122

CORNWALLIS'S MODERATE MEASURES. CH. XXXVIII.

the Romanist party. One of the Viceroy's measures seemed indeed to go to the verge of moderation. The prisons were crowded with persons of various conditions, every one of whom was probably liable to the penalties of treason. With seventy-three of these men, the most active and intelligent of the rebel leaders, the Irish Government opened a communication; the result of which was, that the prisoners, in consideration of their lives being spared, and of the sentence of death which had been already passed upon Oliver Bond, one of their chiefs, being commuted to banishment, agreed to expatriate themselves and to make a full disclosure of the plot, with the exception of such information as would be evidence against any member of their body. The Protestants, who regarded the suppression of the revolt as the triumph of their party, did not suppress their indignant murmurs at a clemency which stinted them of their revenge. Even the Government at home thought Cornwallis had gone too far in treating with criminals on such easy terms; and Lord Grenville expressed an opinion that the Irish Government had become party to a misprision of treason in allowing the prisoners to withhold evidence against their accomplices. This was to say that a felon who does not turn approver is guilty of misprision of felony; a doctrine which crown lawyers would have considered somewhat novel. But Cornwallis, fresh from the Government of India, and inured to habits of military command, seems to have cared as little for the opinion of the British Cabinet † on these questions as for the opinion of the Orangemen of Armagh. His object was to restore the public peace as quickly as possible,

* Courts and Cabinets of George the Third, vol. ii. p. 406.

+ Lord Grenville repeatedly complains that he was kept in ignorance of Irish affairs, and

that he knew no more than he found in the Gazette.-Courts and Cabinets of George the Third, vol. ii. p. 406.

1798.

EXECUTION OF GROGAN AND HARVEY.

123

and to give no triumph to either of the religious factions which distracted the country. Many of the State prisoners were sincere and honourable men, who, though repenting the excesses into which they had been hurried, and willing to repair the mischief they had caused, would have died rather than purchase their lives by the betrayal of their companions in guilt. What the Lord Lieutenant wanted was not blood, of which enough had been already shed, but information such as the chief actors in the rebellion could supply. Accordingly, among others, O'Connor, Emmett, Neilson, and M'Nevin, gave evidence before secret committees of the Irish Parliament, and furnished the materials for reports which gave an authentic summary of the origin and progress and character of the rebellion.* Bills of attainder were passed against Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Grogan, and Bagenal Harvey; the two latter having been taken in arms and executed after the defeat and dispersion of the principal rebel force, called the army of Wexford. After these proceedings, followed the amnesty in accordance with the Lord Lieutenant's proclamation. From this act of grace thirty persons only were excepted. These were persons who had fled the country, or who had been foremost in deeds of bloodshed and rapine.

Some weeks after the rebellion had degenerated into a scattered and fugitive banditti, the Bonaparte's disFrench Government tardily yielded to the trust of the Irish. urgent representations of the Irish emissaries, and fitted out an expedition for a second attempt at invasion. Bonaparte, who knew the qualities of men, had little confidence in a cause which was represented by reckless and vaunting adventurers like the Napper Tandys and the Wolfe Tones; and though well aware that Ireland was the vulnerable part of the British

* See Report of House of Commons, Annual Register, vol. xl p. 265.

124

LANDING OF GENERAL HUMBERT. CH. XXXVIII.

