HE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN IRISH REBEL.* L?,• are° over the
French army list, one is surprised at the num- ber of English, or rather Irish, names with which it abounds. , / From Field-Marshals Niel and MaeNfahon down to the sous- lieutenants of the last regiment of infantry there is one long string of Celtic appellations, unmistakably imported from the Isle of the Saints. Some insight into the history of these impor- tations is given in three curious volumes of memoirs just printed in Paris, after the manuscript of the gallant Miles Byrne, whilom Irish rebel and subsequently French patriot, chef de bataillon, Officer of the Legion of Honour, and Knight of St. Louis. With commendable candour the editreis, widow of the chef de bataillon, confesses that the object of publishing the three volumes is to " awaken sympathy in England and Scotland for the wrongs of Ireland," as also to stir up, or, in feminine softness, to "have a happy effect on" the "rising generation of Ireland." There is evident warmth in the assurance of Mrs. Byrne—dating "Paris, 45 rue de Ponthieu"—that the work which she presents to the reader is " the picture of a true Irishman,"—" In the service of France," adds the title-page of the book.
Miles Byrne, the future chef de batailbm, was born at Mona-
seed, in the county of Wexford, on the 20th of March, 1780. He does not state distinctly in his autobiography the social position of his family, except by affirming that it was "ancient,"—as if there ever had been an Irish family in the world which was not ancient. But the Byrnes also at one time possessed real property, and the father of Miles was in the habit of showing him " the lands that belonged to our ancestors, now in the hands of the descendants of the sanguinary followers of Cromwell, who preserved their plunder and robberies after the restoration of that scoundrel Charles II." At the age of seventeen, Miles Byrne enrolled himself among the" United Irishmen," and before long bad occasion to show his zeal in their cause. At the outbreak of the rebellion of 1798, precisely on Whit-Sunday, the 27th of May, he joined the standard of "the Rev. John Murphy, of the parish of Monageer and Boole-vogue," who was marching upon Wexford at the head of five thousand men. At Oulard Hill, some ten miles from the city, the United Irishmen succeeded in driving a small body of cavalry from the field, which s3 flushed their courage that they began quarrelling among them- selves. Father John Murphy wished to go one way, and "the ever-to-be-lamented Tone, Tandy, and many more chiefs," wanted to go another, and the consequence was that the United Irishmen became dreadfully disunited, using their cudgels at each other's heads in true Donnybrook fashion. Finally, Father Murphy of Boole-vogue was completely ousted, and the command passed into the hands of the Rev. Father Kearns, a divine of unusual fulness of body, whose great trouble consisted in finding "a horse strong enough to carry him." Father Kearns, after a week's warfare, had to order a retreat for purely strategic reasons, "and not drunkenness and pillage, as the eternal enemies of everything Irish had it propagated, in order to bring disgrace on our cause." Nevertheless, the strategic movement lowered the renown of stout Father Kearns, and he got a successer in the Rev. Philip Roche, " a clergyman of the most elegant manners, a fine person, very handsome, ald more than six feet high." This imposing theologian, however, was more unlucky even than leis two predecessors. He was induced, "by the in- sidious prorniets of the vile Lord Kingsborough" to ride over into the English camp, where lie had the misfortune of being hung. This sad accident determined the United Irishmen to have done with reverend leaders, and they elected various lay- generals, though with no better result. The "vile scoundrels, the English," drove the patriots everywhere before them, and the revolt, so merrily begun on Whit-Sunday, burnt out in its last embers before the end of the Bummer. In vain that a force of fifteen hundred Frenchmen landed at Killala on the 22nd of August, making free with Irish cakes and whiskey, and talking big about liberty, and equality. At the end of a fortnight they were surrounded by Lord Cornwallis, and cut to pieces or forced to surrender. Miles Byrne of Monaseed, who, of course, had performed prodigies of valour all throughout, now got sick of Ireland and the United Irishmen. He executed a strategic movement upon Dublin, engaged himself as steward on board
. an American vessel, and sailed away for Bordeaux.
