entations of those who beheld them suffer."[583] Then follow fearful
details, which cannot be given here, but which prove how completely the
people were driven into rebellion, and how cruelly they were punished.
Reprisals, of course, were made by the unfortunate victims; and on one
occasion, Mrs. Leadbeater relates how Priest Cullen begged the life of a
young man on his knees, and, as a reward of his humanity, was
apprehended soon after, and condemned to death. The most cruel scene of
all was the murder of the village doctor, a man who had devoted himself
unweariedly to healing the wounds of both parties; but because he
attended the "rebels," and showed them any acts of common humanity, he
was taken before a court-martial, and "hacked to death" by the yeomen
with their swords. "He was alone and unarmed when seized," writes Mrs.
Leadbeater, "and I believe had never raised his hand to injure any one."

The French allies of Irish insurgents appear to have a fatality for
arriving precisely when their services are worse than useless. On the
22nd of August, 1798, Humbert landed at Killala with a small French
force, who, after a number of engagements, were eventually obliged to
surrender at discretion.

Ireland having been reduced to the lowest state of misery and servitude,
the scheme for which much of this suffering had been enacted was now
proposed and carried out. The first parliamentary intimation was given
in a speech from the throne, on the 22nd of January, 1799; a pamphlet
was published on the subject by Mr. Cooke, the Under-Secretary; but it
required more cogent arguments than either speeches from the throne or
pamphlets to effect the object of Government. Mr. Pitt had set his heart
upon the Union, and Mr. Pitt had determined that the Union should be
carried out at any expense of honour. The majority of the Irish lawyers
protested against it. The Irish people, as far as they dared do so,
opposed it. At a meeting of the Irish bar, on the 9th of December, there
were 166 votes against the Union and only thirty-two in favour of it.
The published correspondence of Lord Cornwallis and Lord Castlereagh has
revealed an amount of nefarious corruption and treachery at which
posterity stands aghast. "These noblemen," writes Sir Jonah Barrington,
"seemed to have been created for such a crisis, and for each other. An
unremitting perseverance, an absence of all political compunctions, an
unqualified contempt of public opinion, and