ing. I have it from a
man on whose veracity I can depend, and who was on the spot in Mayo,
during the French invasion, that the Catholics of the country ran to
join them with eagerness, and that they had more than they could arm;
that, as they moved on, they were constantly joined; but he says the
Irish behaved so ill that the French made use of discipline, which
thinned their ranks; however, they had 4,000 of them when they were
attacked by Colonel Vereker, and about 200 of the Limerick militia. By
our late accounts there are said to be in Mayo and Roscommon 10,000
rebels up: they are destroying the country."[537] Beresford then blames
the Viceroy's proclamation, offering pardon to rebels who come in within
a month, and he says their leaders tell them that 20,000 French will
soon land. Equally significant is the statement of George Rose in a
letter of 23rd September. Referring to the fact that two French warships
had got away from Brest towards the Irish coast, he writes: "If they
land, the struggle may be more serious. The truth is that it will be
nearly impossible to keep Ireland as a conquered country. Union is
become more urgent than ever." This was also the opinion of Lord
Sheffield. Writing on 29th September from Rottingdean to Auckland, he
remarks on the disquieting ease with which the French squadrons reach
Ireland. He has had a long argument with the Irish Judge, Sir William
Downes, and proved to him the necessity of a Union with Ireland. But (he
proceeds) it will never take place, if it is set about publicly.

Irish loyalists united in decrying the comparatively lenient methods of
Cornwallis; but, despite the urgent advice of Camden to Pitt, the change
of system met with approval at Downing Street. This is the more
remarkable as letters from Dublin were full of invectives against
Cornwallis. Buckingham wrote almost daily to his brother, Grenville,
foretelling ruin from the weakness and vacillation of the Lord
Lieutenant. Still more furious were Beresford, Cooke, and Lees. Their
correspondence with Auckland, Postmaster-General at London, was so
systematic as to imply design. Probably they sought to procure the
dismissal of Cornwallis and the nomination of Auckland in his place.
There can be little doubt that Auckland lent himself to the scheme with
a view to maintaining the Protestant ascendancy unimpaired; for he wrote
to Beresford that public opinion in England favoured the maintenance of
the existing order