es, but they were eventually defeated, and he also
paid the forfeit of his life. A remnant of the Wexford insurrection was
all that remained to be crushed. On the 21st of June, Lord Cornwallis
was sent to Ireland, with the command both of the military forces and
the civil power. On the 17th of July an amnesty was proclaimed; and the
majority of the State prisoners were permitted eventually to leave the
country, having purchased their pardon by an account of the plans of the
United Irishmen, which were so entirely broken up that their honour was
in no way compromised by the disclosure.

Several men, however, were executed, in whose fate the country had, for
many reasons, more than ordinary interest. To have pardoned them would
have been more humane and better policy. These were the two Sheares,
M'Cann, and Mr. William Byrne. Their history will be found in the _Lives
of the United Irishmen_, by Dr. Madden, a work of many volumes, whose
contents could not possibly be compressed into the brief space which the
limits of this work demands.

Some painfully interesting details of this fearful period may be found
in the _Annals of Ballitore_, a work already referred to in this volume.
The writer being a member of the Society of Friends, must be beyond all
suspicion of partiality for rebels or Papists; yet, happily, like many
members of that Society, was distinguished for humanity and toleration
for the opinions of others. Her account of '98, being the annals of a
family and a village, is, perhaps, almost better calculated to give an
exact idea of the state of the times than a work comprising a more
extended range of observation; and yet what was suffered in Ballitore
was comparatively trifling when compared with the sufferings of other
villages and towns. The first trial was the quartering of the yeomen,
"from whose bosom," writes this gentle lady, "pity seemed banished." The
Suffolk Fencibles and the Ancient Britons were next quartered on the
unfortunate inhabitants. Then commenced the cruel torturing, for which
the yeomen and militia obtained an eternal reprobation; the public
floggings, of which she writes thus--"the torture was excessive, and the
victims were long in recovering, and in almost every case it was applied
fruitlessly;" yet these demons in human form never relaxed their
cruelty. "The village, once so peaceful, exhibited a scene of tumult and
dismay; and the air rang with the shrieks of the sufferers, and the
lam