Were a stranger, passing through Essex, to announce, at every village, that, on a certain night, a party, no matter of what religious persuasion, intended to spread desolation around them, by burning the houses and massacring all the inhabitants; such a threat would excite only a smile. But let us suppose, that, instead of a stranger, I, who am known in that county, should propagate a similar report, what would be the consequence? It would no doubt be concluded, that I had lost my senses. In the year 1798, a rumour of this kind was spread in various parts of Ireland: the people were threatened, that, on a certain night, the Orangemen would burn their houses, ravish their wives, and make a general massacre of the inhabitants. The story was implicitly believed; and the consequence was, that the people deserted their houses, and fled to the bogs and the mountains. But it will be said, this was during the period of rebellion; the inhabitants were ⚫ in arms; and the country was on the eve of being involved in all the horrors of a civil war. This I will readily admit; but I am sorry to say, that I saw numbers lying out of doors, in the neighbourhood of Ross, in the year 1809, in consequence of such a report being spread by a stranger; and I am con⚫vinced that, at this moment, any one in the least known, who ⚫ might spread such alarm, would cause the Catholic inhabitants of whole districts to desert their houses. Is not this a proof ⚫ that the poor live in continual apprehension, and have no con⚫fidence in their own situation? They are haunted with the • terror of persecution; they feel that they are without protectors; they are alive to the least alarm: and this must be the case, until they see the aristocracy of their own faith participating equally with the Protestants in the political power of the country. Vol. II. p. 568.

This fact speaks volumes as to the sense the Irish people have of their situation; and, after all, they are the best judges. But the proceedings which preceded and accompanied the Rebellion of 1798, are, in themselves, a sufficient proof, that the ruling party in that country holds itself quite absolved from all the principles on which governments, even those which are in form despotic, profess to act towards their subjects. The rebellion was a formidable one; and it is not our purpose here to inquire, whether it was made more formidable by the means which were employed to suppress it. The practices which were avowedly used for the discovery and suppression of it, could not have existed but in a country so divided into two castes, between which no sympathy exists. As, in the West Indies, the white planter never fears that any cruelty practised upon the slave will form a

torture, would have been in the proportion of one to ten thousand less terrible in its effects, than such an encouragement to so many thousand inquisitors, who often took no evidence but that of their malignant passions. The case of Mr Judkin Fitzgerald remains a memorable example of the manner in which they exercised the power which was so liberally conferred upon them. This man, in his petition presented to the Irish House of Commons on the 6th of April 1799, prays to be indemnified

- for certain acts done by him in suppression of the late rebellion, not justifiable in common law;' stating that he was, in the year 1798, High Sheriff of the county of Tipperary; and that finding it impossible to stop the progress of rebellion there, as in many other parts of the kingdom, or to discover the various and horrid plans intended by traitors for the destruction of his Majesty's liege subjects, he had been reduced to the necessity, in many instances, under the advice of several most respectable magistrates and gentlemen of the county, when all offer of pardon and pecuniary reward had failed, to order corporal punishment of whipping to many persons, of whose guilt he had secret information from persons whose names he could not publicly disclose, as many persons, both before and since, had been murdered for giving such information; and therefore, in order to encourage persons to give such information, the magistrates were publicly sworn to keep secret the names of informants..... That two actions had lately been had at the assizes of Clonmel, (in both of which, verdicts had been obtained against petitioner); one for words spoken; and the other for corporal punishment inflicted publicly on the 29th of May in the town of Clonmel, which was to have been attacked two days afterwards by 8000 rebels. The learned Judge, who presided at said trials, being of opinion, in point of law, that unless petitioner produced information, on oath, of the ground on which he acted, his case could not fall within the provisions of the Indemnity Act passed last Session; but that the petitioner, not feeling himself justifiable to disclose, in a public court of justice, the nature of the information on which he had acted; and knowing that many of the informations on which he had acted, were in the possession of several generals and other officers, who had since. been ordered out of the kingdom; that some of the persons who gave such information had since been banished to foreign parts; and feeling he should be guilty of a breach of faith and duty in disclosing the names of his informants remaining in the kingdom, on whose informations, secretly and confidentially given, he was induced to act as aforesaid he did decline such exposure.'-In answer to this statement, the Honourable Mr YELVERTON said, he should be one of the last men to refuse indemnity and protection to any deserving magistrate or loyal man, for acts warranted by justice or necessity, VOL. XXIX. No. 57.

I

the earth, kicked him and cut him across the forehead with his sword, and then had him stripped, tied up to the ladder, and ordered him fifty lashes.-Major Rial, an officer in the town, came up as the fifty lashes were completed, and asked Mr F. the cause.-Mr F. handed the Major a note written in French, saying, he did not himself understand French, though he understood Irish; but he (Major Rial) would find in that letter what would justify him in flogging the scoundrel to death.-Major Rial read the letter. He found it to be a note addressed for the victim-translated in these words

"Sir, I am extremely sorry, I cannot wait on you at the hour ap pointed, being unavoidably obliged to attend Sir Lawrence Parsons. "Yours, BARON DE CLUES.

Notwithstanding this translation, which Major Rial read to Mr Fitzgerald, he ordered fifty lashes more to be inflicted, and with such peculiar severity, that, horrid to relate! the bowels of the bleeding victim could be perceived to be convulsed, and working through his wounds! Mr Fitzgerald finding he could not continue the application of the cat-o-nine-tails on that part, without cutting his way into his body, ordered the waistband of his breeches to be cut open, and fifty more lashes to be inflicted there. He then left the unfortunate man bleeding and suspended, while he went to the barrack to demand a file of men to come and shoot him; but being refused by the commanding officer, he came back and sought for a rope to hang him, but could not get one. He then ordered him to be cut down, and sent back to prison, where he was confined in a dark small room, with no other furniture than a wretched pallet of straw, without covering, and there he remained six or seven days without medical assistance.

The fact most indicative of the state of feeling in the country at that time is, that the actor in this scene of cruelty, than which nothing more disgusting ever passed between slavemasters and slaves, not only obtained a bill of indemnity, a title and a pension, (for these things are conceivable enough), but found defenders in the House of Commons, who justified the general spirit of his proceedings, and who derided any concern at the sufferings of the innocent man. Mr Holmes praised the conduct of the petitioner, and said there was scarcely a man on whom corporal punishment had been inflicted to extort confession, who did not acknowledge guilt, and discover wide extended accompliceship in treason. Mr Ormsby severely censured the honourable member (Mr Yelverton) who had endeavoured to excite the feelings and commiseration of the House for the sore back of a fellow, who he believed would be found, on inquiry,

*Plowden's Historical Review of the State of Ireland, Vol. II. † p. 953.

P. 955.