der general Lake in the northern district, where he commanded: many seizures of concealed arms and ammunition were made. In the execution of these orders, some barbarous outrages were committed by the military, which tended to inflame and exasperate the minds of the people, which were already too highly inflamed. Not only some women and children had been murdered, but the houses of some respectable persons were pillaged and demolished, upon the bare suspicion of their being United Irishmen.* Great discontent was created in the north, by a

to provide arms and ammunition; and to alarm, as the report states, the "existence of the government, with the number of its proselytes, procured by these two popular subjects-parliamentary reform, and Catholic emancipation. It appears, then, that they have recruited by these topics, and have "spread their influence, notwithstanding your system of coercion every where "that notwithstanding your convention bill of 1793, that this convention has grown; that notwithstanding your gunpowder act, it has armed and increas"ed its military stores under that act, that notwithstanding your insurrection "act, another bill to disarm, it has greatly added to its magazines; and that notwithstanding the suspension of the habeas corpus bill, and general Lake's proclamation, it has multiplied its proselytes. I should have asked, had I "been on the secret committee, whether the number of United Irishmen had "not increased very much since general Lake's proclamation, and by general "Lake's proclamation. It appears, I say, from that report, that just as your system of coercion advanced, the United Irishmen advanced; that the measures you took to coerce, strengthened; to disperse, collected; to disarm, “armed; to render them weak and odious, made them popular and powerful; "whereas, on the other hand, you have loaded parliament and government " with the odium of an oppressive system, and with the further odium of re"jecting these two popular topics, which you allow are the most likely to gain "the heart of the nation, and be the beloved objects of the people."

Mr. Grattan closed his speech and the debate with these words: "We have offered you our measure; you will reject it: we deprecate yours; you will persevere having no hopes left to persuade or dissuade, and having dis"charged our duty, we shall trouble you no more, and after this day shall not "attend the House of Commons." 17 Par. Deb. p. 570.

* It is not my object to rehearse every feat of cruelty or outrage committed either by the military or the rebels: there are too many, alas, on both sides. I would not be thought to hazard general assertions loosely; and therefore merely mention some few instances, which began as early as the Spring of 1797: In the barony of Lower Orion, in the county of Armagh, one Birch, under a military escort with his hands tied behind him, was cut down by the serjeant, and died of his wounds; the pretext was, that some countrymen attracted by curiosity came near them and intended to attempt a rescue; and on the night of the wake of the deceased, some soldiers, under command of colonel Sparrow, broke into the house, took out the corpse, and severely wounded and mangled those who were in the house. The colonel was tried and found guilty, though he had the king's pardon in his pocket, which he produced upon the sentence being pronounced against him. A party of the Essex fencibles burnt the house and furniture of one Potter, a respectable farmer, because his wife, who had seven infant children, either would not or could not tell where her husband was. Another party of the same regiment quartered at Enniskillen, broke open the house of Farmer Durman, at two o'clock, murdered one and wounded another of his sons whilst in bed. The like outrages were committed at Coolairll upon one Price an innkeeper, and his daughter, who were both dangerously wounded.

VOL. IV.

