ths after the infliction. On Whit-Sunday, 1798, these men
were again tortured with pitchcaps by the gentlemen. Other instances
might be added, but these will suffice to show the feeling which
actuated the rulers who permitted, and the men who perpetrated, these
deeds of blood. "With difficulty," says Mr. Plowden, "does the mind
yield reluctant consent to such debasement of the human species. The
spirit which degrades it to that abandonment is of no ordinary
depravity. The same spirit of Orangeism moved the colonel in Dublin, and
his sergeant at Wexford. The effect of that spirit can only be faintly
illustrated by facts. Those have been verified to the author by the
spectator and the sufferer."[578]

From a letter of Lady Napier's, never intended for publication, and
above all suspicion of any sympathy with the lower order of Irish, it
will be seen how the tenantry of the Duke of Leinster were driven to
revolt. It is dated Castletown, 27th June, 1798, and addressed to the
Duke of Richmond. "The cruel hardships put on his tenants preferably to
all others, has driven them to despair, and they join the insurgents,
saying: 'It is better to die with a pike in my hand, than be shot like a
dog at my work, or to see my children faint for want of food before my
eyes.'"

Sir Ralph Abercrombie was appointed to command the army in Ireland, in
1797; but he threw up his charge, disgusted with atrocities which he
could not control, and which he was too humane even to appear to
sanction.[579] He declared the army to be in a state of licentiousness,
which made it formidable to every one but the enemy. General Lake, a
fitting instrument for any cruelty, was appointed to take his place; and
Lord Castlereagh informs us that "measures were taken by Government to
cause a premature explosion." It would have been more Christian in the
first place, and more politic in the second place, if Government had
taken measures to prevent any explosion at all.[580]

On the 12th of March, 1798, the Leinster delegates, who had been long
since betrayed, were seized by Major Swan, in Dublin. Fifteen persons
were present, the greater number of whom were Protestants. Emmet,
MacNevin, Jackson, and Sweetman, were seized the same day. Arthur
O'Connor had already been arrested on his way to France, with Father
Coigley. The latter was convicted on May 22, at Maidstone, and hanged on
evidence so inconclusive, that Lord Chancellor Thurlow said: "If ever a
poor man