shall chiefly rely on the evidence of the respectable officers and gentlemen especially selected by the Government itself for the mission to Castlewellan. From those authorities we collect the following historical summary of the affair :

The country had recently been unusually quiet, owing, probably, to the cessation of the O'Connell agitation, and the suppression of Smith O'Brien's ridiculous rebellion: but, from whatever cause, certain it is that, for a considerable period of time, no exasperating circumstances had occurred till February last-1849, when an Orangeman was murdered at his own door by a band of Ribbonmen returning from one of their nocturnal meetings. The same party had beaten his brother a few minutes before and left him for dead on the road near to their dwellinghouse. The offenders escaped-no effectual steps having been taken to bring them to justice. This created a strong sensation, which was much increased when on the 17th of March, St. Patrick's Day-the anticipated anniversary of Irish Independence'-the Ribbonmen had a procession, and on this occasion another Orangeman's life was lost (Evid., p. 27). On that day a large party of Ribbonmen marched, in armed procession, through Downpatrick during the time the judge of assize (Chief Baron Pigot, a Roman Catholic, a few years since Attorney-General) was sitting, who-when consulted by the High Sheriff whether or not he should interfere with them-gave an opinion which conveyed the impression that he did not consider the procession per se illegal. They accordingly pursued their march unmolested, and, passing through a Protestant district, they wrecked' a Protestant house, by firing into it. At length they arrived at the village of Crossgar, about four miles from Downpatrick, where a large police force, under the direction of a stipendiary and two local magistrates, were stationed to preserve the peace. The police and magistrates were posted at the end of a street inhabited by Protestants (not Orangemen) to prevent the procession from going down it, being apprehensive that if it did there might be a breach of the peace. When the Ribbonmen were directed by the authorities not to go by this street, but to move forward on the direct road, they fired upon the police and magistrates, killing a policeman and two other persons in the street. The Ribbonmen marched off with flying colours, not having sustained any apparent injury. A protracted inquest was held several of the Ribbonmen were taken, and, informations being granted against them, they were subsequently tried at the quarter sessions at Newtownards. The Government did not, as is usual, leave the prosecution in the hands of the Crown Solicitor, but sent down specially a barrister for the occasion.

The

The prosecution, as conducted by that gentleman, seemed to the auditory rather feeble-and the Ribbonmen were acquitted. The legal guilt of the parties turned on the question, whether the procession was or was not illegal; and the jury, we are informed, acquitted the prisoners-holding, as the Chief Baron seems to have done, that such processions were not originally and in themselves illegal: which opinion we also hold, though the circumstances that occurred at Crossgar appear to us to have changed the character of the procession, and to have been such as ought to have procured a conviction.

This exhibition at Crossgar and its results made a deep effect on the whole loyalty of Ulster. It was and is notorious that, whatever might be said of the legality of an open and peaceable procession, the secret society of the Ribbonmen is not merely illegal, but treasonable. This broad fact has never been, we believe, denied or even doubted. If it had been, it would have received a curious confirmation at the Dolly's Brae inquiry. Lieutenant Terry, of the 9th Regiment, in giving his evidence before the Commissioner, called the Ribbonmenthe rebels.' In reply to a remonstrance and an angry interrogation from Mr. Rae, the lawyer employed by the Ribbonmen, the Lieutenant vindicated his own impartiality and the use of the term, by stating that he had no sympathy with the Orangemen; that he was an Englishman; that he had no feeling either way, but

that he was as sure that the Ribbonmen were rebels as he was that he saw them commence firing on the King's troops and the Orangemen ;' and in a subsequent part of the examination another Government official, Mr. E. S. Corry, Inspector of Police, again called them rebels, upon which the following dialogue ensued:-"Mr. Rae [the lawyer of the Ribbonmen.]-You call them "rebels" -but never mind-that is an honourable name in this country.

Mr. Ross Moore [counsel for the Orangemen].-This is most extraordinary. You object to the name at one time, and another time you approve

it.

' Mr. Rae.-I'll not object to it any more!'-p. 84.

In this admission we have, in truth, the kernel of the whole affair. The Ribbonmen are notoriously rebels, and, as we see, boast of it as an 'honourable name in Ireland,' and they also are exclusively Roman Catholics, while the Orangemen are notoriously loyal, and all Protestants. This is, in plain prose, the burthen of all the incendiary poetry of the Nation :'

'Who fears to speak of "Ninety-eight"?

Who blushes at the name?' &c. &c.

It is a short but ample explanation of the struggle of what are called parties' in Ireland; but which, in fact, is a struggle

VOL. LXXXVI. NO. CLXXI.

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between

between the friends and the enemies of the Constitution; and this all governments, even that of Lord Clarendon himself, in spite of their affected confidence in the Roman Catholics, have always felt and, on every appearance of danger, very visibly shown. But we return to the narrative.

The success of the demonstration on St. Patrick's Day, with the subsequent acquittal, gave the Ribbonmen additional confidence, and it began to be rumoured in the neighbourhood that, if the Orangemen should show themselves on the 12th of July, at least the Ribbonmen would never suffer them to march over a certain hill called Dolly's Brae, a steep and narrow pass on the road between Ballyward and the town of Castlewellan, and in the way to Lord Roden's seat at Tollymore, about two or three miles farther on, which the Orangemen, for the reasons before stated, desired to visit. These localities are important to a just understanding and appreciation of the events, and the following rough sketch will help to illustrate our description.

