810 feverity. It is to be hoped that few of his colleagues, affociates, and cooperators in those measures fupported them by the fame infamous injuftice and profligacy he notorioufly did. It is however to be feared, from the common caufe, which moft Orangemen made with this nobleman's difgrace and punishment, that the fympathy of that affociation with the noble lord's difpofition and conduct was lamentably too general. Difliked at first, the benevolent, magnanimous and juft Cornwallis became henceforward execrated by the Orangemen: and they attempted to vilify that illuftrious character by the opprobrious appellation of Croppy Corny. On the 13th of October a court martial, of which the Earl of Enniskillen was the prefident, proceeded to the trial of Hugh Wollaghan, of Middlewood, in the county of Wicklow, yeoman, charged with having, on the 1ft of October, inftant, come to the house of Thomas Dogherty, and then and there fhooting and killing the faid Thomas Dogherty, to which he was encouraged by Charles Fox and James Fox, of the aforefaid county, yeomen: and the faid James Fox was likewife charged with having difcharged a loaded gun at Margaret Barry of Delgany, on the 1ft October, inftant. The prifoner being duly arraigned, pleaded not guilty. It appeared in evidence from the teftimony of Mary Dogherty, of Delgany, in the county of Wicklow, that the prifoner came into her house at Delgany, and demanded if there were any bloody rebels there-that on deponent's anfwering there was not; only a fick boy; the prifoner Wollaghan asked the boy if he were Dogherty's eldest fon; upon which the boy stood up and told him he was; Wollaghan then faid, well, you dog, if you are, you are to die here; that the boy replied, I hope not: if you have any thing against me, bring me to Mr. Latouche, and give me a fair trial, and if you get any thing againft me, give me the severity of the law; that Wollaghan replied, no dog, I don't. care for Latouche, you are to die here; upon which deponent faid to Wollaghan, (he then having the gun cocked in his hand) for the love of God, fpare my child's life and take mine; that Wollaghan replied, no, you bloody whore, if I had your husband here, I would give him the fame death. He then fuapped the gun, but it did not go off; he fnapped a fecond time, but it * This court martial was holden in the barracks, at Dublin, by order of Lieutenant General Craig. Befide the prefident it confifted of Major Brown, R. I. D. Captain Leflie, Fermanagh. Captain Irwin, Fermanagh. did did not go off; upon which a man of the name of Charles Fox, but not either of the two prifoners at the bar, came in and faid, damn your gun, there is no good in it; and that the faid Fox faid, at the fame time to Wollaghan, that the man (pointing to deponent's fon,) must be fhot; that deponent then got hold of Wollaghan's gun, and endeavoured to turn it from her fon, upon which the gun went off, grazed her fon's body, and shot him in the arm-the boy ftaggered, leaned on a form-turned up his eyes, and faid, mother, pray for me! That on Wollaghan's firing the gun, he went out at the door, and in a short time returned in again, and faid, is not the dog dead yet? that deponent replied, oh! yes, Sir, he is dead enough!' upon which Wollaghan replied (firing at him again) for fear he be not let him take this; deponent was at that instant holding up her fon's head, when he fell, and died! No attempt was made to contradict any part of this evidence, but a justification of the horrid murder was fet up, as having been done under the order of the commanding officer, and this was fworn to by George Kennedy, Corporal of the Mount Kennedy Yeomen, who depofed that Captain Armstrong of the King's County Militia, who commanded at Mount Kennedy before and after Dogherty was fhot, in confequence of the enormities and murders committed in that neighbourhood by day and by night, gave general orders, that any body of yeomanry going out, (he would wish them not lefs than nine or ten for their own fafety,) and, if they should meet with any rebels, whom they knew or fufpected to be fuch, that they need not be at the trouble of bringing them in, but to fhoot them on the spot; that he, the witness, communicated this to the corps, and is very certain in the hearing of the prisoner Wollaghan, who was a fober, faithful, and loyal yeoman, and not degrading the rest of the corps, one of the best in it. That it was the practice of the corps to go out upon fcouring parties, without orders, to protect their own property, and that of their neighbours: and that he always looked upon it as an order, and practice of the corps, particularly after what Captain Armstrong had mentioned, and, that the witnefs would himself from his character and the * Thefe fcouring parties under orders were so much matters of course, that it appears from the teftimony of these officers, they were confidered as acts of military duty: nay, fo brutalized were many of these corps, that they spoke of them as a diverfion, which they called partridge shooting and grouzing: they hunted, not unfrequently, the brakes, hedges, ditches, and woods with dogs to Spring any unfortunate peasant, that might have concealed himself from the fury of these blood hunters, whom they instantly shot upon his appearance. orders he had received have thought himself juftified in fhooting the deceafed. This evidence in juftification was confirmed by one private, one ferjeant, and two lieutenants of yeomanry. Captain Archer of the Newtown Mount Kennedy Yeomen, fwore, that he had always found him a fober and diligent man; and fince his being a yeoman, ready to obey his officers, and looked upon him to be an acquifition to his corps. Captain Gore depofed, that he had known the prifoner about four months, and that he was one of the best attendants on his duty as a yeoman, and that he knew him to be a loyal and brave foldier, and never knew him to be guilty of any act of inhumanity: that it was the practice of the corps to fcour the country with an officer, and verily believed they understood it was their duty to shoot any rebel they met with, or fufpected to be fuch; and deponent had heard, that other corps had fimilar directions in other districts. Here the defence closed, and the court after fome deliberation acquitted the prifoner. When the minutes of this court martial in the usual way were laid before the lord lieutenant, his excellency was pleased to difapprove of the fentence, and conveyed his fentiments in the following letter to General Craig. SIR, "Dublin Caftle, 18th October, 1798. "HAVING laid before the lord lieutenant the proceedings of a general court martial, held by your orders in Dublin Barracks, on Saturday the 13th inftant, of which Colonel the Earl of Enniskillen is prefident, I am directed to acquaint you, that his excellency entirely dif approves of the fentence of the above court martial, acquitting Hugh Wollaghan of a cruel and deliberate murder, of which, by the clearest evidence, "he appears to have been guilty. "Lord Cornwallis orders the court martial to be immediately diffolved,— "and directs, that Hugh Wollaghan fhall be difmiffed from the corps of yeomanry in which he ferved, and that he fhall not be received into any other corps of yeomanry in this kingdom. 