The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, with its cant words of liberty, equality, and fraternity, turned many heads all the world over, and nowhere more than in Ireland. The most significant symptom thereof was the foundation of the Society of United Irishmen by the rebel Wolfe Tone; whereof the main object was the propagation and adoption of revolutionary principles, and ultimately rebellion. 1792. In 1792 some of Tone’s associates formed two battalions of “National Guards,” which were to hold a great review on the 9th December, but having been informed that they would muster at their peril, very sensibly took care, after all, not to put in an appearance. This happened in Dublin. But at Belfast and in the North there was not less sympathy with the Jacobins and the extreme revolutionists of France, and in Ulster too there were “National Guards” of the same stamp.
1793.
The services of a regiment in aid of the civil power are so ungrateful that they are better left unrecorded, nor would allusion here be made to those of the Seventeenth but for the coincidence that they have found a place in history. For in the year 1786 began one of those periodic outbreaks of agrarian crime which have so often troubled Ireland, the perpetrators being what are now called moonlighters but were then known as whiteboys or defenders. Of the share taken by the Seventeenth in the suppression of these defenders it is best to say nothing, arduous though the work undoubtedly was. But it was a far more serious matter when, early in April 1793, the “National Guard” of Northern Republicans paraded in their green uniforms at Belfast, undeterred by the suppression of their brethren in Dublin. In March, General Whyte was sent down to compel their submission, the Seventeenth forming part of his force. He thereupon sent four troops of the regiment to disarm the “Guard” of these Republican volunteers. The rest of the story is best told in Mr. Froude’s own words:—
1793.
On the evening of the 9th March, a corporal and a private of the 17th, off duty, strolled out of the barracks into the city where they met a crowd of people round a fiddler who was playing Ça ira. They told the fiddler to play God save the King. The mob damned the King with all his dirty slaves, and threw a shower of stones at them. The two dragoons, joined by a dozen of their comrades, drew their sabres and “drove the town before them.” Patriot Belfast had decorated its shops with sign-boards representing Republican notables. The soldiers demolished Dumouriez, demolished Mirabeau, demolished the venerable Franklin. The patriots so brave in debate, so eloquent in banquet, ran before half a dozen Englishmen. A hundred and fifty volunteers came out, but retreated into the Exchange and barricaded themselves. The officers of the 17th came up before any one had been seriously hurt, and recalled the men to their quarters. In the morning General Whyte came in from Carrickfergus, went to the volunteer committee room, and said that unless the gentlemen in the Exchange came out and instantly dispersed, he would order the regiment under arms. They obeyed without a word. The dragoons received a reprimand, but not too severe, as the General felt that they had done more good than harm.[8]
1793.
Thus through two men of the Seventeenth the Irish volunteers were finally brought to an end. It must be remembered in defence of these two dragoons that their regiment had fought through the whole of the American War, which had failed mainly through the Alliance of the French with the Americans; and that it was a little hard on them, when at home, to hear abuse of the King whom they served, and witness the exaltation of French and American heroes. Moreover, in those days the Irish had injured so many soldiers by hamstringing them when peaceably walking in the streets that there was a deal of bad blood between the Irish and the Army.
In that same year began the great war with France which was destined to last, with only a few months intermission, for the next twenty years, and to be finally closed by the victory of Waterloo. The efforts of Mr. Pitt were early directed against the French possessions in the West Indies—a policy which, after having been for many years condemned, in deference to the verdict of Lord Macaulay, has lately been vindicated by a more competent and impartial authority, Captain Mahan of the United States Navy. The richest of the French West Indies was the Island of St. Domingo, which accordingly became one of Pitt’s first objects. Ever since 1790, when the revolutionary principles of Paris had first found their way thither, the island had been in a state of disturbance, which had culminated, partly through mismanagement and partly through wilful mischief, in a general rising of the negroes against the whites, accompanied by all the atrocities that inevitably attend a servile war and a war of colour. Of the white planters many took refuge in Jamaica, whence they pressed the British Government to take possession of St. Domingo, averring that all classes of the population would welcome British dominion, and that on the first appearance of a British force the Colony would surrender without a struggle. It was the story of the Carolinas repeated, and we shall see that the story had the same end.
1793.
St. Domingo, an island almost as large as Great Britain, in shape greatly resembles a human right hand cut off at the wrist, and with the thumb, second and third fingers doubled inwards; the wrist forming the eastern end, and two long promontories, represented by the little and first fingers, the western extremities. The French garrison in the island consisted of 6000 regular troops, 14,000 white militia, and 25,000 negroes. The British force first directed against it consisted of 870 rank and file, which with the help of a small squadron captured 19th Sept. and garrisoned the ports of Jeremie and Mole St. Nicholas, 22nd Sept. situated near the extremities of the south and north promontories respectively. These posts, as commanding the windward passage between St. Domingo and Cuba, were of considerable strategic importance to the Navy. From Jeremie an expedition was undertaken against Cape Tiburon, in reliance on the help of 500 friendly Frenchmen, whom a French planter undertook to raise for the purpose. Not 50 Frenchmen appeared, and the attack was a total failure. Then came the rainy season, and with it the yellow fever, which played havoc among the troops. Reinforcements being imperatively needed, more men were withdrawn from Jamaica to St. Domingo, whereby, as will presently appear, the safety of Jamaica was seriously compromised.