306 ANNUAL REGISTER, 
shalsea Janc, and drawing his sword 
in the street, with a flourish incited 
his ruffians to action; before they 
reached the end of the Jane in which 
they were arranged, a confidential 
member of the party dis¢harged 
his blunderbuss at a person array yed 
as an officer hastily passing along ; 
and thus by a base and unprovoked 
act of assassination perished colonel 
Browne, a most respectable and me- 
ritorious Officer. This circumstance 
is the more worthy of notice, as it 
denotes the very small reliance to 
be placed on the ostentatious dis- 
play of lenity set forth in the pro- 
clamation which was subsequently 
_ discovered, and with which this 
wretched self-constituted authority 
ptoposed to commence its career of 
government. It marks too, how 
grossly its leader was the dupe of 
his own chimerica! fancy, when he 
eould believe that such men could 
‘be governed by any other principle of 
-action, save their hope and thirst 
of plunder and massacre !—Here 
we lose sight of the: general and his 
stafi—here ended his short lived 
course of military and political 
achievement! it is to be hoped (and 
there is no evidence to counteract 
the presumption) that this unfortu- 
nate enthusiast did not participate 
in the subsequent horrors of the 
night. His education, his habits 
of life, the polished and elevated 
turn of his mind and general de- 
portment, which marked him de- 
signed for better things, all concur to 
yescue his memory from, the odium 
of thoseatrocities,which however, it 
must be allowed, had solely originat- 
edinhimself. Emmett was a fana- 
tic—not a fiend. Henceforward 
we do not discern him or his brother 
conspirators any farther conspicuous 
tintil we find them fallen from their 
1805. 
day dreams of empire, beneath the 
power of the offended justice of their: 
country. 
The prison for debtors is situated 
contiguous to where was the chief 
rendezvous of the insurgents: thither 
they directed their first onset, which 
could scarcely have any other object 
than that propensity to mischief, 
which ever distinguish the commo- 
tions of arabble. The corporal of the 
ordinary guard there stationed, was 
inhumanly butchered; but meeting 
no encouragement nor succour from 
within, the assailants did not think 
fit’ to encounter the resistance of 
about twelve soldiers who stood on 
their defence ; the unhappy inhabi- 
tants of this dreary abode called 
loudly for arms, to defend their pri- 
son against the ruflians by whom it 
was beset; wisely resolving to await 
rather the chance of relief from the’ 
compassion of their country, than te 
trust to the infuriated phrenzy of a 
mob, 
The most vigorous attempt, or in- 
deed the only one which could be so 
considered in the entire affair, was 
upon a few soldiers composing an 
out-post, who overpowered by num- 
bers were put to death. A single 
dragoon riding on command from 
some of the generals on the statf of | 
Dublin was fired at and killed. 
A guard-house of the 21st regi- 
ment lay near the scene of rising ; 
whilst the main body that composed 
the guard were absent on a patrole 
party, aband of the insurgents ap- 
proached it; but the slight resist- 
ance which the remaining men could 
make, was sufficient to repel it. A 
watch house was also attacked, 
but with the like success, although 
in this latter instance, as in the 
former, the mea were mostly on 
duty. 
Having 
