ever, that the county of Wexford neither Rochelle a fortnight after. Hoche was suffered so much, nor was so ripe for in-appointed to the command of the Army surrection, as many other counties, until of the Sambre and Meuse; and Theobald after the 1st of April, 1798, when Lord Wolfe Tone went with him, attached to Castlereagh's "well-timed measures" his personal staff. A great mutual rewere taken. In the meantime Lord Ed-gard seems to have sprung up between ward Fitzgerald and the other leaders the young General and his gallant Aide; were eagerly and impatiently awaiting news of approaching succours from France; keeping the people as quiet as possible, and letting them prepare their arms and steel their hearts, in full view of the corpses blackening upon many a gibbet, and heads impaled on spikes over many a gaol doorway, for the crime of swearing to promote the union of Irishmen, in order to obtain a full and fair representation of the people,* and deliverance from their savage oppressors. CHAPTER XXXI. and the latter, who had by no means given up the project of a French liberating invasion of Ireland, always cherished the hope of seeing Hoche appointed to the chief command. On the 10th of March, he writes to his wife: "This very day the Executive Directory has ratified the nomination of General Hoche, and I am, to all intents and purposes, AdjutantGeneral, destined for the Army of Sambre and Meuse." In the end of May, after a short stay with his family, who had arrived in France, we find him at Cologne, at the headquarters of that army. In the meantime, Mr. John Edward Lewins, already mentioned as an agent of the United Irishmen, had arrived in France, empowered to treat for another expedition, and to negotiate a loan. When Lewins arrived in Holland, then called Wolfe Tone's Negotiations in France and Holland.--the "Batavian Republic," one of the reLewins.-Expedition of Dutch Government Des- publics dependent upon France, and at nal.—Tone's uneasiness about Admitting Foreign war with England, he found the GovernDominion over Ireland.-MacNeven's Memoir.ment very well disposed to essay this bold Discussion as to Proper Point for a Landing.— enterprise of a descent upon Ireland, and Tone on Board the Vryheid.-Adverse Winds.- to risk their whole navy and army in the Rage and Impatience of Tone.-Disastrous Fate effort. An extract from Tone's journal of the Batavian Expedition.-Camperdown. 1797-1798. tined for Ireland.-Tone at the Texel.-His Jour THE great French armament, destined for the liberation of Ireland, which had looked in at Bantry Bay, had returned to Brest, without so much loss by the bad weather as might have been expected, and without having met a single British ship-of-war. The frigate Fraternité, carrying General Hoche and the Admiral Morand de Galles, arrived safely at La *It is right to bear in mind throughout, that the original test of the United Irish Society, which bound them to unite to procure fair representation of all the Irish people in Parliament, was changed in 1795 into an engagement to unite for the purpose of obtaining a fair representation of all the people dropping the words "in Parliament." From that time, separation and a Republican Government became the fixed objects of the principal leaders, but not the avowed ones till a little later, when, at the conclusion of every meeting, the chairman was obliged to inform the members of each society, "they had undertaken no light matter," and he was directed to ask every delegate present what were his views and his understanding of those of his society, and each individual was expected to reply, a Republican Government and a separation from England."-Pieces of Irish History. Madden. All this was, of course, as well known to the Government as to the members; so that it cannot in candour be said, that the U. I. were treated as criminals for the mere fact of uniting-it was for uniting to destroy British dominion in Ireland, and erect a republic in its place. will now afford the best insight into the state of this negotiation. While with General Hoche, at his Quartier General, at Friedberg, he writes, under date of June 12th, 1797: "This evening the General called me into the garden and told me he had some good news for me. He then asked, 'Did I know one Lewins?' I answered I did, perfectly well, and had a high opinion of his talents and patriotism. Well,' said he, he is at Neuwied, waiting to see you; you must set off to-morrow morning; when you join him, you must go together to Treves, and wait for further orders.' The next morning I set off, and, on the 14th, in the evening reached "June 14th, Neuwied; where I found Lewins waiting for me. I cannot express the unspeakable satisfaction I felt at seeing him. I gave him a full account of all my labours, and of everything that had happened since I have been in France, and he informed me, in return, of everything of consequence relating to Ireland, and especially to my friends now in jeopardy there. "June 17th, Treves; where we arrived on the 17th. What is most material is, that he is sent here by the Executive Com- Brest Harbour; and I besought the Genemittee of the United People of Ireland, ral to remember that the mutiny aboard to solicit, on their part, the assistance in the English fleet would most certainly be troops, arms, and money, necessary to soon quelled, so that there was not a enable them to take the field, and assert moment to lose; that if we were lucky their liberty; the organization of the enough to arrive in Ireland before that people is complete, and nothing is wanting took place, I looked upon it as morally but the point d'appui. His instructions certain that, by proper means, we might are to apply to France, Holland, and Spain. gain over the seamen, who have already At Hamburgh, where he passed almost two spoken of steering the fleet into the months, he met a Senor Nava, an officer Irish harbour, and so settle the business, of rank in the Spanish navy, sent thither perhaps without striking a blow. We both by the Prince of Peace, on