The patriot of the past and Knight of Saint Louis to come -ee, arrived in France at a very fortunate period. A decree for the 1 formation of an Irish Legion had just been issued, and all the sons ‘ ■ ef Erin able to escape from the clutches of the perfidious Eng. i, . Memoirs of Miles Byrne, Chef de Bataillon in 1141 service of France; Officer of the Legion at Honour, Knight of SL Louis, ice. Edited by his Widow. Three vols. Pads : Gustave Bossange and Co. 1863. Fish were warmly invited to join the ranks. This "Irish Legion" was to be a very different thing from the "Irish Brigade" which had been in the pay of France previous to 1789. While the- Brigade was mainly composed of the followers of James II. and. the other Stuarts, all of them adherents of ultra-monarchical principles, the Legion, on the other hand, was intended to be a. sword of democracy, pointed towards the enemies of the French Revolution in general, and aristocratic England in particular. This being a most attractive prospectus, numbers of Irish flocked to the standard of the Legion, among them, cheerfullest of all,. Miles Byrne. Thanks to his unlimited powers of tall talk, en- grafted upon some mystic knowledge of the broadsword, acquired in handling the shillelagh, the patriot of Monaseed was at once- made a non-commissioned officer, and soon after a lieutenant. For the first year or two after its formation the Legion had nothing else to do but " marching up the hill and marching down. again," being shifted from one quarter to the other in France,. and evidently mistrusted by the military authorities. This- enforced leisure was made splendid use of by the United Irish- men, who kept hammering away at each other to their heart's. content. Captain Patt MacSlieehy, as brave a fellow as ever lived, opened the bowels of Colonel O'Mahony ; and Lieutenant. O'Meally set fiercely at Major O'Connor. At last, however, the French Government began to get tired of this Donnybrook game, and the Legion was ordered off to the Rhine. At Mayence 1,504 Poles joined the corps, as likewise a great number of Irish, " who- had been sold by the English Government in 1798 and 1799 to the King of Prussia, to work in his mines." This interesting fact. has, of course, never been mentioned by the historic scribes of "those vile scoundrels, the English," and was left for Mr. Miles Byrne to proclaim to the world. From Mayence the Legion had to start for the camp of Boulogne, in the spring of 1807, and while here Miles Byrne obtained a commission, and his regiment a big flag, on which was inscribed, in letters of gold, "Independ- ence of Ireland." After contemplating for a few months the chalk cliffs of perfidious Albion, the Irish patriots, to their deep regret, had to turn away once more towards Holland, where they got into so much trouble with the peaceful burghers that. the greater part of them, Lieutenant Miles Byrne among the num- ber, were packed off to Spain. Here they were left for four years,. there being abundance of space in the classic land for Donny- brook evolutions, and small penalty upon broken skulls. His- pre-eminent merit in this field gained Miles Byrne the rank of captain, in which capacity he went to join with his company the. French troops returning from the ice-fields of Russia. The great.. Imperial spectacle now began to draw to a close ; but before the curtain fell on the last act, Captain Byrne succeeded in getting- the star of the Legion of Honour pinned to his uniform. Imme- • diately after, however, the Irish regiment was disbanded in the,. most summary manner, and officers and privates left to shift for themselves on the troubled sea of European politics. Luckily, most of them were capital swimmers, and not the least skilful in the art of keeping his head above water was Captain Miles Byrn of Monaseed, in the county of Wexford.
