IRELAND (HISTORY.) 



119 



known or suspected to be disaffected ; and their 

 behaviour was such as in most instances might be 

 expected from men of their habits and feelings, 

 hitherto little accustomed to strict discipline. 



The insurgents did not seem intimidated by these 

 proceedings against them; and as they were ignorant 

 that government were acquainted with their plans, 

 they still persevered in the determination to rise in a 

 body on a fixed day. Before that day arrived, how- 

 ever, government caused lord Edward Fitzgerald, 

 who had contrived the plan of attack, and who was 

 distinguished for his boldness, talents, and influence, 

 to be arrested. He made a desperate resistance, and 

 died soon afterwards of a wound which he received 

 before he was taken. The two brothers Sheares, and 

 other conspirators, were arrested the same month; 

 and, on the 21st of May, the plan of insurrection was 

 announced by lord Castlereagh, secretary to the lord- 

 lieutenant, to the lord mayor of Dublin. The night 

 of the 23d was the time fixed for it. An attack on 

 the troops stationed near Dublin, and on the artillery, 

 was to have been first executed. The castle was, 

 about the same time to have been surprised; after 

 which, the parties engaged in these enterprises were 

 to have united. The stoppage of all the mail coaches 

 on the great roads, was to have been the signal for 

 the rising of the people in the various parts of the 

 country. The scheme was certainly well arranged, 

 and had it not been discovered, might have been 

 attended with the most disastrous consequences. 



Even though thus discovered, the insurrection 

 broke out in a manner that caused great alarm, and, 

 for some time, exposed parts of Ireland to all the 

 horrors of a civil war. On the 24th of May, the 

 insurgents, though they were nearly without leaders, 

 and with scarcely any arms except pikes, commenced 

 their operations by an attack on Naas, Carlow, and 

 other places, from which they were repulsed with 

 loss. They had previously destroyed the mail-coaches 

 in their road to Dublin, to give notice to their con- 

 federates that they were about to commence their 

 operations, and to retard the communication of them 

 to government. As soon as the first acts of rebellion 

 took place, general Lake, who had succeeded general 

 Abercrombie in the command of the forces, issued 

 a proclamation, in which he expressed his determi- 

 nation to use, in the most summary and vigorous 

 manner, the powers with which he had been entrusted 

 to suppress the rebellion; and commanded all persons 

 of every rank, except officers and magistrates, to 

 remain in their houses from nine o'clock at night till 

 five in the morning. Proclamations were also issued 

 by the lord mayor of Dublin and the lord lieuten- 

 ant. In the first, all persons in Dublin were ordered 

 to give in a list of their arms, or to surrender them if 

 they had not a license to possess them; arid every 

 housekeeper to fix on the outside of his door a list 

 of the names of all persons resident in his house. 

 In the second proclamation it was stated, that 

 orders had been sent to all his majesty's general 

 officers in Ireland, to punish, according* to martial 

 law, all persons assisting in the rebellion. The 

 progress of the rebels towards the soiith-west was 

 checked by their repulse at Carlow; but the city of 

 Dublin was still partially blockaded by them. To 

 complete the plan for its relief, Sir James Duff made 

 a rapid march with 600 men from Limerick, and 

 arriving at Kildare, opened the communication 

 l>etween the capital and the country. 



On the 26th of May, the insurrection broke out in 

 the county of Wexford, where it was not apprehended 

 that the insurgents were in great force. They were 

 headed by a priest of the name of Murphy, a fero- 

 cious and ignorant fanatic. On the 27th, two bodies 

 of them made their appearance at Oulart and Kiltho- 



mas. At the latter place they were defeated by 200 

 or 300 yeomen ; but at the former place, where 

 Murphy himself commanded, they were victorious. 

 Murphy immediately proceeded to Enniscorthy, ot 

 which, by the assistance of the Catholic inhabitants, 

 he gained possession. The inhabitants of the city of 

 Wexford were now in great alarm, as they could 

 plainly distinguish the flames, of the burning houses 

 at Enniscorthy. As they were little prepared for 

 defence, they resolved to negotiate with the insur- 

 gents, or rather, to endeavour to' persuade them to 

 return peaceably to their homes. For this purpose, 

 two gentlemen, who had been arrested on private 

 information, were sent to them; but they kept one of 

 these to be their leader, and sent the other back to 

 Wexford. Against this place they now determined 

 to proceed. Its small garrison took a position out- 

 side, but afterwards returned into the town, which 

 was almost immediately evacuated, and taken posses- 

 sion of by the rebels. Their force was about 15,000 

 men; and by the capture of Wexford, the southern 

 parts of the county, as well as the eastern and 

 western, were at their mercy. They now divided 

 into two bodies; one of which directed its march to 

 Gorey, in the northern part of the county, in the 

 hopes of thus forcing a passage to the capital; and 

 the other to New R.OSS, by reducing which they 

 would be enabled to enter the counties of Kilkenny 

 and Waterford. The inhabitants of Gorey were 

 apprised of their danger, but they trusted it would 

 be averted by the arrival of troops under general 

 Loftus and colonel Walpole, which immediately 

 marched by different routes to attack the insurgents, 

 who were posted on a hill seven miles from Gorey, 

 under the command of a priest of the name of Roche. 

 This man seems to have been possessed of great 

 military talents, for he immediately resolved to quit 

 his position with his whole force, upwards of 10,000 

 men, and attack Walpole while separated from 

 Loftus's troops. He came up with him at Clough, 

 and, attacking him quite unexpectedly, the British 

 were defeated, with the loss of their artillery. Loftus, 

 in the mean time, following the insurgents to Gorey, 

 ignorant of the defeat of Walpole's corps, found them 

 posted so strongly that he durst not attack them, but 

 retreated into the county of Carlow. The body of 

 the rebels who had marched towards Ross were not 

 so fortunate. They had chosen for their leader a 

 person of the name of Harvey, whom they had 

 liberated from Wexford jail. He formed a plan of 

 attacking three separate parts of the town of Ross at 

 the same time : The attack was accordingly made in 

 a furious but irregular manner. At first the rebels 

 gained some advantages, but they soon were thrown 

 into confusion; ana general Johnson, who com. 

 manded a strong party of the regular army in the 

 town, took advantage of this circumstance, and, 

 after a desperate resistance from some divisions of 

 the rebels, while others were totally without disci- 

 pline or management, he succeeded in completely 

 defeating them, and in saving the place. Enraged 

 at this defeat, the rebels massacred in cold blood 

 more than 100 of their Protestant prisoners at Wex- 

 ford. 



On the 9th of June, the insurgents advanced to 

 the north to attack Arklow. The garrison in this 

 place, not conceiving themselves strong enough to 

 defend it against the rebels, left it, but afterwards 

 returned, in consequence of their not attempting to 

 seize it. The rebels, however, changed their plans, 

 and advanced against it; but on tiie very day of 

 attack, there arrived the Durham fencible regiment. 

 The royal force now consisted of 1600 men, and, 

 being arranged in lines, with artillery in front, they 

 were enabled to cover three sides of the place, a 