some mission of pressed these and such other arguments consequence; he opened himself to Nava, as occured, in the best manner we were who wrote off, in consequence, to his court, able; to which General Hoche replied, he and received an answer, general, it is true, saw everything precisely in the same light but in the highest degree favourable; we did, and that he would act accordingly, a circumstance which augurs well is, and press the Directory and Minister of that in forty days from the date of the Marine in the strongest manner. He Nava's letter he received the answer, showed Lewins Simons' letter, which conwhich is less time than he ever knew a tained the assurance of the Directory courier to arrive in, and shows the ear-that they would make no peace with nestness of the Spanish Minister. Lewins' England wherein the interests of Ireland instructions are to demand of Spain should not be fully discussed agreeably to £500,000 sterling, and 30,000 stand of the wishes of the people of that country." arms. At Treves, on the 19th, Dalton, This is a very strong declaration, and has the General's Aide-de-Camp, came ex- most probably been produced by a demand press with orders for us to return to- made by Lewins in his memorial,' that the French Government should make it an indispensable condition of peace, that all the British troops should be withdrawn from Ireland, and the people left at full liberty to declare whether they wished to continue the connection with England or not.' General Hoche then told us not to be discouraged by the arrival of a British negotiator, for that the Directory were determined to make no peace but on conditions which would put it out of the power of England longer to arrogate to herself the commerce of the world, and dictate her laws to all the maritime powers. He added that preparations were making also in Holland for an expedition, the particulars of which he would communicate to us in two or three days, and, in the meantime, desired us to attend him to "June 21st, Coblentz; where we arrived on the 21st, and met General Hoche. He told us that, in consequence of the arrival of Lewins, he had sent off Simons, one of his Adjutant-Generals, who was of our late expedition, in order to press the Executive Directory and Minister of the Marine; that he had also sent copies of all the necessary papers, including especially those lately prepared by Lewins, with his own observations, enforcing them in the strongest manner; that he had just received the answers of all parties, which were as favourable as we could desire; but that the Minister of the Marine was absolutely for making the expedition on a grand scale, for which two months, at the very least, would still be necessary; to which I, knowing Brest of old, and that two months, in the language of the Marine, meant four at least, if not five or six, remarked the necessity of an immediate exertion in order to profit by the state of mutiny and absolute disorganization in which the English navy is at this moment, in which Lewins heartily concurred; and we both observed that it was not a strong military force that we wanted at this moment, but arms and ammunition, with troops sufficient to serve as a noyau de armee, and protect the people in their first assembling; adding, that 5,000 men sent now, when the thing was feasible, would be far better than 25,000 in three months, when perhaps we might find ourselves again blocked up in "June 24th, Cologne; for which place we set off; arrived the 24th. "June 25th.-At nine o'clock at night the General sent us a letter from General Daendels, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Batavian Republic, acquainting him that everything was in the greatest forwardness, and would be ready in a very few days; that the army and the navy were in the best possible spirits;. that the Committee for Foreign Affairs (the Directory per interim of the Batavian Republic) desired most earnestly to see him without loss of time, in order to to make the definite arrangements; and especially they prayed him to bring with him the deputy of the people of Ireland, which Daendels repeated two or three times in his letter. In consequence of this, I waited on the General, whom I found in his bed in the Court Imperiale, and received his orders to set off with Lewins without loss of time, and attend him at French Government is now before the Committee; if it is acceded to, I will go myself, and at all events I will present you both to the Committee; and we will probably then settle the matter definitively.' Both Lewins and I now found ourselves in a considerable difficulty. On the one side, it was an object of the greatest importance to have Hoche and his 5000 grenadiers; on the other, it was most unreasonable to propose anything which could hurt the feelings of the Dutch people, at a moment when they were making unexampled exertions in our favour, and risking, as Hoche himself said, their last ship and last shilling to emancipate us. I cursed and swore like a dragoon; it went to my very heart's blood and midriff to give up the General and our brave lads, 5000 of whom I would prefer to any 10,000 in Europe; on "June 27th, the Hague; where we arrived accordingly, having travelled day and night. In the evening we went to the Comedie, where we met the General in a sort of public incognito; that is to say, he had combed the powder out of his hair, and was in a plain regimental frock. After the play, we followed him to his lodgings at the Lion d'or, where he gave us a full detail of what was preparing in Holland. He began by telling us that the Dutch Governor-General Daendels and Admiral Dewinter were sincerely actuated by a desire to effectuate some- the other hand, I could not but see that thing striking to rescue their country from that state of oblivion and decadence into which it had fallen; that by the most indefatigable exertions on their part, they had got together, at the Texel, sixteen sail of the line, and eight or ten frigates, all ready for sea, and in the highest