About two miles from Ballyward the road passes over a steep ridge called Magheramayo Hill; it then falls into a valley, and again ascends another ridge called Dolly's Brae, and just there, besides being very steep, it narrows into a kind of defile, where the evidence states that fifty men might stop five hundred. To avoid those two hills, a new road has been made

which runs round the base of the hills, more level, but three-quarters of a mile longer, and more commanded by high grounds on each side. All these small circumstances will be important by and by.

There is no evidence why Dolly's Brae should have become ' a bone of contention.' A Roman Catholic priest, indeed, stated that some conflict was supposed to have taken place there thirty years before. But, if so, the event seems to have been forgotten. An Orange procession had certainly passed over the old road at a much more recent period, without offence or even observation: in fact, there is no evidence to show, and a good deal to disprove, that either party had any feeling about Dolly's Brae before the 12th of July, 1848, when, as we have stated, the Castlewellan lodges had visited Ballyward, and happened to take the new road, spontaneously avoiding both Magheramayo and Dolly's Brae. But it has since appeared that on that occasion the Ribbon party, expecting that the Orangemen would have taken the old road, had collected in great force on Dolly's Brae to surprise them; and the circuitous march of the Orangemen, whether it arose from accident or a desire to avoid a conflict, was certainly assumed by the Ribbonmen as a triumph; and rumours began to be spread taxing the Orangemen with cowardice for having shrunk from a contest which does not appear to have been ever thought of-by them. Contemptuous and insulting songs were sung through the country (p. 63). The priest, Mr. Mooney, whom we shall by and by see very conspicuous, admits—

'Abominable songs were made and circulated after July, '48, about the Orangemen not daring to go through Dolly's Brae.'-Evid. p. 107. and the tenour and spirit of those provocations may be judged by an anonymous letter sent to one of the local magistrates, Mr. Shaw, a few days before the 12th of July :

'July the 8, 49.

SIRS, AS wee Call you at a meeting of our society on fridaway (Friday) we agred to give you notice, you and Moore, and the Beers, and Roden and Hill, Skinner and all other magistrates, with the pigdrovers the police, and your handful of solgers, to meet us on Dolly's Bray on the 12 morning Inst., to show your valure. But remember you will not find us king James or His men. there is no river conve

nent that wee Could drown you in, But we will Blow you to the ealements with good powder and ball, and the town of Castlewellen Shall Quake afterward--as it is the last 12 ever the Blood Hounds Shall walk in or through this Country. and wee Bid Defience to all Her majesty's authority and powers. Repaill, Repaill, Repaill for ever. 'from the Repaillers.'

The magistrates made light, as we should have done, of this letter. We should even have doubted its being genuine, but that

the direct allusion to King James, and the incidental one to the battle of the Boyne, coupled with the subsequent events at Magheramayo, justify, we think, the belief that it was really an announcement of hostilities, and meant, by some one who was in the secrets of the Ribbon conspiracy, to provoke the Orangemen to take a road in which they might be attacked with safety to the assailants. It does not, however, appear that those rumours had any effect on the Orangemen. The old road, though hilly, was the straightest and shortest by three-quarters of a mile; and, considering the length of their intended walk to and from Tollymore, the saving of the double distance was important. As far as the insults had any effect, it was only to determine the Orangemen, as it would have done men of less spirit, confident in the loyalty and legality of their proceedings, to disprove the imputation by marching by the direct road.

Surely,' as a respectable local magistrate, Captain Skinner, said to a party of Ribbonmen whom he happened to fall in with early in the morning of the 12th, marching to seize the pass at Dolly's Brae, surely the Queen's highway is open to all her Majesty's subjects.' So the Orangemen thought, and resolved not to be deterred by anonymous letters and vague rumours, which might have no foundation, from asserting their right. So the Government thought, which, being apprised of the intention of the Orangemen, did not even discourage it.

Although the general impression of both the Orangemen and the magistrates was that no disturbance was really intended, some of the latter had strong misgivings of danger; and accordingly towards the end of June Mr. Scott, a local magistrate, happening to be in Dublin, waited on Mr. Under-Secretary Redington, at the Castle, to inform him that he was afraid that a conflict was likely to take place, and to request the Government to send down one or two stipendiary magistrates, with a sufficient force of military and police to keep the peace. Another local magistrate, Mr. Francis Beers (one of the three dismissed), being at this time resident in Dublin, received, a few days previous to the 12th of July, a letter from Mr. Hill, chief of the police in his district, stating his apprehensions of a conflict, and inviting him, as a gentleman of character and influence, to come down to assist in the preservation of the peace. Mr. Beers did so, but before he left town he took the precaution of waiting on Sir Duncan Macgregor, the Inspector-General, to apprise him of the alarm, and to suggest the sending a reinforcement to the local police. Mr. Hill, it appeared, had himself written to the Inspector-General to the same effect. It was in consequence of these representations that the official and military authorities

already