66 66 "His excellency further defires, that the above may be read to the "fident and the members of the court martial in open court. pre "Your most obedient humble fervant, "H. TAYLOR, Sec. "P. S. "P. S. I am alfo directed, that a new court martial may be immediately "convened for the trial of fuch prifoners as may be brought before them, " and that none of the officers who fat upon Hugh Wollaghan be admitted "as members." As Mr. Theobald Wolfe Tone may be properly called the founder of the Irish Union, which ended in the late bloody rebellion, it will be proper to shew the lamentable victim he himself became to his own treasonable projects. He was more than any other of the traitors in that cause, intimately convinced, that the separation of Ireland from all connection with Great Britain was effential to the prosperity and welfare of his country. After he had fled from the arm of juftice in the year 1795, he was of all the Irish fugitives the most favored and attended to by the government of the French Republic. He obtained a commiffion in their army, was taken prifoner in the autumn of 1798, and was brought up to trial by a court martial on Saturday the 10th of November. He appeared in court in his French uniform, and pleaded guilty to the crime of which he stood charged; alleging, that what he had once done, he should be ashamed to deny. He had, though unfuccefsfully, attempted to do for his country, what Washington had fucceeded in, what Kofciusko had failed in, and unlike them both he had forfeited his life: but a man engaged in fuch pursuits, fhould ever be ready to make that facrifice. He in vain pleaded his French commiffion. With much difficulty he obtained leave of the court to read a paper, which in fome paffages was of fuch a tendency, that the court could not liften to it. These objectionable paffages he confented to cancel, and gave in the reft.* He then delivered in * This paper concludes in these words. "I conceive that I ftand here in the fame light with our "emigres, and if the indulgence lay within the power of the court, I would only requeft what "French magnanimity allowed to Charette and to the Count de Sombreuil; the death of a foldier, "and to be fhot by files of grenadiers. This is the only favor I have to afk, and I truft, that men "fufceptible of the nice feelings of a foldier's honor, will not refufe the requeft. It is not from "any personal feeling that I make this request, but from a respect to the uniform which I wear, "and to the brave army in which I have fought. From papers which I yesterday delivered to the brigade major, it will be feen, that I am as regularly breveted an officer in the French fervice, as any here is in the British army, and it will be seen, that I have not my commiffion as a pro"tection. Judge Advocate. I wish you to be aware, that your acceptance of a commiflion in the French "service amounts to pofitive proof of the charge advanced against you, but, from your admiffions already, I fuppofe that by the production of those papers, you merely want to fhew that you were an officer in the French army. "Prifoner. Nothing more." feveral feveral documents, which proved his brevet for the rank of chef de brigade, and a letter of fervice, both having the fignatures of the prefident of the French Directory and the minister of war. He repeated his defire to be indulged with death in the moft honorable manner, and as he had no doubt of the decifion of the court, he expreffed a with that a confirmation of it by the lord lieutenant might be had as foon as poffible, and execution of the fentence immediately follow, within an hour, if it were practicable. On Sunday evening he was informed, that his conviction and fentence were confirmed by his excellency; but that his request, as to the mode of execution, could not be complied with; that he muft fuffer the fame as others, who were taken in war against their king and country; and that the peculiar circumftances of his cafe rendered it neceffary his execution fhould be in the most public manner; that he must be executed in front of the New Prifon. Unable to bear this agony, he took the refolution of anticipating the execution by his own hand, and when the fentinel went to roufe him on Monday morning, he found him exhaufted, weltering in blood, with his throat cut across, and apparently expiring. A military furgeon was inftantly called in, who pronounced the wound not mortal, though extremely dangerous, to whom Mr. Tone faintly anfwered, "he was then but a bad anatomift." In the mean time a motion was made in his majefty's court of King's Bench, then fitting, to arrest execution, grounded on an affidavit fworn by the father of the prisoner, that he had been tried, convicted, and fentenced to death, on a charge of high treafon, before a military court of feven members, fitting in the barrack of Dublin, though he did not belong to his majesty's army; while his majefty's court of King's Bench was fitting, before which the prifoner might have been tried in the ordinary way; Mr. Curran, who ably argued the point, moved, that an Habeas Corpus do iffue forthwith to bring up the prifoner inftanter. The court immediately complied, and the officer who ferved the order on the provost marshal, returned with anfwer, that Brigade Major Sandys faid he would comply with no orders but thofe of the commander in chief of the garrifon; the court immediately directed the fheriff to repair to the barrack, take Major Sandys into cuftody, and bring him before the court. The fheriff, on his return, reported, that Major Sandys was not to be found, that he had feen General Craig, at whofe inftance he accompanied the furgeon to Mr. Tone, and that the furgeon reported, the prifoner could not be removed into court without danger of inftant death. The |