condition, that they intended to embark 15,000 men, the whole of their national troops, 3000 stand of arms, 80 pieces of artillery, and money for their pay, and subsistence for three months; that he had the best opinion of the sincerity of all parties, and of the courage and conduct of the General and Admiral, but that here was the difficulty: The French Government had demanded that at least 5000 French troops, the elite of the army, should be embarked, instead of a like number of Dutch; in which case, if the demand was acceded to, he would himself take the command of the united army, and set out for the Texel directly; but that the Dutch Government made great difficulties, alleging a variety of reasons, of which some were good; that they said the French troops would never submit to the discipline of the Dutch navy, and that, in that case, they could not pretend to enforce it on their own, without making unjust distinctions, and giving a reasonable ground for jealousy and discontent to their army; ' but the fact is,' said Hoche, that the Committee, Daendels, and Dewinter, are anxious that the Batavian Republic should have the whole glory of the expedition, if it succeeds; they feel that their country has been forgot ten in Europe, and they are risking everything, even to their last stake-for if this fails they are ruined-in order to restore the national character. The demand of the the Dutch were perfectly reasonable in the desire to have the whole reputation of an affair prepared and arranged entirely at their expense, and at such an expense. I did not know what to say. Lewins, however, extricated himself and me with considerable address. After stating very well our difficulty, he asked Hoche whether he thought that Daendels would serve under his orders, and, if he refused, what effect that might have on the Batavian troops? I will never forget the magnanimity of Hoche on this occasion. He said he believed Daendels would not, and therefore that the next morning he would withdraw the demand with regard to the French troops, and leave the Dutch Goverment at perfect liberty to act as they thought proper. When it is considered that Hoche has a devouring passion for fame; that his great object, on which he has endeavoured to establish his reputation, is the destruction of the power of England; that he has, for two years, in a great degree, devoted himself to our business, and made the greatest exertions, including our memorable expedition, to emancipate us; that he sees, at last, the business likely to be accomplished by another, and, of course, all the glory he had promised to himself ravished from him; when, in addition to all this, it is considered that he could, by a word's speaking, prevent the possibility of that rival's moving one step, and find, at the same time, plausible reasons sufficient to justify his own conduct, I confess his renouncing the situation which he might command is an effort of very great virtue. It is true he is doing exactly what an honest man and a good citizen ought to do; he is preferring the interests of his country to his own private views-that, however, does not prevent my regarding his conduct in this instance with great admiration, and I shall never forget it. This important difficulty being removed, after a good deal of general discourse on our business, we parted late, perfectly satisfied with each other, and having fixed to wait on the Committee to-morrow in the forenoon. All reflections made, the present arrangement, if it has its dark, has its bright sides also, of which more hereafter. "June 28.-This morning at ten, Lewins and I went with General Hoche to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, which we found sitting. There were eight or nine members, of whom I do not know all the names, together with General Daendels. Those whose names I learned were citizens Hahn (who seemed to have great influence among them), Bekker, Van Leyden, and Grasveldt. General Hoche began by stating extremely well the history of our affairs since he had interested himself in them; he pressed, in the strongest manner that we could wish, the advantages to be reaped from the emancipation of Ireland, the almost certainty of success if the attempt were once made, and the necessity of attempting it, if at all, immediately. It was citizen Hahn who replied to him. He said he was heartily glad to find the measure sanctioned by so high an opinion as that of General Hoche; that originally the object of the Dutch Government was to have invaded England in order to have operated a diversion in favour of the French army, which it was hoped would have been in Ireland; that circumstances being totally changed in that regard, they had yielded to the wishes of the French Government, and resolved to go into Ireland; that, for this purpose, they had made the greatest exertions, and had now at the Texel an armament of 16 sail of the line, 10 frigates, 15,000 troops in the best condition, 80 pieces of artillery, and pay for the whole three months; but that a difficulty had been raised within a few days, in consequence of a requisition of the Minister of Marine, Truget, who wished to have 5000 French troops, instead of so many Dutch, to be disembarked in consequence. That this was a measure of extreme risk, inasmuch as the discipline of the Dutch navy was very severe, and such as the French troops would probably not submit to; that, in that case, they could not pretend to enforce it with regard to their own troops, the consequence of which would be a relaxation of all discipline. This was precisely what General Hoche told us last night. He immediately replied that, such being the case, he would take on himself to withdraw the Minister of Marine, and satisfy the Directory as to the justice of their observations; and that he hoped, all difficulty on that head being removed, they would press the embarkation without a moment's delay. It was easy to see the most lively satisfaction on all their faces at this declaration of General Hoche, which certainly does him the