Note: The above section numbers represent digital file divisions only. While these are made to correspond to title-sections in the text they do not correspond to clear divisions in the work as a whole. Here, in RICORSO Library, the front papers (title, dedication, &c.), appendices, and original index have been edited separately and are accessible by means of the links below:

Bibliographical details: Sir Richard Musgrave, Memoirs of the different rebellions in Ireland from the arrival of the English: with a particular detail of That Which Broke Out the XXIIId of May, MDCCXCVIII [23rd May 1798]; with the History of the Conspiracy which Preceded It and the Characters of the Principal Actors in It. (Dublin: John Millikin; London: John Stockdale 1801), 636pp. + Appendices, 166pp + Index [8pp.] 1st edn. copy available at Internet Archive - online. The biographical and critical file on Musgrave may be found in RICORSO > A-Z Dataset > Authors > m > Musgrave_R/life [supra].

MEMOIRS
OF THE DIFFERENT
REBELLIONS IN IRELAND.
FROM THE
ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH:
WITH A
PARTICULAR DETAIL OF THAT WHICH BROKE OUT THE XXIII D OF MAY, MDCCXCVIII;
THE
HISTORY OR THE CONSPIRACY WHICH PRECEDED IT
AND THE
CHARACTERS OF THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS IN IT.
COMPILED FROM
ORIGINAL AFFIDAVITS AND OTHER AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS;
AND
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND PLATES.
By  Sir RICHARD MUSGRAVE, Bart.
MEMBER IN THE LATE  IRISH PARLIAMENT.

Hoc illud eû precipue in cognitione rerum salubre ac frugiferum, omnis te exempli documenta in illustri posita monumento, intæri, inde tibi, tuæque republicæ, quod imitere capias; inde  foedum inceptu, fœdum exitu, quod vites. —Livy.

DUBLIN
FOR JOHN MILLIKEN, 32, GRAFTON-STREET,
AND
JOHN STOCKDALE, PICCADILLY, LONDON.
1801

IRELAND.

From a fenfe of duty, and zeal for the publick welfare, I undertook to write the following pages, which I have the honour, with your Excellency’s permillion, of dedicating to you.

Hiftory, which is a mirror of paft times, is the beft guide to the ftatefman; and Livy tells us, that he wrote his, that the republick might learn leffons of wifdom and prudence from it, by avoiding fuch meafures as had proved fatal, and by embracing fuch as had been found falutary for its intereft.

It is much to be lamented that Ireland has been difgraced, and that her improvement in morals and induftry has been retarded for near three centuries by civil diffenfions; and from their frequent recurrence, and as they have been uniformly directed to one object, “a feparation from England,” we may fairly conclude, that the predifpofing caufes to them muft be inveterate, and that the feeds of combuftion muft be deeply and extenfively laid.

As Ireland is now become an integral part of the empire, it is to be hoped that the Imperial Government will apply more effectual remedies than have been hitherto adopted, to

remove the caufes of her rebellions, her crimes and difgraces; but it would be as imprudent to undertake that talk, without having a perfed knowledge of them, as for a phyfician to adminifter medicine to a patient, without having inveftigated the fymptoms and diagnortics of his difeafe. I confider it then as an important, nay as a facred duty, to lay before the people of England the origin and progrefs of the late confpiracy and rebellion; for I have good reafon for faying, that the majority of them are as ignorant of the real ftate of Ireland, as they are of Kamfkatka or Madagafcar; which has arifen from the following caufes: An angry oppofition in parliament has conftantly imputed the difturbances and infurrections in Ireland to a wrong fource, and have feverely and unjuftly arraigned the wifeft meafures of government for their fuppreffion. Thus truth has been perverted through the medium of faction, as the rays of light refraded through the prifm, prefent various falfe lights and colours: Englifhmen, who vifited Ireland for a few days or weeks, have imbibed the prejudices of factious and defigning men, with whom they fortuitoufly afsociated, as we are told the camection affimilates to the colour of whatever body he approaches; and fuch men have taken upon them to write on the religious, moral and political state of Ireland:* The Jacobins both in England and Ireland, in order to feed the flame of rebellion, have inlmuated both orally and through the prefs, that the rebellion arofe from the oppreffion of the Roman catholicks; an affertion as falfe as it is iniquitous!

* Mr. George Cooper ftands confpicuous among thefe; for he has written a book printed by J. Davis, in Chancery-lane, London, in which he has fhewn a radical ignorance of the affairs of Ireland, and gives a grofs and flagrant mifreprefentation of them and another Jacobin pamphlet, “On the ftate of affairs in the year 1799” abounds with grofs falfehoods and miftatements on the fame subject

They enjoy as much civil liberty as any other portion of his majefty’s fubjects, and their lives, liberties and properties are protected by the fame laws; and as a proof of it, behold, of the popifh perfuafion, the number of wealthy merchants, manufacturers and mechanicks in Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Limerick, the farmers in the counties of Meath, Weftmeath, Tipperary, Limerick, and in many other parts of the kingdom, who have made large fortunes within a few years I Is not the Roman catholick labourer as much protected by the law as the proteftant; and does not the former experience as much humanity and kindnefs from his employer as the latter Nay, I will venture to affert, that the lower clafs of Roman catholicks would prefer proteftant landlords and matters to perfons of their own perfuafion, from their well-known mildnefs and beneficence.* While the penal laws exifted, they were not enforced by the proteftants, but remained a dead letter in the ftatute-book.

