Minister of Marine's point of view and defer the expedition until it could be carried out on "the grand scale," and at a more favourable opportunity. Tone pointed out that it was now or never. An expedition on a "grand scale" was all very well, but "5,000 men that could be sent were better than 50,000 that could not." The time to assist the Irish was when they were still fighting; "in three months it might be too late, and the forces then sent, if the Irish were overpowered in the meantime, find themselves unsupported, and in their turn, be overpowered by the English!"

By the beginning of July these arguments had their way with the the Directory. Tone was called to Paris to consult with the Ministers of War and Marine in the organisation of a new expedition. Tone's son explains clearly which were the proposals now accepted.

The plan adopted was to dispatch small detachments from several ports, in the hope of keeping up the insurrection, until an opportunity should be found for landing the main body under General Kilmaine. General Humbert, with about 1,000 men, was quartered for this purpose at La Rochelle, General Hardy with 3,000 at Brest, and Kilmaine with 9,000 remained in reserve.

But the preparations were very slow, owing to the poverty of the French Government; and Humbert, a gallant soldier of fortune, whose heart was better than his head, fired by the recitals of the Irish refugees (who came to France in large numbers with awful tales of Irish suffering), and urged on by the impetuous old Napper Tandy, determined to act on his own responsibility. Towards the end of August he requisitioned money and stores from the merchants and magistrates of La Rochelle, and "embarking on board a few frigates and transports, with 1,000 men, 1,000 spare muskets, 1,000 guineas, and a few pieces of artillery, he compelled the Captains to set sail for the most desperate attempt which is perhaps, recorded in history." Three Irishmen accompanied him: Matthew Tone, a brother of Theobald, Bartholomew Teeling, and Sullivan. The little expedition landed at Killala on 22nd August. That town, as well as Ballina, was taken without difficulty, and on the 27th of the month the French inflicted a great defeat on the "Red Coats" of General Lake at Castlebar. So swiftly did the English soldiers run from the desperate charge of the French and their Irish allies that the battle is known to this day as "the Races of Castlebar."

In the meantime Cornwallis had landed in Ireland with immense reinforcements. Hastening to Lake's aid, he met Humbert at Ballinamuck (8th September), overpowered him by the mere

force of numbers and compelled his surrender. The French soldiers taken were treated as prisoners of war. Their Irish auxiliaries were slaughtered. Matthew Tone and Bartly Teeling were courtmartialed and hanged.

The Directory were naturally thrown into the greatest perplexity by the news of Humbert's proceedings. They determined to hurry up the dispatch of the force under General Hardy. "But such was the state of the French navy and arsenals that it was not until the 20th September that this small expedition, consisting of one sail of the line, and eight frigates under Commodore Bompard and 3,000 men under General Hardy were ready for sailing. Four Irishmen accompanied the expedition: Wolfe Tone, Corbett, Maguire, and Hamilton.

Tone had absolutely no delusions as to the expedition's chances of success. But he had said that if the French Government sent only a corporal's guard he would go with them. Such was the wretched indiscretion of the Government, that, before his departure, he read in a Paris newspaper, the Bien Informé, a detailed account of the whole armament, where his own name was mentioned in full letters, with the circumstance of his being embarked on board the Hoche.

The flotilla, which had taken a wide sweep to avoid the English fleet, met with contrary winds and was scattered. After twenty days' cruise the Hoche, with two frigates, the Loire and the Résolue, and one schooner, the Biche, arrived off Loch Swilly. An English squadron under Sir John Borlace Warren, consisting of six sail of the line, one Razee of sixty guns, and two frigates, instantly bore down on them. The Hoche, a large and heavy manof-war, had no chance of escape, so Bompard signalled the two frigates and schooner to make off through the shallow water and he, himself alone "to honour the flag of his country by a desperate defence." At that moment a boat came from the Biche for his last orders. That ship had the best chance to get off. The French officers all supplicated Tone to embark on board of her. “Our contest is hopeless," they observed, "we will be prisoners of war, but what of you?" "Shall it be said," replied he, "that I fled while the French were fighting the battle of my country?"

And so, through the long hours of that desperate engagement wherein the Hoche stood up alone to the guns of five heavy British ships, he commanded one of the batteries, fighting with a courage which even these brave Frenchmen had never seen equalled.

"During six hours the Hoche sustained the fire of a whole fleet, till her masts and rigging were swept away, her scuppers flowed

with blood, her wounded filled the cock-pit, her scattered ribs yawned at each new stroke and let in five feet of water in the hold, her rudder was carried off, and she floated a dismantled wreck on the waters; her sails and cordage hung in shreds, nor could she reply with a single gun from her dismounted batteries to the unabating cannonade of the enemy. At length she struck," and her personnel surrendered.

