No law but martial law.

The Reign of Terror in Ireland.

Exception has been taken to impressions of the reign of terror in Ireland, whether derived from traditional sources which possess no personal knowledge of it, and, on the principle that a story never loses in its carriage, may be prone to exaggeration; or from the testimony of partisan participators in the struggle, who still smart from the combined effects of wrong received and unsatisfied vengeance.

The Viceroy, Lord Cornwallis, is at least a witness above suspicion. In a letter dated April 15, 1799, he writes:-

“On my arrival in this country I put a stop to the burning of houses and murder of the inhabitants by the yeomen, or any other persons who delighted in that amusement; to the flogging for the purpose of extorting confession; and to the free-quarters, which comprehend universal rape and robbery throughout the whole country.”

And on the 24th July 1798, we are assured, “except in the instances of the six state trials that are going on here, there is no law either in town or county but martial law, and you know enough of that, to see all the horrors of it, even in the best administration of it. Judge, then, how it must be conducted by Irishmen, heated with passion and. revenge. But all this is trifling compared with the numberless murders which are hourly committed by our people without any process or examination whatever.” [Correspondence of Marquis Cornwallis, vol. ii., p. 368.]

To either of the objections just noticed, advanced by persons who are sceptical as to the extent of the Irish Reign of Terror, General Sir George Cockburn, who fought against the rebels, is not open. From his representative, Phineas Cockburn, Esq., of Shangana Castle, we have received several interesting MSS. in the autograph of the General, which possess much interest for the students of the calamitous period of ‘98.

“Sampson’s papers,” observes General Cockburn, in a letter to Lord Anglesey, “contained details of most horrible outrages on the people, of cruelty and foul deeds. Of course violence begets violence, and though the people in many cases were driven to retaliation, it was not before murder, burning, destruction of property, often on suspicion of being suspected, and flogging, drove them to desperation.”

The following curious paper has, with others, been placed at our disposal by Mr Cockburn:

“The Step-ladder, or a picture of the Irish Government as it was before Lord Cornwallis’s arrival, and during the System of Terror, etc.”

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