and his adventures, many of which are exceedingly curious, would furnish as rich materials for the novelist, as they have already done for the ballad-mongers: some of them are, however, sufficiently well narrated in a pleasant little tome, published at Belfast, entitled The History of the Rapparees. We are also in possession of a funeral discourse, preached at the obsequies of the “noble and renowned” Henry St. John, Esq., who was unfortunately killed by the Tories— the Destructives of those days — in the induction to which we find some allusion to Redmond. After describing the thriving condition of the north of Ireland, about 1680, the Rev. Lawrence Power, the author of the sermon, says, “One mischief there was, which indeed in a great measure destroyed all, and that was a pack of insolent bloody outlaws, whom they here call Tories. These had so riveted themselves in these parts, that by the interest they had among the natives, and some English, too, to their shame be it spoken, they exercise a kind of separate sovereignty in three or four counties in the north of Ireland. Redmond O’Hanlon is their chief, and has been these many years; a cunning, dangerous fellow, who, though proclaimed an outlaw with the rest of his crew, and sums of money set upon their heads, yet he reigns still, and keeps all in subjection, so far that ’tis credibly reported he raises more in a year by contributions à-la-mode de France than the king’s land taxes and chimney-money come to, and thereby is enabled to bribe clerks and officers, If Not Their Masters, (!) and makes all too much truckle to him.” Agitation, it seems, was not confined to our own days — but the “finest country in the world” has been, and ever will be, the same. The old game is played under a new color — the only difference being, that had Redmond lived in our time, he would, in all probability, not only have pillaged a county, but represented it in parliament. The spirit of the Rapparee is still abroad — though we fear there is little of the Tory left about it. We recommend this note to the serious consideration of the declaimers against the sufferings of the “six millions.”
17. Here Titus was slightly in error. He mistook the cause for the effect. “They were called Rapparees,” Mr. Malone says, “from being armed with a half-pike, called by the Irish a rapparee.”—Todd’s Johnson.
18. Tory, so called from the Irish word Toree, give me your money. —Todd’s Johnson.
19. As he was carried to the gallows, Jack played a fine tune of his own composing on the bagpipe, which retains the name of Macpherson’s tune to this day. —History of the Rapparees.
20. “Notwithstanding he was so great a rogue, Delany was a handsome, portly man, extremely diverting in company, and could behave himself before gentlemen very agreeably. He had a political genius— not altogether surprising in so eminent a Tory— and would have made great proficiency in learning if he had rightly applied his time. He composed several songs, and put tunes to them; and by his skill in music gained the favor of some of the leading musicians in the country, who endeavored to get him reprieved.”—History of the Rapparees. The particulars of the Songster’s execution are singular:—“When he was brought into court to receive sentence of death, the judge told him that he was informed he should say ‘that there was not a rope in Ireland sufficient to hang him. But,’ says he, ‘I’ll try if Kilkenny can’t afford one strong enough to do your business; and if that will not do, you shall have another, and another.’ Then he ordered the sheriff to choose a rope, and Delany was ordered for execution the next day. The sheriff having notice of his mother’s boasting that no rope could hang her son — and pursuant to the judge’s desire — provided two ropes, but Delany broke them one after the other! The sheriff was then in a rage, and went for three bed-cords, which he plaited threefold together, and they did his business! Yet the sheriff was afraid he was not dead; and in a passion, to make trial, stabbed him with his sword in the soles of his feet, and at last cut the rope. After he was cut down, his body was carried into the courthouse, where it remained in the coffin for two days, standing up, till the judge and all the spectators were fully satisfied that he was stiff and dead, and then permission was given to his friends to remove the corpse and bury it.”-History of the Rapparees.
21. Highwaymen, as contradistinguished from footpads.
22. Since Mr. Coates here avows himself the writer of this diatribe against Sir Robert Walpole, attacked under the guise of Turpin in the Common Sense of July 30, 1737, it is useless to inquire further into its authorship. And it remains only to refer the reader to the Gents. Mag., vol. vii. p. 438, for the article above quoted; and for a reply to it from the Daily Gazetteer contained in p. 499 of the same volume.
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