eloquent and noisy, opposition in Parliament, and in England by the
whole of the Whig opposition in and out of Parliament, constantly crying
out against any severity, or any use of other than the civil power; and
by the Cabinet itself, which continued half-hearted, disliked severity,
looking forward ultimately to a complete change of system, and desired,
even by great concessions, to put off an outbreak till that change could
be effected. But it was in fact impossible. The very existence of these
champions for their cause, the secession from Parliament of Grattan and
his friends, who declared that their voices were now useless, the
supposition that the English Cabinet would not tolerate any extreme
measures, the certainty that France was still thinking of assisting
them, the opportunity for that assistance afforded by the mutiny at the
Nore, in which traces of Irish influence are not wanting, drove the
leaders to more and more extreme steps. Still more was their confidence
raised by the ill-judged conduct of Sir Ralph Abercromby, who was
appointed to succeed Carhampton as commander-in-chief. He was the friend
of Lord Moira. An ardent Whig, and full of English Liberal views, and
used to regular English soldiery, he was disgusted both at the stringent
measures and disorderly conduct of the yeomanry he was called upon to
command, and shocked its feelings by declaring that their state of
disorganization was such as to make them a terror to none but
themselves. He even declined to carry on in the South that work which
Lake had done in the North, and to disarm Munster. Again General Lake
was called to undertake the unpleasant duty. It was no doubt carried out
there, in the midst of an almost purely Roman Catholic population, with
even more severity, more religious intolerance, and more cruelty, than
in the North. It must be observed, however, that at the worst these
cruelties could have lasted but a month, for after Lake had held his
command about that time the insurrection broke out. When it did break
out the Government was partially prepared for it, for treachery at last
put the whole secret of the conspiracy into their hands. A certain Mr.
Reynolds, a man of small property, had joined the United Irishmen, but
frightened at the extent of their schemes, gave information that the
Leinster delegates would meet in March at the house of Oliver Bond, one
of their chief associates. The whole committee was there seized,
together with letters and papers of the utmost importance. Many arrests
of leaders followed, but Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the chief military
leader of the conspiracy, contrived to escape.
[Sidenote: Actual outbreak of the insurrection. May 23, 1798.]
The 23rd of May had been appointed for a general rising. Two days before
that date Fitzgerald was arrested, after a desperate resistance. With a
dagger he killed one of his assailants, Captain Ryan, and severely
wounded Captain Swan; nor was he secured till Major Sirr, the town
mayor, shot him through the shoulder. He lingered a few days and then
died. Two other leaders, of the name of Sheares, were also arrested, and
papers of a most bloodthirsty nature found about them. In spite of the
loss of their leaders, the insurrection broke out on the appointed day.
It was to have opened with the capture of Dublin. This attempt
completely failed; but on all the roads round the city the mail coaches
were destroyed, so as to isolate the capital; and at Naas, Kilcullen,
Rathfarnham, and Prosperous, and in other places in the county of
Kildare, the military were attacked. At Prosperous the barracks were
burnt, and nearly all the soldiers killed. In most other directions a
brief moment of success, marked by actions of wild savagery, was all
that was accomplished. From Kildare the insurrection turned upon Carlow.
But there timely arrangements were made, and 600 of the rebels perished,
while not a single soldier was hurt. The success of the soldiery was
marked by even worse cruelty than that of the rebels; twenty-eight
suspected yeomen were shot in cold blood in the neighbourhood of
Dunlaven; and after the defeat at Carlow, Gordon says: "Executions
commenced, as elsewhere in this calamitous period, and about 200 in a
short time were hanged or shot according to martial law; among the rest
Sir Edward Crosby, a loyal gentleman, who unfortunately professed
Liberal opinions." But it was where least expected that the rebellion
was most formidable. In Kildare the rebels never gained much head; but
in Wexford, which was regarded as free from disaffection, a regular war
arose. The rebels here mastered the town of Wexford, where they found a
gentleman of property, Mr. Bagenal Harvey, to whom they gave the
command. But their real leader was a priest named Murphy. They succeeded
in overrunning the country, but were at last checked by General Johnson
before the town of New Ross. He pursued them to Enniscorthy, and on the
21st of June General Lake succeeded in utterly routing the rebels, and
taking their camp on Vinegar Hill. This was practically a deathblow to
the rebellion, though many of its horrors continued in isolated
districts.