At first, Tone, who had become in language and appearance a regular Frenchman, was not recognised among the French officers. His discovery was the act of a college friend of the old days in Trinity, one Sir George Hill. Narrowly scanning the features of the French officers who sat at breakfast at Letterkenny with the Earl of Cavan, he stopped before one and said, "Mr. Tone, I am very happy to see you.' Cool as ever, Tone rose from his seat with a courteous: "Sir George, I am happy to see you, how are Lady Hill and your family?" A moment later he was being put in irons by military in the next room. The indignity roused him to a momentary outburst. Flinging off his uniform, he cried, "These fetters shall never degrade the revered insignia of the free nation which I have served." Then a new thought struck him—and he stretched forth his limbs proudly for their chains: "For the cause which I have embraced, I feel prouder to wear these chains than if I were decorated with the star and garter of England."

For the credit of human nature one would fain believe that even the Earl of Cavan and Sir George Hill and their followers would have been shamed into admiration at his generous and noble act. Alas! no indignity was spared him-and he was compelled to make the big journey from Letterkenny to Dublin, on horseback, with his legs pinioned beneath the horse's belly and his arms manacled! On reaching Dublin he was thrown to the tender mercies of Major Sandys in the Provost's prison-whence he was only taken for his court-martial on the 10th November.

He made a gallant figure as he stood before his judges in the uniform of a French Colonel, making his last profession of faith in the principles to which he had devoted all that was his to give. "From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish nation, and felt convinced, that while it lasted, this country would never be free or happy. In consequence, I determined to apply all the powers which my individual efforts could move, in order to separate the two countries. That Ireland was not able, of herself, to throw off the yoke, I knew. I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found. . . . Under the flag of the French Republic I origi

nally engaged with a view to save and liberate my own country. For that purpose I have encountered the chances of war amongst strangers: for that purpose I have repeatedly braved the terrors of the ocean, covered as I knew it to be with the triumphant fleets of that Power which it was my glory and my duty to oppose. I have sacrificed all my views in life; I have courted poverty; I have left a beloved wife unprotected, and children whom I adored, fatherless. After such sacrifices, in a cause which I have always considered as the cause of justice and freedom-it is no great effort at this day to add the sacrifice of my life!"

How that final sacrifice was made all the world knows. He had made but one request of his foes, that in deference to the uniform he wore he should be adjudged the death of a soldier. Even this poor favour was denied him. He was condemned to die the death of "a traitor" within forty-eight hours of the promulgation of his sentence. To save himself from that crowning indignity, while in the winter night the soldiers were erecting the gallows for him before his window, he inflicted a deep wound across his own throat with a penknife he had managed to secrete. Of this wound he died in great agony a week later-19th November, 1798.

They buried him at dead of night in the old cemetery at Bodenstown, by the side of his brother, Matthew, who had died for the same glorious cause a few weeks earlier.

And there, side by side, those two mangled bodies each broken so cruelly in the conqueror's murder machine-await the Resurrection in the "green grave" which Ireland cherishes as the most precious thing she owns.

Authorities on the 1793-1803 period:

Madden: Lives and Times of the United Irishmen.

Tone: Autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone.

Concannon (Mrs. Helena): Women of '98.

Fitzpatrick: Secret Service under Pitt, and The Sham Squire.

Kavanagh: Rebellion of '98.

Rev. Mr. Gordon: History of the Rebellion.

Mitchel: History of Ireland.

Fitzpatrick: Ireland before the Union.

ALTHOUGH Ireland was officially conquered to Britain centuries before, the Island was alleged to have a Parliament of its own, under the British Crown, up to the year 1800.

It was, of course, a Parliament of, and for, the British in Ireland. The mere Irish had no say in it-except for an insignificantly brief period. Had no right even to vote for a member of it. It was not considered that they whose land this was, and who constituted six-sevenths of the population of the land, could presume to take even the humblest part in governing their own country. The Parliament was for half a million British in Ireland-to hold three million Irish in subjection. Moreover, of the 300 members, only 72 were really elected. Three-fourths of its members were just appointed by the Borough owners, the British Lords who owned Irish towns.

It was only at rare intervals that the Anglo-Irish who owned and ran this Parliament dared assert their right to make it a Parliament in reality, as well as in name. For centuries it was held in the stranglehold of Poyning's Law-a law which forbade it to initiate any legislation-only gave it liberty to legislate under the direction and command of the English Parliament-to pass into law whatever the English Parliament recommended-and to refrain from legislating upon all things that the English Parliament forbade it to legislate upon.

Under this state of things naturally Ireland's woes increased with the years. Just before the Anglo-Irish Parliament, in 1782, took heart to shake from its shoulders its Old Man of the Sea, the English Parliament which paralysed it, Hely Hutchinson, speaking in the Irish House of Commons (in 1779) said: "Can the history of any other fruitful country on the globe, enjoying peace for eighty years, and not visited by plague or pestilence, produce so many

1 This chapter, with trifling change, is taken from Ireland's Case, by Seumas MacManus.