proclamation published by general Lake on the 13th of March, 1797,* which was made in consequence of a letter written to him by Mr. Pelham, setting forth the alarming and desperate state of the north. The newspaper, called the Morning Star, which was published at Belfast, was the paper into which all the bold attacks upon the ministers and publi cations in favour of liberty found their way it was of course extremely obnoxious to government. The proprietors of it, Robert and William Simms, had been some time (i. e. from the 5th of February) committed to Newgate in Dublin, under the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. The person, who then conducted the paper having been required, refused to insert a paragraph in it, which reflected on the loyalty of the people of Belfast: the next morning a detachment of the military issued very orderly from the barracks, attacked the printing office, and utterly demolished every part of it. Several other outrages were committed by the military on the inhabitants of Belfast: the house of Cunningham Gregg, esq. was destroyed with impunity, and without any pretext or provocation for such an outrage. The harshness of this military despotism drove many to desperation, who had till then been loyally and peaceably disposed. No European nation more keenly sympathizes with the sufferings of their unoffending relatives than the Irish; none more prompt to make the resentment of them a common cause. It has been before‡ remarked, by the king's attorney general, that there is no nation under the sun, that love equal and indifferent justice better than the Irish; or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves. If these sentiments still mark the national characteristic (experience daily shews they do) it is difficult to prove, that the system of sending unarraigned persons on board the tenders, and flagellating and torturing untried individuals to extort confessions either of themselves or others, of burning and destroying the houses and property of persons either slightly suspected, or maliciously charged, of inflicting punishments on men, committing outrages on women, and devastating houses, villages, and whole districts with impu nity, under the semblance of law and countenance of government, should not goad a people of warm and quick sensibility into hatred, revenge, and frenzy, rather than reclaim them from rashness, or reduce them to mildness and obedience. It was

Both this letter and the proclamation may be seen in the Appendix, No. CIV.

It is credibly reported, that after the destruction of the Morning Star printing office, an officer, high in command, exclaimed in triumph, "We may "now do as we please, for as the Star is demolished, no other paper dares to "publish any act we may do."

Viz. Sir John Davies, 1 Vol. p. 22:

however the avowed opinion of government, that the treason was in the course of the winter 1796, and the spring of 1797, too deeply rooted to yield to the remedy of the law, even where it was put in force by the magistrates with activity.* Such an assumption was prominently calculated to open the door to the strongest measures, and the general command given to the civil and military officers by proclamation to use the exertions of their utmost force, and to oppose with their full power all such as should resist them in the execution of their duty, which was to search for and seize concealed arms, admitted of a latitude of power, not very likely to be temperately regulated by raw troops let in upon a country denounced rebellious, and devoted to military rigour, as a necessary substitute for the inefficacy of the municipal law. A regiment of cavalry, called the Ancient Britons, commanded by sir Watkin William Wynne, were at all times prominently conspicuous for the rigorous execution of any orders for devastation, destruction, or extermination. They were marked for it by the rebels, and in the course of the rebellion they were cut to pieces almost to a man.

In this convulsed state of the nation, the difference of opinion between the two parties in parliament was not upon the necessity, *but upon the likeliest mode of restoring tranquillity. The opinions and measures of government were uniformly adopted, and unexceptionably acted upon: they therefore produced their effects. Whether or no an opposite system of conciliation, if acted upon, would have prevented the calamities, which afterwards ensued, still rests in doubt, as every theory essentially must.† The secret committee have made an assertion, though without any voucher for its truth, that contradicts the evidence of Mr. Stewart of Acton above referred to given on oath, namely, that since the establishment of the union the atrocities formerly so frequent in those parts had greatly subsided. Of the quantity of arms, which appeared by their own reports to be in the hands of the disaffected, comparatively few were obtained by the search then made in Ulster by general Lake's orders; and it is also to be ob

• Report of secret committee in 1788. 17 Com. Journ. p. 899.

† If an individual from close attention to all the circumstances of the late transactions may presume to offer his opinion, it is, that a system of conciliation would not have diverted some of the leading and most inveterate traitors from their ambitious and nefarious projects; but it would have defeated them by regaining and securing to government the great mass of the people, without whose concurrence these arch-rebels must have dropped their iniquitous designs. They consequently wished for nothing more than a continuance and even aggravation of that system of coercive irritation. The alienation of every heart from government was an accession to their strength. I do not attribute this determined malice to every one of the gentlemen, who unfortunately engaged in the union. I believe that a change of system would have reclaimed

several.

served, that previously to, and during the circuit which took place in the month of April, 1797, acts of violence of every description became more frequent, and were at the same time so systematically directed, with a view to stop the course of criminal justice against the United Irishmen, that the crown prosecutions in the disturbed counties proved from their failure an encouragement rather than a restraint upon the treasonable projects of the party.