[Sidenote: Arrival of Lord Cornwallis to succeed Camden.]
[Sidenote: His efforts at conciliation.]
Two or three days before this battle was fought a new Lord-Lieutenant
had arrived in Dublin. This was Lord Cornwallis, who had once before
been asked to assume the post, but, frightened at its difficulties, had
withdrawn. The recall of Camden may have been necessary if any policy of
reconciliation was to be tried, for he was no doubt deeply implicated in
the measures of repression which had been taken, and it would have been
hard to have aroused confidence in him in the minds of the Irish.
Certainly, however, a shadow of blame was allowed to rest upon his
conduct which was perfectly unjust. He had been as longsuffering as it
was possible to be. He had even at his sorest pressure rejected the
employment of the Orangemen, from the dread, which he frequently
expresses in his letters, of establishing a religious war, and setting
one part of the people against the other. Self-confidence was the chief
characteristic of Lord Cornwallis. The ministers constantly complain in
their correspondence of the little information he deigned to give them;
and his view and management of the crisis were based entirely upon his
own conception of what had been going on, without consultation with
those who had taken part in it. He brought with him a view in some
respects erroneous, but which seems on the whole to have led him to
right conclusions. He denied that the insurrection was either religious
or national; he considered it Jacobin. The view was, no doubt, entirely
erroneous; yet it induced him to act in the same way that the most
careful and enlightened philanthropist would have acted. For the Jacobin
leaders, the Dublin and Belfast Protestants, he was pitiless; for the
misguided people he had a profound pity. He therefore used all his
efforts to conciliate, and speedily after his arrival, with the advice
of Lord Clare, an amnesty was published for all who would lay down their
arms. It was certainly not the way to put an end most rapidly to the
insurrection. It was mistaken for fear, and again and again he found his
hopes of conciliating the Catholics disappointed, the reason being that
his hopes were based upon a wrong ground. But, nevertheless, this course
was exactly the most desirable for England to pursue. It was the conduct
of a strong third person intervening to stop an internecine contest.
While the country was still disturbed, and parties of brigands were
scouring all the out-of-the-way corners (for that was the form the
rebellion ultimately took), the chief leaders were hanged in Dublin;
till, struck with terror, the prisoners, seventy in number, offered to
say all they knew if their lives were spared. Anxious to gather from
their own lips proofs that would refute the constant, plausible, and
factious assertions of Whigs in England and Nationalists in Ireland,
although the Government knew probably all that could be told, Cornwallis
accepted the offer. Arthur O'Connor, who had once before been tried in
England, and acquitted because nearly every man of the Whig party had
been called as a witness to swear to his character, drew up the
confession. But he drew it up in a way to suit his own fancy. All the
treasons of which the prisoners had been guilty they not only confessed,
but, now that they were safe for their lives, boasted of in the true
braggart Irish spirit. Cornwallis refused to receive such a confession;
but not liking to break his word, he allowed the prisoners to give
personal evidence before a Committee of Lords, and their evidence was
published. Contrary to the wishes of the Home Government, their lives
were spared. How thoroughly bad they must have been is shown by the fact
that the American minister entreated that the United States might be
mentioned as one of the countries to which they should not be allowed to
withdraw; the opinions they declared were so immoral and so dangerous,
that the Republic must decline to receive them. They were therefore sent
to Fort-George, in Scotland, where they remained till the Peace of
Amiens.
[Sidenote: Failure of General Humbert's expedition.]
Before the insurrection was quite completed there was one other short
episode which seems to show how little real vitality there is in any
national effort in Ireland. A small force under General Humbert, acting
probably without orders, landed at Kilala, in Mayo, on the 22nd of
August. With only 800 men, and a considerable number of irregular
rebels, he advanced against Lake, who had an army of 3000 at Castlebar.
These troops, consisting chiefly of disaffected militia, he utterly
defeated; they fled with a speed which gained for the battle the name of
the Castlebar Races. But on advancing further inland, he found the
uselessness of his adventure, and laid down his arms to Lord Cornwallis.
