urdened with debt. Throughout wide districts
the land lay waste, houses were in ashes, the peasants homeless and
starving. Old racial and religious hatreds were revived and were
strengthened a thousandfold by the barbarities perpetrated by both
parties. If Ireland was ever to be at peace, if Celts and Saxons,
catholics and protestants, were ever to dwell together as one people, it
could only be by her acceptance of the control of a single imperial
parliament. A legislative union had long been contemplated by Pitt and
by other English statesmen. That Pitt deliberately planned and fostered
the rebellion, as Irishmen have actually asserted, in order to carry out
a union is a charge so monstrous as scarcely to demand serious
refutation. It is enough to say that he would certainly not have chosen
to have Ireland in rebellion at a time so critical for England as the
spring of 1798. That the policy of the government both in England and
Ireland, which certainly conduced to the rebellion, was to some extent
swayed by the desire for union is probable.[284] That is quite another
matter. The rebellion made union absolutely necessary, and while the
rebels were still in arms, Pitt began to prepare for it. The history of
the union must be deferred to our next chapter.

[Sidenote: _HUMBERT'S INVASION._]

The rebels' hopes of help from France were bitterly disappointed. A
serious invasion was impossible without command of the sea; only small
expeditions could be sent out by stealth. On June 16 certain Irish
conspirators represented that if a small expedition landed on the
north-west coast the independence of Ireland might be secured. The
directors determined to send one immediately.[285] It was long delayed,
for the navy was in disorder. At last, on August 6, when the rebellion
was over, and Ireland was full of troops, General Humbert sailed from
Rochelle with eighty-two officers and 1,017 men, together with supplies
and arms for the natives, in three frigates under the command of Captain
Savary. The ships took a long route to avoid the British fleet, and did
not arrive in Killala bay until the 20th. Killala, which had a garrison
of only 200 men, was occupied, and Ballina was taken. The French were
joined by a large number of Irish, delighted at receiving arms, clothes,
and food. Many of these recruits deserted, carrying away their guns, and
those who remained were of little use. General Hutchinson, who commanded
in Connaught, advanced