CHAP. X.]

SECESSION OF THE OPPOSITION.

347

recall. Pitt had behaved ill-he jockied Lord Fitzwilliam -he did not jockey me-he was playing tricks: he treated Lord Fitzwilliam very ill. I regret the proceedings-we were angry it was not wise-but there is no man who in a long public life will not be guilty of some political errors. The Government behaved shockingly. There was treason, no doubt;-but treason was no excuse for their conductthey punished the poor creatures that were deluded, and permitted to live, those who had deluded them. They did not treat the people as if they were Christians—they treated them not like rebel Christians, but like rebel dogs; and afterwards, when these men who had thus acted came to be tried at the Union, they sold themselves and their country-it was infamous! The question men should have asked was not, Why was Mr. Sheares upon the gallows?" but, Why was not Lord Clare along with him?"

The Government attacked me. I knew they hated me. They attacked me with all the bitterness they possessed. They were malignant and rancorous-they had nothing against me they forged something-they produced a report in which I was accused of having had an interview with Neilson-and so negligent and so rancorous were they in their attack, that they contradicted themselves on the face of it. They made me hold an interview with Neilson at the very time I was attending a trial at Maidstone-that was notorious-and this they sent to the King. I told them I defied them;-they said they had papers. I called on them to produce them-I bid them do all they could-I told them I would neither give nor receive quarter-I asked how could such men dare to question any man?—they who were criminals, and who were in rebellion against the constitution of their country. It was not necessary for me to apologize for not having joined them;-it might be necessary perhaps to offer some reason to posterity why I had not joined the rebels. I would do neither;-the one was a rebel to his King— the other, to his country. In the conscientious sense of the word rebel, there should have been a gallows for the rebel, and there should have been a gallows for the ministers. These men were endeavouring for a long series of years to undo what had been done, and destroy that freedom which the country had obtained;-they were, by corruption, restoring that power which had been abandoned, and which had formerly been obtained by usurpa

tion. I defied them. My reply to Corry produced great effect;-Berwick was there, and he can tell the effect it produced. These men could say nothing in defence of themselves. It might be necessary to say why we had not rebelled-a rebellion may be necessary-in some cases it ought to take place; but no man would rebel with O'Connor. Men will make the distinction, and will say, Why did they not join O'Connor?" The conduct of the Government will be detested. O'Connor may have been a man of honour-Clare could not. Men will be more blamed in history for having joined the Government, than they would if they had joined the rebels.

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Such was the statement of Mr. Grattan to Barrington.

By their spies and informers,* Government were apprised of the meetings of the United Irishmen, and could, if they thought proper, have prevented them; but they allowed them to go on, and thus fermented the Rebellion. They knew they had lost the affections of the people. They wanted the Union, just as Parsons and the Government in 1640 wanted confiscations, and they were determined on effecting, by these means, their favourite object. This appears from the facts related by Lord Clonmell, as stated in the Second Volume of these memoirs, p. 145, from which it is manifest that they could have crushed the conspiracy at the outset, and have prevented the insurrection. Lord Clonmell actually informed one of the conspirators, for whom he entertained some regard, that he knew where he had attended their meetings, and with whom, and advised him to leave the kingdom immediately, or that he would be apprehended, as Government knew all about him ;-this person left Ireland that night, and thus Lord Clonmell probably saved his life, as they sent to arrest him next

* In addition to Lord Moira's list may be added the notorious Jemmy O'Brien (who was hanged at last); Hughes, the spy sent to Tinnehinch; Reynolds, who gave the information as to Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the Leinster Delegates; and Armstrong, who betrayed the Sheares.

CHAP. X.] ARREST OF LEINSTER DELEGATES.

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349

day. The dying declarations of Lord Clonmell to his nephew, Dean Scott, (a relation of Mr. Grattan,*) the destruction of the letter which he thought exposed the duplicity of Government, and his remarks at that awful period, (his death,) THAT THEY ALLOWED THE UNITED MEN TO GO ON, IN ORDER TO CARRY THE UNION, AND THAT SUCH WAS THEIR DESIGN," must remove all further doubt upon the subject. This attaches a heavy charge against the Irish ministers, and affixes to their memories a disgrace that is indelible.

Lord Clonmell was at that time displeased with the Government, but in his convivial as in his confidential moments was communicative, and apt to tell truths. An instance may be mentioned in the advice he gave to Mr. Lawless (Lord Cloncurry); he said that he entertained a sincere regard for him; that troublesome times were arising; that his spirit would cause him to take a part in them, and that it would be a wise plan to get his father to send him away from Ireland :-"As to myself," added Lord Clonmell, "if I were to begin life again, I would rather be a chimney-sweeper than be connected with the Irish Government. These were his words. This was Lord Clonmell's opinion of the men who composed the ministry in Ireland, and whose conduct appeared to him so indefensible and dishonest. Let us now turn to their opponents, the United Irishmen.

