PART IV—(Concluded).

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIV, Issue 45, 4 March 1887, Page 9

PART IV—(Concluded).

EXPERIENCES OF THE SOCIETY OF FBItCNDS DURING THE REBELLION. There can be no greater proof that the Rebellion (in so far as it was spontaneous on the part of the people) was a rising against tyranny and not against Protestantism, than the fact that the members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) scattered over Ireland passed scatheless through that time. Numbers of that body were settled in the most disturbed districts—more especially between New Ross and Wexford, which was in the occupation of the insurgents for many weeks. They were for the most part settled on lands which had been taken from the people in the previous century under the Cromwellian " Settlement." In doctrine and discipline they were the most epposed to Catholicß of all Protestant denominations. Yet they lived through the Rebellion unharmed—otten in isolated districts — often women and young children alone. Not a single Quaker perished in the strife, except, we believe, one who joined and fought on the yeoman side, The only reasonable explanation for this historical fact is that the Quakers as a body had acted humanely towards their Catholic neighbours, and that they had taken no part in either the religious or territorial system of ascendency under which Ireland then groaned. CONCLUSION. In conclusion we hope the light thrown upon the dark history of 1798, by the foregoing pages, will do something to counteract the calumnies against the Irish people which have been scattered by their enemies broadcast throughout Great Britain. We have made no single assertion without citing our authorities, and we have relied entirely upon the writings of English statesmen and historians whose bias is certainly not in favour of the Nationalist cause. We claim to have proved :—: — (1) That the rising was planned by Pitt in order to facilitate the passing of the Union ; (2) That it was rendered absolutely inevitable by the withdrawal of Lord Fitzwilliam ; (3) That " measures were then taken to secure the premature outbreak of the Rebellion " ; (4) That such measures included the wholesale murder and torture c 9c 9 the people, and the devastation of the country at the instance of the ascendancy faction ; {5) That the deeds of outrage by the people, though they cannot be palliated, were yet acts of retaliation, and were much exceeded in atrocity by the systematic barbarity of the soldiery ; (6) That the commanders of the rebel army did their best to restrain their troops; while the only English commander who denounced outrage beiore September, 1798, was at once deprived of his command at the instance of the Orangemen ; and (7) That the rising was in no cense of the word a Catholic one. We conclude with the expression of the hope that the day is not far distant when we may obtain that " blessed oblivion of the past," in which, as Mr. Gladstone has said, " England has, if anything, a greater interest than Ireland.' 1

POSTSCRIPT. A proof of the foregoing having been submitted to an eminent Protestant clergyman, that rev. gentleman sent the publishers the following notes, which rest on such unimpeachable authority, and are so much to the purpose, that they are here added by way of a postscript. A list is preserved of thirty-three Roman Catholic chapels burned in the diocese of Ferns, County Wexford, in the years 1798, 1799, and 1800. Tiie sight of the chapel of Boolavogue in flames, on WhitSunday, 27th May, 1798, finally decided Father Johu Murphy to join the insurrection, in which he became a leader of ability. Only one Protestant church, that of Old Ross, was burned during the insurrection, 2nd June, 1798, three days before the battle ot New Ross.— Hay's History of tin Insurrection of the County Wexford, Appendix, page 294. The insurrection broke out on Saturday, 26th May. On the day before " twenty-eight prisoners were taken out of their place of confinement and deliberately shot without trial, in the ball-alley of Carnew, by the yeomen ami a party of the Antrim militia." —Hay's History, pages 70 and 87. The Rev. James Gordon, the Protestant Rector of Kelleg-ny. in the diocese of Ferns, and who with his family resided at the time in the County of Wexford, states :—: — " I have reason to think that more men than fell in battle were slain in cold blood. No quarter was given to persons taken prisoners as rebels, with or without arms. For one instance —fifty-four were shot in the little town of Carnew in the space of three days.—Gordon's History of the Rebellion, page 222. "In one point I think we must allow some praise to the rebels : amid all their atrocities, the chastity of women was respected ; I have not been able to ascertain one instance to the contrary. The opposite behaviour towards the female peasantry prevailed among the royal troops on their entering into possession of the country at the retreat of the rebels. — Gordon's History, page 213. " Women and children were not put to death by the insurgents, except in the tumultuous and hasty massacre of Scullabogue." — Gordon's History, page 217. After the suppression of the insurrection in Wexford, another broke out in the west of Ireland, in consequence of the landing of about a thousand French soldiers, under the command of General Humbert ; the inadequacy of the iorce of this expedition, and the feeble support it was able to obtain, soon led, in about a fortnight's time, to its complete failure. The landing took place at Killala, on the coast of Mayo, 22nd August, 1798 ; on the Bth September General Humbert surrendered to Lord Cornwallis. A most interesting narrative of the whole affair was written by the Right Rev. Dr. Stock, the Protestant Bishop of Killala, who was, as he states himself, an eyewitness. From this narrative 1 take the following extract as to the conduct of the Connaught rebels: —

"When the united weight of so many temptations is duly estimated, operating besides on a body of peasantry already estranged from their Protestant neighbours by differences of religion, language, and education, it will be a matter of surprise that bo little mischief was the result of the insurrection in Connaught, and that we had not the same horrid scenes of cruelty and religious intolerance to mourn over, as had lately stamped indelible disgrace on the eastern province. It is A circumstance worthy of notice, that daring the whole time of this civil commotion, not a drop of blood twos shed bg the Connatight rebels except in the field of war. It is true the example and influence of the French went a great way to prevent panguinaiy excesses. Bat it will not be deemed fair to ascribe to this cause alone the forebearance of which we were witnesses, when it is cons : dered what a range of country lay at the mercy of the rebels for several days after the French power was known to be at an end."— Bithop ef Killala's Narrative, pages 26-30. The comment made on this statement of the Protestant Bishop by the Rev. James Gordon, the Protestant Rector, who was an eyewitness of the Wexford rebellion, is extremely weighty .—. — " To account in some degree for the small portion of rancour in the western comparatively with the south-eastern insurgents, we are to observe, that in the territories of the former tho:3 r.gorous measures had not been practised, which Government had been forced elsewhere to organize for the disorganization of the united cob sp : racy; for surely the free quarterings of soldiers, the burnings of bouses, and the infliction of torture to extort confession, together with toe unauthorized insults committed by mistaken or pretended zealots for loyalty, as croppings, pitch-cappings, an<i half hangings, must, whether necessary or not, whether deserved or not, be expected to kindle a spirit of revenge in the sufferers and their party."