THE BATTLE OF BOULAGH.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 352, 16 December 1848, Page 4

THE BATTLE OF BOULAGH.

{ [FrorOrfche Times, Aug. 2.] ; Contrary to the rule of Irish reports, the battle of Boulagh rather grows in importance. It was a most brilliant and decisive affair. , If there is any r,eason in the Irishman's nature, he ought to be thankful to have such a. lesson betimes, and to see his wretched quarrel decided at once ly so fair a passage of arras. By way of improving the occasion, we will point out to him two or three circumstances of a most edifying character, serving to show that the fifty first Irish rebellion having now failed like all the rest, only more promptly, and entirely, this may as well be the last. At least, the fifty second rebellion, come when it will, is not likely to be much more successful. The Irish reader will not fail to observe that the police enjoy a monopoly in the triumph. The 40,000 soldiers who were to be -cau.ght, killed, and eaten, by Mr. have not: been allowed a finger in «, the pie. Hor.se, foot, and artillery came tumbling in afterwards, just as the tempest seems, it has been pften, observed, to gather at the last shot of a naval engagement. The Irish police are positive gluttons of duty. The comprehensive, prompt and effective measures ,of Mr. Blake, with the r.eady skill and deliberate daring of Mr. Trant, seconded as they were by such men as Messrs. Gox and Monaghan, and the unflinching courage of the .whole handful engaged, establish „what competent judges have uniformly declared, that the Irish constabulary is the finest armed police in the world, and as a body of men is not to be surpassed by any force whatever. They are all Irishmen and chiefly Roman Catholics. It is a victory of Irishmen over Irishmen, Papists over Papists, and is, therefore, happily unembittered with religious or national jealousies. But — we beg all our readers to observe — it is a victory of Irishmen trained in the school of loyalty and duty over Irishmen debauched and demoralized by disaffection and rebellion. Duty makes, license unmakes a man. There is something to make one almost smile in the contrast presented by the two parties in this memorable, struggle. The Inspector atKillkenny received news at midnight that the traitors have been proclaimed and their apprehension commanded. Even at that hour he bounds upon them like the lion in the ancient amphitheatre, when the career was removed. Within an hour his expresses are scouring the country. By daylight theforce under his command, and several other parties, are steadily advancing upon the foe, and never halt till they are down upon him. Before twelve hours the arch traitor is all but plucked alive from the centre of 5000 pikemen, aided by a considerable sprinkling of firearms. By the side of such men as Blake and Trant, take a look at OBrien and his rabble army. No conflict of British veterans with effeminate Hindoos, or even with Chinese, ever exhibited so ridiculous a. contrast. The rebel army wa,s from head to tail one mass of imbecility. The men waited for the chief to 'do something, and the chief waited for the like from the men. Both were disappointed. Smith OBrien went about all last week~trying to mobilize the clubs, who seem to have been content with carrying the pikes in solemn procession, and escorting him out of their several towns. He did not know what to do with them, and they did riot know what to rjaake of him. 530 the mystery was reciprocal. On {Saturday, however, the General appeared in a splendid green uniform, v/ith the *82 Club cap, a long pike, pnd four pistols in his telt'. That looked like war, but it would. seem neither General or men had realized the grim reality at hand. When the fifty men, too few for an army, but not too many, for an embassy, approached, all was vacillation and distrust. Q'Brien asked his pikemen whether he should surrender, and, advised the policemen to give up their arms. As the answer in both cases pointed to the last appeal, there was no reason whatever why the five thousand or the one thousand should not pit their lives against the fifty, and by selling life for life, gain a great victory, enormous renown, and fifty stand of arms. They did no such thing. The fifty were allowed to ensconce themselves in Widow Cormacks slated House, and put the five thousand to a disgraceful rout. a _, , „ Anywhere was OBrien w,hen the long «?xpjectedi)iow had been struck, when an frttengptj had actually been made to arrest his perspn, and when the balls were whizzing around him ? , Was he, directing operations or heading ,the L 'assanltg \ #eitherl Bu* for Widow Cor* , njack, we should pio(b*hjy have known no-

thing about him. She had left her cubs in her den, and as she had no doubt tbe den would be destroyed with all its inmates, maternal feeling made, her sonJewhat desperate. ,She hunted out the King of Munster, and found him squatted in her cabbage garden to' I avoid the fire of the little' garrison. He refused to approach the house and negotiate for. her children ; but sent her to Mr. Trant,. with a silly message that all he wanted was the policemen's arms. Received the answer that was to be expected, Mrs. Cormack returned to his Majesty, and seizing him by the collar, dragged him to the house to parley for her offspring. The police had an eye to a certain horrible contingency not unknown to Irish story, and resolved to retain Mrs. Cormacks family as hostages for the preservation of their fortress. The lady went for the priest. What Smith OBrien then did, or meant to do, is not very clear ; but the next informants are some of tbe police, who saw him crawling on all fours, like a tortoise, among the cabbages. They ' immediately fired at tho quadruped, and it rolled over, whether in fright, or because it had really,been hit, or as a humble piece of generalship, did not appear. When ,the assailants had been .driven off, with the loss of eleven men killed or mortally wounded, OBrien somewhat unfairly charged his men with cowardice, retired to a safe distance, and doffed his rebel uniform. The next glimpse we have of him is an interview with a mounted policeman, characterised with his usual vacillation. He hesitated long whether to detain the policeman or surrender himself up to justice. After the usual consultation with his army, he hit on that middle course between obedience and treason which the Legislature has lately discovered, and committed an act of felony by quietly riding off with tbe policeman's horse. Even this, however, was too decisive an act ; so ,passing the policeman afterwards, be gave the man his stick — we presume in exchange. The sovereign he gave to the widow of the rebel killed by the fire from the house was about the same compensation for a life as a walking stick for a horse. We have a good deal more to say of these absurdities, but must now content ourselves with putting it to the common sense of the disaffected Irish, if they have any left, — What chance have they of a successful rebellion out of such miserable materials ? As well twine a rope of sand, or build a castle with straw, as achieve and establish independence with such beings as OBrien and his army. The leprosy of treason distempers alike the heart and the brain. The Irish are brave enough under good leaders, and in a good cause. In the name of the Sovereign they have never disgraced themselves, and we trust never will. In the cause of treason they have invariably shown themselves idiots and poltroons. O'Brien- crawling among the cabbages is an emblem of the national degeneracy. If he is left to himself another twelvemonth, he will take to grazing on the garden stuff, like another king of old. But the men are no better than tha chiefs. Whenever or wherever they came in contact with the police, the result was the same. Right gave courage, strength, and aim to the loyal side. Before the day was over the rebels were at their old game of assassination, and it will be long indeed before Ireland is rid of that crime, but open rebeliion is for ever checkmated. Look at the shifting tableaux on the common of Boulagh. 1. Five thousand rebel pikes, with OBrien strutting before them. 2. A detachment of police dashing at them. 3. OBrien on all-fours among the cabbages. 4. A deserted field of battle, in which after a pause, assemble from all quarters 1500 horse, foot, and artillery. Yet Boulagh is only an out-of-the-way village, and the arrangments which ended in this decisive victory and overwhelming concentration had not been made twelve hours before.