About the 22nd or 23rd of February, 1798, one of the United party, a person of the name of Reynolds, a silk mercer, disclosed to a Mr. Cope the proceedings of his associates; and on the 12th of March, in consequence of his information, fourteen of the Leinster delegates, forming

* He was married to Miss Bushe, a niece of Mr. Grattan's.

+ Cope, it was said, got 5,000l. and 1,500l. a-year pension. Reynolds bargained for 500/., the price of his information, but he so connected himself with Lord Castlereagh, then appointed secretary, that he forced the

the Provincial committee, were arrested at the house of Oliver Bond, a merchant in Dublin. Thomas Addis Emmett, Doctor M'Nevin, Oliver Bond, John Sweetman, a brewer, two Jacksons, ironmongers, and Richard M'Cormick, a tradesman, were also apprehended; and warrants were issued against Wm. Sampson, a lawyer, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald. The latter escaped, and the former was some weeks afterwards taken at Whitehaven. The papers of the committee were brought to the Government, and these disclosed the extent of the conspiracy.† The Privy Council examined the prisoners, ordered the Castle to be put in a state of defence, augmented the military force in the city, and on the 30th issued a proclamation, which stated-

“That a traitorous conspiracy, existing within the kingdom, for the destruction of the established government, had been considerably extended, and had manifested itself in acts of open rebellion; and that in consequence thereof the most direct and positive orders had been issued to the officers commanding his Majesty's forces to employ them with the utmost vigour and decision for the immediate latter to bring him forward in society. Under the Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsular war, he was made postmaster of Lisbon, and was also called on a grand jury of the county of Middlesex, which excited no inconsiderable indignation.

* Their names were those of men in the middling rank of life, possessed of little influence, and very little property; quite insignificant, and incapable of raising or conducting a civil war, if it had not been for Mr. Pitt and Lord Clare.

Peter Ivers, County of Carlow; Laurence Kelly, Queen's County; George Cummin, Kildare County; Edward Hudson, Grafton Street; John Lynch, Marey's Abbey; Lawrence Griffin, Carlow County; Thomas Reynolds, Clomellon; John M'Cann, Church Street; Patrick Devine, Dublin County; Thomas Traynor, Poolbeg Street; Wm. Michael Byrne, Wicklow County; Christopher Martin, Dunboyne; Peter Bannon, Queen's County; James Rose, Dublin County.

The number of armed men in the province of Leinster only amounted up to the 20th of February, 1798, to 67,295, and their treasury but to 1485l. 4s. 9d.

In the County of Wicklow, 12,895 men; Carlow County, 9,414; Kildare County, 10,863; Queen's County, 11,689; Meath County, 14,000; Kilkenny County, 604.

The return made to the Irish Parliament, of the arms seized and

CHAP. X.] COMPOSITION OF INSURRECTIONISTS. 351

suppression of this conspiracy, and for the disarming of the rebels, and all disaffected persons, by the most summary and effectual measures.'

It is worth while to examine the composition and character of the party who brought about the insurrection, and subsequently caused the Union. They were, in a great degree, democratic. They had given proofs of their existence as far back as 1782, on the repeal of the 6th of Geo. I.,— in the election of a military convention in 1783, -in their proceedings towards a measure of reform in 1784; in the formation of the United Irishmen in 1791; in the proceeding in 1793 with regard to the Catholics in the north, and in Dublin; in their attacks on the opposition in 1793, and on Mr. Grattan and the supporters of the war in 1794. The tendencies of this party were Republican, independent of, and uninfluenced by the higher orders, by the aristocracy, or by the Parliamentary opposition, the latter of whom they had repeatedly attacked, and the former of whom they looked on with aversion, as purchased by the minister to betray the people. They were composed (with regard to their magnitude) of the most active of the old Volunteers. They conceived that they had procured the trade and constitution of their country in 1779 and 1782, and they expected great changes therefrom. They

taken by the military under fifteen generals throughout Ireland, from March to August, 1798, shows how inefficient and ill arranged the preparations of the insurgents must have been; they only amounted to 48,109 guns; 1755 bayonets; 4,463 pistols; 4,183 swords; 70,630 pikes; 248 blunderbusses; 22 ordnance; 119 musket barrels. Numbers of these arms belonged to well affected persons, and to the gentry of the country, who were obliged to give them up to Government. Such was the case at Tinnehinch and its vicinity; but they served to swell up the number, and so cast obloquy upon the people.

In his Life of Pitt, Gifford, as well as other writers, connects the United party with the members of the Opposition; but on examination, it will appear that they generally attacked them, never consulted them, and greatly mistrusted them.-See Tone's Memoirs.-Evidence before Secret Committee.-Pieces of Irish History, &c.