The squadron which was bringing him reinforcements was defeated and
destroyed by Admiral Warren. Of ten ships but one frigate and one brig
escaped. On board of these was Napper Tandy; while among the prisoners
was Wolfe Tone, the man of most ability among the chiefs. He was tried
and condemned to be hanged, but committed suicide.
[Sidenote: Proved necessity for the Union.]
[Sidenote: Opposition in the Irish party.]
[Sidenote: The Union completed. Aug. 2, 1800.]
Cornwallis' experience, although it did not diminish his
self-confidence, seemed to force on him one fact, the necessity of the
Union. He detested the Castle party by whom he was surrounded, he
believed in the thorough bloodthirstiness of the Orangemen, he had
learnt that conciliation, unless very complete, could have no effect
upon the Catholics. He thus arrived at the fact of which Pitt had always
been conscious, that under the existing system justice to the Catholics
was absolutely impossible; it was impossible to make the Protestant
Parliament agree to admit Catholic representatives; and even supposing
this to be possible, Catholic representation meant confiscation of
Protestant property, and the predominance of the Catholic religion, and
rather than submit to that the Protestants would fight. To attempt to
make such alterations was wilfully to plunge Ireland into a civil war of
extermination. The only way to overcome this difficulty was to establish
some paramount authority which should overrule the local and provincial
interests of the island, and by a superior power keep the factions from
flying at each other's throats. Cornwallis therefore threw himself heart
and soul into the Union, supported by Fitzgibbon, now Lord Clare. But it
was not carried out without extreme difficulties. Pitt's intention was
notified to the Irish Parliament. Here it at once excited a violent
agitation, and a thing unheard of in that venal House of Commons, an
amendment on the Address, was carried against the Government by a
majority of four. Nearly all the great names in Ireland, from Mr. Foster
the Speaker, to Ponsonby, Grattan, and Curran, were strongly opposed to
the Bill. As there was no constitutional way of destroying the
Parliament except with its own consent, and as left to itself it seemed
plain that Parliament would oppose the Union, means had to be devised to
change this state of things. The English supremacy had been
systematically upheld by indirect bribery; and when application was made
to the same class of people as had hitherto managed that influence,
their answers showed that it would not be impossible to carry the same
system further. The management of the greater people was left in the
hands of Lord Cornwallis, who had a profound contempt for nearly all the
Irish except the better part of the Roman Catholics. The whole mass of
smaller men was handed over to the management of Lord Castlereagh, a
young Irishman of much ready ability, at that time Secretary. To him too
was intrusted the duty of arranging a scheme which might be passed
through Parliament. By this scheme a million and a half of money was to
be spent in compensation to borough-holders, lawyers who had hoped to
improve their prospects by entering the House, and the tradesmen of
Dublin. Pitt had in one of his old reform Bills accepted the theory that
boroughs were property; this part of the scheme was therefore passed,
the indirect claims were not allowed. The bulk of the Catholic party, to
whom hopes were held out, were not disinclined to the Union. In the
English Parliament resolutions in favour of the Union were carried
without much difficulty. The full force of Pitt's arguments was there
felt. It was understood in fact to be a case of necessity. An
independent dual Government could not be worked, nor justice be secured
for Ireland, while party and religious differences ran so high, except
by the intervention of the calmer and broader spirit of an Imperial
Parliament. In the Irish Parliament the opposition was much stronger.
But that none may feel much regret at the threatened destruction of that
body, it may be mentioned that even now, in its last struggle, it
extended the Act of Indemnity so as to throw a shield over the most
outrageous cruelty and wickedness on the part of the Protestant
suppressors of the rebellion. Fitzgerald, who boasted of having flogged
many perfectly innocent people, and of having driven one at least to
suicide, was not only acquitted when charges of this description were
brought against him, but succeeded in turning the tables and recovering
damages from his victims.[14] The interval between the Parliament of
1799 and the Session opening in 1800, which the Government had
determined should be the last, was employed in continuing the trade in
votes and boroughs. The Marquis of Downshire, who had seven seats of his
own, was the only great borough proprietor who held out. And when the
new Parliament met the Government was pretty secure of its victory.
