28 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



petrated more cruel outrages on humanity than both 

 sides committed. One was on the side of the rebel- 

 lion, the other on the side of Government — that was 

 the only difference. I allude to 1798, because many 

 memoirs and journals of that time enable an opinion 

 to be formed by those who do not know Ireland. 



Does any one think that the character of those 

 who thus acted on both sides ceased to be the same 

 when the rebellion was over ; or that the same temper 

 and vices did not go on in them and their children ? 



There are men still alive who can tell every in- 

 cident of the rebellion in their own neighbourhood 

 from what their own eyes saw as boys. I have had 

 such details related to me by an eye-witness, with 



his notes on the persons engaged, as Jack 's or 



Pat 's (men whom I knew) father, or uncle, or 



other relative. Everybody can tell the story, from 

 hearsay, of numerous and fearful murders, often of 

 unoffending persons, and even women and children, 

 and no less cruel retaliation on rebels — i.e. any one 

 suspected as rebels. So clear are these traditions, 

 that half the fears of Fenian outrages the two last 

 winters were from the recollection of that time. And, 

 on the other side, I had many instances myself of 

 farmers and labourers among my neighbours in down- 

 right fear of " the army " (as they called even a com- 

 pany of soldiers) from the opposite recollections of 

 that time, and begging me for protection. 



Now, compare the Fenian outrages in the outbreak 



