accounts for the union of all defcriptions of men in the late oppofition to Government.' It is worthy of notice, that he styles Rebellion, Oppofition to Governis ment; fo indeed it is with a vengeance! In page 47 the following obfervation: It is difficult to compre⚫hend the wisdom of that system, which drove Protestant, 'Prefbyterian, and Catholic, into a defperate union against "it.' - There are many other strokes of the fame nature dispersed through his pamphlet. To begin with the first affertion; that of the Irish Directory four were Protestants, and only one Romanift; the truth is, there was not one of the five a Proteftant: four of them were profeffed Deifts or Atheifts, difciples of Mr. Thomas Paine; and the fifth, M'Nevin, was a bigoted Romanift: he declared indeed, on his examination before the Committee of the House of Lords, that he and his party meant to fubvert the present Proteftant Church Establishment, and not to establish any religion in its room, but he well knew that the fubversion of the Protestant Establishment in Ireland would of itself be the establishment of Popery. There was not one Proteftant engaged in the Rebellion, except a few of the meaneft of the Diffenting class, in a corner of the North of Ireland, unlefs the avowed difciples of Mr. Paine are to be accounted Proteftants. These Diffenters were feduced into it, by plaufible pretences of Reform of Parliament and Abolition of Tithes: but the barbarous conduct of the Leinster Rebels, in maffacring all Proteftants they could lay their hands on in cold blood, foon convinced them of their error; and one of their leaders, an attorney by profeffion, being taken and hanged, at his execution declared that he and his party were then fully convinced, if they had fucceeded, that they must have fought the battle over again; that

is,

is, that they would have to fight their Romish confderates, who they perceived intended to destroy all. Proteftants. A great proportion of the Infurgents in the North were Romanifts; for in both the counties of Down and Antrim, in which the Northern Infurrection happened, there are many Romish inhabitants. This Infurrection was very fpeedily quelled. The leaders of the Diffenters concerned in it were all notorious fe&taries, -Arians, Socinians, or Deifts; there was not one real Christian Diffenter engaged in it, except a very few of the meaneft of the people, who were cheated into it in the manner I have already mentioned, All Protestant Diffenters of any account, who were real Christians, joined heart and hand with the Proteftants of the Establishment throughout the nation, and fought courageously against the Infurgents,

The great strength of the Rebels lay in the province of Leinster, and they were to a man Romanifts, except about fix, who were profeffed Painites. Mr. Bagenal Harvey was one of these. A few days before the Rebellion broke out he had been arrested on a charge of Treafon, by order of Government, and was confined in the gaol of Wexford. When the Rebels got poffeffion of that town, foon after the commencement of the Infurrection, they liberated Mr. Harvey; and as he was a.. man of some estate and intereft in the county, they chose, him for a nominal leader only, and he marched with them to the attack of Rofs. His command was merely nominal: he never had any effectual authority among them. As foon as they were defeated at Rofs, they de-, pofed him, and chofe a Romish Farmer, one Roach, who had been the permanent Serjeant of a Yeomanry

Corps,

Corps, and had deferted, one of their Generals; together with a number of others, all Romanists, to wit, Sutton, Fitzgerald, Parry, Hay, Roach, and Murphy, the two laft Romish Priests, and many other Priests.. They first affembled in the county of Wexford, by parishes, at the respective Romish chapels, and were generally headed by their Priests. Mr. Harvey, when he saw them commence the maffacre of the Proteftants, which he was unable to prevent, fpoke feelingly, to a friend he hap'pened to fall in with, of his own fituation: "I fee now 'my folly,' faid he, in embarking in this caufe with these people: if they fucceed, I shall be murdered by ⚫ them; if they are defeated, I shall be hanged.'

The aggregate body of the Leinster Rebels, all Romanists, affembled in the county of Wexford. Their defeats and dispersion I have already ftated. Their barbarity was not exceeded by their inhuman forefathers in the maffacre of the Proteftants in the year 1641. The diocefe of Ferns, in which this Rebellion broke out, was remarkable for a very pious, regular, and resident body of Proteftant Clergy. The Bishop was almost always. refident, and had not for many years abfented himself from the diocefe for a fortnight in each year, previous to 1798, though his refidence was within fifty miles of the city of Dublin. He attended to his episcopal duty, in every branch of it, with the greatest zeal and activity. In this calamitous year of Rebellion, he had, contrary to his ufual custom, refided in Dublin about two months, immediately previous to its breaking out; and was at that time, very fortunately for himself and his family, abfent from Ferns; otherwife he would have certainly fallen a facrifice to the bigoted fury of the Rebels. They

were

were therefore obliged to content themselves with the plunder and dilapidation of his houfe, which had been but lately erected, and on which he and his predeceffor had expended above ten thousand pounds. They burned his library, and deftroyed his furniture. On the first burft of the Infurrection, the Rebels murdered, in the most barbarous manner, all the Proteftant Clergymen : they could lay their. hands on. The Rev. Meffrs. Turner, Burrowes, Throke, Pentland, and Heydon, fell facrifices to their fanguinary bigotry. They in fome days after took the Reverend Mr. Owen prifoner: they.. tortured, him, and he was thereby for fome time bereft of his reafon. His life was fpared by fome. accident, as was that of the Reverend Mr. Francis, who, notwithstanding, was so much reduced by famine (the Rebels having for many days allowed him no fubfiftence but fome potatoes which had been cut into pieces for the purpose of planting), that he died fhortly after he was delivered. from them. They caufed their Priests to baptize, two or three other Proteftant Clergymen who had fallen into their hands, and their lives were, fpared on their fubmitting to have fuch a ceremony performed upon them; the Rebels esteeming fuch fubmiffion an abjuration of their religion, and an adoption into the Romish Church. The Reverend Mr. Heydon, already mentioned, was a native of the county of Wexford, had spent almost his whole life there, was near eighty years of age, and was as charitable a man, and as much efteemed," as any in the county. The Rebels infifted that he should fubmit to be baptized, which he declining to do, they immediately pierced him with their pikes, and he fell dead in the presence of his wife: they ftripped his body, and it lay expofed in the streets of Ennifcorthy for nine,

days,

ཝ

days, till it was almost devoured by the fwine. Some of the Rebels, lefs ferocious than the others, buried the body privately at night in the church-yard: the next day others of them dug it up, and flung it into the street. Such was the fate of this ancient Clergyman, as respectable in his profeffion as any either in Great Britain or Ireland, who feemed to be beloved, and deferved to be fo, by all his parishioners, whether Proteftants or Romanifts. Most of the other Proteftant Clergymen in the diocese were lucky enough to escape from these barbarians, fome of them in open boats, across the channel into Wales, carrying nothing with them but the clothes on their backs; they all loft their properties, which were feized on as plunder by the Rebels.

Previous to the battle of Rofs, the Rebels had collected all the Proteftants, men, women, and children, they could lay their hands on, in their march from Wexford to the battle. These they left prifoners in the custody of one of their captains, a farmer, of the name of Murphy, at the house of Mr. King, a Protestant gentleman (who luckily escaped from their fury), at a place called Scollobogue, fome miles diftant from Rofs. About fixty men were confined in the manfion-house, and the reft, men, women, and children, to the number of one hundred and eighty-five, in the adjacent barn. On the day of the battle of Rofs, the Rebels difpatched a meffenger to Murphy, to defire him, in the name of their General, to put all the prifoners to death, as the King's troops were getting the better, and the prisoners would escape. Murphy at first hefitated, and defired a written order to warrant this barbarous execution; but a fecond meffage, to the fame effect, was fhortly after delivered to him

from