greatest honour. General Daendels, especially, was beyond measure delighted. They told us then that they hoped all would be ready in a fortnight, and Hahn observed, at the same time, that, as there was an English squadron which appeared almost every day at the mouth of the Texel, it was very much to be desired that the Brest fleet should, if possible, put to sea, in order to draw off at least a part of the British fleet, because, from the position of the Texel, the Dutch fleet was liable to be attacked in detail, in sailing out of the port; and even if they beat the enemy, it would not be possible to proceed, as they must return to refit. To this General Hoche replied, that the French fleet could not, he understood, be ready before two months, which put it out of the question; and as to the necessity of returning to refit, he observed that, during the last war, the British and French fleets had often fought, both in the East and West Indies, and kept the seas after; all that was necessary being to have on board the necessary articles of rechange; besides, it was certainly the business of the Dutch fleet to avoid an action by all possible means. General Daendels observed that Admiral Dewinter desired nothing better than to measure himself with the enemy, but we all, that is to say, General Hoche, Lewins, and myself, cried out against it, his only business being to bring his convoy safe to its destination. A member of the committee, I believe it was Van Leyden, then asked us, supposing everything succeeded to our wish, what was the definite object of the Irish people. To which we replied categorically, that it was to throw off the yoke of England, break forever the connection now existing with that country, and constitute ourselves a free and independent people. They all expressed their satisfaction at this reply, and Van Leyden observed that he had travelled through Ireland, and to judge from the luxury of the rich, and extreme misery of the poor, no country in Europe had so crying a necessity for a revolution. To which Lewins and I replied, as is most religiously the truth, that one great motive of our conduct in this business, was the con viction of the wretched state of our peas- The mutations of history are sometimes strange. Here, in 1797, we find the Dutch nation preparing for a grand national effort to liberate and redeem the very same people whom a century before it had so powerfully contributed, with the Prince of Orange and its "Dutch Blues," | to hurl prostrate under the feet of this very England which the Dutch Republic was now so eager to overthrow. sions which other nations, subdued or deceived by that nation, had experienced." In Tone's journal, under date of 1st of July, occurs a passage showing how earnestly that true Irishman deprecated a French conquest of his country: "I then took occasion to speak on a subject which had weighed very much upon my mindI mean the degree of influence which the French might be disposed to arrogate to themselves in Ireland, and which I had great reason to fear would be greater than we might choose to allow them. In the Gazette of that day, there was a proclamation of Buonaparte's, addressed to the Government of Genoa, which I thought most grossly improper and indecent as touching on the indispensable rights of the people. I read the most obnoxious passages to Hoche, and observed that, if Buonaparte commanded in Ireland, and were to publish there so indiscreet a proclamation, it would have a most ruinous effect; that in Italy such dictation might pass, but never in Ireland, where we understood our rights too well to submit to it. Hoche answered me, I understand you, but you may be at ease in that respect; Buonaparte has been my scholar, but he shall never be my master.' Before proceeding to narrate the fortunes of this second grand expedition bound for Ireland, it will be well to consider the views of those Irishmen who had studied the subject with regard to a point then extremely interesting, and which may again become interesting in the course of human events-namely, the most advisable or convenient harbours of It deserves to be noticed, in justice to Ireland for purposes of a landing hostile the Irish agents both in Holland and in to England. This question is treated at France, that they never contemplated length in a memoir, which was, during bringing an overwhelming force to Ire- this same summer, intrusted to Dr. Macland, such as might subdue the country to Neven, and was by him carried over to hold it in a state of subjection to France, France, in order that no such blunder like the Ligurian or Cisalpine Republic. might again be made as the approach The "Secret Committee," already so often to the desolate mountainous coasts of cited, which had under examination Bear and Bantry. This memoir, singular Messrs. Emmet, MacNeven, and O'Con- to relate, fell into the hands of the British nor, admit this fact. "It appeared to Government; but certainly not through the Committee that the Executive of the any treachery on the part of Dr. MacUnion, though desirous of obtaining as- Neven, who was a most excellent man; sistance in men, arms, and money, yet but O'Connor, Emmet, and MacNeven were averse to a greater force being sent tell us, in their memoirs, that on their than might enable them to subvert the examination before the Secret Committee Government and retain the power of the of the Lords the next year, they were country in their own hands; but that the astonished beyond measure to see the French showed a decided disinclination at very original of that memoir lying on the all times to send any force to Ireland, ex-table-so perfect was the spy system of cept such as from its magnitude might England, both at home and abroad, mainnot only give them the hopes of conquer- tained by an enormous expenditure of ing the kingdom, but of retaining it after- Secret Service money." wards as a French conquest, and of sub- The account which the Secret Comjecting it to all the plunder and oppres-mittee has given us of that memoir is as |