Nevertheless, there was a tremendous contest on the first night, when an
amendment was moved to the Address, pledging the House to uphold the
National Parliament. For fifteen hours the struggle had lasted, when, at
seven in the morning, Grattan, who had not sat in the House for some
years, was suddenly introduced, just dragged from his bed and very ill,
clothed in the old patriotic dress of the volunteers of 1782, and walked
up to the table to take the oaths. He had been hurriedly elected
immediately after midnight for the town of Wicklow for the express
purpose of producing this _coup de théâtre_. His speech against the
Union was a very fine one, but it did not save the amendment, which was
defeated by a majority of forty-two. The Opposition was now bidding high
for votes. £4000 was declared by Lord Cornwallis to have been offered
for one vote. It is uncertain to what extent indirect bribery had been
carried; it was probably much exaggerated; but at all events, when on
the 18th of February the resolutions for the Union were brought in, they
were passed by a majority of forty-six. These resolutions were
transmitted to England, and the royal assent was given to the Bill
founded on them on the 2nd of August. By this Bill four spiritual and
twenty-eight temporal peers represented Ireland in the Upper House, and
one hundred commoners, elected still by the old system, sat in the House
of Commons. Free trade between the two countries was established.
Ireland was to contribute in the proportion of two to fifteen to the
Imperial revenue, and the debts of the two countries were to be kept
distinct. Having gained its object, the Government had to pay the Bill.
£1,260,000 was contributed at the rate of £7000 a seat. In addition to
this, twenty-two peerages were created, five Irish peers were called to
the House of Lords, twenty advanced a step in the Peerage.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Desire of France to invade England.]
By the treaty of Campo Formio the French were relieved from their war
with Austria, and it was probably the belief that singlehanded they were
more than a match for England, the object of their particular hatred,
which induced the Directory to break off the negotiations at Lisle. The
victorious army of Italy was transformed into the army of England. The
prospect of wealth to be gained there was held out to the troops,
instead of the promised donation which the finances were in no position
to bear. The command of the army was entrusted to Bonaparte, who assumed
an appearance of great interest in the expedition, and visited the
sea-coasts under pretense of arranging for the embarkation of the
troops; but he was not likely to risk his fortunes in England while the
sea was commanded by his enemies. He persuaded the Directory that a more
severe blow could be dealt upon England by a descent upon Egypt, the
highroad to India, whence succor could be sent to Tippoo Sahib, the
Sultan of Mysore, who, after he had been crushed by Lord Cornwallis, was
again, relying for success upon French arms, thinking of renewing war.
To Bonaparte private ambition was no doubt a main reason for this
resolution. The state of Europe was very threatening. A second coalition
was getting itself formed. In none of the new republics, neither
Holland, nor Switzerland, nor Rome, in all of which constitutions had
been forced on the people against their will, was there a cordial love
for France. But Bonaparte, who, as he said, did not consider "the pear
ripe," was willing that the bad management and failures of the Directory
should ripen it before he raised his hands to pluck it. His imagination
too, which always played a powerful part in his resolutions, was fired
with the notion of an Eastern empire, whence, as he said, he should
return and take Europe _en revers_.
[Sidenote: Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt.]
On the 19th of May 1798, the army of France, 36,000 strong, sailed from
Toulon harbour, escorted by 30 vessels of war, 72 smaller vessels, and
carried in 400 transports. The expedition was a strange one; not only
was Egypt to be conquered, it was to be scientifically explored, and a
number of learned and scientific men were mixed with the generals that
surrounded their commander. Before reaching Egypt a strong point was
secured to give the French the command of the Mediterranean. The Order
of St. John of Malta, by treason and for money, gave up the island to
Bonaparte. Thence he sailed on the 2nd of July, and ten days afterwards
reached Alexandria.
[Sidenote: Battle of the Pyramids.]