Though the Legion was disbanded, nearly all its members suc- ceeded in keeping their names on the French army list to their dying day. When superannuated, children and cousins stepped into- the vacant places ; and so it happens that up to this moment the army of la grande nati9n is thronged with sons from the land of Erin. Captain Byrne, to get better forward on his road, had himself naturalized a Frenchman, and did not leave off bombard- ing the Ministry of War for employment. But for more than twelve years there was little to do in the fighting line, and it wan. not till 1828 that his talents were again made use of in the expe- dition to Greece. Perhaps this was the most interesting episode in the life of Mr. Miles Byrne ; but, unfortunately, he has' left in his autobiography but the most meagre account' of it. While the brawls of Messrs. Paddy and Sheeny, when in garrison at some French town, are discoursed on at great length through many chapters, some sixteen pages of dry matter contain all that the Irish patriot has to say about the Greek war of independence, in which he took part for nearly two years. This seems the more singular, as he professes to feel a kind. of jealous sympathy for Hellas, exclaiming at the outset of his short account of the war, " Alas ! the poor Irish were not so for- tunate as the Greeks were in 1828 to get rid of their task- masters." Captain Byrne remained in Greece as commander of the Castle of Morea, and in other functions, till the outbreak of the revolution of July, 1830, when he was called to France, and nominated at the same time Chef she Bataillon of the 56th Regi- ment of the line, then in garrison at Grenoble. He had not Looked at from a literary point of view, these Memoirs of education they find provided. For these last we cannot .Miles Byrne, chef de bataillon, 6-c., are almost below criticism, conceive a better book than the one before us, recommended, as so utterly wretched are the style, the composition, and even it is, no less by its general clearness than by its shortness and the printing, the letter proclaiming itself in every line the pro- accuracy ; yet, even to a clever boy of this kind, much of duct of a French typographic establishment,. But politically Mr. Roby's book would, we believe, present great difficulty these three volumes well deserve attention. They are full of till he had reached an age considerably later than that at biographical sketches of Irish soldiers of fortune, which, though which it is desirable to learn the first rudiments of construe- fragmentary to the last degree, show the spirit which animates tion. Take, for instance, the account of the subjunctive this large class of men, a great number of whom fill important mood, in our judgment, one of the most successful parts of the positions in the French army. It has often been remarked that book. Mr. Roby, himself, admits its difficulty. It is our strong the possibility of a war with America depends chiefly on the impression that it would be absolutely unintelligible, even to the hatred which the Irish population in the Northern States bear cleverest boy of twelve. Is he, therefore, to wait till he can under- against this country; but more overlooked, though scarcely less stand it ? Surely some technical rule must be provided, the important, seems the fact that the same element is to be met with simpler the better. These remarks apply it fortiori to the other in the country of our nearest neighbour. Here, though infinitely two classes of boys, which, of course, form the majority. It may reduced in quantity, it has gained immensely in power by a better be said, however, that one reason why intelligent boys take so position. Mr. Miles Byrne, of Monaseed, is but the representative little interest in classical studies, is the cabalistic form of the of some thousands of his countrymen, who, driven by political ordinary rules. Mr. Roby is too candid to be misled by this or other causes from the laud of their birth, have risen to high argument. He does not attack the established system as unin- and influential positions in France, and have become loyal teresting, but as untrue. To use his own words, "Syntax is -citizens of the country of their adoption, yet in whose never interesting, except to an advanced or advancing scholar ; hearts the old animosity against England burns fiercer the difficulty lies in the subject itself." He goes on to draw the than ever after transplantation on a new soil. The inference that what he cello meaningless mesmeric passes, i.e., rambling autobiography of the chef de bataillon gives no in- dogmatic rules, are useless. But this is begging the question. formation whatever as to the probable number of Irish officers It is, in fact, to confuse want of attractiveness with difficulty. in the French army ; but from occasional allusions it must be We believe, with Mr. Roby, that nothing can make syntax inter- inferred that it is very large, and, moreover, that the greater part esting to a beginner. That is no reason why we should not try is to be found in the upper ranks of the service. This is not to make it less difficult. And we are inclined to believe that to much to be wondered at, considering the fine fighting qualities the large majority of young boys technical rules are less difficult 'of the natives of the Emerald Isle on the one hand, aud on the than philosophic explanations. Valuable as Mr. Roby's book is, other the organization of the French army, well illustrated in the it can hardly, without straining language, be called elementary.
.old proverb of every private soldier carrying his field-marshal's This does not prevent its being exceedingly useful to a more staff in his knapsack. If not all staffs get root, the Irish ones advanced class of students, the upper forms of schools' for
appear to have bad more than the average share of good luck. instance, and students in the Universities. We know no book 'The army of France, at this moment, has eleven field-marshals, which, in so small a compass and with so little parade, contains and of this number no less than two are of Irish origin. This more sound knowledge of Latin. It represents, though not, state of things well deserves the attention of all reflective of course, at great length, the most recent views of those observels of passing events, and the dull book of Mr. Miles who have written on the subject, particularly Madrig, Morell, Byrne proves a chink which lets in a flood of light upon the Donaldson, and Professor Key. To Madrig, indeed, Mr. Roby subject. attributes (too modestly, we think) all the more accurate know-
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