Isles, he waited for an assurance that the rebellion had substantial support, before he risked, for a second time, the success of a French enterprise upon Irish co-operation. Nor was he in any degree flattered by the servility with which the Irish revolutionists imitated the French Revolution at the period of its greatest vigour. It was in vain that they burnt their enemies alive-that they tossed children upon pikes -that, in dealing with their prisoners at the camp of Vinegar Hill, they copied the precedent of the Abbaye that they called each other citizens, and styled their Government a Directory. The proposal that the French Republicans should aid their brethren in Ireland on the footing of equals and allies was treated with almost open derision. The only question with the Directory at Paris and their Generals was, whether the force which they had assigned for the conquest and annexation of the island would meet with such efficient local aid as would make it worth their while to face the fleets and armies of Great Britain. It is probable, that the French would have made no attempt on Ireland at this time, but for the rashness of a subordinate officer who commanded a brigade of the army destined for the expedition to Ireland. General Humbert, who was quartered at Rochelle, ventured, as it appears, without orders, to embark his force, consisting of about a thousand men, in two frigates, and set sail for Ireland. He effected a landing at Killala, in the county of Mayo, on the 22nd of August; and having dispersed a corps of yeomanry which offered resistance, he marched to the town of Castlebar, where General Lake, the Commander of the forces, was stationed, with three thousand men. Humbert, having left two hundred men at Killala, to keep open his communications with the sea, advanced with only eight hundred soldiers, and a rabble of about fifteen hundred Irish, to attack the English General. His situation was so

*

125

desperate, that his only alternative was to fight, or to surrender at discretion. In a regular campaign, a General, in such circumstances as Humbert found himself, would hardly have been justified in fighting a pitched battle against such odds. But the Generals of the Revolution were not bred in the regular school of war, and Humbert determined to try his fortune. His little army, more than two-thirds of which consisted of irregulars, was threatened with annihilation by the well-appointed artillery of the English; but by a rapid movement on the flank, Humbert obtained an advantage, which decided the fortune of the day. The British force was thrown into disorder, a rout ensued, the broken battalions fled, many of the militia and yeomanry deserting to the enemy, and were pursued to the town of Athlone, a distance of seventy miles from the field. Many of the militia and yeomanry deserted to the enemy during the action. The French then marched towards Sligo; but they were held in check by Colonel Vereker, with a detachment of less than three hundred militia, until Lord Cornwallis himself came up. The French General had advanced, in the hope that he would be joined by the country people; but the accessions to his ranks were few; and with thirty thousand men before him, he could neither advance nor retreat. Humbert, therefore, laid down his arms; but as he was in no condition to exact terms for his rebel auxiliaries, these people were pursued and put to the sword. Between eight and nine hundred French soldiers, including officers, being the whole invading force, which had survived the short campaign, surrendered to the English General.

The promptitude of Lord Cornwallis prevented a revival of the insurrection in a more formidable

*This battle was long known by the opprobrious designation of the Castlebar Races.

126 FRENCH TROOPS LANDED IN RUTLAND. CH. xxxvIII.

Promptitude of

shape. Three thousand rebels were already on their march to join Humbert, when they were Lord Cornwallis. intercepted by the English army. If the French General could have maintained his footing for a few weeks, he would have been supported by large reinforcements from France. As it was, the information of his success at Castlebar determined the hesitation of the Directory, and a seventy-four gun ship, with eight frigates, conveying three thousand troops, was despatched, under the orders of Admiral Bompart, to the coast of Ireland. About a week after Humbert's corps had laid down their arms, a French brig landed a party on the island of Rutland, near the coast of Donegal. This detachment was under the command of Napper Tandy, who now bore a commission in the French service; but, on hearing of the fate of Humbert, Tandy re-embarked, and made his escape to Norway. On the 11th of October, Bompart's squadron was pursued by a portion of the Channel fleet, of seven ships, under Sir John Borlase Warren. After a chase of twenty-four hours, in tempestuous weather, Warren came up with the enemy off Lough Swilly. The chase had been so severe, that the French ship of the line had carried away her mainmast. Bompart nevertheless immediately formed in line of battle, and, after a gallant defence of nearly four hours, the Frenchman struck. The frigates attempted to escape, but three of them were taken. Four more ships were fallen in with, and surrendered, on subsequent days, to Captain Graham Moore, Captain Martin, and Captain Durham. Thus the whole of the French expedition, with the exception of one frigate and the brig which conveyed Napper Tandy, was captured. All the ships were heavily laden with troops, arms, stores, and ammunition. Among the prisoners was Wolfe Tone, who had been foremost in organising the United Irishmen, and was indeed the only man among the