The report of the secret committee was soon after followed by a proclamation, which after reciting many acts of outrage and rebellion that had been committed, and offering pardon, with certain exceptions, to all persons guilty of the said offences, who should surrender within the period of a month, and give security for their future good behaviour, declared, that the civil power had proved ineffectual, and that it became necessary to employ the military force for the immediate suppression of such rebellious attempts. Notwithstanding which measure of mercy and warning to the disaffected, in, the latter end of May, a general insurrection in Ulster was decided on, and the plan of attack for each county arranged.

That proclamation, which was published on the 17th of May, was sent to lord Carhampton, with a letter from Mr. Pelham, on the 18th of May, in consequence of which his lordship immediately published the following order. "In obedience to the or"der of the lord lieutenant in council, it is the commander in "chief's commands, that the military do act* without waiting "for directions from the civil magistrates in dispersing any tu"multuous or unlawful assemblies of persons threatening the peace of the realm, and the safety of the lives and properties "of his majesty's loyal subjects wheresoever collected."+ We are further informed by the secret committee, that the intention of a general insurrection transpired, and was defeated by the. active exertions of the army; notwithstanding which a partial rising did take place near the mountains in the county of Down,

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A very savage abuse of this latitude of power appears in the following instance. Information had been lodged, that a house near Newry contained concealed arms; a party of the Ancient Britons repaired to the house; but not finding the object of their search, they set it on fire: the peasantry of the neighbourhood came running from all sides to extinguish the flames, believing the fire to have been accidental; it was the first military conflagration in that part of the country. As they came up they were attacked in all directions, and cut down by the fencibles: thirty were killed, among whom were a woman and two children. An old man of seventy years of age, seeing the dreadful slaughter of his neighbours and friends, fled for safety to some adjacent rocks; he was pursued, and though on his knees imploring mercy, his head was cut off at a blow.

The proclamation and Mr. Pelham's letter, which preceded and occasion, ed this order, are to be seen in the Appendix, No. CV.

where the insurgents, finding themselves unsupported, soon dispersed. The effect of the measures then adopted was immediately felt; the arms of the disaffected by necessary acts of coercion were collected throughout the province in great numbers; the loyal were encouraged to declare themselves; such as had been misled, came in crowds to take the benefit of the proclamation of pardon, which was now extended for another month; outrage ceased, and public confidence was so far restored throughout Ulster in the course of the months of July and August, that the laws were administered with effect in the different counties during the Summer circuit, and the manufacturing industry of the country was restored to its usual vigour during the remainder of that year and during and subsequent to the Summer assizes, the civil authority was found throughout Ulster fully adequate to the preservation of the public peace, and all military interference was generally discontinued from that period.

Henceforward also the inferior societies of United Irishmen, in general, discontinued their meetings; the people applied themselves to their ordinary occupations; and though some of the higher committees were kept alive by the active leaders in the treason, yet for several months only a proportion of the counties of Ulster were represented in the provincial committee; the others refused to send delegates; little money was collected; they could not succeed in reviving the inferior societies; although they encouraged each other in the hopes of bringing the lower orders of the people again into action in case the enemy should land, they were not able to make any impression of consequence till the insurrection in Leinster was on the point of breaking forth; such the committee stated to be the beneficial consequences arising from the measures adopted in the year 1797. The leaders of the treason, apprehensive lest the enemy might be discouraged from any further plan of invasion, by the loyal disposition manifested throughout Munster and Connaught on their former attempt, determined to direct all their exertions to the propagation of the system in those provinces, which had hitherto been but partially infected. With this view emissaries were sent into the south and west in great numbers, of whose success in forming new societies and administering the oaths of the union, there were in the course of some few months, but too evident proofs in the introduction of the same disturbances and enormities into Munster, with which the northern province had been so severely visited.

In May, 1797, although numbers had been sworn both in Munster and Leinster, the strength of the organization, exclusively of Ulster, lay chiefly in the metropolis, and in the neighbouring counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Westmeath, and