Thence he marched towards Cairo, which he conquered, after winning on
the road the battle of the Pyramids over the Mamelukes, a warrior caste
sprung originally from Circassian slaves, who had made themselves
masters of Egypt. It was the old story of undisciplined valour breaking
itself against the firm squares of a disciplined Western army. Murad
Bey, the Mameluk commander, withdrew to Upper Egypt, and the French
entered Cairo. Bonaparte at once set to work to organize the country,
and in his eagerness to conciliate the people, hinted that he too
believed in Mahomet. The absolute atheism, however, of the French
troops, and this cynical readiness to change his creed, only exasperated
the Turks against him.
[Sidenote: Battle of the Nile. Aug. 2, 1798.]
Nelson had been watching the port of Toulon, but the French fleet gave
him the slip. From the 19th of May till the 1st of August he was in vain
pursuit, not knowing where the expedition had gone. On that day he came
in sight of the French fleet, consisting of thirteen ships of the line,
one of which was the 'Orient,' with 120 guns, and four frigates.
Nelson's own fleet consisted also of thirteen ships, but none of them
were larger than seventy-fours, and he had but one frigate and a brig.
The enemy were very advantageously placed at anchor along the shore of
the Bay of Aboukir. In front of them lay an island with a fort, their
flanks were covered by gunboats. They believed their position
unassailable. But Nelson quickly determined, from the appearance of the
anchored fleet, that there must be sufficient water for his ships
between the French and the shore. He boldly ordered some of his vessels
to sail inside. The left of the French line was thus enveloped and
placed between two fires. Nelson began the fight at once, although it
was six in the evening. It raged the whole night. In less than two
hours, however, five of the French ships had struck, and at nine o'clock
the 'Orient' caught fire and blew up. When the battle closed about six
the following morning, nine of the French ships had been taken and two
had been burnt. Want of frigates, and the damages sustained by his own
fleet, prevented Nelson from pursuing the two remaining French ships,
which sailed away almost unhurt. The same causes prevented him from
destroying completely the French transports. This victory shut up the
best French army with its great commander useless in Egypt, and excited
the enthusiasm and hopes of all the conquered countries in Europe.
[Sidenote: Pitt forms a second coalition.]
But meanwhile Pitt had been able to set on foot a second great
coalition. Austria, humiliated by the Treaty of Campo Formio, far from
discharging her army, had raised its numbers, and demanded some sort of
indemnity for the successes of France in Italy and Switzerland. Napoleon
by his advance upon Egypt had himself forced the Ottoman Empire into war
with France. The princes of Germany, though not desiring war, and even
now treating with the Directory at Rastadt, could not forget the loss of
the empire beyond the Rhine. Russia was also induced to join the
coalition; for changes had taken place both in the internal and external
condition of the country; since 1796, Paul I., a prince of scarcely
sound mind, had succeeded Catherine in that country, and Poland having
been destroyed, a road was open for him to introduce himself, as had
been the constant desire of the Russian monarchs, into the politics of
Europe. Prussia, where Frederick William had died, still held aloof in
neutrality. The cement of this coalition was as usual English money.
Naples, in the winter of 1798, had raised an army under the Austrian
General Mack, and attempted to restore liberty to Italy; but, hated by
its own subjects, the weak and tyrannical government was able to effect
nothing. The King had to fly in the English fleet, Naples was changed
into the Parthenopæan Republic, and the whole of Italy was thus brought
under French dominion. The frontier line, then, against which the
coalition was preparing to act, extended from the Zuyder Zee to the
Mediterranean. Its centre was the mountain mass of Switzerland. Both
parties regarded this as the key of the position. But the French spread
their troops weakly along the whole length, so that Massena in
Switzerland seemed to form the centre of one large army; and to him was
intrusted the duty of separating, by capturing the salient angle formed
by Switzerland and the Tyrol, the armies of the coalition. The plan was
not a wise one. The opening successes of Massena and his lieutenants,
which brought the French into the valley of the Inn, did not prevent the
Archduke Charles from defeating Jourdan and the army of the Rhine at
Stockach, nor Kray, the Austrian general, from beating Schérer at
Magnano, on the Adige, and driving him behind the Adda. Massena, with
his flanks thus exposed, found himself compelled to retreat also.
[Sidenote: Italy regained by the coalition.]