Did you give him recipes of that nature?

"A. I do not know, but I might give him recipes to do a great number of things. "Q.-To do a great number of things! What are they?

"A.-Tell me the smallest hint, and I will tell the truth.

"Q.-Upon that engagement, I will tell you. Did you ever give him a recipe to turn silver into gold, or copper into silver?

"A.-Yes, for turning copper into silver.

"Q.-You have kept your word?

"A.—I said I would tell everything against myself.

"Q.-Do you consider that against yourself?

"A.-I tell you the truth. I gave him a recipe for making copper money like silver money.

"Q.-What did you give it him for? Did he make use of it? Was it to protect his copper from being changed that you did it?

"A. He was very officious to make things in a light easy way, without much trouble, to make his bread light; but I did it more in fun than profit.

"Q.-You did not care how much coin he made by it?

"A.—I did not care how much coin he made by it; he might put it upon the market-cross.

"Q. Do you say you do not care how many copper shillings he made?

"A. I did not care whether he made use of it or not.

"Q.-Upon your solemn oath, you say that you did not care how many base shillings he made in consequence of the recipe you gave him?

"A.-I did not care how many he told of it, or what he did with it.

"Q.-Had you never seen it tried?

"A.-No, I never saw the recipe I gave him tried; but I saw others tried.

"Q.-For making copper look like silver?

"A.-To be sure.

"Q. Do you recollect whether you gave him half-a-crown, upon which that recipe was tried?

"A.-I never saw it tried; but I gave him a bad half-crown. I did not give it him in payment: I did it more to humbug him than anything else."

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