Such caufes of mifconception and error have operated fo ftrongly and fo generally in England, that many of the Englifh nobility and gentry, in their fpeeches on the Union, difplayed a total ignorance of the real caufes of the prcfent ftate of Ireland; an ignorance which has long proved fatal to its peace and profperity If I am anxious alfo, that our gracious Sovereign, whofe firft object is the happinefs of his fubjects, fhould know the real ftate of it.
Every perfon who perufes thefe Memoirs muft perceive, that by uniting the two kingdoms, your Excellency has laid a folid foundation for the future profperity of Ireland, by extinguifhing the feeds of diffenfion, and by filencing the voice of faction.

* See James Beaghan’s confeffion in the Appendix, page 100.
† This was very much occafioned by the miftaken zeal and the unabated exertions of Mr. Edmund Burke.

By your nice fenfe of honour and juftice, and thofe exalted virtues which you fo eminently poflefs, you reftored Britifh honour and good faith in the Eaft, where they had been long tarnifhed; and by your valour and military fkill, you fubdued Tippo Saib, as terrific to England, as Mithridates was to Rome; and it is univerfally allowed, that he could not have been overthrown, but for the brilliant victories which you obtained over him; by which you circumfcribed his dominions, and diminifhed his refources. It is certain then, that your Excellency is fully entitled to the greateft fhare of the laurels which were obtained by his final downfal.

Thus the fplendid and important victories of Quintus Flaminius, the Roman conful, rendered Macedon an eafy conqueft for Paulus Æmilius; and the trophies won at Zama by the renowned Scipio Africanus, facilitated the deftruction of Carthage for Scipio Æimilianus. But however great the advantages which you have procured for the empire by your conquefts in the Eaft, they are far inferior to thofe which will arife to it from the union of the two kingdoms; an union that will ftifle the fermentation of avarice and ambition, which operated fo ftrongly in parliament, that it appeared like a volcano, whofe annual eruptions kindled a flame in every part of the kingdom, deftructive of peace, of morals, and of induftry. Every factious incendiary lighted his flambeau of difcord at it, and fcattered combuftion through the land.

Her parliament was an engine, by which factious zeal united with fanaticifm, hoped to obtain a political afcendancy, for the purpofe of fubverting the conftitution, and of ereding a republick on its ruins. The venal orator of the day, affuming the mafk of patriotifm, and the garb of philanthropy, deluded and agitated the giddy multitude, though his eloquence might be

as little regarded as that of a mountebank, who, when he promifes the people health and longevity, diffeminates poifon amongft them.

What thefe political empirics fo long contended for, your Excellency has virtually given them, by an Union; “a reform of parliament,” in an affimilation of the Irifh conftitution to that of England, and an “equal participation of her commercial advantages.” Volvenda dies en! attulit ultro.” And this great and important event has been accomplifhed without any difturbance or commotion; though many ominous predictions were made, that even an attempt to bring it about would produce a civil war, and occafion much bloodshed.

For this we are indebted to your Excellency’s mildnefs, humanity, and benevolence, by which you fubdued and pacified the Irifh nation (in a ftate of civil war when you arrived amongft them) more than by your fword. By your goodnefs and clemency, you faved thoufands of deluded wretches, who would have fallen a prey to the vengeance of the law; and it is to be hoped that you have awakened contrition, and a fenfe of duty in them, and have reclaimed them from their errors.

How much more laudable in the eyes of God and man, than to draw the fword of extermination, and to fend them, “with all their imperfections on their head,” before that awful tribunal, where the beft of men, from the frailty of their nature, muft ultimately hope for mercy! Like Caefar, you fhewed them, that humanity is infeparable from true valour.

We are told in holy writ, that God made man after his own image; and in no quality can he fo nearly approach the divine nature, as in the exercife of mercy.

The Irifh nation are indebted to your Excellency for another moft important fervice; that of having put the kingdom in a better ftate of defence than it has been fince its connection with England: And it never fhould be forgotten by them, that when the French landed, in the year 1798, your Excellency, defpifing the board of luxury, and the down of indolence, took the field at the head of the army, and refolved to endure the fatigues of the campaign in their defence; though, from your length of fervice, and a long life dedicated to your country, you had been entitled to repofe.

That your Excellency may long continue to enjoy the favour of your Sovereign, the efteem of all good men, and the gratitude of the Irifh nation, is the fincere wifh of him who has the honour to be, with the moft profound refpect.

Dublin, March 1, 1801.
Your Excellency’s    
    Moft obedient humble fervant,
RICHARD MUSGRAVE.